k wrote:
I don't disagree. In fact, I agree wholeheartedly. That's why I'm angry. City planners have continued making conscious choices to defeat mass transit and favor the car. That's the whole fucking problem.

I can't believe anyone on earth would prefer this nightmare of 10 and 12 lane superhighways, these swathes of hot, smelly, unsightly pavement, endless delays and annoyance and, most of all, lack of freedom. People claim to favor the car because it promotes freedom, but I see quite the opposite. I find it harder to go out socially, because having to find a place to park, and deal with my car, and curb my drinking is a massive disincentive to even try to go out and have fun. It's depressing as hell. And living in town doesn't help either because you can hardly walk anywhere. This is a city -- like others, as you say -- which completely destroys the concept of the town as a community in favor of this network of awful roads. I think it's a travesty.

Obviously being a single 20-something puts me in a different mindset from others, but what the fuck do i care about them... they've forsaken the city and moved to the burbs, lobbied to separate themselves in order to deny the city their tax revenue, and still pressure the city to expand roads so that THEY can have an easier time polluting the air and making life worse for those of us who'd really like to have a real urban lifestyle. It's not bad enough they've got to turn the landscape in every direction into a calamity of ugly subdivisions without trees, endless chain restaurants and grand edifices of Wal Mart. They've gotta ruin it for me inside the perimiter too.

I'm bitter at the entire lifestyle and it sickens me that people behave in this way. -k]

I'm with you 100%. I live in a 'village' area, and one of the primary reasons why I moved there was because I can walk to nearly 90% of everything I need to exist. Food. Entertainment. Shopping. Even supplies from the hardware store. In fact, I hardly drive at all, unless I'm going to a business function. As far as working, if there was better infrastructure, you'd have less commuters. There's simply very little reason why people have to drive to and from work 5+ days a week. Most of the people I know can work from home just as productively at least 3 days a week, if not every day. These are not always 'knowledge workers' either. Some of these people actually assemble or maintain physical goods.

I think there's a definite resurgence in real urban living. Even in cities that had already given up downtown for dead long ago. The housing market is partly behind that, as these are easy investments. But I also think it's lifestyle. People are too busy to handle a 30+ minute commute, which today is pretty short. That's just a huge sinkhole of unproductive time. Even if you were spending that time walking, at least you're getting the exercise out of it.

Viva city living!

RE: 어른들을 위한 장난감 가게