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People don't work near where they live anymore. Because of "suburbia" and the fact suburbanites would rather drive to work than ride public transport we got this problem. Suburbia separates home,grocery stores ,school and work far away from each other. We have vast tracts of land full of homes you can't walk anywhere.It is designed fort cars the unsaid assumption is you own cars. It creates a comforting illusion in the minds of scared parents that suburbia keeps the poor,the "riff raff" out.It separates"good wholesome folk from all that white flight runs away from.It keeps the unsightly poor sequestered in the city or in those'bad areas'.When in reality the geographical isolation,cultural mono-culture,materialism and elitism of suburbia is a bad place to bring up kids. Kids in suburbia go to the city to get drugs to escape life in suburbia because they are,unhappy lonely latchkey kids where activity is feast or famine more often than not.Parents don't have time to cook dinner anymore..So who has time? work,work,work...
Now public transportation in cities too often is service made for the rich,to help them avoid parking costs.The routes are unequally done. Here in Baltimore there is an expensive efficient light rail system made for stadium goers and businesspeople in the rich areas to come to the city for sports or to go to the airport or other"cultural sites" like the Meyerhoff. But just try to get a bus to certain poor areas you have to transfer sometimes 3 times and it can take up to 3 hours to get around in the less "desirable" areas of town.
Until people demand public transportation and insist there be a change in town planning,and start demanding mixed zoning, supporting hometown shops instead of wal mart,insist their work be closer to home(whatever happened to telecommuting? Got outsourced?).They will have to drive these senseless long commutes. It is hard to insist people's work be closer to home when jobs that are not toxic are sequestered into large expansive business parks full of empty space for"aesthetics" and competition and ego rules out settling for'less'
Someday people will have to face the fact car companies have used town councils and exploited the sick human desire for status and the appearance of wealth to control how we live. The corporates have used the unspoken bigoted separatist motives of suburban whites who want the appearance of 'good neighborhoods' without putting effort into creating a good neighborhood by being involved and putting time and effort into cooperating and interacting with the community they live in personally. People have had their families scattered across the globe chasing jobs.Nobody has "roots" where they live anymore. Business has created this confusion to equate the appearance of wealth as shorthand for good community and we were duped.All the striving for"elitism" and the belief that home is a castle for the"owner" was used by car companies,oil companies,to craft our living environment around a 'need' for their products. And we are the ones made slaves.
I think a good first step would be to change zoning to make car free living,accessible and possible.Stop developers who propose building huge cul-de-sac housing areas,stop building huge isolated malls with huge chain stores and learn instead to rely more on individually owned corner stores and local farmer's markets. Until enough suburbanites get pinched enough to get off their high horses and realize living near others in close proximity like city life is closer to what living sustainable is,and that we all need public transport well...
People will guzzle gas until the gas runs out than there will be riots and a rush to settle where people know each other. Because people are oblivious to what is happening to them really.They are too busy going to work sucking up to get money,to pay off endless debts,shuttling the kids everywhere,shopping,driving..stress..to take the time to be politically involved in local issues like zoning. They don't see the trap being set.
WE truly are slaves who have been misled to think we are free. Unions are but one piece of solving the corporate exploitation of humanity puzzle. We call ourselves"free" yet we can't even decide how our own homes or towns are built yet we go into debt buying huge expensive cheaply made houses with no trees or places to do anything else nearby and we work long hours for the appearance of wealth as if that is happiness.. We do what we are told to do even when there are sound alternatives to buying a house in the 'burbs,because we don't want to think,risk going into the unknown or upset the staus quo. Reality is there are time tested ways to build houses in a way that is less harmful and expensive (like Cobb houses in Europe that are 400 years old are made of Cobb which is an earth house) Cobb houses are not recognized by the state as a legit form of building(and profits from Cobb as an industry would be impossible because dirt,grass and clay are everywhere and if you own the plot,it's free.)
Town planners favor industry (lumber,developers etc) over meeting the people's needs for homes that are cheap..and the reality that you can make your house out of something cheaper and stronger than wood...dirt clay straw,plaster..You can make a nice energy efficient home out of Cobb much cheaper than the expensive flimsy houses the developers sell.
Until enough people realize the governments favor industry and landlords over people..shit,favor profit over reality we will be right where we are until we take control over our own choices and resist exploitation.
A gas shortage could be an opportunity as could a job loss and masses of debts going unpaid..to change this'system' that exists to keep the rich rich and industry in control over people's lives forever.] It really all depends on us.The elites, the industries, the rich,the powerful..all are extremely dependent upon the people to go along with what they want. What if we didn't obey and instead took control over town planning public transport and demanded a return to small business craftsmanship and a more sustainable way of life without big corporations,cars and suburbs?
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