Weekend links: The sensitive subject of race

by Eric Fidler • September 3, 2011 12:01 pm

Photo by Michael Kappel on Flickr.

Kaya celebrates diversity: DC Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson applauded the increasing racial diversity of the system as more white children enroll in DCPS. This being Washington, her remark caused a stir. (Post)

TBD dissects a gentrification article: Read a good takedown of a recent stereotype-laden gentrification article in the American Prospect in which "Washington" is shorthand for whites and "DC" is shorthand for blacks. (TBD)

Passengers may board at the back of the bus: To speed bus service, San Francisco may permit bus riders to board through the rear doors, too. You still have to pay or show proof of payment. (SF Chronicle)

Transforming the projects can lower crime: Neighborhoods with public housing projects saw crime decrease after HOPE VI money helped transform them into mixed-income communities. (MetroTrends)

What's good for GM may not be good for America: The Obama administration wants to advance batteries for electric cars. This would reduce oil dependence, but not auto-dependent land-use paradigms that require lots of energy. (Infrastructurist)

In Cuba, women hitchhike: Transit in Cuba is so bad and packed to the gills that women actually hitchhike. The state requires employees driving state-owned vehicles to pick people up if they have seats. (NPR, Erik Weber)

Bike sharing leads to personal biking: Even large bike sharing systems won't constitute a significant share of daily trips, but they can catalyze more people to ride personal bikes, greatly increasing the amount of biking in a city. (ECF)

California eases transportation project funding: California may permit localities to levy gas taxes for local projects after receiving a simple majority of voter approval instead of a 2/3 majority. (Streetsblog)

And...: Pranksters in Seattle posted a notice for a new municipal ball pit with 1,200,000 cubic feet of plastic balls. (Boing Boing) ... The Postal Service may not need 24% of its real estate. (Post) ... A German artist is installing Google Maps place markers at city center points. (Architizer)

Have a tip for the links? Submit it here.

6 comments

Tags: Barack Obama, bicycling, bike sharing, buses, California, crime, Cuba, DC, DCPS, electric cars, gas taxes, gentrification, Germany, Google, hitchhiking, Kaya Henderson, links, post offices, press, proof of payment, public art, public housing, San Francisco, Seattle, sprawl, sustainability, Washington State

Eric Fidler has lived in DC and suburban Maryland his entire life. He likes long walks along the Potomac and considers the L'Enfant Plan an elegant work of art. He also blogs at Left for LeDroit, LeDroit Park's (only) blog of record.

Comments
Add a comment »

SF has readers for their proximity cards inside the back door of the bus near the call button, which makes payment from the rear much easier.

by dcseain on Sep 3, 2011 4:10 pm

When the DC Circulator first started, they offered the option of entering via the back door. Customers were then to show their weekly or daily pass to the driver who was watching in the mirror. Customers seldom picked the rear door method.

by tour guide on Sep 5, 2011 9:11 am

Yeah switching to battery-powered cars won't change land-use paradigms. It also won't cure the common cold or make my DVD player work better. These are not things they are designed to do. We need to make better cars and we need to have better land use. Killing the American auto industry is not going to make cities better.

by David C on Sep 5, 2011 10:34 pm

Kaya celebrates diversity

The anger from certain quarters is understandable. There are a lot of out-of-boundary parents in wards 7 & 8. Obviously they want good schools for their kids like every other parent. But if they schools get good enough to attract residents who actually live in the neighborhood (who are more likely to be middle-class, and therefore are more diverse), then those are all slots which out-of-boundary parents cannot take advantage of.

That's why there's such resentment of policies that are attractive to middle-class parents. Out-of-boundary parents don't want to send their kids to their neighborhood school, and they see enrollment at OOB schools as a zero-sum game.

Which it is.

by oboe on Sep 6, 2011 2:10 pm

Eric, I just realized this post's title is from Avenue Q:
http://youtu.be/tbud8rLejLM
Very funny

by Michael on Sep 6, 2011 8:29 pm

TBD dissects a gentrification article

An (approx) 33 yr old white hipster writer who moved to DC sometime after May of 2009 is going to dissect an article on gentrification written by an (approx) 28 yr old white liberal, in a town neither lived in for longer than it takes to go to high school.

Well, at least one got relevant quotes, i guess. Yeah news!

by greent on Sep 7, 2011 1:44 pm