From Streetcars To Spaceships

An antidote to the common bitch.

In a time of change like this people reach ever more for the comforting habit of complaining. Comforting, that is, for the person doing the complaining. And isn't it a shame how many people can't even articulate what they're upset about, let alone then work to fix those problems?

So, for years now I've had a consistent response to such bitching.

"So, let's say you're given twenty million dollars, two assistants, and two years to spend the money.

You can't spend the money to raise more money.

You can't just say 'I give the money to somebody who knows what to do.'

What do you do to address the problem you just talked about?"

Then you talk them through their response. If they say "I give money to candidates" then ask which ones. Early in the campaign or late? To the PAC or to the candidate directly? If they say they'll give it to (schools/police/whatever) ask which ones, to be used by whom, to be administered how? Just keep drilling down. Be helpful but don't give leading responses. If they stop and change their minds about something, be graceful, and acknowledge their right to do that. In fact, give them the respect they will then deserve for admitting in public that they were wrong. Just take them down the path from the general to the specific, from the universal to the local. Ask how their plans would cause their intended result. Help make it real to them. But never, ever loosen your vigilance and allow them to slip by a "and then a miracle occurs" step. Just calmly work to interweave the story you're expecting them to tell with consequences, telling details, clarifications. Be friendly, interested, attentive. But utterly unforgiving. If you haven't done this before you will find that this, too is a useful exercise.

I have found it amazing how well this focuses people's thinking. It weeds out the twits who just want to complain and leave all accountability and responsibility to others. Sometimes it actually does help people realize that there is something that they can do to improve things. And it generally clears the air. I have also found that the people I least want to deal with, the anti-intellectuals, the liars, the permanent children, the beery frat boy blowhards, are driven off by a calm, implacable application of this technique like vampires running from sunlight. Once I've pointed this approach at such people a few times, they never engage in their habitual dittohead tirades in my presence again. Makes going to parties much easier.

The key is that the question replaces the vague with the specific. It forces them to calculate costs. It (especially if there's an audience) put the onus on them to define the problem and take responsibility. It makes them reiterate what they've just said in a way that lays wonderfully effective traps for people who hide racism and such behind coded language. And, when asked of decent people, can even reduce the sense of helplessness that an inchoate problem of unknown scope creates in anybody. It teaches people to think like problem solvers rather than like passive observers. It helps people seize a sense of agency for the things around them. It penalizes and punishes the blowhards and rewards and aids the honorable.

In short, it makes all participants, including the person asking the question, into better citizens.

So the next time you hear somebody start to talk about "those people shouldn't be allowed to . . ." or "the (schools/buses/military/etc.) sucks" or whatever, smile politely, prepare for opposition, and simply pose for them that simple hypothetical. Just be sure to cut them no logical slack whatsoever, to never raise your voice or lower yourself to ad hominem attacks, and to keep them from changing the subject.

You may find that it will not only free you from idiocy, it can even be quite a lot of fun.

Re, the terrorist disaster in Mumbai

Okay, so what's our excuse for STILL not having started a crash program in mass education in foreign languages in this country? 

If we had anything resembling the kind of intelligence services this country should have, we would have had at least one person on the inside who could have, at the least, ameliorated this.

And that's what our main response to this should be. Yes, I'm aware of the impact these events will have on all sorts of things but first and foremost, we need more instruction in foreign languages and cultures. Everything from French to Mongolian. Now. The longer we wait, the more people will die. It really is just that predictable and simple.

$150,000 streetcars.

As I read about Obama's choices and look at all of the public debate about his options (it was nice to see that even Washington Week in Review found his old guard, quintessential establishment choices notable) I just keep thinking the same three things over again. The things that I keep saying here.

1.) We should be buying all of our rail rights of way, widening them, and adding more tracks.

2.) Aid to auto companies should be designed to encourage and aid the spinoff of divisions, manufacturing plants, and other subsets as employee-owned companies.

and 3.) Every possible dollar, EVERY possible dollar should be routed to funding a fast track plan to specify, legally enable, and fund the massive purchase of small, light-duty streetcars with modular components, open source specs to ease repair and aftermarket modification, and a purchase price of $150,000.

If we do these things we will route around much of our current economic disaster, spur amazing and eventually very lucrative invention and development, and become a better country. It really is that simple.

I swear by the blood of Thomas Jefferson that part of me just wants to print up one page explanations of this and spend the next few years doing nothing but traveling America wheatpasting hundreds of thousands of these summaries on every lamppost, bulletin board, and transit shelter in America.

-Rustin

This is the time to buy back and broaden our rail rights of way.

There are many things being proposed right now. One thing should be added. Anybody who has ridden Amtrak in recent years has experienced the delays created by the frequent need for passenger trains to stop or slow down to allow freight trains to pass. Freight trains generating revenue for the owners of those rights of way. This has always been outrageous; that Amtrak is a second class citizen on the rails it uses guarantees that they will never be able to provide a decent standard of service.

Now is the time for the federal government to buy all of the rights of way used by Amtrak and all major rights of way that they should be using but aren't yet. The folks over at NARP could compile such a list in about two weeks. Then, having bought them, they should be expanded, using eminent domain where required, and a minimum of four tracks laid at all points.

ALL points.

For places where rights of way run along mountain passes and in other areas where expansion would be most expensive or simply too dangerous, there should be an examination of creating new rights of way along highways and other existing viable paths. Again, I know that such options have already been explored, to varying degrees, by rail experts. It wouldn't take long to get informed conclusions.

I'm not saying shut down Burlington Northern or Union Pacific. Just get them out of the real estate business. In fact, such improvements should massively increase the options for possible competitors to both the existing freight and passenger railroads. We're already seeing an increasing number of private rail companies though for now they mostly focus on excursion trips. Wouldn't it be nice to see some of them expand into more functional passenger service?

Start this now and it will create vast numbers of jobs. It will also deeply improve the fabric of our country for the next hundred years if not longer. On every time scale from months to decades, this is a good investment. In the nineteen-fifties we built the interstate highway system. That's worked out pretty well, hasn't it? It's past time that we did the same for rail.

There are many aspects of such a plan that are debatable. Who would administer the resulting system? How would fees be determined and assessed? How would traffic be rerouted while those tracks are being laid? I don't claim to have all the answers. But three things are pretty damn clear.

We should be buying back rail rights of way.

Those rights of way need to be expanded.

The resulting system must be open to anybody who can pay. If it cannot handle that increased demand, then let it expand again.

-Rustin

Let's build new low cost streetcars RIGHT DAMN NOW.

I just posted a letter on the Salon web site about first priorities in our current crisis. I'll be coming back later and writing an expanded version of it.

But if you've reached this blog from that letter, might I recommend that you follow a few links to get some idea of what I have in mind.

First of all, here is an image of a vegetated right of way.

Secondly, here is a brief view of some aspects of what I have in mind.

Here's a piece I wrote on bias against mass transit that you may not even realize you have.

And if you're one of those folks who somehow still think that things like the Snell Report are just disinformation by car haters, here, here, and here are concrete examples of how we got to the sad state we're in right now.

Oh, and on a lighter note, here are the pics I took a few days back of a local vintage trolley and the infrastructure that keeps it going. I figured that all of us policy folks now talking about rail needed to get better data on what came before and I should do my part to provide it. Enjoy.

-Rustin

Cubic MILES of Water on Mars!

Mars is looking more habitable by the week. The latest data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter indicates that there is a glacier half a mile thick in the mid-latitudes. HALF A MILE THICK.

Take a look.

I don't know about you, but as far as I'm concerned, I've just lost interest in the "is there enough water" question. Now it's down to questions of where and in what condition.

Hell, yes.

Hey, Big Three: Your time has come and gone.

On and off, I've been researching the consequences of the actions of the American auto industry for quite a few years now. I haven't just read the entire Snell report (several times), I've discussed it with Bradford Snell. I haven't just looked into electric cars, I've climbed under an original Milburn Electric from 1919 and talked to the owner. And on and on and on.

And I'm telling you that the American auto industry, especially General Motors, isn't just wasteful or sloppy. They are a disease. They are and have been run by executives who have systematically sabotaged this country for the sake of their personal comfort and wealth. Not maximizing shareholder value. Not promoting American cars. Just putting out third rate products, bribing and misleading decisionmakers, and doing their best to leave the public dependent, disorganized, and too distracted and deluded to ever effectively turn to better options.

So let me take this chance to say that if it were up to me these companies would be shredded into several hundred component entities and those entities left to fight it out in a manner that would make the actions between Baby Bells look like a tea party.

But it isn't up to me. So since I won't get what I want, let me suggest a more politically palatable response. The U.S. government doesn't give a penny in up front aid, not one red cent, to the Big Three. Instead they do three things.

First of all, the Small Business Administration offers additional aid and financial guarantees to any automaker employee who agrees to leave their job and start a small business in the next three years but only for as long as they agree to forgo pension payments. This and other related aid would be intended to maximize the number of older autoworkers who will be willing to leave those jobs that cost the Big Three so much without becoming pension liabilities.

Secondly, the U.S. government guarantees that they will contribute 75% of the cost of any rail mass transit vehicle purchased by any municipality in the next five years from the Big Three. But only if those vehicles meet specifications set by municipal agencies, including but not limited to these vehicles being low or zero emissions. No up front subsidies. Just cash on the barrelhead once vehicles are delivered and in service. These programs should be modeled after recent NASA programs that offer no funds for research and development, only payment upon delivery to companies who successfully meet a stated NASA need in a form that NASA has specified.

Thirdly, the federal government offers variances, credit, and other forms of aid to allow any part of a Big Three automaker that wants to spin off and, in the manner of Republic Steel, become an employee-owned business. There are only three conditions. No stock can be resold for at least five years. The resulting company cannot be bought by or merge with another company for twenty years. And all company actions must be held to very high and strict standards of transparency. We've learned that automakers are very prone to doing terrible things to the rest of us to get what they want. If anybody wants government help, then what they have to give up is all of their ability to play secret little games with product placements, sabotage of competing transit modes, and all the rest.

Are the proposals above very brief descriptions of what would assuredly be breathtakingly complex and difficult projects? yes. But FOR TWENTY-FIVE TO FIFTY BILLION DOLLARS DON'T WE HAVE A RIGHT TO EXPECT AS MUCH?

That is all.

Rustin

Potluck Barbeque at Watershed

I see that somebody has been searching this blog again for information on the Watershed barbeque.

Well, once and for all, there is a potluck barbeque (BBQ? bar-be-que?) at Watershed, the arts and events space at 5040 SE Milwaukie, every Tuesday night. This is between McLaughlin and Mitchell. Show up at about 8:00 p.m. If you're early and the front door is closed, then go back behind the building and go in the door up the stairs.  More food is always appreciated, vegan or otherwise. Stuff you can eat without flatware is usually best. If you don't have the chance to bring food, don't sweat it; there's always plenty. Drinks of all sorts are welcome and as are fruits and veggies.

If you're coming by bike, you'll find plenty of places to put it inside. If you're coming by bus, the 70, 33, and 19 all run right by the building. The 17 also stops about six blocks away on Holgate. If you've got a car, there's usually plenty of parking behind the building.

About half the time something else is also going on. Tonight about ten people were making mutant toys with maniacal enthusiasm while between four and eight people were practicing circus arts stuff at any given time, mostly stilt walking and firedancing. Me? I stuck to cooking burgers, veggie burgers, and vegan "chicken" patties, and kept a big batch of onions browning on the grill. Not to mention toasting buns, making sure the six kinds of chips and crackers were out where the most people could see them, and generally being social.

We're a varied bunch. Some of us do things like printing or bike building. Quite a few are Burning Man people. There are various techies and activists. It's mostly a twenty-something crowd though there are always a few of us old farts in our thirties and forties and an occasional teenager. Usually somebody has brought their kids. Not many people in their fifties or older recently but that varies. We get high school dropouts and people with doctorates, lifetime locals and people who just hit Portland two hours back. In my experience, the real common ground is that pretty much everybody is smart and creative and it's damn rare to see somebody who looks like they would rather be home catching "the game" on TV.

I usually leave by around 11:00; it's usually quieting down by then. The only real problem is that after 9:30 the bus service to other parts of east Portland sucks. The 33 or the 19 will take you to downtown until a bit after midnight but if you're looking for a straight shot across to northeast, you're out of luck.

That's about it. A few nights it's been just a few of us standing around the grill, shooting the breeze. Occasionally it's like something out of a Fellini movie, complete with costumes, firebreathers, live music, and conversations that will spin your head. Ya buys yers ticket and ya takes yer chance.

Hope to see you there,

Rustin

Consumating, we loved ya so.

Starting in 2005 and a bit into 2007 I was very active on a social networking site called Consumating. I'm still convinced that it was head and shoulders the best design, the best community of users, and the best dynamic between users and owners of any social site in existence. By far.

But then the idiocies of dot com mahooah stepped in and the founders sold the site and every asset connected to it to CNet. CNet then proceeded to f*ck things over royally, though it can't possibly have helped that the founders, not long after the check was signed, open-sourced the code into a project called Clonesumating. And since CNet had evidently mostly just wanted the IP in the first place, they then proceeded to leave Consumating to drift, unfunded on a flaky server, with nobody in charge. It then continued, orphaned and crashing, until it was eventually shut down and the domain turned into a redirect for another CNet property.

At some point I may yet come back and tell this whole story in conventional fashion. But at the moment I'm created this post because I just ran across the history of Consumating that I wrote while I was there. It seemed a shame that such a massive work of maniacal geekery should be offline so this post exists to let me get it back somewhere that it can be seen by the web. I just looked it over and have now expanded it to (somewhat) address the last months of the site.

That having been said, here it is for your (?) enjoyment.

The Saga of Consumating

First there were the geeks, and from the geeks was born the prank.

But lo, the prank did generate the mana called traffic and that even more seductive power, coolness.

So, yea, the geeks did work and bitch and much caffeine was consumed and much disputing was done, and from the form and bones of the prank was born the site, and it was good.

But, even so, the site was imperfect, being imbued with too much of that dangerous ingredient, snark. So, as time did pass, the site was drained of some of its snark, which, sadly, brought the mundanes. But lo, from the mundanes came even more traffic and even more were the founders uncertain of their right path. Coding was done and much arguing by the bageled one, and from the users of the site came both pleasure and frustration.

And through it all the site did build.

And then came the time of the coming of the emissaries of vast empires, and over the site did fall the shadow of many empires of the web and, indeed, uncertain did the future appear.

And from the shadows came substance as the site joined the empire known as CNet and much was the rejoicing and yet even so of gnashing of teeth as the people did wonder, even unto the seventh business analyst and graduate student, would the site best be seen as a primitive of the tag cloud species or a renegade of the social network species or, as it presented itself, a simple place of meeting.

And even so, changes would occur. It was found that the people pushed down most excessive fierce with their thumbs, so the use of their thumbs was rendered slower if used in bitterness.

And one night the site did shake and falter and at first the people did cry, "lo, the code, yet again we are punished and our interfaces riven by the flaws in the code", but no, it was a new site, similar to the old, but in some ways a considerably more subtle creature, dressed in the rainments of old but with new skills, skills of toys, toys which, to they whose sight was keen, were not the mere baubles they appeared, but tokens of considerable power.

And many were delighted with the toys, for even as baubles they had use and the scant times that their deeper powers, powers to change a place or seemingly, power to represent the ever-important points, indeed, flashes of mighty possibilities did occur.

And even as it was with the toys, so was it with images, as first one simple image was all the face of a citizen of the place, and then several, and then many. And even yet, the people could use first just pictures and then even pictures with motion and sound as parts of their home grounds.

But even as these things gave the people new voices, even so, were also added voices of what many heard as a sour note, voices of crass trade in their place of communion. And, worst of all, it did seem at some times, hard to distinguish the voices of the rulers from those of alien and mercantile bent, voices seeking to insinuate themselves into this haven, once an agora only of ideas.

And so it became. The rulers of the site, still striding through the domain of their creation but now vassals of a greater power, had brought in the merchants. Discussions took on a strange dual face of many puerile talks of PEEEN! and much sententious talk of "Great Issues" familiar to most only from bleary-eyed college nights. Tokens of unknown possibility brought pleasure and spread far and wide, creating habits of unknown consequence.

Tens of thousands joined, but only a small fraction were present while an unknown number visit, having never done more than anonymously lurk. Some have met here and passed into matrimony together. More have met here and passed only into acrimony together. But most were tentative but content, and did not look likely to change much for now.

But, indeed, the shadows of doom in the screen of dread yellow, which came ever more and drove away the users. For the masters of CNet had decided that the site was like unto an orchard whose fruit was unfamiliar and passing strange, naught more than an expense and an embarrassment, filling not the CNet purse and yet needing irrigation and gardeners. So Cnet did say, "we take back our gardeners. We cut off the waters. Many are our orchards, what need have we of one so strange to us? So, unlike our other lands?

And then did the site begin to wilt, to suffer. And the users did wander off, even though, now and again, more wanderers would discover this still special place. Wanderers who found the fruit of the place sweet and the other orchard denizens welcoming.

Protests were made unto CNet and yet none found solace in the cold, dismissive scraps they got in return. Plans were made to found new orchards, orchards that would follow the plan of the other but better, on safe ground in loving hands.

But as the last days approached the orchard dwellers dispersed, some to the the new orchards of the designs meant to evoke their old home. Some to the vast nations of Facebook or MySpace.

But most just left. many, like your scribe, after some small time in the new places, time found to be unsatisfying, for where the old lands gave rise to fecund feasts, the new lands overflowed only with many cartloads of grasses and roots.

Someday perhaps a new gathering will occur. And great and wondrous this would be.

But such is not the way of our world and our times.

Residential prices stall, commercial plummet. REAL loft living can't be far behind.

Here in Portland and all around America, residential rental prices continue to be crippling. The outrageous rises of the past twelve years haven't really retreated much at all. Meanwhile people are broker by the day and, with more and more people losing their homes and mortgages out of reach, the demand for rentals can be expected to go up. And while all of this happens, commercial real estate is, in a word, screwed. Overbuilt, overpromoted, deep in debt, and racked with cubic miles of empty space before the latest few months.

Seems to me like two things are as predictable as gravity at this point.

Far more people are going to start living illegally in commercial space. In truth I've already heard about two more in the past few weeks.

Smart owners of commercial real estate will agitate for some kind of temporary zoning variance, allowing them to rent their spaces for residential uses for some short period. Maybe five years. Less sophisticated ones will simply turn a blind eye to such conversions.

I'm also guessing that a few smart legislators will have the brilliant idea of New York style loft laws, allowing residential conversions but only on terms tailored to maximize political gain and socially engineer who gets that housing and for how much. Meanwhile, at least a few dimwitted government departments in various, probably authoritarian cities will go on rabid binges of enforcing fire and zoning codes. Probably after some disaster that hits the front pages or simply as yet another round of our continuing war on illegal immigrants.

It's going to be a good time to be a maker or retailer of do it yourself plumbing and room divider materials. And it's going to create an entire new generation of scofflaws. People, most of them creative, ambitious ones, who have made their peace with living lives that are fundamentally dependent on living in a way that is illegal. This will push them even further than the past decade has in the direction of seeing police officers, firemen, meter readers, and just about anybody else in uniform as an enemy until proven otherwise.

Anybody but me realize that every week that legislators put off variances or rezoning is a week we fall further into trouble?

-Rustin