What about Malibu? Myopic movements in alt transportation.

 
Photo by Trujillo-Paumier of Good Magazine

Often in the "you should take public transit or ride your bike" movements, advocates like to focus on people (making on the high end) 50k per year to support a family of four. These people tend to live in the middle of nowhere, because that is the only place that they can afford.

People who are single and childless making plenty of money and who have plenty of resources mock this person as a “bad” human who wants to destroy the planet.

People want to destroy the planet, because they want to eat?
People want to destroy the planet, because they can’t afford to live near their job?
People are destroying the planet, because the closest place that they can afford where there kids can be safe is in the 909 area code?
People want to destroy the planet, because they drive in a neighborhood that is so crime ridden that walking can cause a multitude of problems?

I don’t think those people want to destroy the planet, I’m pretty sure they just want to continue eating human food.  I think the focus on this demographic who are not at a point to make choices is a misguided one.

Yes they are easy targets for the mostly left leaning public transit movement. These "evil" car drivers who live in odd area codes often voting for the “wrong” person or the “wrong” way. They like bringing up God a lot. Their hobbies include watching TV.

But a person, who loves God, watches TV as a hobby and makes odd choices in voting; points to a person who doesn’t have a whole lot of choices. If your answer to a problem is praying to God, that says a lot about your ability to determine your own fate. I used to pray to God in college when I was taking a pop quiz on a book that I had never opened. (Thanks God!!)

Malibu is a wealthy beach community that is outside of Los Angeles and next to nothing. Many of the people who live there have plenty of money to move inland and closer to where their accountants live, but they choose to live far away, because they don’t want to be bothered by people. People living in Malibu giving up their cars would do more to help the alternative transit movement than mocking people who live in Lancaster, because they have to.

And what about the people in the Hollywood Hills, the huge homes north of Colorado in Pasadena and in Laughlin Park, the gated community in Los Feliz? I see lots of people driving out of Laughlin Park and the Red Line is an easy bike ride, LADOT Dash or MTA 180 bus ride away.

I remember this media story that compared a “wasteful” driving family from Riverside family to an “eco-friendly” public transit family of Old Town Pasadena.

The Pasadena family had a mom and dad with graduate degrees and consulting type jobs. The Riverside family had a mom and dad with high school diplomas and 9-5 blue collar jobs. The story had an irritating slant. The Riverside family who had gone into economic collapse had fallen (according to this classist piece of journalism) simply because they had a car and this Pasadena family had this great life because they didn’t have a car.

No concern at the economic history (your grandparents and great grandparents education and economic status and education have way more to do with your current state of financially solvency than any other factor) of either family.

No mention in the Pasadena family how a person from New York would just slide into a great job.

No mention of how Pasadena is very expensive and even if the Riverside family wanted to live in Pasadena and be eco, for the average blue-collar worker this is not going to be a possibility, certainly not right outside the Gold Line.

No, it was just these Riverside people are white trash that hate the planet and these Pasadena people are just fabulous, because they don’t drive.

This kind of myopic thinking on transportation is what kills the alternative transportation movement. You can’t put transportation in a little box with no concern with the economic conditions that force people into limited choices.

The answer is never just “Get a bike or Metro Bus Pass.”

Housing affordability for FAMILIES near REAL JOBS should be number one priority for any alternative transit advocate. Affordable housing and SAFE streets comes BEFORE telling everyone to get rid of their car. (And after they make that happen if these advocates could also ask their parents to not gentrify 20 year, two generation deep or more residents out of the neighborhood, that would be super.) Yeah that sucks and it’s harder, but that makes more sense.

Even the lower prices of Los Angeles public transit friendly urban enclaves of downtown, Hollywood and Santa Monica are still too expensive for the family of four making 30-50k per year.

And if housing affordability seems too much of a stretch for certain activists, possibly these activists should think about toning down the rhetoric to the working class guy or gal (Detroit dying kills lots of people's jobs and it is not a good thing) that is just trying to eat. No one in Lancaster or Temecula is going to give up their car, because in reality they can not.

People in Malibu on the other hand could easily move to one of these empty glamour lofts in downtown LA and take the MTA 14 into Beverly Hills or the Red Line into Hollywood. If you have the kind of money to live in the hills or on the cliffs you can afford to be a little late.

The suburbs of the rich are doing way more to kill this planet than the suburbs of the quickly dying working and middle class.

Yes I get that many of these activists have moved into neighborhoods that were formerly working class and now they want to push their ideas on their new neighbors, but shouldn’t these activists push it onto their bosses first? Their bosses at the Hollywood studios, museums, college campuses and media houses. What are they afraid of? Maybe they are afraid of losing their job. Maybe they are afraid of alienating people who will give them money. Yeah not having a job or social contacts is a pretty scary concept, so possibly they shouldn’t put other people in a position that they have to feel guilty because they are trying to keep their damn job.

Before anyone on a bus or bike or train tells the person in Lancaster, South LA or Temecula that they should give up their car they should probably write to Kit Rachlis of LA Magazine and tell him to stop killing the planet with his car. That of course may lessen the possibility of future sexy write ups, but it’s about the planet right?

Browne Molyneux

Comments

[Justin N]

First off, spot on. Anyone who advocates for alternative transportation and then chooses to live away from it is a hypocrite. Anyone who can choose a transit-centric life really ought to, and there ought to be more folks focusing on getting those who CAN choose to choose transit. However, I do have to take a bit of issue with your central premise, especially when you specifically mention Riverside. :)

A little over year ago, I was working a blue-collar job (cable TV installer), and I did it without driving to work most days. My co-workers thought I was crazy. I probably am. However, my point is that alternatives do exist, and while we certainly need to get those with some discretionary income thinking about alternative transportation, maybe some of the other folks can find their way to thinking about it as well. Ideally, alternative transportation is for everyone.

Furthermore, and this is what I like to think I focus on, we ought to be pushing to create transportation for those who are currently without it. Of all the people in our society, it is the middle and working class who would benefit the most out of improved public transit. I know it saved me a bucket of money that I didn't have.

[Bert Green]

Another thing I might add is that public transit is populated mostly by working class people, at least in LA, and that says something for their virtuous habits, by choice or not.

[www.TheBusBench.com]

"Another thing I might add is that public transit is populated mostly by working class people, at least in LA, and that says something for their virtuous habits, by choice or not." Bert

It seems to me the most truly green people in LA are working class people. These communities should be looked at as an example. Given book deals. How to take the bus with three kids and have them behave? How to grow an edible garden without being a self-rigtheous, smug prick?

:)

Browne

[www.TheBusBench.com]

"I like to think I focus on, we ought to be pushing to create transportation for those who are currently without it." Justin

I think this is an important point. In America it would be thought as madness if a child didn't have access to an education, but in rural parts of the country owing to lack of transportation this often happens.

In LA if you want to go to a college its not a big challenge, even if you don't have a car. Yes maybe its not fun to have to take the bus to college, but at least there is a college at the end up your bus ride and at least there is a bus.

I remember going to Mexia, Texas and this young girl thought I was the greatest thing ever, which of course made me like her. She told me how she was vegetarian, even though it was hard because everyone made fun of her and she liked making her own clothes are fixing up preloved clothes, but she told me how she wanted to go to college, but there were no colleges in Mexia. That she just rode a bike and she couldn't ride her bike 100 miles for class, that she would have to move to Dallas and get a job and...it was just a real insane burden for a person in a rural neighborhood that lived in a trailer. For her moving to Dallas seemed very expensive and scary, but she didn't want to be stuck.

Unfortunately over the summer she got pregnant and being a small town options are limited. If she had mobility, even a bus or train that was economically price that would have taken her into Dallas in the morning and brought her back at night that would have changed her life in a major way.

Browne

[Brady Westwater]

Every time I read diatribes like this I keeping thinking.... surely.... this must be a satire. This type of attack on anyone who has a different life style than your own is not going to solve the transit problems of this city.

Finding solutions that will work in the real world is only possible when one at least makes an attempt to understand why people live the lives they do and why they make the choices they do. Resorting to name calling, bigotry and prejudice when dealing with people you disagree with prevents any kind of meaningful dialogue from happening.

I used to live in Malibu and know very well why people chose to live there. I also have lived in Downtown for over ten years and deliberately gave up my car to see how that kind of live can be lived in this city. I have also worked hard to create a pedestrian and transit oriented community. I think we have the same goals. But the more I read articles like this, the more I realize the biggest problem transit has in this city - is some of its supporters.

[www.TheBusBench.com]

"This type of attack on anyone who has a different life style than your own is not going to solve the transit problems of this city." Brady

I'm not attacking a different lifestyle, I'm critiquing people who are associates, former boyfriends and former classmates. I'm saying this fluffy we critique without considering the needs of the working class is sort of bullshit. Too many people in alt transit fail to consider safety and affordability as if those are secondary when thy are not secondary.

Many people drive because its not safe to walk or bike and I'm not talking about just not safe because there isn't a bike lane, I'm talking about getting harmed on purpose. Other drive because they simply can't live places where they can afford transit, not once they have three kids.

And if you think I'm attacking Malibu I'm not, I'm saying if people from KCET can get to together and do a critique on Temecula or Riverside in regards to why those people don't use public transit then why don't they put that same lense on Malibu and I say the reason is because they are just playing activist and don't want to piss off the people with the money.

If you are not willing to at least mention the rich (because I'm not for demonizing a lifestyle, but I'm not into giving people a pass just because they are rich) then you are not a very good activist and you should probably stop wasting your time as well as everyone else's.

I think the average person in a car with a family would be open to my suggestions in regards to alt transporation and what they can do to get there.

Browne