I think good city planning, or planning that encourages people to be out of the confines of their houses, will increase the respect we have for each other in the arena of public debate, conversation and legislation.
It makes little sense to me that we incentivize bad behavior like driving with so much public money to keep the gas tax low and add to our disgustingly large freeways. It's bad policy. It disgusts me that people get in their cars to drive less than a mile. And I used to be that person. It wears on the environment, in takes away an opportunity for you to be outside getting just a bit of exercise for 15 minutes and for what? Convenience? Really? So you can get home and sit on the couch and surf the internet for another hour of time while you don't make a healthy dinner for yourself or your family? Energy to do things comes when you get in the habit of doing them.
This is also why I think cable television is a disgusting habit. You have so many better entertainment options when you turn off the tv. Go do something in your community. Have iced tea on your front porch and say hello to your neighbors. We are so phobic to other people that we forget that we are not the only people with needs. We lose empathy for people we don't know because we fear them.
This is why I want to be a planner. I want to contribute to the notion of well built communities that encourage behaviors that are opposite of the general suburbanite now. I grew up in a real community. People didn't like my political viewpoint but they had known me since I was a kid and respected that I had one. And now I have this vast network of people all over the world who know someone who knows my parents and because of this connection would go out of their way to help a former NE Coloradan. People are our allies, folks, not things to be feared. Why shouldn't we help those who can't help themselves? Why shouldn't there be a place for homeless people to go or non-stigmatized mental health options? Why should someone else care what I do or don't put in my body and or if and or when I decide is a good time for me to have children. I don't care what other people believe or practice so long as it does not affect me in any negative way.
In terms of the debate over Chick Fil A. Yes, they are more than allowed to support whatever institution they see fit and yes I am allowed to decide to never eat there again, no I don't think a city should proactively keep a business from setting up shop and yes, Chick Fil A will be on the losing side of history. Let the market drive them back out.
Gen Y'ers who are right around my age will be starting careers much later than previous generations, many will be underemployed for much of their lives and most of us will not have the earning potential that previous generations had because of the economy we graduated into. Am I angry? Damn right I'm angry. But instead of bitching about how it's everyone else's fault, I go ahead and live my life within my means. I appreciate people, I believe in building strong communities and I'm making the best of an unfortunate situation. All those who had Grandparents you commented about doing things like saving tin foil and pennies because they grew up in the Depression, I will be that Grandmother because I came of age in the Great Recession.
But I will also have a greater appreciation for better times when this whole mess is over. And it will end because that is the ebb and flow of an economy. This one will find it's equilibrium and begin again to grow. But do we have to be so awful to each other in the mean time? Is it not already hard enough? Come on people!!
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