Lead vocals: David Byrne.
3:32 "Trouble in Transit," lol. Transportation and education, both important, both popular in this election cycle, both currently tangential from a City official's portfolio of command. Do we want to work towards changing that, is an issue worth discussing.
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great song
ReplyDeleteThat transportation and education are mentioned by the public is indicative of a larger trend toward what we in Pittsburgh already had 50-60 years ago:
ReplyDelete- A city we traversable with clean public transit (trolleys), the means to get to our necessities by walking to the stores or hopping on a shuttle bus. Further we now need the means of crisscrossing neighborhoods by public transit and by clean personal transit (bikes, Segways, scooters, walking) to share individual neighborhood delights betwixt and between.
- Public schools that neighborhoods were proud of, that graduates bragged about.
Right now we have only vestiges of both that bygone clean transit and the proud individual neighborhood schools. As people look once again to move into cities, with neighborhoods and amenities, we need to have both of those back and operational, now.
That transportation and education are mentioned by the candidates either means that (a) they are glomming on to the public's need to try to get more votes, or (b) they truly have a vision for what could be: what could be again in terms of transit and schools, and what could be soon in terms of people eagerly planting roots here.
I think the Mayor of the city should be setting the tone: captaining, if you will - laying in a course and standing at the bow of the ship, smoothing the course, gathering others on the journey, while directing the strengthening of the vessel.
Should the actual fixing of either should be a main plank in a Mayoral platform? Only if the candidate has already begun arranging the means of accomplishing the goals. If it's all blowing smoke, as Ravenstahl did in campaigning on beginning the Pittsburgh Promise, as if that alone would "rescue" our schools, then no.
When the candidates speak about these things, we should listen closely to what they are saying and really see what they are doing. We should not be gullible. The candidate saying the mayor should fix the schools may be a bigger dreamer than the rest of us.
That said, regarding the video, would rather hear the Talking Heads than My Happy Pony.
flybylight - Kudos on the distinction between having a vision for, and glomming on to. Personally I'm all for Trolleys 2.0, and I'm also all for rickshaws -- as a transit, jobs, art, cultural and traffic calming opportunity. And it's called My Little Pony, or are you trolling me?
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