My school didn't have a drama department. I was one of the lucky four children who got to travel twice a week to another school because our school could only afford one taxi.
The nation can no longer afford to continue policies that hasten the flight of persons to the distant suburbs.
There were days when my dad and grandpa had to work and I would call a cab to get to school. I felt a little embarrassed and would get out a block before school. There were kids getting dropped off in a Mercedes or Lexus. I didn't want them to see me.
The solution to transportation inefficiencies lies at the intersection of collaborative consumption and the social graph: Shifting transportation from ownership to access.
The only real goal I had was, I wanted to own a car. Because my father, most of the time, he couldn't afford a car. Once in a while he would have a car, but it would be 10 or 15 years old, an old jalopy.
Those diplomas on my wall would not be there without the GI Bill that educated my father, without the public library, without the RIPTA bus.
If we wanted a program to help the majority of the population, we'd offer loan guarantees to help poor people get access to reliable cars so that they could have a better shot at getting - and keeping - a well-paying job...A small amount of capital could make a much bigger difference in their lives than extra student loan relief for middle-class college kids would.
We talk a lot about infrastructure in cities, and it's talking about highways and it's talking about trains, but I think more important to people who are low income is, how do I get from here to there? How do I become part of the affluence that's surrounding me?
People don't like railroad tracks near them? We'll see how they feel when the percentage of U.S. citizens who can afford to drive a car goes way down, as it will.
