Man Made Lake

San Francisco's Market Street Tunnel

    As I've become increasingly acclimated to the New York City Subway's abandoned factory aesthetic of bare I-beams and rotting tilework I've almost forgotten how a rapid transit agency can actually invest in their appearance.

    Imagine my surprise when I boarded a Bay Area Rapid Transit train at sparkling SFO. I used the BART system extensively in my youth but, like everybody else in the Bay Area, I never had anything to offer but [mostly unwarranted] complaints. While the suburban stations are generally nothing more than long slabs of concrete, the urban stations, particularly under Market Street in San Francisco and Broadway in Oakland, have a distinctly space age feel to them, so much so that a few scenes from THX 1138 were filmed in them while still under construction.

Dollar Vans in Sunset Park, Brooklyn

    Maxi-taxis, poda-podas, dala-dalas, tanka-tankas - whatever you want to call them, share taxis are often the dominant form of public transit in developing countries.  It's somewhere between a bus and a taxi: privately owned vans or cars that stop anywhere along a semi-fixed route.  They're often dangerously crowded and the cars themselves are in poor shape.  In most (all?) developed countries share-taxis have been regulated out of business.

    So where could they possibly exist in the United States?  In America's most third-world city, of course: New York.  In many outer borough neighborhoods under served by public transit and saturated with immigrant entrepreneurs, "dollar vans" are a common site.  In Sunset Park, Brooklyn's far flung chinatown, I witnessed dollar vans cruising for passengers at bus stops on 8th Avenue.  They run much more frequently than city buses and at half the price, why wouldn't you take them?  Because you don't speak Cantonese.

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    And here's one from Flushing, Queens.  Flushing Queens everybody!

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(and while I'm at it: an American werewolf in Nicaragua)

Aerial Tram 2

The previously mentioned Portland Aerial Tram opened to the public two weeks ago. Portland's latest transportation toy and instigator of urban renewal has received a fair amount of criticism due to the public subsidies and the corresponding benefit to developers. The idea was to connect Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), the city's biggest employer stuck on a steep hill with little transportation access, to a massive brownfield development in the flatlands with high density housing and a satellite campus.

I disagree with the critics. While Las Vegas' unchecked growth continues along the urban periphery, ensuring a continued waste of resources, Portland's investment in intelligent infrastructure now will shape the city's growth for the better, ensuring heavily centralized employment, dense housing, and thus a healthier and more energy efficient city. This doesn't only apply to the aerial tram. The same goes for future light rail lines and the denser development they bring. The impact of 2004's yellow line on the neighborhood, city and region won't be fully apparent for another decade or two. It's a long-term investment.

Politics aside, it's a beautiful piece of public infrastructure (which is increasingly rare). The stations at both ends are gorgeous, the OHSU platform has several places to enjoy the view, the view from the tram is incredible, the tram itself is gorgeous, the intermediate tower is gorgeous, it's silent, it's fast, and it's frequent. Shaw nuff. The $4 roundtrip fare is a little steep, but you only pay on the way up so if you want a free ride walk up Terwilliger to the hospital and ride east.

I volunteered for a couple hours during the grand opening. Kayt made a pillow case out of the t-shirt they gave me.

aceras de BsAs

BsAs' sidewalks are a microcosm for the city's broader aesthetic: an unpredictable and often counterintuitive blend of styles, materials and colors.  That is why I miss it so fucking bad.  Mind the dog shite though.

Sao Paulo 7