Let's Celebrate Azaleas and Congestion Pricing

05/07/2023

Let's Celebrate Azaleas and Congestion Pricing

Peak azalea season continued this week at the park, culminating in fireworks and a parade. Just kidding. One of the nice things about the heather garden is that plants drift in and out of bloom. It's not a performance with a beginning and end, which is comforting in our goal-obsessed culture.

In a very rare piece of good news this week, the federal government finally cleared the way for congestion pricing to be implemented in Manhattan. Of course, there are politicians crying about it, with the governor of New Jersey leading the pack, saying that it's unfair to New Jersey commuters who drive into Manhattan, because none of the money goes to New Jersey public transit. Maybe it's just me, but it seems like a strange argument for someone to make who oversees the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway, given the number of non-New Jersey drivers who pay to use those roads. How is that different than charging drivers to use roads in Manhattan? To be clear, I support more toll roads everywhere, although more/most of the money generated from these roads should be allocated to public transit.

And public parks filled with azaleas of every different color.

Someone please make me Governor of New Jersey. Or New York.

Lately, I've been noticing the way people have been conditioned to forget that the government has a lot of power to do good things. For example, I was talking to my sister about all of the incredible (protected) bike paths in Europe, where e-bikes have really taken off, and I was bemoaning the state of affairs in the US. She responded by saying something about how the market for e-bikes is improving in the US and that maybe it will eventually lead people to bike more than drive. It's not an unreasonable point, of course, but in my mind, I was like, 'we are WAY past the era of market-based solutions to our problems (aka neoliberalism), and the government should and could do a LOT more to incentivize biking (among so many other things).' For example, they could ban cars. Lol, but seriously, they could ban SUVs over a certain size from driving around the city. They could triple the tax on gas. They could have put in something in the 'Build Back Better Act' to make it easier for people to buy e-bikes in the same way they did for electric cars. There are so many things that the government could do right now to improve life and reduce our reliance of fossil fuels. What do these people think is going on in the world.

One of the sad things about getting older is realizing that my generation basically didn't do anything besides write 'Smells Like Teen Spirit,' which means we have to hope that the actual teens of today will finally get it together to do something to save the broken planet we're giving them. Fortunately, there are signs that this is happening.

In my dreams, in 100 years, the New Jersey Turnpike will be replaced by a train speeding through a field of azaleas.

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Music: Death Culture at Sea and Saturnine

Listen or download songs and records from my indie-rock past with Saturnine here and Death Culture at Sea here.

Music Video: Remembrance of Things Past

Watch the rock opera Remembrance of Things Past written and performed by Saturnine and Frances Gibson, starring Bennett Madison and Sheila McClear.

Video: The Chaos Detective

The Chaos Detective is a series about a man searching for 'identity' as he completes assignments from a mysterious organization. Watch the first episode (five parts) on YouTube.

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05/07/2023