| October 28, 2005 Editor’s Desk by Aaron Selbig, insurgent49 It’s been a mutinous week here at Insurgent Headquarters. 
The other day on ‘Frost & Fire’, the radio show I
co-host with my good buddy Jack Frost, we had the honor of speaking
with Assemblyman Dan Sullivan. A day after ‘Black Tuesday’,
when Dan and a coalition of his Assembly buddies took a chainsaw to the
city’s Long Range Transportation Plan, we spoke with him about
the future of transportation in Anchorage. In the course of that
conversation, Mr. Sullivan made the offhand comment that only people of
lower economic brackets ride the People Mover.Only poor people ride the bus. Huh. I didn’t know that, Dan. As a daily rider of the People Mover (Routes 2, 3 and 60 are my personal faves), I guess I never really looked around at my fellow bus riders and attempted to gauge their personal incomes. So, the next day on Route 2, I did just that. Shortly after pulling out of the downtown transit center, we picked up a woman and her two kids. I couldn’t tell how much money she made (how does one do that, Mr. Sullivan?), but she looked to me to be part of what I call the ‘NPR set’. You know ... business-casual attire, conservative yet stylish hairdo, and those tiny little reading glasses. At the next stop, we picked up a young woman who was quite clearly a university student (large backpack full of ‘Applied Mechanics’ textbooks). She sat down in front of me, pulled out a book and began studying. All down C St., the bus collected citizens of Anchorage. Some were old, some were young. Some were black, some were white, and some were Alaska Native. I don’t know how much money any of them made, but I do know this: by the time we got to 36th Ave., the bus was full. That reminds me of another popularly held transportation myth in this town: Nobody rides the bus. That one, I can tell you, is a load of bull. Route 2 fills up on a regular basis on weekday mornings and afternoons. Routes 3 or 36 headed to the U-Med district on Saturdays are usually full, as well. And Route 45 is jam-packed almost all the time. The point I think Dan Sullivan was getting at is that public transportation is somehow less important than road construction, because its dependent ridership is made up of poor folks. They should get off their non-property-tax-paying asses and go get a driver’s license, eh Dan? And after that ... maybe a shiny new SUV in the garage, with room for one. The slew of cuts and drastic changes made to the LRTP by the Dans (Sullivan and Coffey) and their cabal are unfortunately typical of the short-sighted leadership in this city and this state. Instead of promoting public transportation, they prefer the status quo of worsening traffic congestion, even in the face of public disgust and skyrocketing gas prices. Instead of commuter rail or HOV lanes on the Glenn Highway, they prefer a $600 million dollar bridge to nowhere. And instead of tightening their budgets or diversifying the city’s income, they’d prefer a sales tax aimed squarely at those poor unfortunate bus riders they so disdain. Perhaps the most curious change these folks made to the LRTP was the removal of the words “visually appealing” from a general policy statement on transportation. Now that’s progress. Regards, Aaron Selbig Editor, Insurgent Media AK |
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October 21, 2005 October 14, 2005 October 7, 2005 September 30, 2005 September 23, 2005 September 16, 2005 September 9, 2005 September 2, 2005 August 26, 2005 August 19, 2005 August 12, 2005 August 5, 2005 July 29, 2005 July 22, 2005 July 15, 2005 July 8, 2005 July 1, 2005 June 24, 2005 June 17, 2005 June 10, 2005 June 3, 2005 May 27, 2005 May 20, 2005 May 13, 2005 May 6, 2005 April 28, 2005 April 21, 2005 April 14, 2005 April 7, 2005 April 1, 2005 |
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| Copyright 2005
Insurgent Media.
All rights reserved. in-sur-gent (in sur'jent), n. 1. a member of a group which revolts against the policies of its leadership. |
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