Saturday's Seattle Times had an interesting article about the fact that so many people choose to live far from where they work -- "Despite planners' best efforts, many people choose the commute" The article cites Prof. Dan Carlson of the Evans School. Carlson makes some reasonable observations about the diversity of people's choices and notes that "Not everyone wants the same kind of lifestyle." Yet he also offers this value judgment:
Still, the region would be better off if more people worked and lived in the same place, he says.Carlson commutes to his office at the University of Washington from his home on Vashon Island. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at July 24, 2006 02:26 PM | Email This"It's more efficient and it builds community in richer ways," Carlson says.
Elitist bastard!
Posted by: Jeffro on July 24, 2006 03:04 PMYou will see that Mr. Calson doesn't follow his own advice. Fancy that.
Posted by: G Jiggy on July 24, 2006 03:07 PMbasically showed the areas with Jobs or no Jobs..
Woodinville; shows people who live there don't work there (duh....gobs of suburbs and few jobs)
Weak bit of data analysis
Posted by: righton on July 24, 2006 03:11 PMtoday's Newsweek list of top schools; Bellevue, Redmond, etc, only 1 in Seattle
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12532678?s=0&np=13&sort=std
You need to do a point/counterpoint like the old Thanks and a Tip of the Hat by Hatlo. This would have been a good one.
Posted by: swatter on July 24, 2006 03:56 PMOnly in the elitist progressive world is there a dream utopia where everyone lives in dense urban settings, near to where they work.
Liberal gobbledygook.
Posted by: Jeff B. on July 24, 2006 04:01 PMOther folks might want a yard bigger than a postage stamp or perhaps their choice of abode in a compromise between two workplaces. Plus people change careers over the years and they may not want to uproot the family.
If anyone is serious about implementing this, then all government workers should be required to live within 10 miles of their department. I worked with people from Whidbey Island, Marysville, Spanaway, Bremerton, and Bainbridge when I was at the county (I lived a few miles away--I don't like long commutes). They all had their reasons for living where they did.
Yet another example of government officials not understanding the real motivators. Sound Transit, anyone?
Posted by: Burdabee on July 24, 2006 04:04 PMWe all work and live very close together. Quarters are "provided" at a level that hasn't changed since the late '40s. Maintenance is "deferred". Quarters are assigned based upon the bureaucratic rules in force at the time (or based on who you know??!!) Pay is decremented for the privledge of occupying the quarters regardless of the quality of the quarters assigned. School districts?? No choice. But by golly, we were happy to live and work in the "company" town! Of course the professor probably never served, so he wouldn't really know. The professor needs to be moved back into grad level housing to experience what happens when the bureacracy takes more control of family lives!
Posted by: Soldier(ret) on July 24, 2006 04:17 PMAs for Professor Carlson, he's just another example of snooty liberal hypocrisy, as others have mentioned. These guys always remind me of the Soviet leaders enjoying their country dachas while the masses lived in their miserable concrete block apartments. I wonder if he takes the bus from Fauntleroy. Nah, but I bet he drives a hybrid, from his picture he looks exactly like the guys I see driving those things.
Posted by: Bill Cruchon on July 24, 2006 04:19 PMReminds me of not too long ago, when liberal Barbra Streisand was posting tips for saving energy on her website. People were supposed to do things such as hang-dry their laundry and other like things to save energy, etc.
When someone pointed out that Streisand didn't seem to be following the suggestions she was telling others to do, her spokesman actually replied "WELL, SHE DIDN'T MEAN THAT THEY SHOULD APPLY TO HER."
Posted by: Michele on July 24, 2006 04:20 PMTo those of you too young to remember Hatlo, my condolences.
Posted by: Bill Cruchon on July 24, 2006 04:28 PMFrom a transportation perspective, the region would be better off if people lived closer to their jobs. Communities and people in them might benefit from familiar faces and common issues. Efficiency in the use of tax dollars might improve with less a focus on moving thousands of people 25-50 miles or more every day. Carpools and vanpools would actually work and flourish.
But Carlson admits that one size does not fit all. Even if it did, pure housing economics is sufficient to coerse people out of the fantasy that people will choose commute over everything else, not limited to choosing good versus bad schools, coste, age and style of communities, and the types of lifestyles available.
If Carlson is wrong, perhaps some examples how a community benefits from people living far away from where they work can be cited?
People don't "choose" to live far from where they work. They choose where to live based on a variety of issues, including their willingness to sacrifice time travelling between their home and work.
Posted by: MJC on July 24, 2006 04:33 PMCentral Planning never resolves the needs of millions of personal choices that people make every day per their jobs, homes, schools, shops, recreations, etc. That's why it often leads to forced uniformity---yeah, that's right, Totalitarianism in one form or another.
Furthermore, taxing businesses so much that they are forced to leave while restricting land use via "Growth Management" such that housing is no longer 'affordable' (which rental housing owners in King County know very well and that's why they charge $900/month for dumps) is untenable too.
Thanks for the laugh Stefan
Posted by: GS on July 24, 2006 06:06 PMUC Berkeley 1972...an authentic flower child. IMAGINE THAT!! IN SEATTLE!!!
"...Dan draws on thirty years' experience in the public and non profit sectors as a big city mayoral aide, foundation executive director, county planner, educator, applied researcher and small businessperson." The only small business I could find referenced in his bio is consulting business....to non-profits....
If he had to earn a living in the private sector where results (translate that net income) are the measure of success, where do you think he would be living?
"But they expect results!"
Posted by: Obi-Wan on July 24, 2006 08:30 PMFor the love of God (or Gilligan)--I hope there's a coconut cream pie waiting at trail's end.
"Reminds me of not too long ago, when liberal Barbra Streisand was posting tips for saving energy on her website."
I first heard of this appalling situation on The O'Reilly Factor. Streisand's monthly electricity bill was something super OBSCENE like $10,000 a month. (Yeah, and Michael Moore never owned Halliburton stock). Do these people have a conscience??
"...while the masses lived in their miserable concrete block apartments."
My concrete block apartment is quite festive. Thank you very much. 'Specially since I scored me sum plastic Darigold milk crates to elevate muh tower speakers from Pacific Stereo off the floor.
"To those of you too young to remember Hatlo, my condolences."
Alas, too young to remember Hatlo. But, I DO recall Hatlo 2 (Xbox, right?).
"Carlson is trying to get the UW relocated to Vashon Island."
The University of Washington at Vashon. Has a nice ring to it--don't you think?
"UC Berkeley 1972...an authentic flower child. IMAGINE THAT!! IN SEATTLE!!!"
Hey now, Faithful. My dear Aunt Connie is from TUKWILLA (of all places) and is a Berkeley alumn ('74). Of course, she resides in Fremont...CA. Heh.
"Yes, even the most powerful military in the world is nothing compared to the might of Starbucks..."
Fuzzy-cheeked, testosterone-amped, QUADRUPLE Venti Mocha-juiced, young men fresh out of AIT and armed to the teeth with light/heavy automatic weaponry + various explosives?? Gawd, I love America.
P.S. My apologies for being a smart arse. I pimp software for a developer on the Eastside. Spend most days humoring "Seymour's" (As in: I need to "see more"..."see more" data before I make a decision that I'll never make 'cause I can't risk making a decision--classic liberal mindset).
P.S.S. Don't hate me 'cause I live exactly 1/2 mile from the office. Hate my elitist CEO in his country dacha.
"Sen. Hillary Clinton has put together an army of 50 staffers and more than 20 consultants as she prepares to do battle for the 2008 Democratic nomination for president.
Included in those ranks is acclaimed Washington, D.C., hairstylist Isabelle Goetz, who has collected $3,000 in recent months to clip the former first lady's locks.
Federal fund-raising records reveal that Clinton paid $1,500 to Goetz in April and another $1,000 in May.
She passed off both sessions as "media production" expenses, according to the New York Post."
More do as I say not as I do by the demoncraps!
"But they expect results!"
-----------
Oh, too funny. I thought of the SAME scene from G-busters and neglected to mention it in my post (so much sarcasm...so little time). Dan Akroyd said that, by the way: "I've BEEN in the private sector. They expect RESULTS." Classic. Kudos, Your Obi-Wan-Ness
I am a real live UW (assistant) professor, and I can't afford a house anywhere near the U District. In my view UW is a very lean operation--we don't fly business class, our raises don't keep pace with inflation, and they don't even give us letterhead anymore to write letters of reference for our students. Is this an "elite" lifestyle?
Posted by: A Real UW Prof on July 25, 2006 12:02 AMThe academic-bashing in the previous posts is really amazing. Did any of you actually attend UW? We have many inteligent, hard-working people on the faculty who could be earning higher salaries in other jobs but have taken a pay cut in order to pursue their intellectual interests. Is anything wrong with that?
Posted by: A Real UW Prof on July 25, 2006 12:22 AMBy the way, my last name is Sharkansky, not Sharansky. Hint: one way you might remember is that my nickname is "The Shark", not "The Shar".
Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on July 25, 2006 12:40 AMI think the distinction is important. He doesn't have tenure; rather, he is there as long as the dean and professors of his school want him around. Sounds like he actually does have a lot of incentive to remain useful and productive.
Also, people have pegged him as a dweller of the ivory tower, but he does seem to have a lot of real-world experience that the students at UW can benefit from.
Guess the Urban Archipelago was meant for the peons and common (breeder) folk, not for the enlightened hipster elites like him.
Posted by: PM on July 25, 2006 05:43 AMI recently graduated with a master's degree in public policy, and I can tell you that Carlson's attitude does not surprise me in the least. That strange combination of elite liberalism coupled with a healthy disdain for the American middle classes, working classes and poor (latte NPR liberals who couldn't care less about gentrification's effects on non-yuppies or the negative effects of urban growth boundaries on first-time home ownership) is very, very common.
Posted by: lido on July 25, 2006 05:53 AMThe leftist dictators of how you should live your life need to shut up and go away.
Posted by: H Moul on July 25, 2006 10:36 AMThe point is - its pretty likely that at least one of the workers in the home will end up with a long commute, or maybe both, over time. Moving is not an easy task (having done it about 7 times with family) and not something that people will choose to do very often to achieve the utopian living and working close together goal.
This is the same problem with "urban villages". People will eventually be commuting between urban villages, not living and working together, as jobs, opportunities, employers and the economy all change.
If you really want people to live and work within close proximity, then promote indepedent small towns, not mega metropoli. (I assume that is the plural of metropolis?)
Oddly enough, government workers and academic employees are the only ones left with job security. For them, living close to work is actually possible. For the rest of us, its a pipe dream (aka as induced by people on drugs).
Posted by: EM on July 25, 2006 12:58 PM