Making the Connection

New York, the nation's leader in mass transit, has lagged when it comes to integration of its far-flung commmuter rail systems. An exhibit entitled Making the Connection: Moving Forward on Regional Rail at the Municipal Arts Society of New York is worth a look. This is really the beginning of a conversation that needs to happen before the actual planning of these vital links. You can get the gist of the exhibition on line at: www.trainsofthought.com.
An interesting point made in Making the Connection is the paucity of transit oriented-development (TOD) around commuter rail stations in the outer boroughs of New York City. For the most part, these close-in rail stations are lightly utilized, especailly where subway lines are in close proximity. The creators of the exhibit foresee an increase in usage for these facilities with integration of the disparate rail lines and a potential for significant TOD. Ridership would also increase because there would be cross-honoring of fare cards and no fare penalty for choosing commuter rail over subway or city bus. [For more on TOD see my post of September 3, 2006]
Photo: Empire State Building over Bryant Park
When: Yesterday (a blustery fall day with crisp, clean air)

Blue Mountain Revisited

When: Yesterday
Where: Outcrop just below summit of Blue Mountain, Blue Mountain Reservation, Town of Cortlandt, New York. We're looking out over the City of Peekskill and the Hudson River with Dunderberg and Bear Mountain beyond.

Still Resting in Peace

Where: Baptist Church Road, Town of Yorktown, New York
When: Today

Ribbons on the Trees

I wrote a blog post last week – while having a coffee in the Black Cow in Croton-on-Hudson. I wrote it out in longhand on the back of a financial statement. It didn’t get posted because the paper has gone missing. It’s probably somewhere in one of the unsorted piles of unimportant papers in my house. This is just as well. Here’s what it boils down to: “Now I know some kind of truth, but I cannot put it into words.” These words were written by Melissia Holbrook Pierson in The Place You Love is Gone: Progress Hits Home. In fact, she has put the truth into words. To sum up with more of her words, “What you know and love is finite. It is already slated for removal.” Please read this book. Let me know what you think. Akron, Ohio is the template for this loss, “Ohio can absorb all amounts of sadness. That is what it is there for.” In my own Ohio non-story, sometime between the end of the 1950s and the murder of the young President, my father almost took a job in Cleveland. He even went out there with my mother to look at real estate. They took the overnight train from Grand Central, which somehow in my mind queered the deal. If they had traveled on a spanking new 707 instead of creeping along on the dying water-level-route, things might have moved forward. Had I finished my growing up in Ohio an entire universe would have been created and another would not have come into being. Something tells me, at least as far as I’m concerned, the wrong choice was made (although my father clearly made the right choice for him). Do not ask me to explain. The answer is in Ms. Holbrook’s book.