Tuesday, February 14, 2006
It could have been Detroit I suppose. Meaning getting stuck for two days in Chicago could have been worse i.e. it could have been Detroit. Or Newark. But it was still pretty bad. One day you are in a thriving, beautiful metropolis called London -- full of good restaurants, clean and efficient public transportation systems, and a majority population that exudes civility (rugby matches excluded). You see and feel everywhere a vested interest in finding an aesthetic harmony between function and form. To then get re-routed to Chicago (because the airports in the North East are all closed due to snow) is just a sad and depressing ending to an otherwise delightful trip.
On the one hand Chicago can lay claim to some of the best and finest architecture in the United States (a lot of which dates to the 20's). But sadly this beautiful architecture serves merely as a backdrop to a city plagued with what most cities across the U.S. suffer: no money... no money to invest in roads, bridges, levees, or any other kinds of refurbishments. One can't help but think what these cities could be again if instead of spending hundreds of billions of dollars in an ill-begot war, we could invest instead in forward-thinking, sustainable infrastructures. I was certainly thinking such thoughts on the metro ride back from our afternoon excursion to downtown Chicago (because who wants to sit in a Hilton hotel all day while you hope for a flight back to Boston). The train was delayed an hour and by the static conversations I could hear over the walkie-talkies, no one had the slightest clue what to do. Finally it was discovered that a train ahead had a disabled car. Nobody seemed able to move it off the track. They finally brought in a crew that cut the car into four pieces and dragged the wreckage off the track....Well we seem to be good at cleaning up after disasters hit but wouldn't it be nice to have a more proactive approach that might ensure the disaster never becomes one?
On the one hand Chicago can lay claim to some of the best and finest architecture in the United States (a lot of which dates to the 20's). But sadly this beautiful architecture serves merely as a backdrop to a city plagued with what most cities across the U.S. suffer: no money... no money to invest in roads, bridges, levees, or any other kinds of refurbishments. One can't help but think what these cities could be again if instead of spending hundreds of billions of dollars in an ill-begot war, we could invest instead in forward-thinking, sustainable infrastructures. I was certainly thinking such thoughts on the metro ride back from our afternoon excursion to downtown Chicago (because who wants to sit in a Hilton hotel all day while you hope for a flight back to Boston). The train was delayed an hour and by the static conversations I could hear over the walkie-talkies, no one had the slightest clue what to do. Finally it was discovered that a train ahead had a disabled car. Nobody seemed able to move it off the track. They finally brought in a crew that cut the car into four pieces and dragged the wreckage off the track....Well we seem to be good at cleaning up after disasters hit but wouldn't it be nice to have a more proactive approach that might ensure the disaster never becomes one?
Comments:
Post a Comment
