commit 5680274e83fb70c2b53f2ee3d4f225e3996b1b8a
parent cb302032214fbc6375f5552165fa9c1e46869c3d
Author: alex wennerberg <alex@alexwennerberg.com>
Date: Fri, 19 May 2023 21:14:34 -0400
add cars thing
Diffstat:
2 files changed, 35 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
diff --git a/src/writing/cars.html b/src/writing/cars.html
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+<h1>No Cars</h1>
+<p>I have not owned a car since 2016, when I graduated college. I now live in New
+York, specifically: Greenpoint, Brooklyn, in a place that has the least
+car-centric infrastructure of any place I've lived. Even the difference between
+living in Brooklyn and a place like San Francisco or Chicago is striking. I
+did not own a car either of those cities, but I still knew people who owned
+cars, I occasionally used rideshare, and felt like the city was more or less
+built around cars, with a transit "option".</p>
+<p>Since I moved into this apartment two months ago, I have not been in a car a
+single time, and with my lifestyle as it is, I can do this with only mild
+inconvenience. I can get anywhere I want to go in New York in the subway, which
+both runs 24 hours and is quite normal and safe to take late at night. I've
+been setting a challenge to myself to see how long I can go without being in a
+car. I've been surprised by how easy it's been so far.</p>
+<p>Within just two city blocks, I live by five grocery stores, one of which is on my
+block. Most of the places I lived in Chicago and San Francisco, it took me a 15
+minutes to go to a decently-sized grocery. I go to the closest one, at the end
+of my block, probably every single day.</p>
+<p>New York is a lively and vibrant city, and I'd assert that one key reason for
+this is that it is the one and only city in America that isn't built around
+cars. The closest city I've experienced is San Francisco, which mostly gets
+away with the fact that it's relatively small and highly walkable, even though
+its intra-city transit is actually quite mediocre. </p>
+<p>Not having a car, an extremely expensive, enormously wasteful machine, is
+somehow a luxury in America, when it should be the complete opposite.
+This is because automobile infrastructure was not built by consumer demand, but
+rather forced upon this country by policy. Building a city around cars is just
+about the most irrational thing you can to by almost any measure, and yet
+America has chosen to do this nearly everywhere. </p>
+<p>I have chosen to abstain from having a car, and it has guided a lot of major
+decisions in my life (e.g. where to live). I hope to continue this as long as
+is reasonably possible, but America unfortunately makes this quite difficult. I
+strive in my personal and political life to try and build a different world,</p>
diff --git a/src/writing/misc.html b/src/writing/misc.html
@@ -2,3 +2,5 @@
<p>Miscellaneous writing, may categorize this more as time goes on</p>
<a href="/writing/chair.html">chairs and chair alternatives</a>
+<br>
+<a href="/writing/cars.html">no cars</a>
