I wrote a long comment on Hacker News about the need for the US to address the housing issue here. I don't really have a term for what I want. "Affordable Housing" means something else to other people than what I am trying to say. It's counterproductive to keep using that term.
Someone was kind enough to supply me with the term "the missing middle" which is in use in some places. I had heard that term previously, but hadn't connected it to what I am trying to talk about. It perhaps is a better term, politically speaking, but I'm not sure if it really conveys what I want to convey.
It's politically savvy because it suggests that we need housing appropriate for middle class people and we don't have that. "Affordable Housing" gets interpreted to mean "We need housing for poor people" and that's just a debacle for various reasons. No one wants to hear that.
Anyway, someone replied to my long comment with this:
It was more feasible to live without a car in the US because we didn't have that option. We weren't out of shape. We were used to long and unpredictable delays. If we needed to walk a hundred miles, we did it. Going longer distances, we might hope to get a ride on a sailing ship, but some people still walked.
This is still possible. Obstacles like large interstate highways are no worse than obstacles like large unbridged rivers. Not many people will tolerate it.
I don't agree with that comment. But I don't really see any point in arguing it on Hacker News. So I came here to blog about it.
I've lived without a car for over a decade. I gave up my car while working a corporate job.
There was a bus stop near my apartment. There was a bus stop near my office job. It was a seven to ten minute drive to work. It took about an hour to walk there.
It would have taken over an hour to take the bus because I would have had to go to the central transit station downtown, change buses, and come back. It also would have cost money, money I could not really afford to spare. So walking was both cheaper and faster.
So the problem is not simply lack of willingness to walk it. The problem is trying to make life work in modern America without a car.
Public transit tends to not work well as a means to get to work or generally Have A Life. Employers will discriminate against someone without a car in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons.
They may not want to hire you to begin with because they figure you won't show up reliably. It's hard to hate on them too much for that since it's probably true. With poor public transit, etc, people who are carless in the US are frequently carless due to poverty, not by choice, and they are frequently dependent on friends, relatives and coworkers for rides. They aren't independently able to get where they need to go.
Employers may also assume you can carry stuff home. It may not be a big deal if you have a car. It is a much bigger deal if you are walking, biking or using public transit.
Employers may assume you are capable of complying with a lot of little expectations that only work if you drive yourself to work. There may be no eateries in walking distance of the job site. There may also be no break room where you can store a sack lunch in the fridge. Etc. So getting lunch may only really work if you own a car and drive.
The list no doubt goes on a lot longer than that. But I mostly haven't had a regular job. I was a homemaker for a lot of years. Then I had a corporate job for a few years. Then I quit to go sleep in a tent and start figuring out how to make money online because that's what made the most sense for my health.
So, I am back in housing and I do freelance work. I make some money online and I occasionally meet with clients. I moved to a small town where I can walk to eateries, grocery stores and other essentials.
While homeless, I spent time in parts of the US where the only path through was an interstate. It's illegal to walk on the interstate. You can potentially be arrested for it.
So, no, an interstate is not an obstacle comparable to a river. It is more comparable to a sacred river that it is illegal to set foot in and doing so will get the local authorities coming down on your head.
There are a whole lot of reasons why walking doesn't work anymore in the US. Most of them are not because people are out of shape.
I think cause and effect run the other direction: We are out of shape because it is nigh impossible to walk as a basic form of transit in much of modern America and actually make your life work. If we made it easier to walk to the things we need, Americans would be healthier.
Missing Middle
Missing Middle Housing
Someone was kind enough to supply me with the term "the missing middle" which is in use in some places. I had heard that term previously, but hadn't connected it to what I am trying to talk about. It perhaps is a better term, politically speaking, but I'm not sure if it really conveys what I want to convey.
It's politically savvy because it suggests that we need housing appropriate for middle class people and we don't have that. "Affordable Housing" gets interpreted to mean "We need housing for poor people" and that's just a debacle for various reasons. No one wants to hear that.
Anyway, someone replied to my long comment with this:
It was more feasible to live without a car in the US because we didn't have that option. We weren't out of shape. We were used to long and unpredictable delays. If we needed to walk a hundred miles, we did it. Going longer distances, we might hope to get a ride on a sailing ship, but some people still walked.
This is still possible. Obstacles like large interstate highways are no worse than obstacles like large unbridged rivers. Not many people will tolerate it.
I don't agree with that comment. But I don't really see any point in arguing it on Hacker News. So I came here to blog about it.
I've lived without a car for over a decade. I gave up my car while working a corporate job.
There was a bus stop near my apartment. There was a bus stop near my office job. It was a seven to ten minute drive to work. It took about an hour to walk there.
It would have taken over an hour to take the bus because I would have had to go to the central transit station downtown, change buses, and come back. It also would have cost money, money I could not really afford to spare. So walking was both cheaper and faster.
So the problem is not simply lack of willingness to walk it. The problem is trying to make life work in modern America without a car.
Public transit tends to not work well as a means to get to work or generally Have A Life. Employers will discriminate against someone without a car in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons.
They may not want to hire you to begin with because they figure you won't show up reliably. It's hard to hate on them too much for that since it's probably true. With poor public transit, etc, people who are carless in the US are frequently carless due to poverty, not by choice, and they are frequently dependent on friends, relatives and coworkers for rides. They aren't independently able to get where they need to go.
Employers may also assume you can carry stuff home. It may not be a big deal if you have a car. It is a much bigger deal if you are walking, biking or using public transit.
Employers may assume you are capable of complying with a lot of little expectations that only work if you drive yourself to work. There may be no eateries in walking distance of the job site. There may also be no break room where you can store a sack lunch in the fridge. Etc. So getting lunch may only really work if you own a car and drive.
The list no doubt goes on a lot longer than that. But I mostly haven't had a regular job. I was a homemaker for a lot of years. Then I had a corporate job for a few years. Then I quit to go sleep in a tent and start figuring out how to make money online because that's what made the most sense for my health.
So, I am back in housing and I do freelance work. I make some money online and I occasionally meet with clients. I moved to a small town where I can walk to eateries, grocery stores and other essentials.
While homeless, I spent time in parts of the US where the only path through was an interstate. It's illegal to walk on the interstate. You can potentially be arrested for it.
So, no, an interstate is not an obstacle comparable to a river. It is more comparable to a sacred river that it is illegal to set foot in and doing so will get the local authorities coming down on your head.
There are a whole lot of reasons why walking doesn't work anymore in the US. Most of them are not because people are out of shape.
I think cause and effect run the other direction: We are out of shape because it is nigh impossible to walk as a basic form of transit in much of modern America and actually make your life work. If we made it easier to walk to the things we need, Americans would be healthier.
Missing Middle
Missing Middle Housing