Early Saturday morning, my 11-year-old son and I rode our bicycles in
the middle of Market Street , once the most automobile-congested
street in the country. Of course, we could not do it without over a
hundred fellow Newarkers, who joined the Brick City Bike Tour.
“That’s how it feels in a city without cars,” my son exclaimed. Most
riders in the tour must have also shared this pleasure, in addition to
another two overwhelming feelings.
Since the 1930’s, to accommodate an increasing number of suburban
automobiles, the city has widened most streets, often by narrowing and
even eliminating sidewalks. On many streets, curb-cuts serve cars for
the Bayonne Boxes, but not wheelchairs and bicycles. Before we even
started this pleasant “family event,” parents and children in front of
City Hall had to witness a heated match of obscenity and middle-finger
waving between two road-masters with swift cars fighting for a lane.
During the tour, red-faced escorting police officers had to shout at
un-yielding automobile drivers. Last year, Prevention magazine ranked
Newark at the very bottom of 100 cities nationwide for its
“walkability.” Bicycle riding is dangerous in this city.
Organizers of the tour thoughtfully arranged the route through many
city historic sites. However, the most profound streetscape,
particularly in Downtown Newark, is sprawling empty garages and
surface parking lots lying under the sunshine of this peaceful
Saturday. After World War II, the city rapidly lost its power of
manufacturing, together with its once economic engines, the seaport
and the airport. Along went almost half of its vibrant population.
With over 60 percent of its properties exempt from local real estate
taxes, the parking tax has become the most significant individual
contribution of the affluent suburbanites to the city’s revenue. Even
with crude oil at over $140 a barrel, many private and public Newark
institutions are still enthusiastically planning for new parking
facilities. For instance, a leading developer, on record, claimed
last year that the central business district’s future depends on
another 5,000 parking spaces. Rutgers University is still busy
“creating at least 3,500 additional parking spaces” on the city’s most
valuable land (see the city’s Request for Expressions of
Interest—Broad Street Station District, p.18), while possessing 2,800
parking spaces (a figure from 2000, Newark Campus Master Plan, p.60)
for its 10,500 mostly commuter students. A Rutgers-Newark professor
who makes $70,000 annually pays only .001 percent ($70) of his income
for parking, the rest subsidized by poor Newarkers.
Two years ago, my children went to watch Al Gore drawing a doomsday
scene of the world in the movie, An Inconvenient Truth. My son held
my arm tightly, sobbing from fear. After that, they made the decision
to take the daily trip to their school by train from Broad Street
Station. During the train ride, we have made friends with train
conductors and learned about the history of New Jersey ’s mass
transit. My daughter started a new collection–our monthly train
passes. Riding with them, I often thought about the words of
Alexander Dumas: ”How is it that little children are so intelligent
and men so stupid? It must be education that does it.” Education?
Yes. I also cannot forget a conversation with the leader of a Newark
public university. He told me in defense of his parking expansion
plans, “I am an urban person, who also rides the train (from New York
City ) to work. However, I have no choice but to add more parking.
You can’t expect one person to change the world….” Change the world?
As if taking over the poor city’s extremely limited ratable for
parking suburban cars, one has not changed the world. As if ignoring
our children’s fear for their own future, the educator has not
violated their humanity. Mayor Booker said about the Brick City Bike
Tour:
” Newark has a long celebrated history as a center of competitive
bicycling. We are restoring that tradition as we revitalize Newark ,
and at the same time, providing our residents with recreation programs
that improve health, unite families, and manifest excellence.”
I am sure, if by chance our mayor reads this piece, he will forever
abandons his now-famous new black SUV, and ordinary Newarkers will
just approach him anywhere during his bicycle riding.
http://dailynewarker.com/2008/06/30/bicycles-trains-and-children/
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