Walking, Riding Bikes - Too Wacky For Republicans
October 2, 2008 · Print This Article
Are Republicans afraid to step out of their SUVs to take a walk or *gasp* ride a bike? It sounds like a silly stereotype but the National Republican Congressional Committee recently released a video against Democratic nominee Kathy Dahlkemper with just that message.
Dahlkemper, who is challenging U.S. Rep. Phil English to represent Pennsylvania’s 3rd District, is quoted in the video as saying Americans should “walk places” and “ride their bikes”. Apparently, that’s supposed to be a bad thing. Of course those activities seem pretty normal to us but that probably makes us “wacky” too.
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Okay, while I am cracking up over this– I was curious to know if the district was actually rural/ or had a lot of ’sprawl’.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7c/PA-3rd.gif
As someone who grew up in the poorly planned, master planned communities of Texas which were designed for the automobile, it really was impossible to get places without a car because of no mass transit plan in place. Later, as folks wised up we got our light rail system and park and ride lanes to Houston. (Of course only after three phases of widening adding lanes to I-45 forever to no avail.)
So taking this a different direction, I have to bring up the issue of sprawl and the responsibilities of city planners and managers to take into account mass transit. Sprawl, to me is one of the many underlying issues as to why people scratch their heads over bikes and walking– here’s a nice little history from the annals of UIC, the HTML version:
http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:CWubwFP-hI4J:www.uic.edu/cuppa/gci/publications/workingpaperseries/pdfs/Sprawl.pdf+preventing+sprawl+chicago&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us
Off soap box.
-c
Help get Kathy in office. help defeat Congre$$man English. Donate at kathydahlkemperforconress.com . Tell ‘em Liam sent ya.
Very good point Carole!