No, it’s because postwar America was dramatically more affluent than prewar America, and people who drove quickly became the majority of voters. Streetcars (a.k.a. rolling roadblocks) took up as much space as two lanes of traffic, and did little but annoy America’s new, powerful, rapidly-growing middle class. Everyone knew buses were inferior… they just didn’t care, because only poor people rode them anyway.

That’s the root of the problem behind people deluded enough to think BRT is anything besides a complete waste of money. For the most part, discretionary riders (people who don’t HAVE to rely on transit) who’ll consider using rail won’t look twice at BRT, and people who’ll endure standing in the aisle on a train will go back to driving the moment they have to do the same on a bus.

BRT is a transit cookie thrown at the poor by people who think transit is irrelevant and worthless anyway, so they might as well cut their losses adn go with the cheapest and worst option (BRT). No matter how hard anyone tries to pretend BRT is anything besides a bus… at the end of the day, it’s still a bus.

BRT or trolleys with statistically no discretionary riders to speak of is an extravagant waste of money. A subway or aerial rail line costing twice as much or more, that actually goes to useful places and consistently attracts tens of thousands of discretionary riders per day is worth every penny. If most of the people on the transit line would have ridden a bus anyway because they have no real choice otherwise, money spent on the transit line was wasted.

As municipalities took over the operation of the streetcars, they had already been running for several years and in many ways were already obsolete. When it came time to replace the streetcars, the municipalities instead decided to take the federal funding to encourage use of the busses produced by the auto industry rather than pay the money to purchase newer rail operating streetcars.

It is because of the auto industry lobby in Washington that we do not have streetcars running in our streets today, not because they are inferior to busses or heavy rail. Europe did not have the same national subsidies for busses and for that reason you will see more and more streetcars there than anywhere in the United States.

Apparently our very own Mayor Manny Diaz has recently begun to champion the environmental cause, preach the gospel of “Global Warming” and promote more energy efficient green buildings and vehicles.

It looks like he finally got around to seeing Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth.” It was released last year so apparently it recently arrived at the Diaz home via Netflix.

Is it possible that our very own Mayor Manny Diaz has recently had an epiphany, and “Gone Green?”

Was this some sort of a Biblical style environmental conversion that resulted from staring too long at a Sylvania energy saving florescent light bulb?

Did he recently take a pilgrimage to a Toyota dealership and inhale the hybrid car vapors at the Oracle of Prius?

Did he have a miraculous experience that revealed a face similar to that of Al Gore in the entrails splattering of gravel and cement dripping from a cement truck?

Did he wonder for forty days and nights through the cement canyons of Miami amongst all of the cranes, bricks, scaffolding and undocumented immigrants (illegal aliens) and then return with tablets carved in cement declaring the 10 commandments of “Green Is Good?”

The big oil companies have caused most of the carbon pollution in our environment and now they are professing to help make things better but researching and possibly developing alternatives energy source.

President George W. Bush has and his family has been a significant partner in the oil industry for decades and now he too declared that America is dangerously addicted to oil.

Mayor Diaz has almost single-handedly been the driving force for the over building and glut of unnecessary homes, condos and offices in our community. This has resulted in the total disregard for our zoning codes, destruction of neighborhoods, disrespect for citizens, increased traffic, increased demand on potable water, electricity, sewage and flood control systems.

How “Terribly Convenient” of Manny and his developer, attorney and lobbyist pals to now jump on the band wagon of environmental issues!

According to columnist Michael Vasquez of The Miami Herald;

‘I’m getting e-mails all the time from people, `Hey, I heard about your Green Commission. I want to be on it,’ ” Diaz said with a laugh. “It’s become the hottest ticket in town.”

“Today, Diaz will host an invitation-only environmental event — the PODER New America Alliance Green Forum. The forum was initially planned for Miami City Hall but was relocated to the Miami Museum of Science Planetarium because the list of attendees kept growing. Those attendees include Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Wal-Mart Vice President Andrew Ruben, and the Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker himself — former Vice President Al Gore.”

I wonder how many VIP’s will be fighting over the front row seats at this “Hot Ticket” event. With all of those many folks responsible for spot-zoning, up-zoning, variances and special permits, which include developers, lobbyists, attorneys, City of Miami and Miami-Dade County elected officials, it cold get petty nasty fighting over those precious front row seats.

The reason for all of this “Going Green” is because that is the color of money.

Harry Emilio Gottlieb
Coconut Grove

Rail in Miami should be separate from surface roads, not part of them
A#2