Welcome to the Remark of the Week, the place we spotlight good feedback to be able to encourage extra of them. You’ll be able to assist us select our subsequent one by replying with “remark of the week” to any remark you assume deserves recognition. Please notice: These picks should not endorsements.
Shannon’s current column, Our typically tough decision to maintain actions near house, struck a chord with many readers. She described how the extracurricular actions of her rising household challenged her resolve to get round by bike, and to be true to her and her husband’s “imaginative and prescient of what we wish our household life to appear to be.”
One commenter, Zoe, supplied what learn like a companion piece to Shannon’s submit. Saying that she wished to “push again gently in a single regard,” she went on to explain the various social insurance policies that assist — or don’t assist — the person decisions we wish to make.
Here’s what Zoe wrote:
It is a battle that resonates lots with me. Beforehand a motorbike or transit commuter and a leisure bicycle owner, I discovered myself driving much more as soon as I had a baby. And I hated/hate it.
Nevertheless, I wish to push again gently in a single regard, particularly on the framing of this subject as one to be solved by way of particular person mobility decisions. I believe it’s necessary to attach the dots between the necessity for broader societal modifications. Dad and mom’ resolution to drive are steadily the results of an absence of family-friendly insurance policies that will allow everybody locally to dwell richer and car-free/car-light lives. And I’m not simply speaking about city planning measures however broader social reforms.
Nevertheless, past in search of modifications in particular person decisions, I’d prefer to see us additionally proceed make express the connections between the US social insurance policies and the way these insurance policies (or lack thereof) in the end impression and constrain particular person alternative.
As a degree of comparability, I’ve spent about 5 years dwelling in Europe (in Scandinavia but additionally in lower-income Japanese European international locations). Usually, households, together with the various who have been carless, had many extra choices obtainable not solely due to increased city densities, nationwide insurance policies supporting households. For instance, inside only a 5-minute stroll of 1 condominium I lived in in Japanese Europe (and never in a rich neighborhood), there was an elementary faculty, two preschools, a small grocery retailer (that contained a pharmacy), a playground, a canine park, a library, a couple of cafes and eating places, and a bus cease for a frequent service line (and kids routinely rode metropolis buses by themselves from age 7 onwards). Social insurance policies that assist households: nationwide healthcare, paid parental depart for 1 yr (or extra!); the presence of neighborhood medical clinics, backed childcare, backed public transit, and many others. (Additionally there have been the ‘sticks’- costly gasoline, intensive paid parking lot, and the associated fee to get a driving license was roughly the price of a median month-to-month wage).
By comparability, I discover that even when dwelling in a comparatively walkable/bikeable/transit-rich neighborhood in Portland, my resolution to drive as a dad or mum has been formed by myriad elements that at the beginning look appear solely peripherally associated to city kind: what neighborhoods I might afford to dwell in (and tax insurance policies that incentivize house possession); lack of “third areas” or inadequate funding for these third areas within the public sector (parks, neighborhood facilities, libraries); personal medical health insurance governing the place we might get care; the situation of reasonably priced (and even obtainable!) childcare; the necessity to retain my employment as a brand new dad or mum (due to the necessity for medical health insurance, and the dearth of any paid parental depart) and inadequate trip and sick time, Portland Public Colleges’ lack of assist for the neighborhood faculty mannequin (I’ve private expertise with this) leading to extra automobiles on the highway, and TriMet’s family-unfriendly insurance policies (requiring mother and father to fold strollers upon boarding; unsure if this has modified) making transit a problem for folks to navigate. And most lately we’ve employers forcing staff who work remotely to return to the workplace (once they can successfully WFH).
Particular person options will are available numerous shapes. In my case, I selected to restrict my carbon footprint by having only one baby. I’ll drive my baby to some actions (inside limits- no touring sports activities), partially as a result of I can’t afford to dwell in neighborhoods the place lots of the facilities can be found, and in addition to take part in actions with my small cultural neighborhood (which is scattered throughout the area). However I even have been educating my baby from a really early age to experience transit, cycle in site visitors, and to navigate his neighborhood on foot, and we attempt to assist native actions. Nevertheless, past in search of modifications in particular person decisions, I’d prefer to see us additionally proceed make express the connections between the US social insurance policies and the way these insurance policies (or lack thereof) in the end impression and constrain particular person alternative.
Thanks Zoe for taking the time to share your broad perspective. You could find Zoe’s remark, and lots of different participating feedback too, below the authentic submit.
Lisa Caballero has lived in SW Portland for over 20 years. She is on the Transportation Committee of her neighborhood affiliation, the Southwest Hills Residential League (SWHRL) and may be reached at lisacaballero853@gmail.com.
