Last week I posted an article about America's "dying cities." To refresh memories, Grand Rapids was 10th on the list. When I first read this I was extremely surprised to see this because I always thought of GR as the biggest city in West Michigan.
The residents of Grand Rapids were also surprised to read this. In response to this news the city came together and made a video. The link is posted below. This is a creative project that I believe represents all the life that Grand Rapids has. Definitely watch this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPjjZCO67WI
In an article for this week, sustainable cities, it talks about sustainable transportation. I was in China in 2007 and 2008 directly before the Olympics. During this time, the Chinese government was desperately trying limit the air pollution in and around Beijing. To encourage use of public transportation they dropped the price to almost nothing, and in the weeks leading up to the 2008 Olympics, the buses and subways were free.
ReplyDeleteA problem I have encountered with public transit back home in Los Angeles and in other places like San Fransisco is that it is too expensive. Every time I go someplace in LA i think about taking the light rail, which is very close to my house. The advantages are that I don't have to pay for parking, deal with traffic or pay for gas. Back home I choose to drive 9 times out of 10 because of pricing. A one way fair is 1.50 and a day pass is 5. When I am by myself these prices are comparable to driving, but if I am with someone else it becomes pointless to take public transportation because for 2 people it is more expensive than driving. To make cities more sustainable, the first thing I would do is drop the prices on public transportation. If people can save more money taking public transportation, than more people will choose to do so.
Nothing brings out town/city pride more than when it's "targeted" by an outsider - pretty cool!
ReplyDeletethis is a great video and a very cool display of people coming together to represent their city. its awesome that they take so much pride in their city that so many people would come out to do this. it would be awesome if more cities were like this.
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