An opinion piece from SP's Gerry Klein.
End of car culture will shape cities
Gerry Klein, The StarPhoenix
Published: Thursday, August 07, 2008
In a recent interview in the Washington Post, United States Transportation Secretary Mary Peters suggested Americans had "passed the tipping point." No longer would the nation take cheap energy as a state of being.
Not only in the U.S. but in much of the world -- and especially Canada -- that notion of unlimited and inexpensive supplies of energy have driven our economic development and lifestyles. This, even though we have long recognized the inability of the planet to sustain those lifestyles.
Despite warnings meted out by various think tanks and government agencies that the age of cheap oil eventually would come to an end, the mass production of the automobile laid a foundation for the North American economy.
Cities were designed with cheap individual transportation in mind, and tax regimes were put in place to reinforce these choices. For three decades, for example, property taxes in Saskatoon were such that a downtown building was assessed at an amount equivalent to 100 per cent of its value every couple of years, while malls in suburbia paid so much less in taxes that they could (and were required to) include acres of parking to accommodate the traffic from a population encouraged to build large houses on large yards at great distances from where the people worked.
Governments built roads and bridges to accommodate commuting, and when these clogged up with too many cars, they built more roads and bridges. This allowed developers to build homes ever further from employment centres. And when these areas filled up, they would build even further out, with the governments connecting these disparate areas with ever more roads and bridges.
Spurred on by tax incentives and cheap credit, the trend continued until, if Peters is to be believed, it reached the current economic crunch. If she is correct (it's worth remembering that the era of suburban boom has been called dead more than once already), by the time the end came, 52 per cent of all Americans lived in the suburbs. Canadians, who are more urbanized than their American cousins and whose cities are newer in comparison, no doubt have an even larger percentage living in the suburbs.
Although Peters suggests that the tipping point came as the price of gas in the U.S. topped $4 a gallon, it is more complicated than that.
In the late 1970s, at the height of the last major energy crisis, governments were encouraging conservation, adopting programs to reduce highway speeds and paying to insulate homes.
But even though the price of gasoline then was higher than today when considered as a percentage of people's disposable money, there were only half-hearted attempts to accomplish structural changes because it was recognized the high costs were a political blimp.
This time, however, there appear to be early signs that people really believe a fundamental shift has taken place. Although real estate prices have dropped in the U.S. and elsewhere, that decline hasn't been universal. According to a report published this week in the Washington Post, prices have fallen the most and fastest in neighbourhoods that are farthest away from employment sites.
Part of that, as Peters suggests, is because the price of gas is high. In an unstable economic environment, people who are looking for new homes are more attracted to smaller abodes near transit terminals or close to where they work, so they can cut costs. But the shift is also happening because people recognize that a fundamental change is taking place.
One need look no further than the spectacular display underway in China.
A few years ago, I was talking to a group from the University of Saskatchewan sociology department, who had close connections to colleagues in China. They told me then the Asian country was undergoing structural change that would impact on the world. Given the relatively rapid rise of a huge middle class there today, it is hard to imaging the world reverting to its old habits as it did in the aftermath of the 1970s' energy crisis.
Year on year, China becomes less dependent on the West for its prosperity. Domestic demand for consumer goods and a better life is driving up inflation in the country, causing western capitalists to look elsewhere in order to control their manufacturing costs through the use of cheap labour.
The Association of German Engineers estimates that one in five of the approximately 1,600 German companies with a presence in China is planning to pull out because Chinese labour costs are too high. In fact, Chinese manufacturers are now casting about for cheap labour in other parts of Asia.
This means that, while the price of commodities such as oil, food and minerals might level out, they aren't likely to drop to the levels they were in the 1990s. That's good news for commodity-rich Saskatchewan, but it is likely to lead to drastic changes in the way people live.
It's worth noting that Forbes Magazine recently published its list of America's 10 most rapidly dying cities. Centres that are dependent on the production of the automobile are disproportionately represented. Even with alternative energy supplies, it is unlikely the car will ever regain its dominance of America. And without the car, a suburban lifestyle becomes much more challenging.
Saskatoon is lucky enough that it hasn't stretched too far into its surrounding area. It also has had a council determined to foster residential growth in the city's core. This trend must be encouraged not only by the municipality but by higher levels of government that attach a premium to those who would build and develop residences at a distance and hope for highways to connect them to their jobs.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2008
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Also appearing in today's SP, an opinion courtesy of Winnipeg journalist Kaj Hasselriis.
Time to make train service priority
Kaj Hasselriis, Special to The StarPhoenix
Published: Thursday, August 07, 2008
The following is the viewpoint of the writer, a journalist based in Winnipeg.
- - -
Saskatoon is about to play host this weekend to visitors from around the world as one of its favourite daughters prepares to tie the knot.
Piya Chattopadhyay, the popular CBC Radio journalist who served as a gala guest speaker at the city's centennial a couple of years ago, is marrying Peter Armstrong, CBC-TV's Middle East correspondent.
As a guest, my challenge is to figure out how to get to Saskatoon from my hometown of Winnipeg. Since Piya and I bonded as friends while travelling together by train through India and South America, it seemed appropriate to investigate going to the wedding using Via Rail.
Considering the insane cost of gas, the country's current obsession with going green and my own recent decision to sell my car, the train option also seemed like an appropriate mode of transport for the times.
That's when I discovered that, unlike in the busy Quebec-Windsor corridor, Via service across Western Canada is hardly a feasible option.
Canada's publicly owned passenger train only runs through the West three times a week, at shockingly inconvenient times.
The first available train after the wedding doesn't leave until 1:10 a.m. on Tuesday morning. In other words, I have no choice but to hang around Saskatoon for 36 hours after Piya and Peter's Sunday morning brunch (fortunately I'm a big fan of the Fringe). I'm lucky that Piya and Peter aren't getting married in Regina or Calgary. Via doesn't even stop in those cities.
Last fall, the Harper government, which already subsidizes Via Rail to the tune of $170 million a year, announced an extra $700 million investment in the Crown Corporation, to get our aging fleet of locomotives running on time.
During the first three months of this year, 46 per cent of Via's trains arrived late. Still, Via's passenger numbers are growing, by 300,000 last year and probably more this year, thanks to our new economic and environmental realities. As politicians jostle to outdo each other on the green file, it would seem wise for them to consider getting more ambitious with Via Rail.
We're finally starting to take urban transit more seriously. Why not inter-city transit, too? The Europeans, not to mention the Indians, figured out its benefits decades ago. And over the years, many voices in Canada have been saying the same thing.
Last fall, consulting engineer Andre Gravelle prepared a report for Via's board of directors that said: "The merits of high-speed passenger rail have been clearly established. The question is not to ask whether it is worth government support, but rather where it stands with respect to competing mega-projects in the priority list of decision-makers. More studies are of no use in this regard."
It's worth noting Gravelle's confidence that, if Via were to significantly improve its service schedule and speed, the Crown Corporation could steal up to one-third of Canada's airline passengers (a figure that hasn't gone unnoticed by the airline industry, which lobbies heavily against further federal subsidies for Via Rail).
Last month, one of the men who controls the purse strings of our passenger train service, Treasury Board President Vic Toews, travelled to a small town in southern Manitoba to unveil a plaque commemorating Western Canada's first railway. Standing in Dominion City, Toews pointed out the railway's 19th century success in bringing immigrants and manufactured goods out west, while delivering western grain out east.
"The completion of this important rail line in 1878 heralded the era of railways in the Canadian West and represented Canada's commitment to connecting the West and East," he said.
All I want to do this weekend is to make a train connection from Winnipeg to Saskatoon. The challenge for Canadian leaders is to make the connection between our desire to travel from city to city quickly, efficiently and environmentally, and then make it a reality.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2008
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oh yeah, and another office tower on the corner of 22nd and 3rd
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