The New Way of Civilized Life

UPDATED AT THE END OF THE ARTICLE:

Okay, so I know that’s a whopper of a title, but those are the words I was thinking of a couple weeks ago after a couple of conversations.

1st conversation was regarding mass transit.

In the United States we have very few communities that rely on mass transit for local travel.

New York City, and Chicago are a couple of cities that are using it successfully to move lots of people with a combination of buses, and train-like transportation.

Actually we have a huge mass transit system we call the airline industry.

In Fort Wayne, Indiana we recently built a new bus transfer station that includes restrooms!  This is for our local Citilink bus system which has increased ridership to over 2 million fares per year.

Try and get out of town and that’s another story.

A friend wanted to take a bus to Chicago.  Seems like the only time to catch a Greyhound is in the middle of the night, around 2 or 3 am.

We have an “International Airport” but flights are still limited by price or destination that a lot of folks drive a couple hours to Indianapolis to catch a plane.

And then there is the railroad.

We have plenty of freight train traffic, but unless you’re going to try a ride the rails like a hobo, the nearest passenger train stop is a bit out of town.

This means we do a lot of driving to get around.

50 years ago we had a thriving downtown, even on the weekends.

A couple of Sundays ago, downtown was a ghost town except for the homeless and a few of us who were stopping by our offices to get a jump on the week ahead.  The malls and shopping centers were busy.

But that leads to the 2nd part of this story.

The shopping has changed too.  My daughter buys her shoes online from Zappos.  Another friend tells me instead of visiting a local store for art supplies, he orders online.  Heck I even bought a car part online and saved a few hundred bucks even after I paid for shipping.

Oh there’s plenty of reasons to go to the store, to go downtown to visit with friends and to see family face to face and we still do all of those things, but it’s different than when my parents and grandparents were around.

I kind of like it.

Except that red-eye bus thing.

UPDATE:

I wrote what you just read a couple weeks ago and it was scheduled to publish this morning.  Well Saturday 10/20, my wife and I decided to head downtown for dinner.  As soon as we hit the area I call “downtown proper” we saw zombies.

Yes, I said Zombies. The Downtown Improvement District was hosting Fright Night. Here’s the description from their website:

Fort Wayne’s annual Halloween event features the zombie walk, haunted tours and spooky activities with some free events and a few that have ticket prices. More than 14 of our cultural partners participate including Allen Co. Public Library, ARCH, Botanical Conservatory, Cinema Center, Champions/Marriott Courtyard, Community Center, Dance Collective, Downtown Improvement District, Embassy Theatre, Firefighters Museum, Grand Wayne Center, History Center, Old Fort, Parkview Field, and Science Central.

The turn out was spectacular as I saw young and old participate.  Even toddlers pushed in stollers had their faces painted.