Awhile back I commented (perhaps on the Twitter) that the general need for journalists to use cars for their jobs was perhaps the reason that coverage of mass transit issues is so crappy. I got some pushback from a couple of journalists, curious about just what vital mass transit issues weren't being covered. My general issue with mass transit coverage is the same as my issue with coverage of Neighborhoods Where People
Who Are Not Like Us Live, too often it's covered with a bemused and condescending outsider perspective. It leads reporters to refer to streetcars, widely used all over the world and, yes in this country, as a "
throwback."
The District is putting down the first miles of track for a planned 37-mile streetcar network, a throwback of a kind popping up in many cities that advocates hope will bring back Washington's still-languishing neighborhoods.
It's very much a class issue, as lots and lots of poor people do not own cars. Hard to comprehend, but true.
