Wasteland
I went to Ikea today. Some day I will get around to posting my complaint about their website, but that is for another day. If their website was really functional I would not have this experience to share with you.
The Ikea store is nowhere near a Metro. Although I did learn that there is a bus that will get you closer. The good folks at Ikea do not seem to make any effort at telling you how to get there beyond your own car. For a company that claims environmental responsibility, they without a doubt loose points there.
So, I decided to walk from the Metro (College Park) to the Ikea store. What a depressing event! It is nothing but sprawl, and not at all designed for the pedestrian. I really found it uncomfortable and disturbing. It seems that everybody goes just about anywhere via car in this area, and the thought of a pedestrian is so far out of their frame of reference that a pedestrian would not even be seen if one was really there. Sure I could go on about the times that drivers don't seem to see me while in DC, but that doesn't come close to the cases I ran into today.
And there are no sidewalks! Well some of the time there are sidewalks, but a fair portion of the time they are absent. Can anyone imagine living in a place that is so mismanaged that they can not even do sidewalks? People love to make fun of DC because of our crack-smoking former mayor, but at least we have sidewalks. What in the world is the leadership of College Park smoking?
So I walk the 5.5 kilometers to the store, cursing every step of the way, and get to the store. Now I have to say that it really is a nice store. I had a nice lunch (and sitting down for a while helped ease my nerves after the walk), and then made my way through the store. One could get lost in a store this size, but if you did, you would be bound to be comfortable. They really do have nice products, at great prices. They do seem to care about the environment in many ways, which is really nice to know.
I found what I was looking for , and made my way to checkout. Then I went over to their table promoting delivery. All throughout the day they had been promoting affordable delivery. Based on their general costs, their delivery is not what I would ever call affordable. Here again, if one has a car, it would work out just fine. And I know that if I could have found a taxi driver willing to haul me and my purchase, I would have saved money, and paid someone more deserving than this company. But my credit card is charged, and there is nothing left to say about that.
I left the store and walked back the 5.5 kilometers to the Metro, and went into the city -- back to a real civilization (civilization has to be civilized as a requisite, and College Park does not meet that standard), back to humanity.
I cursed the whole way back. People really live like this. It is so hard to believe that there are people who live in this environment. College students only have to live there for four years. Maybe that is their encouragement. Stay in the classrooms or the library, or you will be stuck in this horrid place that will suck the life out of you. On the other hand, I would imagine that there are a number of students that it affects negatively, resulting in poor performance or worse. But worst of all, there are some that are bound to become assimilated. They actually come to accept this wretched place as acceptable. They go on to live College Park, or in a place like it. They probably end up thinking that an urban utopia like DC is actually a bad thing (remember sub means less or below, so suburbs are inherently less than an urban area, below an urban area in stature -- that is one naming convention that was correctly chosen). It is all a big mess, with little practical solution.
My solution? Forget Yucca Mountain, College Park is a wasteland that can't be saved, and therefore suitable for any waste.
The Ikea store is nowhere near a Metro. Although I did learn that there is a bus that will get you closer. The good folks at Ikea do not seem to make any effort at telling you how to get there beyond your own car. For a company that claims environmental responsibility, they without a doubt loose points there.
So, I decided to walk from the Metro (College Park) to the Ikea store. What a depressing event! It is nothing but sprawl, and not at all designed for the pedestrian. I really found it uncomfortable and disturbing. It seems that everybody goes just about anywhere via car in this area, and the thought of a pedestrian is so far out of their frame of reference that a pedestrian would not even be seen if one was really there. Sure I could go on about the times that drivers don't seem to see me while in DC, but that doesn't come close to the cases I ran into today.
And there are no sidewalks! Well some of the time there are sidewalks, but a fair portion of the time they are absent. Can anyone imagine living in a place that is so mismanaged that they can not even do sidewalks? People love to make fun of DC because of our crack-smoking former mayor, but at least we have sidewalks. What in the world is the leadership of College Park smoking?
So I walk the 5.5 kilometers to the store, cursing every step of the way, and get to the store. Now I have to say that it really is a nice store. I had a nice lunch (and sitting down for a while helped ease my nerves after the walk), and then made my way through the store. One could get lost in a store this size, but if you did, you would be bound to be comfortable. They really do have nice products, at great prices. They do seem to care about the environment in many ways, which is really nice to know.
I found what I was looking for , and made my way to checkout. Then I went over to their table promoting delivery. All throughout the day they had been promoting affordable delivery. Based on their general costs, their delivery is not what I would ever call affordable. Here again, if one has a car, it would work out just fine. And I know that if I could have found a taxi driver willing to haul me and my purchase, I would have saved money, and paid someone more deserving than this company. But my credit card is charged, and there is nothing left to say about that.
I left the store and walked back the 5.5 kilometers to the Metro, and went into the city -- back to a real civilization (civilization has to be civilized as a requisite, and College Park does not meet that standard), back to humanity.
I cursed the whole way back. People really live like this. It is so hard to believe that there are people who live in this environment. College students only have to live there for four years. Maybe that is their encouragement. Stay in the classrooms or the library, or you will be stuck in this horrid place that will suck the life out of you. On the other hand, I would imagine that there are a number of students that it affects negatively, resulting in poor performance or worse. But worst of all, there are some that are bound to become assimilated. They actually come to accept this wretched place as acceptable. They go on to live College Park, or in a place like it. They probably end up thinking that an urban utopia like DC is actually a bad thing (remember sub means less or below, so suburbs are inherently less than an urban area, below an urban area in stature -- that is one naming convention that was correctly chosen). It is all a big mess, with little practical solution.
My solution? Forget Yucca Mountain, College Park is a wasteland that can't be saved, and therefore suitable for any waste.
posted by Andy Weaver at 21:24
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