fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

Populism Behind The Wheel

Oh, you’ve just got to love this rant from Jack Baruth, a car guy who gets all worked up — justifiably! — over a New York Times column about the virtues of not having to commute. Let’s look in: In a breathtakingly ignorant and Antoinette-esque work of empathy-free idiocy, Jane Brody looks out of her […]

Oh, you’ve just got to love this rant from Jack Baruth, a car guy who gets all worked up — justifiably! — over a New York Times column about the virtues of not having to commute. Let’s look in:

In a breathtakingly ignorant and Antoinette-esque work of empathy-free idiocy, Jane Brody looks out of her castle windows and discovers Commuting’s Hidden Cost. But first, she’ll brag about her little one-percenter family.

The boys, like their father, are lean, strong and healthy. Their parents chose to live in New York, where their legs and public transit enable them to go from place to place efficiently, at low cost and with little stress (usually). They own a car but use it almost exclusively for vacations.

Whereas you use your car almost exclusively for abortions, you hill trash, you.

“Green” commuting is a priority in my family. I use a bicycle for most shopping and errands in the neighborhood, and I just bought my grandsons new bicycles for their trips to and from soccer games, accompanied by their cycling father.

How lovely, particularly when you consider that she probably lives about ten miles away from children who would be taking their lives in their hands were they to commit the reckless act of riding shiny new bicycles outside in the neighborhood.

According to the Census Bureau, more than three-fourths of all commuters drove to work in single-occupancy vehicles in 2009.

That’s because most commuters don’t live in New York, you over-insulated hothouse flower.

Millions of Americans… pay dearly for their dependence on automobiles, losing hours a day that would be better spent exercising, socializing with family and friends, preparing home-cooked meals or simply getting enough sleep. The resulting costs to both physical and mental health are hardly trivial.

Thank G-d we’ve managed to genuflect to foodie-ism during this stroll down Park Slope. It’s amazing that millions of Americans are so stupid that they demand to drive everywhere. Why can’t we all be as enlightened as Jane Brody and her family?

Baruth points out that Jane Brody lives in a $2.85 million house in Park Slope.

Jack Baruth really and truly does not like Jane Brody. And honestly, though I sympathize with Jane Brody’s point in theory, the fact is that it is very difficult for people who don’t make a lot of money to make the choice to live in New York City, unless they want to live in a tiny apartment, paycheck to paycheck. Living in a Park Slope townhouse is a dream. One reason we left Brooklyn is that we knew we could never afford to raise a family there, not in the long run. We loved Brooklyn — seriously, our years there were among the happiest of my life — but like most people, we couldn’t see a way to make it work financially for us. Baruth is certainly blustery, but I can’t see that he’s wrong in taking offense at Brody’s lack of understanding about why most of us have to have cars. The hidden cost of not commuting, à la Brody, is having to pay $2.8 million, or some other outrageous some, for a house in a desirable neighborhood.

[H/T: J. Arthur Bloom]

Advertisement

Comments

Want to join the conversation?

Subscribe for as little as $5/mo to start commenting on Rod’s blog.

Join Now