A Couple of Thoughts Re The Northeast Plan

[photolite]

My first thought is that any intentions regarding building to facilitate getting people out of their cars and using public transit may sound great but the population density in Sonoma County in general is and may never be sufficient to create a truly usable system, one that runs frequently enough and penetrates all areas of the county to be truly practical. Even Santa Rosa is a far cry from realizing such a dream both population wise and otherwise. So I don't believe that this factor is a truly relevant reason to support the plan.

My other thought is that the existing downtown area is charming, viable and desirable as it is. I love our downtown area and it was a big factor in my wife and I deciding to move here in the first place. And contrary to popular misconception, I have never, ever had a problem parking if I'm willing to walk a block or two. It feels organic, natural and authentic. So many California communities lack such a beautiful asset. Windsor comes across as, forgive me, contrived and Disneyesque. They actually have a Disney town in Orlando, Celebration, that has songbird recordings playing in the trees. Reliable and no bird mess to contend with.

Whether or not the Plan is a good idea, I don't believe the above issues to be seriously relevant to the discussion.

[Barry]

My first thought is that any intentions regarding building to facilitate getting people out of their cars and using public transit may sound great but the population density in Sonoma County in general is and may never be sufficient to create a truly usable system, one that runs frequently enough and penetrates all areas of the county to be truly practical. Even Santa Rosa is a far cry from realizing such a dream both population wise and otherwise. So I don't believe that this factor is a truly relevant reason to support the plan.

I agree that this isn't a reason to support the plan, but I'd like to think that 1, or preferably 2 (electric?) shuttles that just ran the 116 and Hwy 12/Bodega routes is viable with community support.

[Sybil de Ville]

Not a reason to support the plan, but lack thereof not a reason to oppose. Growth will happen. Traffic will happen. Demand will bring service. Stagnation will result in demise, or at best, status quo.

[RichT]

Not a reason to support the plan, but lack thereof not a reason to oppose. Growth will happen. Traffic will happen. Demand will bring service. Stagnation will result in demise, or at best, status quo.

This is to my eye the central point of the whole debate. Human population growth keeps marching onward unabated. Either we learn to manage our rate of expansion, or we choose to plan on how to accomodate the expanding populace. Ignoring the problem will not make it go away. Part of planning is looking at infrastructure and resource allocation. We have grown accustomed to an unsustainable lifestyle; I am most certainly guilty of this myself.

The big question is how do we change to a sustainable society? The past attitudes of Manifest Destiny and infinite natural resources has left us with suburban sprawl and an overwhelming dependence on mass energy consumption to keep our current lifestyle functioning. Changing our perspective is a slow process. Changing our habits and lifestyles will be painful weaning ourselves from mass consumerism will be akin to kicking a drug addiction?).

Is the NEAP perfect? Absolutely not. But I do think it is a tentative step in the right direction to manage resource consumption (energy & water for example). I agree that to attempt nothing (stagnation) will lead us to our demise.