I rode a motorized scooter today in DC for the first time. They seem to be catching on. You might have seen them in your city -- Lyft, Lime, and Bird are the big names. Their presence on the streets has been somewhat contentious here in DC, in large part because everything new in DC is somewhat contentious, but overall I think they're a big net positive. They provide a much more energy-efficient alternative to a car, and that alone basically outweighs their downside, in my opinion.
Plus, they can be very convenient. Last night I had to meet S and the boys at a graduation party for a friends' daughter (well, a friend of friends' daughter, if you want to be technical). It was about three miles away, too long to walk in a timely fashion, and not near a major bus line or metro stop. It was a beautiful day, so I downloaded an app and scooted my way there. It cost about a fifth as much as a Lyft ride and took about a third as long as public transportation -- very nice.
The big downside, however, is safety. You're not supposed to ride them on the sidewalk, and cars aren't very respectful to you when you're causing a traffic hold-up by puttering along at 12 mph. Also, I don't wear a helmet, which... I dunno... I guess I should. It's probably comparable safety-wise to riding a bike, and I prefer to wear a helmet when I bike. But, I took it easy and tried to avoid the major streets, unless they had a bike lane. If things started to feel hairy, I used the sidewalk and just pushed it with my feet. It worked out pretty well.
I think the main thing people don't like about these scooters doesn't have to do with the scooters themselves but rather what they represent: A gentrifying city. Marion Barry once said if you give white people bike lanes and dog parks then they'll be happy. So, a bunch of shared bikes and scooters in a neighborhood is a symbol of gentrification to many people. Along these lines, the party I went to last night is in a predominantly black neighborhood, one that isn't really gentrified (yet), and so I felt a bit self-conscious riding a scooter through it. I mean, I roll up to the party and an old(ish) black man is sitting on the porch sipping something strong-smelling from a plastic cup, chewing on an unlit cigar, and I'm a Dockers-looking white guy parking a neon green scooter in front of the house. But the guy couldn't have been nicer, which is typical. One of the least true stereotypes is that of the angry black person. In my experience, it's the exact opposite -- African-Americans are an incredibly welcoming and accepting people. And that's saying something because if there is one group who has a legit claim to being upset, it's the one who was literally treated as chattel for the first century-plus of our nation.
Coincidentally, when I sat down at the party, I happened to sit on the periphery of a conversation about gentrification. It is something I've thought about a lot, but I didn't feel comfortable butting in giving my two cents. Plus, I don't have much interesting to say on the matter, because, although I've thought about gentrification a lot, I don't know what we do about it. It seems to me an almost impossible problem given our current economic system. We're talking about a Bernie-Bro's-wet-dream style revolution to change things. Laws like rent control and rights of first refusal are half-measures at best and counterproductive at worst.
The conclusion I've come to is that the best we can do is pay the people who are most likely to be displaced. Buy them out. Make sure they at least get a decent chunk of change before their inexpensive building is purchased and renovated and converted into luxury homes for people who probably don't look like them. That's the least-worst realistic short term solution, in my view. Then, in the long term, we need more affordable housing. That might mean "unsightly" skyscrapers or mega-complexes of inexpensive apartment units in neighborhoods that don't really want it. That's just something people like me will have to deal with. The value of our houses might tick down; crime might tick up; but I think it can be done in a way that's not too disruptive. No more NIMBY liberalism.
On the flip side, people need to realize that neighborhoods change drastically even without gentrification. If you stay in a place long enough, the businesses you like get replaced with ones you don't like. The types of people you've gotten to know leave or die and new types people you don't know move in have kids. A lot of people who complain about cultural gentrification sound a lot like old people pining for the good old days that weren't all that "good," just familiar. Not everybody riding a Lime scooter is a new-to-the-neighborhood, well-off white person who calls the cops on their nonwhite neighbors every time they turn up their music.
On the flip flip side, if you are a new-to-the-neighborhood, well-off white person don't call the cops on your nonwhite neighbors for petty stuff. When Science Vs looked into gentrification that was the most tangibly deleterious problem. If you can afford to live in luxury housing, you can afford a sound machine and a set earplugs. Although, I must confess, I'm very glad I don't live in that area, because that go-go shit would drive me bonkers. Shades of gray and nuance... such is life.
Until next time...
[Once I was at the dog park with a friend and his dog, and there was a guy there in really nice clothes standing a bench, because he didn't want to get his shoes dirty, tossing a ball for his dog. He was the first person I've ever seen with a bluetooth device for his cell phone (this was almost 20 years ago). We struck up a conversation somehow, and he told me he just got his dog from a prior owner and was trying to teach it a new name. "It was named Scooter," he told me, "but, I'm like, that's fine for a kids' dog, not for an adult." I asked him what its new name was, and he said, "Lucky." And then I spent the next few minutes trying to figure out why somebody would think Lucky was a less childish name for a dog than Scooter.]
The big downside, however, is safety. You're not supposed to ride them on the sidewalk, and cars aren't very respectful to you when you're causing a traffic hold-up by puttering along at 12 mph. Also, I don't wear a helmet, which... I dunno... I guess I should. It's probably comparable safety-wise to riding a bike, and I prefer to wear a helmet when I bike. But, I took it easy and tried to avoid the major streets, unless they had a bike lane. If things started to feel hairy, I used the sidewalk and just pushed it with my feet. It worked out pretty well.
I think the main thing people don't like about these scooters doesn't have to do with the scooters themselves but rather what they represent: A gentrifying city. Marion Barry once said if you give white people bike lanes and dog parks then they'll be happy. So, a bunch of shared bikes and scooters in a neighborhood is a symbol of gentrification to many people. Along these lines, the party I went to last night is in a predominantly black neighborhood, one that isn't really gentrified (yet), and so I felt a bit self-conscious riding a scooter through it. I mean, I roll up to the party and an old(ish) black man is sitting on the porch sipping something strong-smelling from a plastic cup, chewing on an unlit cigar, and I'm a Dockers-looking white guy parking a neon green scooter in front of the house. But the guy couldn't have been nicer, which is typical. One of the least true stereotypes is that of the angry black person. In my experience, it's the exact opposite -- African-Americans are an incredibly welcoming and accepting people. And that's saying something because if there is one group who has a legit claim to being upset, it's the one who was literally treated as chattel for the first century-plus of our nation.
Coincidentally, when I sat down at the party, I happened to sit on the periphery of a conversation about gentrification. It is something I've thought about a lot, but I didn't feel comfortable butting in giving my two cents. Plus, I don't have much interesting to say on the matter, because, although I've thought about gentrification a lot, I don't know what we do about it. It seems to me an almost impossible problem given our current economic system. We're talking about a Bernie-Bro's-wet-dream style revolution to change things. Laws like rent control and rights of first refusal are half-measures at best and counterproductive at worst.
The conclusion I've come to is that the best we can do is pay the people who are most likely to be displaced. Buy them out. Make sure they at least get a decent chunk of change before their inexpensive building is purchased and renovated and converted into luxury homes for people who probably don't look like them. That's the least-worst realistic short term solution, in my view. Then, in the long term, we need more affordable housing. That might mean "unsightly" skyscrapers or mega-complexes of inexpensive apartment units in neighborhoods that don't really want it. That's just something people like me will have to deal with. The value of our houses might tick down; crime might tick up; but I think it can be done in a way that's not too disruptive. No more NIMBY liberalism.
On the flip side, people need to realize that neighborhoods change drastically even without gentrification. If you stay in a place long enough, the businesses you like get replaced with ones you don't like. The types of people you've gotten to know leave or die and new types people you don't know move in have kids. A lot of people who complain about cultural gentrification sound a lot like old people pining for the good old days that weren't all that "good," just familiar. Not everybody riding a Lime scooter is a new-to-the-neighborhood, well-off white person who calls the cops on their nonwhite neighbors every time they turn up their music.
On the flip flip side, if you are a new-to-the-neighborhood, well-off white person don't call the cops on your nonwhite neighbors for petty stuff. When Science Vs looked into gentrification that was the most tangibly deleterious problem. If you can afford to live in luxury housing, you can afford a sound machine and a set earplugs. Although, I must confess, I'm very glad I don't live in that area, because that go-go shit would drive me bonkers. Shades of gray and nuance... such is life.
Until next time...
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