The Binary Circumstance

I wrote previously about the redevelopment going on in Bremerton, WA.

A couple of weeks ago, on a lazy Saturday afternoon, I decided to drive over there and check out some of the new buildings.

This is what downtown Bremerton looks like on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

As you can see, there’s not much going on in downtown Bremerton.

The tree-lined streets are charming and I can imagine what it was like when it was a fully operational city.  I can also fantasize about what it could be in the future.

There are many empty stores, a few in the process of being renovated and even a few businesses that were open.

This beautiful old Roxy Theater, however, is being used as a chapel.

No wonder all the people and businesses packed up and left town.

Along the waterfront, things are changing and you can get a sense of what is possible in the heart of Bremerton.

There is a new government center.

A new Hampton Inn and Starbucks next to the ferry dock.

But this next picture speaks volumes.  In the background you can see the state operated ferry to Seattle as it has just left the dock headed for Seattle.

In the foreground, you see a marina that is virtually empty, much like the rest of downtown Bremerton.

There you have my trip to Bremerton, WA on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

A lot of word have spoken over the past few months on the subject of which states are red (Republican) and which are blue (Democratic).

As soon as John Kerry conceded his defeat, President Bush was talking about his "mandate" from the people. 

Here is the map of what some might call the DSA, The Divided States of America. It gives the impression that states vote Democratic or Republican when in fact, only individuals have the capacity to vote.

Here’s another map from USA Today by county. It has the same problem, however, in that it associates a party affiliation with an entity that doesn’t have the capacity to hold beliefs.

This map from a Princeton University web site takes each county and colors it with both red and blue pigments in proportion to the number of individuals who voted Republican or Democratic respectively in the presidential race.

Delivering Hope posts another version of the Red/Blue map with his comments.

Those red and blue maps always make the country look more Republican than it is. For one, rural areas which tend to be more Republican cover more acreage, and for another red and blue ignore both the red sentiment in the blue areas and the blue sentiment in the red areas. Enough already with all the secession talk. Let’s paint a more accurate picture instead.

Here’s is a page that has versions of the above maps, cartograms and more. Check it out. It’s really great. Suddenly it doesn’t look so black and white, er.. red and blue as our president who is a divider, not a uniter would have us believe.

There is very little true red or true blue in our country.  It would nice if both Democrats and Republicans would stop trying to convince us that we must belong to one camp or the other and that states, not our own minds, determine who we are, what we believe and value.

From The New York Times [reg. req.]

The sometimes heated discussion, which focused on abortion and gay marriage, played out on the NBC News program "Meet the Press" with the Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority; the Rev. Al Sharpton, the minister-politician who ran in the Democratic primaries; Jim Wallis, editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine; and Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Commission.

When there is no evidence to back up your beliefs, there is no objective referent to agree upon.  It always comes down to one man trying to impose his fantasies about God on another.  Ultimately, the man who uses the greatest force will win out.

There’s a great study going on in the Puget Sound area that may foreshadow things to come.

Miller and his fellow volunteers could be charged for driving on every highway and significant arterial from SeaTac to Everett. Cellular and Global Positioning System (GPS) technology will track their travels. Tolls will be deducted electronically from prepaid accounts.

Tolling is an old idea that is attracting renewed interest from transportation planners searching for ways to both curtail congestion and raise revenue. From California to New York, they’re experimenting with tolls on roads.

[…]

Here’s how the test will work:

Project managers will give each participant what they call an "endowment account" from which the tolls will be paid. GPS/cellular devices will be installed on their car dashboards to track where they drive, and transmit that information to a computer server, which will deduct the tolls from the drivers’ accounts.

If there’s money left in those accounts when the experiment ends in December 2005, the volunteers will get to keep it — in real dollars, perhaps hundreds.

The purpose is to see how charging for actual road usage impacts driving and commuting behavior. 

If people had to actually pay for the roads they use, would they drive as much?  I’m sure they wouldn’t.

Think what would happen to suburban sprawl if suburbanites had to actually pay for their roads rather than sending the bill to everybody else.  Think what it could do to protect the environment if people had to pay for the roads they use by the mile.