My function is to set the protection for these transmission lines, to set relays to identify faults and isolate the faulted equipment to prevent cascading failures and blackouts. There is both an art and a science to this work, the combination of which provides immense job satisfaction and a career that will last until the day I die. My retirement party will likely correspond with my funeral wake.
I again had the privilege to drive to Folsom, the privilege to patronize the Broadstone Marketplace. A co-worker bought me a sandwich from the Pita Pit, a wholly non-local franchise.
The Pit is located in the bowels of this power center alongside PetSmart, Linens 'n Things, Borders, Steak Escape, Old Navy, Ross, Marshalls, Java City, Cost Plus...all with Home Depot glue anchoring these non-local businesses together.This place is a total zoo.
A hundred thousand vehicles on Scott Rd. daily, six lanes of progress, stores set back six hundred feet to provide for ample parking, a pedestrian's no man's land.
So, this is why I should move to Folsom? Because the facades on the big box stores are nicer than those in Elk Grove? Because they use faux stone instead of stucco? Because most jobs are twenty five miles away in Sacramento instead of Elk Grove's fifteen miles? Because Folsom housal units cost $65,000 more than Elk Grove?
I almost feel bad about being an engineer, knowing how many fellow engineers are paid to engineer slums like this, knowing that my new transmission interconnections are only going to power more suburban slums like Folsom and Elk Grove all the way to the El Dorado, Amador, and San Joaquin county lines. I usually feel good about my work, until I'm reminded how much better our world would be if it were run by artistic vegetarian women instead of engineering flesh eating men. Yep, it's us engineers who are out there bulldozing prairies, felling valley oaks, and erecting structural steel moment frames as big box power centers, to house consumables to be consumed by our consumers. It's us engineers out there building transmission lines that fucker up the pretty valley views from those expensive Folsom hillside custom homes. Us engineers...the destroyers of worlds...
4 comments:
It is so easy to pick on one segment of a city to try and make your point, however comparing Elk Grove and Folsom by saying they both have big retailers is rather simplistic. Can you name any town with a population greater than three that doesn't have such a retailer?
Outdoor activities are a major concern for me and my family. Folsom has a bizillion miles of bike and multi use paths. It is trivial to get from one end of Folsom to another on bikes. No need to get in the car to get to the store, the school, the lake, etc. Get on your bike and ride. Folsom also has significant more local employment than Elk Grove. No real need to go to Sacramento to work however I would love a commute to Sacramento along the trail each day. That would be absolute heaven.
Is there anywhere in the continental US that you feel would give you what you want? If not, expand your horizons. I suggest Germany, particularly the southern part. I've spent many years in that region and from what I can deduce from your criticism, it could be the place for you.
Actually, Western Germany...Yes, I had earlier blogged about how much better, (clearly, in my own opinion) how much easier it is for anyone living in compact urban environments and with a second to none transit system can live without the car as the dominate source of transportation.
My criticisms of Folsom stand, if only because its car dependent layout is identical to every other suburban city in America. It is a pattern repeated everywhere, a pattern that I take huge issue with for its effects on people, on our social interactions, and on our energy use.
I worked in Folsom for eleven years. I blogged earlier about how the city has a much better jobs/house ratio than Elk Grove (which has the worst ratio in the three county Sacramento region). Nonetheless, it still maintains a ratio well below what the city itself desires. In 2000, Folsom had 546 jobs per 1,000 residents. Today the number is down to 431 and falling...the consequence being that more and more residents are entering and commuting to jobs elsewhere. This is obvious to anyone trying to leave the city at 7:45 AM. It's as much a clusterfuck as any other city in our region.
I biked to work all the time along the Folsom South Canal and the bike trail to Parkshore, right on the river. I admit, the biking facilities are substantially, substantially, better than every other city in this region, but is facilitated simply by being in close proximity to the river. Every other city around Sacramento not near the river is plagued by our worship of the motor vehicle because of our regional refusal to provide alternative options.
I cannot name any town, pop. > 3, that hasn't destroyed its original town core with suburban strip malls and low density housing. That's my point!
I appreciate your comment. I know I take a wildly unpopular view on the way we are living and yes, I focus on some very particular details, but these aren't trivial -- the way we live is fundamental to the causes of why we wage war, why we squander energy, why we damn our environment. The crime rate in Folsom might be superior...the schooling might be, too. It even has light rail twenty years before Elk Grove ever will! But from the standpoint of car dependency, this city is as wholly sucked into it as much as Atlanta, Rochester, Ft. Worth, or Palo Alto.
Just so we're clear, I agree w/ ~90% of what you say. Perhaps without as much passion, but we agree nonetheless. 8^) Cheers.
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