As you likely already know, last week a ‘driverless’ Uber test vehicle made by Volvo struck and killed 49 year old Elaine Herzberg while she was walking her bike across a road in Tempe, Arizona. The vehicle was traveling at a rate of speed that guarantees a 60+% fatality rate when striking pedestrians. The Uber’s autonomous vehicle… Continue reading Driverless Cars Will Be Allowed to Kill Us, Because Capitalism Is A Death Cult
Tag: capitalism
Pitting Cyclists Against the Homeless Is Peak Neoliberalism
If you read blogs about bikes you likely saw how Seattle’s DOT installed a dozen and a half bike racks in a place nobody would lock a single bike, let alone dozens of bikes. SDOT did this, quite obviously, to block homeless people from camping in the location, as everyone figured out pretty quickly. Condemnation… Continue reading Pitting Cyclists Against the Homeless Is Peak Neoliberalism
Smart Growth Is Killing Us, Bring On the Smart Decline
We’ve been in ecological debt for over a century. We’re exponentially increasing the human population while per capita consumption of the Earth’s resources also rises. Biodiversity is in free-fall as habitats are destroyed and wildlife is being hunted to extinction. The powers that be and their PR firms know all this. They’ve focused on changing a… Continue reading Smart Growth Is Killing Us, Bring On the Smart Decline
Night Terrors from the Industrial Revolution
Shorpy.com is without a doubt the finest high resolution photo archive available online. Their collection holds thousands of 8×10 plate glass negatives, all meticulously scanned and retouched, revealing an enthralling portrait of America from the Civil war through WWII unlike any you’ve seen before. As was common for the era, most images are group portraits… Continue reading Night Terrors from the Industrial Revolution
Portland’s Gentrification by the Numbers
The dreaded G-word has been tossed around much lately, from San Francisco’s Google bus blockades to Spike Lee’s whip-smart knowledge dropping at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Gentrification is sweeping the nation, stirring up a hornet’s nest of rationalizing and resistance alike. Coast to coast, we’ve got a problem on our hands. This is especially… Continue reading Portland’s Gentrification by the Numbers
Rebel Metropolis Bicycle Drunk-Cast: Round 2!
Post Superbowl, cycling comrade Meg Brennan sat down with me once again to record our second drunken bicycle pod-cast. Topics of discussion involved the diversity vs. normality of bike culture, donating to Planned Parenthood, issues of land use and gentrification, class structure, capitalism, blogging in general, Streetfilms, street art as community builder, riding a bike as… Continue reading Rebel Metropolis Bicycle Drunk-Cast: Round 2!
Urbanicide: the Murder of Cities
“We wouldn’t have any American economy without the automobile business. That’s literally true. This is a great industry that has to go on and keep turning out more cars and trucks, and there have to be places for them to run – they’ll need more roads, and in order to get that done people are… Continue reading Urbanicide: the Murder of Cities
Capitalism Getting You Down? Then Ride Your Fucking Bike.
This article was originally printed in the Portland Radicle volume #8. The Earth is dying and our societal sense of self along with it. We have an ever growing human population and ever diminishing resources. We don’t need smart growth, we need smart decline. We don’t need the pursuit of wealth, we need an economy… Continue reading Capitalism Getting You Down? Then Ride Your Fucking Bike.