This headline caught my attention yesterday : " Mall employees want to put brakes on new parking fees ".
Most of those new employees at Providence Place mall - capitalism's latest gift to Rhode Island - are wretched wage slaves. And they must pay $1000 a year just to park there ! Of course many of the mall workers would be eager to sign a petition against this outrage. But property rights, it seems ,have precedence over HUMAN RIGHTS : "No solicitation on mall property ".
This reminds me of my 60s high school days. " None of my students can protest the war. Go to the vice-principal's office and here is a PINK SLIP for you ! "
I say UNIONIZE every employee at Providence Place. I recommend the new and nasty Teamsters Union . Organized workers can shut down the whole damm place for Christmas !
On a more moderate note : RIPTA is failing to meet the needs of blue collar Rhode Islanders. Better bus service would ameliorate the parking problem at the Providence Place mall.
- - - - - - -
comment from Dave Brusat:
Ron - Your last point tends to destroy your first point. That is,
nobody is forced to drive to PP to work. Everybody can take the bus,
even if they must drive to the bus stop (RIPTA has strategically placed
park & ride centers where parking is, I believe, free). Granted, RIPTA
isn't what it ought to be (we editorialize frequently for its upgrade).
But it is enough to do that job, anyway. If PP were in the burbs, it
would probably not be, since burb-to-burb connections are too rough to
inflict on a worker as a necessity. But then if PP were in the burbs, it
would have free parking and wouldn't need to charge because it would be
in a former corn field or something. Oh well. - Dave
- - - - - - -
Ron's response to comment from Dave:
Dave, a huge traffic jam might shut down the Providence Place Mall - before the Son of Jimmy. But as for buses, How could I get back to Warwick after 7:30 ? Bus service for 2nd shift workers is nothing less than contemptuous. BUT I still appreciate the service I do get from RIPTA .
Thanks -Ron
NOTE : In architecture I myself am nothing less than an incorrigible reactionary - and you seem a cut above your critics here.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
another response from Dave Brusat:
Ron - You have a strong point, possibly, about the night shift. Are
there indeed buses they can take, or not? Very possibly there are not,
in which case I would argue that Commonwealth Development should dip
into the sum they said they'd give and offer them parking at the rate
they'd have to pay to ride RIPTA - $2.50 a day, $12.50 a week x 50 weeks
is, omigod!, $725 a year, or not all that much less than the mall's
already charging ($80 per month, or $960 per year). Living downtown
seems to look better and better, yes? Years ago, in a 1992 column
headlined "Postcard from Providence, 1997," I suggested that the mall
offer employees some sort of monetary incentive to live downtown so as
to reduce the amount of employee parking it would need to provide - so
as to increase the amount of customer parking available. I still think
they should do that. Maybe I'll mention it again. Only one problem -
partly because of the mayor's apparent disinterest, there's almost no
place downtown for them to live!!
- Dave
Monday, December 6, 1999
Sunday, December 5, 1999
Homeless factor in Worcester fire
It was shocking to read on the front page of my paper this morning: "6 firefighters feared dead in Worcester warehouse blaze ".
How sad for the families - no " Pop " for Christmas ! No more Pop - never more !
One evil is connected to another here : homeless people " built fires there to keep warm ". Was THAT abandoned -God forsaken ! - warehouse their choice for a merrier Christmas ?
Perhaps it should be a CRIME to be homeless ? But the " criminal "here is an indifferent society. It could decree an end to homelessness in two weeks . ORDER local landlords to charge rents commensurate with the minimum wage or weekly welfare checks ( and don't pretend that the homeless are employable while still homeless ! )
Who would hire ANYBODY who even LOOKS homeless - as if he or she sleeps in abandoned warehouses ? If it proves impossible to establish rent control, then guarantee an adequate income to EVERYBODY in the country - adequate at least for the purpose of survival with simple human dignity.
Stop singing the praises of CAPITALISM in the midst of this abomination - human beings with no place to live - and scorned by the comfortable - God's chosen people ?
How sad for the families - no " Pop " for Christmas ! No more Pop - never more !
One evil is connected to another here : homeless people " built fires there to keep warm ". Was THAT abandoned -God forsaken ! - warehouse their choice for a merrier Christmas ?
Perhaps it should be a CRIME to be homeless ? But the " criminal "here is an indifferent society. It could decree an end to homelessness in two weeks . ORDER local landlords to charge rents commensurate with the minimum wage or weekly welfare checks ( and don't pretend that the homeless are employable while still homeless ! )
Who would hire ANYBODY who even LOOKS homeless - as if he or she sleeps in abandoned warehouses ? If it proves impossible to establish rent control, then guarantee an adequate income to EVERYBODY in the country - adequate at least for the purpose of survival with simple human dignity.
Stop singing the praises of CAPITALISM in the midst of this abomination - human beings with no place to live - and scorned by the comfortable - God's chosen people ?
Friday, December 3, 1999
Sleepless in Seattle ? Blame THEM !
The popular American novelist, Taylor Caldwell, wrote a fascinating novel in 1974 that was made into a TV series: " The Captains and the Kings ".
The theme was that our world is ruled and controlled by a ruthless, very self-aware elite. Were THEY behind the Kennedy assasination in November 1963 ? Old Joe had warned his son Jack about " those bastards " .
The " moronic " and " anarchist " demonstrators in Seattle were in fact protesting against " The Captains and the Kings "
From the Taylor Caldwell book : " To be effective we must direct our attacks on the real criminals, the wealthy, and powerful and SECRET elite of all the world ... the conspirators laboring day and night to enslave us " .
Just today President Clinton got the ominous cold shoulder from this sinister bunch when he meekly - still breathing tear gas - protested their SECRECY !
" Old Joe Kennedy was right", he must be thinking ." They ARE bastards ! "
The theme was that our world is ruled and controlled by a ruthless, very self-aware elite. Were THEY behind the Kennedy assasination in November 1963 ? Old Joe had warned his son Jack about " those bastards " .
The " moronic " and " anarchist " demonstrators in Seattle were in fact protesting against " The Captains and the Kings "
From the Taylor Caldwell book : " To be effective we must direct our attacks on the real criminals, the wealthy, and powerful and SECRET elite of all the world ... the conspirators laboring day and night to enslave us " .
Just today President Clinton got the ominous cold shoulder from this sinister bunch when he meekly - still breathing tear gas - protested their SECRECY !
" Old Joe Kennedy was right", he must be thinking ." They ARE bastards ! "
AIDS cure - a definite priority
Because foolish people associate the horrible disease AIDS with sexual promiscuity -especially homosexual promiscuity - there may be a perverse unconscious resistance to treating it and finding a cure.
Other diseases are just as horrible. My father just died of of cancer after " living " with it for a dozen years. But a decade after the Sexual Revolution - in which millions of people at least began to feel sexually liberated, free from Dark Age superstitions, open to sensual joy- we were afflicted with this plague - and LIFE itself began to be associated with DEATH !
What a blessing to the reactionary mentality ! In George Orwell's nightmare novel " 1984 " he shows how an absolute tyranny relies on sexual repression to keep the population docile. When a vitalizing activity is prohibited,it is a lot easier for Big Brother to maintain war hysteria.
When your wife or girl friend or boy friend is sexually frigid, the " Two Minutes Hate " rallies have more appeal !
If an AIDS cure is not found within a decade , mankind will enter a joyless, ignorant, and brutal - New Dark Age.
Other diseases are just as horrible. My father just died of of cancer after " living " with it for a dozen years. But a decade after the Sexual Revolution - in which millions of people at least began to feel sexually liberated, free from Dark Age superstitions, open to sensual joy- we were afflicted with this plague - and LIFE itself began to be associated with DEATH !
What a blessing to the reactionary mentality ! In George Orwell's nightmare novel " 1984 " he shows how an absolute tyranny relies on sexual repression to keep the population docile. When a vitalizing activity is prohibited,it is a lot easier for Big Brother to maintain war hysteria.
When your wife or girl friend or boy friend is sexually frigid, the " Two Minutes Hate " rallies have more appeal !
If an AIDS cure is not found within a decade , mankind will enter a joyless, ignorant, and brutal - New Dark Age.
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