this was
FASCINATING.
mcc and i went to
visit masukomi this past weekend, in
boston. and were both utterly blown away by
public transportation that WORKS!. being from
houston, there's NOTHING. everyone
drives. it's the only way to get
anywhere. the
metro system absolutely
sucks. it's utterly
impractical. you HAVE to drive. (this is more than likely
why we have such a damn
high death-rate due to
car wrecks. because there are so many
cars.)
but boston has the SUBWAYS, the T. and you can WALK in boston. boston makes sense. i can't begin to express how foreign a concept this is--or how COOL.
the subway also fascinating in it was alive. the sights and sounds and SMELLS. there were musicians, magicians, vendors, peddlers, just this teeming of people just this collective of humanity. men in business suits stand next to college students with backpacks covered in ralph nader pins. everyone's there. there suddenly is no difference, no "class by cars". everyone is just there, going about their own business.
i think it's safe to say the both of us were as fascinated by functional transportation in a large city as we were by most of the things we saw in said city.