Back to the grind

After 1o days in well organized, clean European mountain towns the reality of New York is hitting me quite hard.

More photos will be featured in my next post to do the whole trip justice (after I have located the cable for my digital camera) , but I think the crux of my depression is as follows:

Why in heavens name can we not keep streets here clean???? Why do we not have towns that have proper centers and thus are not dependent on cars??? And why, WHY, are there rats the size of kangaroos in the New York City subway??? The Metro in Bilbao does not have any. To drive my point home, why don't you compare Bayonne, NJ to Bayonne, France (featured in the photo). Do you want to cry? You should!

My not so original theory is that Americans have lost any semblance of what might be a communitarian way of thinking. We'd rather spend our weekends cutting our lawns, making repairs on our enormous houses and cars, and watching our big ass tvs than socializing. We do not know our neighbors, and often don't care to. This is due in part to the fact that our towns and cities are simply not as conducive to a more community-based way of life. We don't have pretty parks and centers, or large pedestrian walkways. Our cities and towns favor cars and high way maintenance, and constantly building bigger and better houses, not cleaning garbage and dog doo off streets for people to walk and hang out.

Until we rearrange towns, especially suburban towns, to give folks more reason to walk and spend leisure time out with their neighbors, play in parks, and spend more time outside than inside, we can kiss cutting carbon emissions goodbye. We can always forget the possibility that the obesity epidemic will go away, or that depression rates will decrease.

But as I sigh and feel nostalgic about my visit, with the hope that Americans eventually realize the need to get off their Xbox and out on their bikes, I keep in mind that no place is perfect. At least in NYC, bars and restaurants are smoke free.