Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Tue, Oct 25 2005
How Can We Stop the Bus Stop Blues?
How on earth could a noisy crowd showing up at someone's private residence at 9:30 in the evening be conducive to the resolution of union contract issues? I have a lot more respect for people who find more reasonable ways to vent their feelings.
An article from The Mercury News earlier this month indicated that there is high emotion from both those who support the striking drivers and those who feel the drivers should be more content with what they have now. The article also mentioned area businesses struggling to maintain sales when there are fewer customers coming through the doors. I've often wondered why various businesses in a neighborhood don't get together and work to provide shuttles for shoppers. If the Capitola Mall, for instance, operated shuttles that ran near my home, between the city of Watsonville and the Mall on 41st Avenue I would use them to go there and shop a lot more often than I shop there now.
Such a private business solution might be tricky and might involve a lot of liability headaches and other woes for business owners, but it seems to me that standing in your store and relying heavily on a public transit system that can just stop bringing customers to your door at any time is a big headache in itself. Isn't there anything at all you can think of to do to help get us, the paying customers, into your store? If I'm stuck here and you're stuck there, can't we find a way to fix that without waiting for some third party union and some third party management to make nice with each other?
There's one good thing about a transportation strike. If it goes on long enough people start to look around for real alternatives and we all start to realize that we are giving away too many of our decisions to people who don't have to answer directly to us for their job performance. I don't like the strike but I do like the fact that it gets everyone else to start thinking about new ways to deal with the issues.
posted at: 10:14 | category: /Miscellaneous | link to this entry
How on earth could a noisy crowd showing up at someone's private residence at 9:30 in the evening be conducive to the resolution of union contract issues? I have a lot more respect for people who find more reasonable ways to vent their feelings.
An article from The Mercury News earlier this month indicated that there is high emotion from both those who support the striking drivers and those who feel the drivers should be more content with what they have now. The article also mentioned area businesses struggling to maintain sales when there are fewer customers coming through the doors. I've often wondered why various businesses in a neighborhood don't get together and work to provide shuttles for shoppers. If the Capitola Mall, for instance, operated shuttles that ran near my home, between the city of Watsonville and the Mall on 41st Avenue I would use them to go there and shop a lot more often than I shop there now.
Such a private business solution might be tricky and might involve a lot of liability headaches and other woes for business owners, but it seems to me that standing in your store and relying heavily on a public transit system that can just stop bringing customers to your door at any time is a big headache in itself. Isn't there anything at all you can think of to do to help get us, the paying customers, into your store? If I'm stuck here and you're stuck there, can't we find a way to fix that without waiting for some third party union and some third party management to make nice with each other?
There's one good thing about a transportation strike. If it goes on long enough people start to look around for real alternatives and we all start to realize that we are giving away too many of our decisions to people who don't have to answer directly to us for their job performance. I don't like the strike but I do like the fact that it gets everyone else to start thinking about new ways to deal with the issues.
posted at: 10:14 | category: /Miscellaneous | link to this entry
