Do you actually know the thrill of using public transit?

Having spent a lot of my life with the belief that public transit is inconvenient and messy, or a great sacrifice over car travel, I wonder sometimes if people understand what a net affirmative joy it is to get around by bus, train or foot.

I grew up in Southern California where by law adult walking can be exercise but not transportation.  See Steve Martin driving next door below from LA Story. 

By the time I was 16, in possession of a driver’s license and a whiny dependency on borrowing my parents’ cars, I would no sooner dream of walking the mile to my best friend’s house than I would to outside without clothing.  Public transportation, meaning buses and trains, seemed about the same.  Took too long.  Too inconvenient.  Too many down and out people.  Too expensive. 

It wasn’t until I spent some time in New York and Paris, where basically everyone in the world gets around by public transportation instead of private car, that I experienced the joy, the freedom and sure pleasure of the senses of taking public transit. 

Then, as a mom toting around 2 children, I kinda forgot.  The early days of strollers, bike and Burleys gave way to carpools and minivans.    I kept walking for exercise, and, because I live in downtown Sacramento, sometimes for transportation.  But I basically avoided using public transit unless I was visiting “a transit city.”

Recently as the Sacramento Regional Transit Authority (or RT) added an every 20 minutes bus to the Sacramento International Airport, I started taking it again.  This made me realize that the days of the Google Maps app makes it infinitely easier to use transit than in my days growing up.  I put where I want to go, click on the bus and bam there is the exact bus or train I need to catch at the exact time with the exact fare at the exact corner. 

So lately I have been randomly taking buses and trains that I wouldn’t have previously done.  What I notice is that the time really doesn’t matter.  It’s lovely to have someone else drive.  It’s lovely to look out the window, read a book, or, more likely, dive into my Twitter feed (@snicholsblog, y’all).

And “having to walk” for a leg of the transit, even with stuff is also a great joy.  My body is moving.  I’m getting a little exercise.  It’s a delight. 

On vacation, it’s even more fun.  Yesterday on a sunny afternoon in Portland, Oregon (where it had been calling for rain all day), I chanced a 45 minutes stroll from NE Portland near Burnside over the bridge to Powell’s City of Books.  After power finding elusive used books on my list, I hit Google maps, saw a bus was stopping in 2 minutes across the street from the store, crossed in time to hop on and was back to my friend’s house in under 15 minutes.

The whole thing was a great delight for me, my senses and my life.  I wonder how many are denying themselves this joy telling themselves that it will be a net deprivation?

A Progressive President Can Make a Huge Difference, With or Without Congress

FDR's Labor Secretary Frances Perkins
Meets with striking workers

Bernie Sanders is the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination.  I’ve made no secret of my support for him or my belief that he is by far the best candidate to beat the incumbent president.  So let’s assume he wins the nomination and the presidency, which is not far-fetched.  Then what?

Many have observed, myself included, that it would take a new Congress and a sea change to pass many of the bold initiatives that Bernie champions:  Medicare for All, free public higher education, free childcare, bold climate action, massive increase in affordable housing, etc.  Even when Bernie wins in 2020, a progressive majority Congress may not materialize until 2022 or sometime in the future.  What then can a progressive leader like Bernie accomplish in the White House without the support of Congress?

Well, one of the reasons many of us were so disappointed and frustrated with the Obama administration is that the answer is, quite a bit (as long as the inhabitant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is willing to take bold action and be criticized). I don’t think that any of us think Bernie would be shy about taking bold action and facing flak.    Bernie has proven himself to be flak proof time and again.  Opposing the invasion of Iraq after 911 is proof enough of that.

The most obvious point is that Bernie can appoint progressive cabinet members, federal judges, etc.  Yes, getting them approved by Congress will be tricky, but I’m confident that he will be able to get himself surrounded by the most diverse, non corporate, progressive administration possible.  These folks will invite voices, perspectives, ideas and experience into the White House that have perhaps never been heard. 

At a minimum, he can reverse the unraveling of all important regulations that protect the public starting with environmental, civil rights and liberties, immigration and oversight of the financial industry.  He can restore the rule of law.

I can hear you pointing out that most Democrats elected President will do all that.  My answer is maybe.  Don’t forget that many of them, especially the "B stands for Business Boys:" Buttigieg, Biden or Bloomberg, might well appoint corporate industry types like Tim Geithner to top positions.  Most of them will appoint health industry folks to regulate the health industry.  Bernie Sanders as president has the power and authority to demand out of the gate that the pharmaceutical industry give us the low prices it gives every single other country in the world.  That’s not something any other president has had the cojones to pull off.

More importantly, perhaps, is the protection and encouragement that a Sanders administration can provide to working people, people of color and environmental advocates who are coming together to advocate for their own rights.  In Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first term, there was an unprecedented number of mass strikes by workers happened.  Any other administration previously would have cracked down on, Roosevelt largely (not exclusively) encouraged and protected workers.  This allowed entire industries to be organized for workers from the ground up. 

Remember the Dakota pipeline was proposed during the Obama administration.  Imagine an administration that encouraged and emboldened those protests instead of trying to shut them down?

Kennedy with Civil Rights Leaders

Likewise with Civil Rights protests.   It wasn’t Presidents Kennedy or Johnson that started the civil rights protests in the south, but instead of cracking down on them, they lent their support, their resources, the protection of the law and the National Guard. 

Especially if Mitch McConnell retains control of the Senate, we need a President who is willing to restore the rule of law in this country and use every legal means to protect and expand human dignity.  I think President Sanders, as his record in Congress and in Burlington, Vermont attests, is just the person to do that.

Sacramento is so Lucky to Have Cap Stage

On Sunday, February 16^th we saw the play Gloria by Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.  Five days later we saw Alabaster by Audrey Cefaly at Capital Stage in Sacramento.  Alabaster was better, both as a play and as a production. 

A.C.T. is one of the foremost playhouses in the country, although it is also a training ground for actors so it is possible that what we saw was more of a student production.    I’ve liked some plays and productions at Cap Stage, more than others.

My point really is that as a lifelong theatergoer who has lived all over this country I’ve seen quite a few productions on and off Broadway in NYC, at Oregon Shakespeare in Ashland, at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, at the Studio theater in Washington, DC at the Shaw Festival in Ontario and even in London.  Closer to home I’ve loved the Berkeley Repertory Theater and top productions in Los Angeles.   Most of those theaters have much bigger houses and much bigger budgets than Sacramento’s Capital Stage so their productions certainly can have more elaborate sets, costumes and showiness than anything one is likely to encounter here.

And Cap Stage is what as known as a B Equity house which means that only the leads are professional actors.  Sometimes that means that the smaller parts are not played up to the standards of the leads. 

But here’s what’s absolutely true:  The choices every season consistely reflect the most interesting, well-written, cutting edge theater that is being done in America.  The direction is unparalleled in Sacramento and the top actors are superb.  The season tickets are a bargain and the scenery and costumes are consistently imaginative and do the trick.

Anyone of any age or background who hasn’t checked out Sacramento’s own Cap Stage, should do it now. Next play is Admissions starting March 11^th.