Terrible Train Take, Scary Dog Fireworks, & More
Around the College Towns: Links and commentary related to urbanism and higher ed for the week of June 29 - July 4.
Note: Around the College Town is my weekly links round-up post. I offer commentary on news, posts, or articles from the week, usually focusing on things that fall through the cracks (so no Big Beautiful Bill, which you can find at Inside Higher Ed). I just got back to the US after a long East Asia trip, so I will be back up to full strength soon.
Terrible Train Take
A recent op-ed argues that the US does not need high-speed, and not for the simple boondoggle expense excuse. Instead, the argument is that high-speed rail would decimate small towns that have come to rely on drivers along our highway routes. Here is the crux of the argument:
Such networks of high-speed rail would be disastrous to a part of America that has been driving the U.S. economy for many years, perhaps illustrated best in movies and television. Think of the Double R Diner from the show “Twin Peaks,” or the gas station stops in the Coen brothers’ film “No Country for Old Men.” Depicted in these scenes were “pass-through towns” or “rest-and-stop towns” — small communities between destination cities that stay alive because travelers stop at local diners, gas stations and similar mom-and-pop businesses.
This take has riled up some fellow urbanists, which this week I agree with this time (unlike Pixar from a few weeks ago). It is a terrible argument!
While I do appreciate the op-ed author’s usage of popular culture to make the point, it is rooted in Ludditism with a glaring hole. I don’t think the author would say it was bad that we no longer have switchboard operators for every phone call we make. We shouldn’t modernize the phone system because it will hurt the operator profession is the same logic as the op-ed.
Further, he points out that small towns like “Seligman, Ariz.; Little America, Wyo.; and Needles, Calif.,” have “built their economies” around people driving through them off our highways. The main fallacy here is that the post-war Interstate Highway System did the exact same thing to towns when it was first built.
Route 66 used to be the “Mother Road,” running from Chicago across the country to California. Its history is an important part of my home state of Oklahoma’s history, and I see the same cultural relevance to all the places it touched. But it has become more history and sideshow since President Eisenhower’s Interstate System was constructed, bypassing the need for Route 66.
The author even lauds the impact of this system in the article, but without realizing that it had done the same displacement that he criticizes the hypothetical trains. Given the op-ed used some pop cultural examples, I’ll provide my own to counter: Has the author not seen the first Cars movie?!
The sad and dusty Radiator Springs, where Lightning McQueen gets stranded, is a stand-in for the real towns that lost visitors when highways bypassed them.
The town in Cars is like the real Williams, Arizona, which isn’t too far from the cited Needles. It used to be central to Route 66, but also a bustling rail stop. With the mass adoption of post-war interstates, the town has been relegated to a novelty tourist town (a pretty cool one! You should check it out)
One thing the author is right about is that the US has a different “governance, geography and transportation culture” than China, which he derisively compares in the piece. But this is precisely why high-speed rail will not destroy these highway towns.
Instead, high-speed rail lines could provide merely another option for Americans. They will be more akin to airports: Should we drive, fly, or train to Vegas this weekend? That will be the question. They will be economy lifters, not sinkers. The real critique of high-speed rail in the US should be the astronomical costs and impossible building conditions, but that is for a future article.
Links I’m Reading This Week
Education
Affluent parents are buying homes in Texas to get their kids in-state tuition.
Siena Heights University in Michigan is closing down after 105 years of operation.
Indiana makes massive cuts to degree offerings.
A Reddit user on the r/ApplyingToCollege/ checks in a year after being rejected from their dream school. It turns out, everything is OK and College admissions isn’t everything in life! Good dose of reality for an anxious generation.
Netflix has released a trailer for an upcoming movie called My Oxford Year. A study abroad movie! Even though I’m not the target audience, I may have to watch and write a review.
Urbanism
Amtrak and Disney have a new partnership. It’s too bad Disneyland isn’t connected by rail!
Santa Monica is testing AI to keep drivers out of the bus lanes. Good use of AI.
Chuck E. Cheese is starting a new type of venue that will target adults. I will have more on these adult arcades in the future.
Kids are biking less than ever before. This is no surprise for people paying attention to urbanism. Cars are bigger, people are more distracted, and biking is more dangerous. It all connects…
Around Substack
Note: I also think it’s important to stay connected to the growing Substack community. Here are a few I am reading this week (sorry, no quotes this week though):
Bryan Caplan at Bet On It has an observation about Japan that I also noticed this week: their service workers are highly capable. Now, Caplan puts the blame on the absence of low-skilled immigration. I will have some future thoughts on my recent trip there.
Jeremy Levine writes on his Substack about how he became a ̶Y̶I̶M̶B̶Y̶ DIMBY Everyone has heard of Yes In My Backyard or No In My Backyard but how about Daycares In My Backyard? I am in!
Finally, when I was waiting in an annoying line to get into an airport lounge in Haneda, I met a fellow Substack atmtx. So the wait wasn’t so bad to discover a cool page like Camera Museum Stories. Great photography!
Finally… Dogs Hate Fireworks
There is a lot of discourse around dogs and fireworks during the 4th of July. Basically, the holiday where Americans all go outside, eat hot dogs, and launch fireworks is basically a dog’s nightmare. This is mostly because of the loud bangs produced by the various firecrackers.
One thing I was wondering: I do not recall this much focus on dogs being terrified of fireworks when I was a kid. Sure, my dog may have gone a little crazy during the July Fourths of yesteryear. In the 1990s, we certainly didn’t think it was some kind of extreme anxiety-inducing day, nor do I remember any of my neighbors or friends having these conversations.
So I guess my question is: when did this discourse on dogs, fireworks, and anxiety start? If you have an answer, drop it here.
Hi Ryan, it was wonderful to meet you in Haneda. And thank you for the mention!
The Chuck E Cheese adult arcade is interesting- especially their decision to lean into the Chuck branding and characters. I was half expecting it to be some generic spin off that tried to mask its connection. I wonder if enough adults have nostalgia for CEC to consider a visit to Chuck's or if it will be seen as too "kiddie"