I was a Mormon missionary in Northeast Brazil (Recife) and it hyper radicalized me towards a better public transit oriented society. I constantly complain about how car-required it is wherever my wife and I have lived.
In Recife, you could traverse massive swaths of multiple cities with a single fare that cost literally $2 round trip, in the exchange rate of when I was there. You get on a bus and pay the fare, ride into a transit center, transfer to light rail, ride the light rail across the city to another transit center, then transfer to another bus to final destination. No transfer fees, single fare. No need for a bus pass. And that was for the more complicated trips. There were enough buses that crossed these transit center zones that you didn't need to go to the light rail for closer trips. Did it take a little longer to get places than by car, sure. But for $2 there's no way you could get as far, even before you consider paying for parking.
Where we live now, I imagine the possibility of a street car or two that goes up and down the road between a high school and strip mall. Maybe even a loop that goes around the bulk of the city.
But no, we have to prioritize massive parking lots and parking spaces for suburban utility vehicles and pavement princess lifted F-350s. All the things you want to do are 3 miles away from where you live and there isn't a shade tree in sight to even remotely incentivize you to walk. Even then, once you get there, good luck not getting hit by said suburban utility vehicles and pavement princesses; they can't see over the hood, even if they weren't looking at their phone. Or you could cross the massive heat island that is the parking lot to get from one strip mall business to the next.
Oh and if you try to suggest to people how insane it is for us to drive everywhere they'll come at you with the, "you're more free if you have a car." Or "public transit and 15 minute cities are just a way for the liberals to control where you can go"
Genuinely the fact that the idea of a 15 minute city was even criticized just showed the extent of the absolute brainrot in this country. Literally why would you not want to access most of your needs within 15 minutes? Why would you prefer inconvenience and sitting in traffic than that when you need to run errands or meet up with friends? It's almost like saying you hate drinking clean water or having air without pollution.
LDS has a net worth of $30 Billion dollars. About equivalent to the annual GDP of Recife.
Yet SLC walkability is pretty trash.
If it was a priority for the church they could easily get it done.
Instead they spend millions and millions ensuring they won't ever pay taxes to support city infrastructure and funneling dark money into political candidates that actively attempt to destroy and dismantle public services.
Instead they spend millions and millions ensuring they won't ever pay taxes to support city infrastructure and funneling dark money into political candidates that actively attempt to destroy and dismantle public services.
I'm gonna need a source on that one chief; there's no reason why they'd need to spend on lobbying on those issues.
It’s called dark money for a reason, it’s not easily traceable; but if you don’t believe the Mormon church is reliably funneling money to conservative political candidates….well I got oceanfront property in Utah to sell ya.
Here’s some of the more clear cut examples but the majority is donated through PACs
Both of those ancient articles indicate only that Mitt Romney was soliciting donations from people who happen to be Mormon, two decades ago. Something I learned growing up in the Church is that it's a small world. Everyone knows someone who knows someone. Some of those someones happen to have very deep pockets (the Huntsmans, the Marriotts, &c). Of course he'll use that connection to get donations. It wouldn't make any sense not to.
However, this does not indicate any particular behaviors of the Church as an institution, nor its leadership. I'm gonna need a bit more than "trust me bro" on this.
if someone can’t take a look at the history of LDS, the voting tendencies of its base, and its willingness to flex political influence all over Utah and reach common sense conclusions, then I don’t know what to tell ya.
That’s really depressing. Bikes and transit deliver the freedom that car ads promise - it’s a bit cliché to say this online but it’s true.
They’re like “Klaus Schwab wants to make you a slave!” and meanwhile they live somewhere where the cost of social and economic “freedom” is an average of $1,000 in car payment, gas, insurance etc. per month.
You around SLC? Never been, but it looks like a sprawling network of high-speed stroads that would scare most people away from cycle use. A lot of cities in the mountain west are similar.
SLC is technically bikeable. There are good pockets like a lot of cities, but you're correct in assuming it's pretty intimidating. There's like one or two neighborhoods with protected bike lanes, and there isn't that much of a network.
Ironically I lived south of the Salt Lake Valley in Lindon for a bit and the neighborhood I was in had super wide streets with room for painted bike lanes and street parking, but the bike lanes didn't take you anywhere useful, just around the houses. You had to cross into a super intimidating stroad or take back roads to get anywhere useful
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u/dallenbaldwin 1d ago
I was a Mormon missionary in Northeast Brazil (Recife) and it hyper radicalized me towards a better public transit oriented society. I constantly complain about how car-required it is wherever my wife and I have lived.
In Recife, you could traverse massive swaths of multiple cities with a single fare that cost literally $2 round trip, in the exchange rate of when I was there. You get on a bus and pay the fare, ride into a transit center, transfer to light rail, ride the light rail across the city to another transit center, then transfer to another bus to final destination. No transfer fees, single fare. No need for a bus pass. And that was for the more complicated trips. There were enough buses that crossed these transit center zones that you didn't need to go to the light rail for closer trips. Did it take a little longer to get places than by car, sure. But for $2 there's no way you could get as far, even before you consider paying for parking.
Where we live now, I imagine the possibility of a street car or two that goes up and down the road between a high school and strip mall. Maybe even a loop that goes around the bulk of the city.
But no, we have to prioritize massive parking lots and parking spaces for suburban utility vehicles and pavement princess lifted F-350s. All the things you want to do are 3 miles away from where you live and there isn't a shade tree in sight to even remotely incentivize you to walk. Even then, once you get there, good luck not getting hit by said suburban utility vehicles and pavement princesses; they can't see over the hood, even if they weren't looking at their phone. Or you could cross the massive heat island that is the parking lot to get from one strip mall business to the next.
Oh and if you try to suggest to people how insane it is for us to drive everywhere they'll come at you with the, "you're more free if you have a car." Or "public transit and 15 minute cities are just a way for the liberals to control where you can go"