So here we are with the new computer on our lap, loafing on an easy chair, taking in a lovely morning, watching the pooch celebrate by chewing up a leather fake bone. We have circumnavigated the ‘Hood through the dawn of a gorgeous day. And now, I suppose, all we really need to do is loaf some more.
Loafing: the highest calling in life… 😀
Car? We Don’t Need No Steenking Car…
So at my son’s behest, I’ve been without a car for upwards of a week. I thought this would be a vast inconvenience and PITA, but…y’know what? It’s not.
Weirdly, a week on foot has demonstrated handsomely that in a highly urbanized area, most of the time you really don’t need a car.
Contemplating this weird twist on the present weird state of affairs, I recalled that when my mother and I lived in San Francisco, we hardly ever used the car she had. Really, the only time we needed it was when my father’s ship (he was a Merchant Mariner) came into port in the East Bay. Then we would drive over there to pick him up and bring him home, where he rested until his ship set to sea again, when we would drive him back out to the Union Oil docks. Otherwise, we used the public transit: busses and streetcars.
Phoenix ain’t San Francisco. However, it has little mini-boroughs made up of what one might call clotted neighborhoods. And right here in my mid- to upper-class ‘hood, I can get everything I need on a day-to-day basis on foot!
Yeah. I can easily walk to an Albertson’s supermarket, a Walgreen’s, a Sprouts, a Target, a UPS store, a computer retailer and repair shop, a Hobby Lobby, a Family Dollar, a Walmart, an El Rancho, a 24-hour emergency doctor’s office…and more.
Hey! What else is to be desired? If I need to go somewhere else, I either mooch a ride from a friend or hire a cab.
And y’know…you could rent a whoooole lotta cab rides for what it costs to own, maintain, gas up, insure, and pay taxes on a car of your own.
It gets better: one of the neighbors has gone into the Uber business. If I need some sort of custom ride, I could hire him to tote me wherever my li’l heart craves. And let him pay the maintenance and taxes on his car.
Think about that. Does it not strike you that under those circumstances owning a car amounts largely to an unnecessary expense? A huge unnecessary expense, by the time you account for routine maintenance, repairs, gasoline, insurance, taxes, shelter, and whatnot. Is there really a good, a practical reason to keep a rolling hole in the ground into which to pour money?
Frankly….I begin to think not.