Lee Bey: The Urban Observer

(photo by Lee Bey) 

Last night, at a gas station at 95th and Halsted: Premium gas for $3.95 a gallon....and the other grades not far behind. Wait until summer comes.

The price of gas isn't going to decrease. Ever. It might retreat a few cents, but it will gain ground in spades later. So rather than presidential candidates being forced to defend what their former pastors said, seeing sniper fire where there was none, or whining that the apology wasn't good enough, I'd rather one of them outline a broad and sweeping plan to create and fund the mass-transit system this country needs if we're going to survive the 21st century.

Reliable mass transit provides an affordable alternative to the current model of spending billions to rebuild roads that only clog up and crumble in a few years anyway. A national transportation system based on high-speed rail would be a godsend to anyone who's waited 3 hours in an airport to take a 2 hour flight; or got stuck in a monstrous traffic jam trying to drive to another city. Workers could get to their jobs via a relatively inexpensive train ride, rather than spending $4000 a year buying $80 tanks of gas every week at $4 a gallon.

Suburbs would be better connected to other suburbs and nearby cities. Urban centers would be linked by major rail to other urban centers. Chicago, still the transportation hub of the nation for now, must become a chief advocate for a total remake of the U.S. transportation system.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt used the WPA to build 78,000 bridges, 650,000 miles of road and 800 airports during the 1930s and 1940s. What FDR did for public works projects--during the Depression, no less---the next president must do for public and mass transit. The need is just as vital, if not more.

Yes, it will take billions. And it will take years. But most of all, it takes courage.