<p>I know it's a long shot, but has anybody here heard of/is going to the APTA "Teening Up For A Greener World" Youth Summit on public transportation in Washington DC? It's the first time they've done it, and a maximum of 50 kids were accepted (I don't know how many ACTUALLY were, but the site said up to 50 would be) from the entire nation. I'm one of the 50, and it sounds super amazing: a totally free with transportation completely covered 4-day trip to Washington for an environmental conference on the benefits and promotion of public transportation for environmental reasons, PLUS activities, housing, and sight-seeing. I'm going, of course; did anyone else apply/get accepted?</p>
<p>^boo if only i'd known about it earlier....how'd you find out about it??</p>
<p>My principal told me about it; mind you, I go to a public high school where it's a big achievement to get into SUNY Cobleskill (mediocre SUNY, for those who don't know) and where in my 3 years only 1 kid that I know of has gone to an Ivy-caliber school (a kid who happened to be a male African American), so our guidance office doesn't EVER find out about important things like this. I have no idea why such a cool thing accidentally found its way to our high school.</p>
<p>Yes, actually! I'm going from the great state of Massachusetts. </p>
<p>If you're on facebook, I have created the group "APTA Teening Up For a Greener World Youth Summit." Very excited, of course: it's not everyday the APTA gives you a free Amtrak ticket to Washington (which is, in my mind, the best part of the whole thing: nothing like the 6:40 out of South Station.)</p>
<p>How exactly did you get into transit? I suppose being from New York certainly helps: Boston is nice, but not up to that caliber. I actually live in a little suburb outside of Boston with just an MBTA bus and a local transit system, Lexpress (I am on the committee which runs it: Welcome</a> to Lexpress) I always liked trains, and I started going to school in the city, and I just really love public transit.
See you in Washington, I guess.</p>
<p>"I suppose being from New York certainly helps."</p>
<p>Ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha. You, my good sir/miss, are very obviously not from New York, and I will tell you how I'd know if you hadn't already said it yourself; you, like nearly everyone who is not from New York, think of New York City whenever someone says New York. New York City comprises a very, very tiny small portion (one city, to be exact) of New York. The rest of New York STATE is comprised of trees, cows, hills, rocks, more trees, and Democrats. I am from New York State - not New York City. In suburban/rural New York STATE, public transportation is an office sequestered in an alley somewhere. Everything here is a mile to ten miles from everything else; we drive. </p>
<p>To answer your question, I didn't "get into transit", but I'm an environmentalist freak (not to be confused with a hippie, which is something of an entirely different nature) who wants to save the world from global warming (even though I know the human nature too well to think that the problem will ever actually be solved until it's far too late), so I sent in my application with the rest of the nation. Washington DC, baby - and I'll miss my Physics State Regents test, but it's not required for graduation, so that's okay.</p>
<p>That other big place that's not Manhattachester. Yeah, I do think of the city when I think of New York, sorry (especially in the context of public transit). I guess transit's not great out there, unless you live near Cornell (they have got a pretty mad system out there...Albany and Buffalo are nice, but not in that all-buses-equipped-with-bike-racks way, as far as I know.) I've been to Ithaca (the home of my ancestors) and that's pretty much it.</p>
<p>Pretty sweet, the whole environmentalist thing. That's the angle I came into transit with at first, until I met this Stuart Spina fellow (you can google him if you are curious, or check out his blog: nofreetransfer.blogspot.com) and I got pretty hooked on transit. </p>
<p>Thing is, Lexington is not Boston...lots of subdivisions, cars, "density" is a dirty word. Basically, I support transit because it can fight this trend...man, Lexington used to be cool when we had commuter rail, but it got turned into a bike path. C'est la vie...</p>
<p>Sorry, I tend to ramble when it comes to transit.</p>
<p>Anyway, I wish upstate New York all the best both in terms of transit and eliminating stupid people like me who ignore it.</p>
<p>The commuter rail got turned into a bike path, I mean. Not the town.</p>
<p>That's all right; if New York City was a musical (it's about 95% of the way there as of now), upstate New York would be the pit band and the tech crew. As the lady in 42nd Street said, "Honey, they keep them in the pit for a reason."</p>
<p>Cornell. Excuse me while I salvitate; the last year I've psyched myself into responding aux Pavlov's Dogs when it comes to lovely Cornell. Lovely Cornell where God will never let me go because he left me early in my life to join a rock band and today rarely remembers to send the child support checks. </p>
<p>And yes, I'm a dark, angry little man (since 3 weeks ago, anyway). And by man, I mean lesbian. And by lesbian, I mean Caucasian. </p>
<p>(this is humor - it just may come across as a plot to assasinate Micheal Jackson. I've had them confused before. :) )</p>
<p>Whenever I am confronted with a fun geographical area, I must of course make a limerick about it:</p>
<p>When you're on Amtrak in Upstate
New York, you will soon come to hate
The long distances, while
The headways, so vile
Can make you unspeakably late.</p>
<p>So: tell me about you (give yourself a hug, 'cause you rule!). Where'd you hear about the summit? What's your life about (beside public transport)? Are you a typical CC kid who knows what CHYMPS and URM stand for, or did you wander here by chance for this thread (if so, GET OUT! GET OUT BEFORE YOU'RE INFECCCTED!! We bite here, and we have parasites like SATius stressus and Neuroticus whitepersonus.)?</p>
<p>I live in Massachusetts. I wandered here through searching for the summit thing, to see if there was indeed anybody talking about that. I am an insane leftist transit-y person, and so I spend my weekends at MBTA Riders Union meetings with my pals. I wander around singing various musicals. I invested a large amount of myself into the Deval Patrick campaign (DP is the current MA governor), and I am...disappointed with how he's turned out but then I just look at Eliot Spitzer and remember it could be worse. I am an atheistic socialistic narcissistic Jew. I am actually called Danny, and my name comes from my blog, progressivemass.blogspot.com, which is filled with either blurbs or interviews with state rep candidates or notes from town meeting. I am on the internet probably too much but it distracts me from reading about Reagan and the October Suprise which just gets me all depressed (but I lost that book, which is probably good for my sanity.) I am awful at sports (with the exception of competitive chess and competitive Scrabble-yes, it exists) but somehow got a job refereeing middle school basketball games during the year. I don't totally have the rules down but it seems like when they punch one another it is probably a good idea to blow my whistle. I got a job with MBTA service planning this summer which is awesome because unlike most fun awesome things like that they will give me money. I spend waaay to much time reading webcomics (such as Dinosaur Comics, the greatest webcomic of all time, XKCD, and Shortpacked!). I am quite sophomoric, and am looking forward to soon being junioriffic. I am on the Lexington Transportation Advisory Committee.</p>
<p>Somebody stole my bike from Alewife Station three weeks ago, and I have no bike, which is not happy.</p>
<p>The high point of my year is often the library used book sale.</p>
<p>You?</p>
<p>You're weird. Are you a guy or a girl (Danny's a sexy yet unisexual name)? But I am too, so it's okay.</p>
<p>I'm not good with politics; Ron Paul is the most entertaining facet of the 08 campaign for me (we have a running commentary on his antics in my American History class). I'm a jaded chick who's waiting for her real life to begin, but in real life I play an environmentalist, Envirothon team captain (who kicked Cooperstown's a**? Yes we did, yes we did.), bad track runner, occasional lesbian, more frequent fiction-sexual. My life is currently focused on my summer, getting the school's recycling program on its feet for next year, Cornell, this girl in my gym class (who is either interested in or afraid of me, I'm not sure which), my favorite reality TV shows coming up this summer (they're making a new The Mole season! Eeeee!) and how exactly I'm going to learn Calculus this summer without ever taking PreCalculus.</p>
<p>And no, I'm not a progressive vegan lesbian feminist PETA hippie-dippie. I think everybody should own guns (and karajanhra commanded that the global population should decrease itself, and found it good), I eat fish and eggs and chicken with relish (I don't usually eat beef, but that's just because I don't like it), the Gym Girl coincides with a 7th-grade-onwards worship of a Lovely Jewish Lad I know, I hate other women as every woman's biology programs her to, and I fear the day that PETA and the hippie culture unite to end society for the good of the fluffy wild rabbits. </p>
<p>Oh, and I'm also a musical person, and let it be known that Sweeney Todd was my favorite musical LONG BEFORE someone foolishly decided to allow Johnny Depp to sing No Place Like London in a public production (and to get rid of all the amazing chorus songs).</p>
<p>And I really like Saw (the movies). All of them, but especially the first two. It'd be awesome if there were DVD players at the hotel we're staying at, 'cause I would totally turn my roommates into Saw junkies - 2 nights would be enough.</p>
<p>Progressivemass is male. And I'm going to state the opinion that annoys the hell out of my friends: I really liked the Sweeney movie more than any other production, particularly the televised one with Lansbury and George Hearn, hich was quite lame in my opinion. Alan Rickman was a much better Turpin, and the guy who was Anthony Hope in the Hearn movie annoyed me to no end. The removal of the opening number was all that really annoyed me. And frankly, the musical direction, particularly in the finale, was just fantastic.</p>
<p>I guess I really am one of those hippie people a lot of the time. And I fully support gun control, considering the amount of on-purpose and accidental shootings that snatch away people's lives in Boston. But that's just me.</p>
<p>I think the gas tax should be doubled and the money used for public transit.</p>
<p>I have never seen Saw. I frequently hate all movies, with a few exceptions (Dr. Strangelove, Thank You for Smoking, The Last King of Scotland, Darjeeling Limited, Silver Streak, Star Trek 2, 4, 5, 6, and 8.) I also hate everything televised, particularly Stargate SG-1, with the exception of C-Span, Dr. Who, Monty Python, and Battlestar Galactica. </p>
<p>I cannot stand Ron Paul.</p>
<p>I was an Edwards supporter (would have backed Gore if he had jumped in), considering he was the only one who actually seriously addressed the problem of poverty in the United States. His campaign, it was about something, and I feel that cannot really be said about Obama or Clinton. Clinton, with her idiotic comments on Iran and the gas tax, is intolerable, and Obama, who has already threatened to bomb two sovereign nations not hostile to the US, is equally so.</p>
<p>Of course, I will probably end up working for one of them, to prevent the insanely pro-war McCain from everr seeing the white house.</p>
<p>Spamalot is a crime against all that is right and good.</p>
<p>Well, I guess McCain can see the white house, it being big and in Washington and all, but not see it in the capacity of being a president.</p>
<p>Lexington town politics. I do way too much of those. And it's because I wish my town was so much different than it was.</p>
<p>Okay, so in Lexington Center, the Battle Green Inn goes under. Opportunity, right? Big site, middle of ftown. Developer wants to build housing. Four stories, a bunch of affordable housing (as defined by Massachusetts's affordable housing provisions, Chapter 40B). If we'd wanted, we could've had ten stories of affordable housing. Dense, environmentally friendly, accessible to retail and to public transit. </p>
<p>But no, because you see, it's not historic enough. It'll cast shadows, and it'll hurt tourism. And that is the problem with Lexignton. Because that is what this "birthplace of liberty" is apprarently about. It is not about being able to live there even if you are not wealthy, it is not about being a livable, walkable community, it is not about protecting the environment. No, it's about keeping everything nice and two-story. It's about chain stores and banks and realtors being able to take over the center and jack up the rents as long as they put up nice gold lettering. It's about whistling along as awful subdivisions take over more and more land, as long as the center can attract tourists. Well, screw that. Screw all of you who thing that this is the way to run a town, screw the luxury condos, screw the subdivisions. </p>
<p>Rant over.</p>
<p>...(takes a step away from progressivemass)</p>
<p>Mmmm-kay. Anyway, good to have you as a summit mate. I can't wait until we get the information beyond the acceptance form.</p>
<p>Yes, the info will be awesome. And now I can stare at Amtrak timetables and actually know I will be using one is.</p>
<p>The thing is, the organizers may hate me considering I called them ten times last week...oh well.</p>
<p>I know! We were supposed to get our decisions by May 12th, and I was able to hold out until the 13th before I attempted to call ("attempted" because I tried 10 times and the line was always busy). After failing to reach them by phone, I e-mailed them and the nice secretary lady (Cheryl?) told me they had way more applications than they'd thought they'd have, so I'd have to wait until the weekend. Then on Friday I was getting my hair cut and when my dad came to pick me up, he said, "Hey ______, there was a message for you on the phone. Something about a youth summit. You got accepted." And after being rejected from Heaven (another program) 3 weeks ago, I'd given up all hope and had written the summit off (kind of Sassy's "I don't want it, I don't want it" approach from Homeward Bound). I was very happy; we went to Dairy Queen afterwards.</p>
<p>Seriously, I was like did the United States postal system collapse and forget to tell me or something? On Friday, I got a call from my mom when standing in Park Street Station. The thing is, I got my summer job and the APTA thing both on the same day, and I was just like "oh yeah."</p>
<p>Heaven sounds fun, as long as there is rapid transit. Bummer about not getting in.</p>
<p>I love dairy queen. Sadly, we have almost none around here.</p>