The New York Times reports:

For three straight weeks, Americans have been buying less gasoline than they did a year ago. Consumption is dropping at a rate not seen since drivers were waiting in gas lines back in the early 1980’s. And people are turning to mass transit in record numbers in some cities.

Meanwhile, back home, a letter-writer to the AJC goes so far to not get it, he’d rather revert to hyperbole (name-calling, straw-man baiting):

Telecommuting, mass transit won’t work

Gov. Sonny Perdue’s request to close schools may have limited benefit for big-picture fuel issues, but to use it to parrot the old plea for increased mass transit and telecommuting ignores reality (”Misdirected energy,” Editorial, Sept. 27).

Even a fantasy-budgeted effort to widely increase mass transit infrastructure could never adequately serve Atlanta and surrounding counties. Atlanta doesn’t have localized hubs of employment.

Those who reply “MARTA” to every transportation question will never understand that the day’s reward for many commuters is to decompress in the leather- and music-rich environment of their personal vehicle, which they worked hard to acquire.

Unlike those would-be society-shapers and editorial writers quick to suggest telecommuting, most of America’s work force does not spend their workday at a computer terminal.

BILL LENTZ, Cumming

So, just because he enjoys his car as a sort of decompression chamber means I should, too?

Atlanta has several hubs of employment: Downtown, Midtown, Perimeter/Dunwoody and Cumberland, just to name a few. The first two are well-served by transit, with a clear benefit to traffic congestion. Perimeter/Dunwoody, especially the Abernathy corridor, would see a benefit if trains didn’t just go south from that area. Cumberland’s office market is, meanwhle, severely limited by the lack of transit that serves the area.

Let’s get real about something, Billy. If a train to Cumming were built, you wouldn’t have to use it. I know that’s an amazing revelation to you. No one is going to force you to take it. But, assuming you take GA-400 south to work in the mornings, you would certainly benefit from that train. While the commuters choosing to take the train can ride their little decompression chambers, you can use yours. The difference is that all those people taking the train aren’t with you on the road. That means there’s more room for you on the road.

Update: Otis White also had a column printed in yesterday’s New York Times:

We’ve learned a lot about evacuating cities in recent days, much of it deeply troubling. But if the failures of New Orleans and the gridlock of Houston show anything, it’s that we urgently need a third way out of cities, something other than flying or driving. Fortunately, there is such a way: passenger rail.

So far, this is the most awesome group to check out on Flickr: Stick Figures in Peril!

Not that I used it for this scheme, but here’s a neat resource that was passed on to me. It’s a color scheme generator that you can use to help you come up with ideas for your site’s scheme. Or, if you’re feeling adventurous, for your house’s color scheme.

As a disclaimer, I’ll mention that nothing in this color scheme generator comes up with the colors I used here. So use the generator with a grain of salt. this is as close as I could get to what’s here.

It’s time for a change in my design. So here it is.

Red, black and tan are the colors, rather than blue, blue, and gray.

I may put another tan bar on the right side, depending on what I decide to put there. I know there are a couple of links that just point to #, but something will happen there later. There is a bunch of sidebar stuff that was there in the old design that’s not there now. It’ll come back in time.

Some links that are no longer active were also taken out. Sad to see, but Brian (SolarisDX) no longer has his site. But things change, and we move on.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this new look. Complaints, suggestions, whatever, send me your hateration comments and I’ll let my trash can consider them.

Update: With apologies to the commenter who suggested otherwise, but I went ahead and added the tan bar on the right. The topics feature here turn out to be my right-hand tan.

Tomorrow is World Carfree Day. How many in Atlanta can make it without a car tomorrow?

When we discuss the issue of fiber optics, we’re talking about an advocacy campaign to get citizens to drink Metamucil and wear glasses.

The theory of General Relativity is applicable to the field of military geneaology.

They practice Rocket Science over at Radio City Music Hall. It’s the study of how to perfect the synchronization of pretty legs.

So who else read yesterday’s letters to the AJC? I found this one to be too funny:

Science, not religion, drives argument

Those who argue that intelligent design is religiously based and not scientific are, at best, ill-informed.

This amazes me, because I use the criteria of ID every day in my work as a forensic scientist to determine whether an event was caused by a natural cause or an intelligent one. Our science and methods are accepted by the scientific community and by the Georgia courts from the municipal to the federal level.

In more than 18 years of testifying in Georgia courts, I have yet to testify as to the existence or nonexistence of a divine being. ID is not religiously based and is scientifically applicable.

DONALD DICKS, Alpharetta

If, god forbid, I ever need an advocate in court, remind me that I would never want Donald Dicks to testify on my behalf. Intelligent Design is a theological statement that claims to have some merit within the study of biology.

Donald Dicks, claiming to be a forensic scientist, not only showed a remarkable ignorance toward legitimate evolutionary biology, but he also misapplied the concept of ID toward an entirely unrelated field. A self-proclaimed forensic scientist who misapplies scientific concepts is not the guy I would want to have on my side.

I got another letter published today in the AJC:

Special tax won’t end Cobb’s traffic troubles

After using much ink to advocate transportation alternatives, I can’t imagine why — other than politics — The Atlanta Journal-Constitution would endorse the Cobb special-purpose local-option sales tax (”Give nod to Cobb tax,” Editorial, Sept. 16). With most of the money going toward roads and none for buses or trains, the county SPLOST will offer only more traffic and congestion problems for Cobb.

Contrary to the legacy he is trying to leave as a regional leader, County Commission Chairman Sam Olens is setting himself up to become metro Atlanta’s next sultan of sprawl.

JOE WINTER, Smyrna

The only problem I have with their editing job is they took out the words “transportation alternatives” on the second use of the phrase. Some readers may not like the idea of trains or busses, but they would likely be more receptive to “alternatives,” which can also mean sidewalks, bike lanes, and bike trails. I specifically mentioned all the alternatives in my letter, but they reduced my list to trains and busses.

Pout.

In addtion to school work and work work, I’m also in the midst of transforming the style of this blog. Simplify, simplify, simplify.

The current CSS file is a big mess right now. It’s from the original CSS that came with the Movable Type system, and I’ve been just adding patches here and there to make it work for this current incarnation of Joeventures.

So I started creating a new CSS file from scratch, and a new PHP file to go along with it. Once I’m happy, I’ll break it up and redo my templates.

Without the techspeak, it just means I’m going to adjust the look of the Joeventures website. You can find a preview on my test site.

In the world of good news, the DOT Board reaffirmed its support of the Lovejoy rail line. This commuter rail line is not simply one single line. This is the first step toward a commuter rail system for Georgia, and it makes sense to start somewhere. Thankfully, at least several members of the board are future-oriented enough to understand this concept.

Also, more than two-thirds of the nation favor increased mass transit funding.

In the world of bad news, the AJC editorial board endorsed the proposed Cobb SPLOST, which is a bit heavy on funding roads and extremely light on funding alternatives.

Once again, we have politicians and pundits expressing a lack of foresight, making statements off-the-cuff as though their words carry little weight. The ideas they express carry a heavy burden on recovery efforts.

Before any chance could be made to conduct a rational analysis, some high-ranking politician made the mistake of thinking out loud. Dennis Hastert dared question whether New Orleans is worth rebuilding.

If I only had the tools at my disposal and the knowledge of how to use them, I would conduct that very analysis. But my gut feeling says that New Orleans is worth rebuilding. Take the city’s assets into consideration, human and tangible. Take the cost of rebuilding and strengthening the city and its defenses from mother nature.

I will not claim to know New Orleans as well as I probably should. Atlanta’s current police chief was previously the police chief in New Orleans, and he had a massive corruption problem to fix in his tenure in the Big Easy. Apart from that, many of the city’s assets and liabilities are already well-known. Mardi Gras, Cajun Cuisine, and other unique traditions set this city apart from any other.

But other unique qualities of the city have also come to light recently. In most American cities, the central area is also some of the most expensive land. New Orleans has the distinction of having affordable real estate in its heart, and this could be a driving force of the city’s creativity. All at once, the people of the low-lying downtown area are so close to death, yet laugh in its face.

What other place in America has New Orleans’ assets? No other place. These assets not only contribute to our nation’s creativity and spirit; they also contribute to the less mundane things, like our nation’s economic vitality. New Orleans is the city below sea level, but we are all raised from that city’s spirit.

The city will rebuild itself, and it will be rebuilt. The debate over whether that should happen only demonstrates one of America’s greatest oxymorons: political foresight. Our system shows its greatest weaknesses when we face the consequences of making the choices we make at the ballot box. By accepting and misapplying Occam’s Razor to the wrong situations, we accept the politicians who have the more simple answers for everything, simply because we want to agree with their simple conclusions.

Abandoning a city for its liabilities is folly. Every city, suburb and rural area has its liabilities. Perhaps we should abandon Los Angeles before the big one hits? While we’re at it, abandon most of the midwest and leave it to the tornadoes. Abandon Manhattan because it’s noisy. Abandon, abandon, abandon. Go back and live in a cave.

For better or for worse, New Orleans is what it is, and it is unique. What we have lost already is enough. What we stand to gain by reinvesting in the infrastructure and the people of New Orleans is greater than what could ever be lost in the wake of Katrina.