This white paper tries to co-motivate the school district to become more engaged in active and healthy modes of getting to school. It reminds the district that the roads in Santa Monica have become much more bike-friendly in the past five years, and that the school district has not been moving much on cars, buses and bikes. Are they missing the bike train? I hope not.
Sometimes a little unguarded gesture tells you more than a thousand words. I found this architectural view from 2008 quite interesting. It is proudly displayed on the second floor of the district headquarters. It shows a "schematic design" of the High School parking lot.
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"Let them drive Porsches", about as distorted as "Let them eat cake" (Qu'ils mangent de la Brioche) attributed to Marie Antoinette |
Look a bit closer. Striking indeed, the sheer number of Porsches, Maseratis, Ferraris (or worse) that the architect has parked there. Apparently there is nobody in the district building or on the Board of Education who would object against this distortion of what getting to school in our little town of Santa Monica means. This design of a parking lot is steeped in poisonous culture of Fast and Furious. It has been framed and displayed. This makes it a revealing testimony to the unconscious culture of transportation at the school district. "Let them drive Porsches" is irresponsible, naive, pathetic and revealing at the same time.
From the distorted fantasy of fast cars, a fantasy which is so last century, to the reality of getting to work in the school district. This bicycle is happily parked in the lobby of the district headquarters. It tells the story of a brave employee who is doing him/herself and all of us a great favor by choosing the better way to arrive at work. Perhaps a proper bike rack could be placed in the lobby? This would invite more employees to park their bike there. And if parking space is limited (it always is), and if a proper bike parking structure would reduce the number of spaces available for cars, is there enough Santa Monica Bike Spirit in the school district to do the right thing?
1 comment:
SRTS Partners,
Like you I am a fervent supporter of sustainable transportation with all of the attendant benefits for children and society. Like you, I think we have missed some opportunities for implementation within SMMUSD over the last five years.
That said, I think SMMUSD should be recognized for keeping resources close to the classroom during a time period that was extremely difficult and distracting. Yearly lay-offs, work reassignments, and multiple tasking became the norm; under circumstances that so threaten the district's core mission of classroom education, it may be understandable that an organization would become conservative and appear to resist innovation?
I am not trying to excuse the lack of progress on our shared SRTS goals, I seek only to offer a perspective. It is one thing to be indifferent when your wealthy, quite another and possibly understandable, I think, when you are struggling financially. All school districts including SMMUSD have had quite a ride since 2008.
Fortunately, the moment is ripe for progress. SMMUSD has many talented and effective employees, there are good people on the school board, and the community wants to go green.
The path forward should include:
Partnering with a constellation of local non-profits, coalitions of the like minded are more resilient, we need more then just bike activists.
Acknowledgement that innovation in schools is a marathon not a sprint. Progress is being made and we should remain relentlessly positive.
Align our efforts with what the district is legally tasked to do under the new state standards: Common core and Next Gen are explicit about there support for community and civic engagement. Framed this way, SRTS becomes an opportunity, not just one more thing the world wants schools to do. As it happens, Heal the Bay and I are hard at work documenting these opportunities. If anyone wants to know more, please email me. Any grant that is being written needs language addressing this point.
Explicitly include cross-age youth leadership pathways to guard against the changes that come when active students, teachers, parents age out of there involvement.
Hire a young person, a recent graduate perhaps, to perform the many tasks that insure SRTS continuity. We have enormous talent right here and we should keep any spending local. Lots of funding questions, but a coalition could get it done.
Kurt Holland
Marine Science and Conservation
Environmental Education Leader
Ocean Navigator
Mobile: 310 429 0164
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