The Geography of American Snow Days

Winter Storm School Closings

It is now the end of January and Winter 2014 seems to have a long way to go. For much of the country, this year has been record breaking in terms of winter storms and cold. We have been trapped by the "polar vortex" and have had numerous snow related travel headaches. Even Atlanta found itself paralyzed for nearly a full day by the rare onslaught of a winter storm. 

How do school aged children feel about all of this? Have they lost more days of school than on an average year? Let's take a look at how snow affects school cancellations across the country. The results are quite interesting!

I find this to be quite interesting, and there are some important things to point out. First and foremost, this map tends to reflect the frequency of winter storms. Areas that experience more winter weather appear in darker shades of blue and thus require more snow to cancel schools. These areas have the plows to deal with the weather.

Northeast

Most of this region is a dark blue color. Here in New England, we get snow all the time and I find the map to be quite accurate. It often does take about a foot of snow or so for schools to be cancelled. One interesting exception that I want to point out is in Rhode Island. Notice the tiny state is shaded the color of 3" of snow. This is actually true. Partially due to budgetary issues and partially due to climate, Rhode Island schools close with much less snow than the rest of the Northeast.

South

This I find particularly interesting. For most of the South, any snow results in a school cancellation. This includes even the prediction of snow! This week we saw a few inches literally grind several southern cities to a halt. This may seem odd to Northerners, but the South simply does not have the infrastructure to handle any snow at all.

Midwest

Similarly to the Northeast, this region requires between 1 and 2 feet of snow to cancel schools. Although surrounded by lighter colors, Chicago appears dark blue. This indicates that the city has the budget to be able to deal with much more snow than rural areas around the city. One other point about the Midwest is that during winter, it is often so cold that the cold, not the snow, is what ends up closing schools.

West

This region is largely governed by elevation. Close to the coast, there is little snowfall and almost any will result in school closings. But move inland a bit to the mountains and there suddenly is ample snow and it requires much more for school closings and delays. 

Is The Housing Bubble Back?

The Housing Market Roars Back to Life

2006 was a seemingly pleasant time for America. Sprawling subdivisions were popping up all over the country, home prices were surging and homebuyers were grabbing up properties at record rates with little to no money set aside for down payments. It seemed that prices would never stop climbing and that wealth would never stop growing.

Then came 2007 / 2008 and everything collapsed. Home prices plummeted, people found themselves owing more than their homes were worth and we were faced with nearly countless foreclosures. Neighborhoods stood abandoned; new subdivisions stopped mid-construction and America decided that we would never create another housing bubble again.

Welcome to 2014

For the past three years, housing has been making a strong comeback. Interest rates have been at record lows and home prices have been steadily rising. But after years of recovery, we may have inadvertently begun to create another bubble like the one that caused the housing crisis in the first place.

This government chart clearly shows the last bubble that was created. This measures the difference between home prices and rental units. More specifically, the light blue line measures what it costs to own a home while the dark blue line measures the would be cost of renting the same home. Between 2000-2006 there was a huge and growing gap between the cost of buying vs. renting. The financial crisis corrected this bubble and brought home prices more in line with historical averages.

Pay attention to the last centimeter or so of the graph. Sometime around 2011, the light blue line began to rise sharply in comparison the the dark blue line. If this trend continues it will indicate that homes are once again becoming much more expensive than renting.

Now here is another graph that is less technical, but perhaps more telling.

This one shows the median and average square footage of new homes. During the last bubble, new homes got larger and larger. It was the era of McMansions. After the crisis, home sizes fell significantly. But once again, home sizes began to creep higher starting in 2011. As of right now, home sizes have actually hit a new record. This means that the average home built today is larger than during the peak of the last housing bubble!

Be Careful America

Right now homebuyers are feeling quite excited. Prices are rising and interest rates are low. Things are looking pretty great. I'm not trying to put a damper on this excitement, but I think that it is important to be cautious. If we are not careful, this type of activity could quickly begin to re-inflate a real estate bubble. Try not to forget what happened last time. 

 

Netflix Psychological Price Increases

Netflix May Be About to Raise Prices

For years, Netflix has charged $7.99 per month for it's online streaming subscription and by all accounts the company is doing quite well. In an attempt to bring in more money each month from subscribers, Netflix appears ready to use some psychology to entice you into paying more!

Middle Price Trick

Many consumers are unaware of the middle price trick, sometimes called reference pricing. This is the practice of using tiered pricing for similar goods to entice the consumer to choose the middle option. There are a variety of examples of this.

Take Starbucks for instance. On menus, coffees are typically offered in three sizes: tall, grande and venti. When choosing to purchase a coffee you may think, consciously or subconsciously, that the venti would be too much, but that the tall would not be enough. You are psychologically enticed to choose the size in the middle, the grande, because you perceive it as average. But Starbucks also has a fourth option that is not advertised, a short, which is even smaller than the tall. If you walked into a Starbucks and saw "short" "tall" or "grande" on the menu, you would be more likely to choose a "tall" because again, you would think to be making the middle of the road choice.

Netflix

This past year, Netflix moved in a similar direction by offering a lower priced option. There is some speculation that Netflix may introduce a tiered system by which the low end service is $7.99 per month, while a premium option is $8.99 and a super-premium option is $9.99. This move would not really be about offering more choice to customers; the purpose here would be to make you feel "cheap" with your $7.99 subscription and move over to the $8.99.

Subtle eh?

I'm not arguing that companies are somehow evil for charging prices in this way. It is up to the consumer to really think about what their needs are when making a purchase. It is my hope that learning a bit about this type of pricing strategy will stop some of you from being fooled into buying more than you really want or need.

Women, Marriage and Prosperity

Why Poor Women Have A Harder Time Rejecting Marriage

Over the past several years, many Americans have seen their dreams put on hold. Individuals within our society often struggle just to keep afloat, despite the many things that weigh them down. Unfortunately for women, marriage, or rather, the lack thereof, has become one such weight.

It would be nice if love was the only factor in the modern marriage game, but unfortunately it is not. For women especially, socioeconomic status plays a huge role in whether or not a marriage will occur and why. Let me explain.

Sarah and Mary

Let's consider two women on opposite ends of the income ladder, Mary and Sarah. Mary is a successful lawyer who lives comfortably in a spacious Manhattan condo. Sarah is a single mother of two who works at a fast food restaurant and at a Walmart. Despite their hectic lives, both women fall in love. As her relationship gets more serious, Mary begins to contemplate marriage. She considers whether or not binding herself to a man will restrict her independence, slow her career progression or contribute in some way to a male dominated world. As Sarah contemplates marriage, she thinks of raising her two children on two incomes rather than one. For Sarah, the prospect of marriage could mean not having to worry about going to bed hungry.

Both women are in love, but their relative needs are quite different. The wealthy Mary has the privilege of considering marriage in an abstract way, and wondering how it may affect her future lifestyle. Mary has a lot of power in deciding whether or not to get married. Struggling Sarah on the other hand, sees marriage as a question of love, but also one of opportunity. Sarah's decision on whether to marry has an immediate and tangible affect on her own lifestyle and on that of her children. Effectively, she has less power.

Now of course, Sarah and Mary are completely made up. But their stories parallel the reality of being a woman in America. Without using a value-judgment, the fact remains that married women tend to have brighter economic outcomes than unmarried women. And for women floating around the poverty line, this matters a lot.

Compare the top line to the bottom line: married working woman vs. unmarried working woman. Think back to struggling Sarah and imagine the improvement in her life and her children's lives if she moves from the red line to the green line. Mary, who is already floating above the green line, does not care.

Judgment Free Reality

My goal here is not to claim that poor women should get married or that men should rescue women from their sad lives. These numbers are in many ways representative of the persistent and unfair gaps in pay between men and women. But regardless of how fair or unfair these numbers are, they are reality. Sure we can and should work to make changes here, but for right now, marriage is an important predictor in lifestyle.

When I said judgment free I lied, I do have one judgment before I close. Our society always teaches young girls to want marriage and to hope for it. Girls dream about their wedding days and plan them out for years. But what about young boys? Our society never tells boys that love is important. We teach boys to follow their dreams and make big changes in the world with their careers. For boys, love is taught to be an afterthought. Perhaps this is the real problem. 

Worcester Needs a New Highway

Bringing the Airport to Life

I want to begin this post by saying that in almost all cases, I think that the construction of new highways is not a good idea. I tend to think that highways are a waste of public funds that could be better spent on things such as public transportation. But, the city of Worcester is particularly unique in that it is currently not well served by highways. 

Worcester is the second largest city in New England, but it has a poor road network compared to other major cities. There is only one highway that runs through the city, I-290, and one that runs to the north of the city I-190. Most cities have the fortune of having highways that run through the city as well as a beltway that encircles the city. 

Worcester could benefit from a beltway loop for two reasons. The first is that currently, anyone who lives on the west side of the city is about a fifteen minute drive from an interstate. This dramatically increases commuting times and because there are no highways or viable forms of public transportation, main roads become unbelievably clogged in residential neighborhoods for hours at a time. If you live West of the city outside of the city limits, your commute is likely even more unfortunate.

The second reason is that Worcester actually has an airport which has started offering daily flights. The city has struggled for years to make it's airport a viable option, but it is largely ignored for airports in Boston and Providence. One major reason is that right now it is quite inconvenient to fly from the airport as it is difficult to access. If Worcester wants to expand it's airport and bolster it's economy, it must make the airport more accessible.

From the highway, it takes 13 minutes and several winding roads to find the airport when there is no traffic. And there is always traffic. Signs directing traffic are poor, roads are bumpy and it is just unpleasant trying to get to the airport. If Worcester has any chances of competing with customers flying out of TF Green or Logan, it needs to improve airport access.

Here is my proposal.

Beltway

Worcester should build an interstate, presumably named I-490, that would connect the Mass Pike with I-190. The route could go around the outside of the city through relatively undeveloped sections of Auburn, Leicester and Holden. It would link all three of these towns more readily to the Mass Pike and allow commuters to reach their jobs much more easily. These western suburbs of Worcester, and the west side of the city itself, could actually begin to expand just as communities to the east of the city have done.

But more importantly, it would link the airport directly to the mass pike. It would suddenly become convenient for residents of central New England to fly out of the Worcester airport. They would have easy directions and not need to worry about driving through the clogged city to catch a flight. I strongly believe that this would give a huge boost to the local economy.

America's Growing Social Consciusness

The New Age of Helping

Yesterday I wrote a bit about how McDonalds is losing favor with the American public due in part to it's poor treatment of employees. But I believe that this is just one small piece in a new and growing trend in our society. It appears to me that in a large sense, Americans are beginning to care about one another. You may not believe me or see this yourself yet, but I think this is just the beginning.

Sometime around 2008 something really fundamental changed here in the United States. For the first time in many decades financial hardship hit Americans and it hit them hard. Almost nobody was immune from the effects of the financial crisis. People who had worked hard for their whole lives saw their retirement savings dry up, people watched their neighbors forced out of their homes through foreclosure and many who never thought they would have to worry realized that they suddenly did.

It Really Changed Us

As so many Americans felt the ground shift beneath their feet, they began to realize, whether consciously or not, that they were perhaps more fortunate than they had ever thought. Those whose lives were not destroyed by the crisis realized that perhaps it was not money that determined someone's social value. Instead of building walls of class stratification higher and higher to hide behind, Americans have just started looking over the walls. 

Even as the economy has rebounded, news coverage still focuses on the less fortunate. Instead of ignoring the problems that plague poor Americans, we have begun to really look at them more critically. Restaurants such as Panera have experimented with "pay what you can" models and many other businesses have begun looking for ways to contribute more actively to society. At the same time, many states and even individual cities are pushing to raise the minimum wage so that more Americans can live with dignity.

At the same time, as was the case with McDonalds, Americans have begun to shy away from companies that treat workers unfairly. Fast food sales are dropping and customers are staying away from these stores in protest. Companies such as Walmart which are known for poor employee practices are also suffering in this country. Americans are demanding more equality and fairness. 

The Sharing Economy

One other sign of this growing trend is the rise of the "sharing economy." Essentially this means that people are opening up their personal lives a bit more to strangers around them. There are many companies that provide examples of this. Airbnb, for example, allows people to rent out rooms in their homes for short periods of time for vacationers. Aside from homes, people are sharing cars, food, space and even clothing with one another. 

Just the Beginning

This trend is only beginning to take root in America, but it has the potential to really shape the way that we exist in the world. We could end up becoming more like the socially inter-dependent countries of Northern Europe. But no matter what actually happens, we are in an exciting time where we have begun to think about some of the issues that matter the most.

Out with McDonalds

America's Faltering Love for the Fast-Food King

After decades of domination, fast-food companies are entering into a period of struggle in America. For years these companies: McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's and others, have fattened American's bellies and lightened their wallets. But now for the first time, Americans have begun to fight back against these companies.

People are Fed Up

I mean this literally. Our bodies cannot tolerate many more big Macs and supersized sodas. Year after year Americans and consumers around the world consumed more and more sugary drinks and fatty foods. Obesity rates have crawled up and that has been an explosion of diseases such as diabetes. 

But in 2013 something changed. McDonalds same store sales in America actually declined for the first time ever. This means that despite low priced addicting food options, Americans visited McDonalds fewer times, and spent fewer dollars at this fast-food chain. 

But Why?

I personally can think of two reasons. One is simply that Americans are beginning to become more health conscious and realize that fast-food is literally poisoning them. The second reason though is far more interesting.

It has become clear to the majority of Americans that McDonalds has been taking advantage of it's employees. The company pays close to minimum wage for most employees even while raking in billions of dollars in profits every year. Then the company goes even further and mocks employees by creating "budget plans" for them like the one shown below.

This wonderfully thoughtful budget shows the way that a McDonalds employee would support themselves by working two jobs for about minimum wage. Working for about $8.00 per hour, it would take about 60 hours per week between two jobs to bring in this level of income. Not to mention that McDonald's assumes that it's employees need to spend $0 per month on heat!

Way to go McDonalds. 

The Silver Lining

It appears to me that America as a society is becoming more socially aware of the problems of other people. Rather than just focusing on ourselves, it seems that we are wanting more and more to help out others. Even the suggestion that feeling bad for McDonald's employees may decrease sales is a good sign. It shows that perhaps we are becoming reluctant to support a company that routinely takes advantage of it's employees. If we continue to put pressure on McDonald's, maybe they will even change their practices. 

College's Broken Message

The Road to Opportunity?

Generations of Americans have been told that college is the road to a better life, that without a degree you will likely find yourself trapped in a dead end job and miserable. The children of America are taught to visualize the future through the increasingly narrow lens of a college education. But we have the message all wrong for two reasons.

1. College Isn't Always Financially Rewarding

This is important. To any disillusioned lower or middle class high school student, please take in this message. College is extremely expensive and the costs just continue to rise! For some the expense pays off, but for many it does not. 

The rise in the cost of education has far outpaced the growth of income over the past half century. Every year our students pay more and more to become educated at the collegiate level. Most students have to take out loans to pay tuition while in school. Let's take a look.

Here is the equally bleak picture. This shows that just in the ten years between 2001 and 2011, student loan debt grew by 500%. 500%!!! Right now, the average college graduate is $29,900 in debt. That's a high end car, a down payment on a house, maybe even a year's worth of income. That does not even account for the four years you spent NOT earning any money because you were in school. Not to mention the addition expense for those who continue on to earn advanced degrees.

What's worse is that many students graduate from college and begin in their career paths realizing that they are completely unprepared for life after graduation. College does not always teach the skills and concepts needed to succeed in the professional world. Classroom learning is always different from life after graduation and many people graduate mired in debt and may begin to regret all of those years in a classroom.

2. Money Isn't the Point of Education

Based on point #1 you may think that I am someone who thinks only about the financial impacts of college on life, but this isn't true. What I find even more important is arguably a bit more subtle. Society tells us that money is the point of education, but it isn't. Education is the point of education. 

Studying art, philosophy, music, literature, history, psychology, sociology, archaeology, latin and / or anything else is not supposed to make you rich. It is supposed to teach you something about the world and allow you to develop a passion for something and a greater understanding of the society in which you live. 

If you find something that you love to study, go and learn about it, become an expert. Frame your life around something that you are passionate about. Do something because you love it, not because you think it will reward you with a fat paycheck. You will be much happier following your dreams than doing something just for the money. 

Education and money are two completely separate things, so please treat them as such. 

Summary

Really my point is that we are teaching our children the wrong thing. We should be teaching our kids to love learning and not dollar signs. Life is really about doing what you love and finding happiness and not becoming rich. If you think that those two things are always one in the same you may be in for a wake up call the day that you graduate. 

Snowstorm Parking Cones

Take Your Cones Off The Street!

Here in New England we are at the beginning of yet another winter storm. This year we have been attacked with words such as "smowmageddon," "Polar Vortex" and most recently "Bombogenesis." The fact that our media has nothing better to do than scare us into believing that each storm will bring the end of the world is annoying for sure, but what I find to be much more offensive is the fact that so many people think that it is somehow appropriate to save parking spaces for themselves and their extended families using traffic cones, chairs, or other items.

This is Illegal

Yes really. It is against the law to save yourself a parking space using an object on a public street either before, during or after a winter storm and there are actually several good reasons why. Let's take a look.

You Don't Own the Street

This is fairly simple. A public street is owned in common by everyone. This means that no individual has a greater legal right to occupy the street than any other person. Essentially this creates a first come, first serve environment. Public roads are maintained by the city you live in and this maintenance is funded through taxes, which are paid by everyone. Put simply, everyone pays for all of the roads and therefore is equally entitled to use them. 

Placing an object to reserve a space that is not being occupied by your car is an example of claiming ownership. This would be similar to someone fencing off a section of a city park to prevent others from using it and then walking away. Everyone can see that this is ridiculous. So why then do we think it is okay to do on the street?

Here is a particularly brazen act of space saving. A bag, really?

It is Inefficient

This one may not be obvious at first. It might seem that a parking space is just a parking space and and that saving a specific spot does not necessarily interfere with others. It does. Take a look at this picture for a clear example.

In this photo no cars are occupying the parking spaces, but they are all reserved by chairs. Perhaps the people who own the chairs and have "reserved" themselves a parking space are all at work. But it doesn't really matter where they are, all that matters is that they are not in the spot. 

Suppose for simplicity that these people work from 9-5 and place chairs out in the morning when they leave. Perhaps there is another person who wants to visit a friend or relative on this street at lunchtime. If there were no chairs, the person would have no trouble parking while on a lunch visit. They could then leave and the spot could be open again when the workers returned at 5. But because the chairs are preventing other cars from using the space when unoccupied by cars, it is inefficient. 

Now What?

I admit that it is frustrating to have "your" parking spot taken and have to look for or shovel a new spot. I really do understand, it has happened to me many times. But it is much worse for any given snowy city as a whole when individuals try to own public streets. This type of behavior should not be tolerated.

If you are trying to navigate a snowstorm and you happen to find that a parking space is occupied by a cone, chair or handbag, know that you have every right to move it and take the space. In fact, I urge you to do so in order to help reverse the sense of entitlement that Northern city dwellers feel during the snowy winter months.

What Your Drink Can Indicate About Political Preference

Alcohol and Party Ties

Sometimes statistical relationships can prove to be quite interesting. A new study by The Independent shows that your favorite choice of alcohol can be a strong indicator of your voting habits. They published a chart that shows the relationship between alcohol and liberal views as well as tendency to turn up on voting day.

One observation is that some drinks tend to reveal age. For example, drinkers of Jaegermeister or Don Julio are likely on the younger end of voters. These drinks are found towards the bottom of the chart, indicating lower voter turnout, which tends to make sense. On the other hand, drinkers of wine, who tend to be older, turnout more consistently for elections.

Republicans tend to drink dark colored alcohols while democrats prefer clear drinks such as vodkas or champagne. The study doesn't actually attempt to explain why this is so, but it is always possible to theorize. Despite these differences, it seems that rum, which is shown in purple, does not actually tend to suggest either a left or right leaning individual.

I find it particularly interesting that even though we may not be actively thinking about our political beliefs, we may accidentally reveal some information about our tendencies simply through ordering a drink. This is not to say that these relationships are foolproof or that drinking causes political affiliation, but it is nonetheless an interesting observation. 

America's Broken Dream

Chasing Money and Getting Lost

Once there was a dream. A dream of raising our children with more than we had, a dream of houses on cul-de-sacs, a dream of consumption: The American Dream. Anyone could be anyone; society preached of upward social mobility. For decades, we believed in this dream. We moved our families to the suburbs, worked long hours at work and expected that we could create our own idealized life. 

But did this make us any happier?

It appears not. 

We have now reached a time in this country where our traditional American dream is broken, and economic signs seem to indicate that there may not be a way of resurrecting it, at least not anytime soon. We could take this as a sign that our country is falling apart, but I think that it could provide a wonderful opportunity for us all. Rather than focusing on consuming more than our parents and living in a bigger house, why not focus on being happier versions of ourselves? Why not ask ourselves what really makes us happy? If we focus less on changing our socioeconomic group, maybe we could really all be a bit happier. Most of us have somewhere around 80 or so years to live, why not make the most of our time here?

I realize that this may seem counterintuitive. Doesn't an increasing standard of living make us feel more satisfied? Perhaps it could, but it often comes with sacrifices that we tend to overlook. I want to explore happiness in our society.

Seriously, there are several reasons that the American Dream is worth giving up. 

What Makes Us Unhappy

There are a variety of things that could contribute to happiness in a persons life. Surprisingly, money is less of a factor than many people think. Once we reach a certain middling level of income, money does little to increase our happiness. And sometimes chasing money can actually contribute to our unhappiness. At some point, the cons of more money often outweigh the pros. 

Commuting

One of the biggest factors influencing well being is commute time. People with longer commutes are more likely to be unhappy. The American Dream which has encouraged suburban home building has increased commutes for many americans over time. 

Commutes Over Time

Commuting and Happiness

Taken together, these graphs show exactly that. Over time commutes have increased for Americans despite the facts that commuting further tends to reduce satisfaction. 

Stress and Loneliness

When people are extremely stressed out, they are less likely to find time to nurture themselves. Whether due to full schedules or lack of energy, this also tends to lead to lack of social activity. People who spend less time socializing and more time stressing tend to be less happy.

This chart shows that as social time increases, so does feelings of happiness. People who work long hours in pursuit of larger and larger paychecks inevitably are left with less time to spend with others. The stress from extra work and the isolation from other people is certainly not a positive addition to one's life.

Now What?

So there you have it. Perhaps the American Dream is dead. Perhaps many Americans are dealing with stagnating wages and lifestyles and perhaps the homes that we raise our children in will be smaller than those we ourselves grew up in. 

But so what? Having more possessions cannot make us happier and I have pointed out a few ways that the dream that our society subscribed to actually may have reduced our collective well being. I urge you to reject the American Dream. Manage the money that you do have well, but do not let money become your biggest motivation in life.

Search instead for happiness and your world may become brighter even if your wallet becomes lighter.

50% of African American Men Arrested by Age 23

America's Broken Prison System

It's no secret in America that we as a society really enjoy sending people to prison for almost any crime. In fact, we have the highest incarceration rate in the world: 716 per 100,000 people. This leaves us with around 1.5 million prisoners, about 25% of the total for the entire world. It gets worse. 

The incarceration rate in this country has risen rapidly over the last 40 years and shows little signs of slowing.

Prison Inequality

Some people may be asking themselves if high incarceration rates are really such a bad thing and I could respond with an economic argument showing just how expensive prison is for society. But what appears even more telling to me is how society diverges on how to treat different groups of Americans. The picture above shows the huge disparity between incarceration for males and females. The ratio is about 15 : 1. This could mean that men commit more crimes, but it could also mean that men are treated more harshly by the justice system. 

Let's go further.

I titled my article with a statistic that I found shocking: 50% of black men are arrested by age 23. This is sadly true. If you don't believe me, you can check my sources here, here and here. If you are a young black man you are many many times more likely to find yourself in prison than a young white woman.

Percentage of Population Group Incarcerated

These numbers are so sad. If you were a black man who had not finished high school in 2008, there was a 37% chance that you would be in prison. Compare that to the .3% of college educated white men who were also imprisoned.

Set Up To Fail

Prison is in not helpful to prisoners in any way. A person serving jail time is taken away from their family, away from their job and forced to stop contributing in a meaningful way to society. Sometimes this prisoner may be a murderer, but sometimes they may be a person who shoplifted some food to feed their family.

Aside from the psychological harm that a prison term can cause, it further reduces the chances for success in our America. Think about it. When applying for a job there is always a question that asks about a criminal record and in most cases you are required to disclose everything that has happened in the last 7 - 10 years depending on where you live. If you are a 25 year old black man, there is greater than a 50% chance that you will have to say that you have been arrested. There is more than a 50% chance that your application will be put at the bottom of the pile. When given the choice, most employers would choose a candidate without a record over one with a record all else held equal. 

What else do we expect?

We say that in America everyone should be treated equally, but this is clearly not the case. There are so many ways that we hold people back in this country and incarceration is only one. We as a country need to take a stand and say that this is not fair. We need to give everyone a chance.

So please, stop putting everyone in jail.

2014: My Year to Connect

Connecting by Disconnecting

I have an unfortunate confession to make. For the last several years of my life I have lived inside of a trap. Day in and day out my loyal iPhone 5 has rested beside me and has alerted me anytime someone calls or texts, anytime someone posts a status on Facebook, a photo on Instagram or even changes their job title on LinkedIn. That's not to mention the minor pang of anxiety that accompanies the dull buzz of an e-mail. What's worse than the anxiety that comes with my phone is that which comes without it. Anytime I realize that I have become separated from this critical lifeline, I feel a seemingly unavoidable sense of panic until I am reunited.

I could spend an entire day surrounded with friends and family and realize that I had barely noticed them. I often would pay more attention to Facebook than to the faces of real people in front of me. The only way for me to capture a memory was to snap a photo on Instagram. 

I have decided that this is no way to live.

My Resolution

I spent the last couple of days of 2013 wondering what I might want to change in the new year and could not seem to think of anything of substance. Even though I am 9 days late, I have decided that this year, my main goal is to connect with those around me. Now I could issue some broad proclamation that I pledge to give up technology entirely, but that seems impractical and extreme. My goal is not to deprive myself of the modern world, but rather to achieve greater balance in my life.

This year I want to be more present and devote my attention primarily to whatever is in front of me. I want to free myself from the anxiety that comes with the need to feel constantly connected to my iPhone. And so I apologize to you in advance for all of your texts, calls and e-mails that I do not instantly respond to, for all of your cute photos and funny statuses that I do not immediately like; this year I will get back to you, but I pledge to take my time.

Here's to a happy and healthy 2014!

Poverty in America

The Sad Truth About American Poverty

Depending on who you are and where you are from, you may think that Americans are either extremely rich or extremely poor. Many Americans truly do fit on one of these extreme ends of the spectrum. The middle class has been shrinking for decades and it is easy to assume that we are a society that is divided by social class. The sad truth is that we are so divided that most of us cannot even notice.

What I mean is that rich and poor Americans live in completely different worlds that often do not overlap at all. The wealthy people of this country live in certain towns, shop at specific stores and may not interact with people who are struggling financially on a day to day basis. Let me show you.

These two images show one of the saddest realities about life in America. The color of each dot represents the average wealth distribution of a particular area. Notice clusters of extreme wealth in the Northeast corridor, particularly between Boston and Washington D.C., and in California. Also pay attention to just how dark most of the rest of the country is. This is what I mean. 

Let's zoom in.

This is the world that I grew up in. For most of my life I never left the area of this map. I thought I knew how the world worked; my childhood was surrounded by affluence. I thought that three car garages, granite countertops, private schools and expensive clothes were average. It was rare that I interacted with someone who came from a different world. Nearly my entire region belonged to the wealthiest 5% of society, but I had no idea.

Imagine what it might be like living here instead.

In fact, it is much more likely to come from a place like this than from where I did. Dark shades of impoverished blue cover the majority of the country. Living here, it may be possible to think that wealth is made up and that average means government assistance, living paycheck to paycheck and wondering if you and your family will have enough to eat. 

Bridging the Gap

We truly are more divided as a country than many of us even know. We are so segregated by class that it is really difficult to see those who are not like us, even when we are paying attention. Our perceptions of our country are so skewed. Perhaps the best thing for all of us would be if these colors were spread more evenly around the map. We could all learn so much from increased exposure to those who are the most different from us. 

London's Proposed SkyCycle

London Unveils SkyCycle

Commuters in London have longed urged city leaders to develop safer bicycle routes for commuters. London lags behind other European cities for bike-friendliness, but the city is seeking to change it's reputation. The city has revealed plans for SkyCycle, a network of bike routes to be built over the next 20 years in the city. The project is expected to cost  £220m and span over 135 miles within the city.

Why SkyCycle?

London is notorious in the European community for bicycle accidents. Over the last month there have been several high profile incidents involving cyclists being struck by vehicles. According to an article by BikeRadar, many cyclists in London feel unsafe traveling with vehicles on the roads today. As a result, the city had to devise a creative solution for improving bicycle safety.

The SkyCycle would be built three stories above London's current network of commuter rails. In a city where free space is hard to find, this is a brilliant solution. This not only takes cyclists out of the mix of traffic, but it also offers scenic views of the city at the same time. Each of the routes of SkyCycle could accommodate 12,000 commuters per hour and dramatically reduce the time cyclists spend on streets with cars. This should greatly reduce the number of traffic fatalities.

This map shows an idea for the routes proposed to be built as part of SkyCycle. There will be 209 entrances to the network. Over 5.8 million Londoners live nearby an entrance to the network of routes. This could further encourage an increase in bicycle commuting within the city. 

Despite the cost of building this new bike network, it seems like a great investment for the city of London.