Degrading the Neighborhood, One Train at a Time

Degrading the Neighborhood, One Train at a Time

Many years ago, the government was building highways, mammoth expressways, all over the country. It all began with the Pennsylvania Turnpike and morphed into the federal highway system. During the time of Dwight David Eisenhower this program exploded. Concrete ramps and long stretches of two and three lane highways connected the cities of the U.S. like so many pearls on a string. It became possible to travel at 55 or 65 miles per hour from Canada to Florida and California to Maine never touching down in local traffic, and bypassing most cities and towns entirely. America hailed the achievement and everybody hit the road. This was America dreaming big, building big and proud as hell about it.

What has this to do with trains you ask? A couple of things, but we’ll get back to that in a little bit.

Have you been having trouble hearing your TV lately as the Brightline trains come through? No biggie, just turn up the volume a little. How about sleeping? If you’re are near a Brightline crossing you might have noticed you are not sleeping as well as you used to. Maybe the blaring horns at 6:00am have shaken you out of a deep sleep, and you just couldn’t fall back to sleep. Maybe you went to work a little frazzled or realized you were getting “bent outta shape” with the wife or kids when you are usually so even tempered. Or, maybe you are the kind of person who accept what one cannot change but still…six trains at 7:00am all blasting the same four toot warning as they approach a crossing a quarter mile away? Is that something you want to live with? Do you have to?

This is where we go back to the highway system. Though it was almost universally accepted as a wonderful thing, there were some things that were not so great and some people who grew to dislike it. Here is why “progress” sometimes is not all it is cracked up to be. 

Traveling at 65 mph on one of the new ribbons of concrete and asphalt is great if you are in a hurry but not so great if you want to see things, learn about new places, meet local people in cities and towns. Small towns that once catered to travelers closed down. No one wanted to stop in the Mom and Pop motel or restaurant if they could cruise through the drive-through, grab a burger and get on their way again without touching the local traffic. New motel chains were built right next to the interstate. Pretty soon even the locals drove out to the highway and zipped over to the new Piggy Wiggly or K-Mart next to the off-ramp of I-95 and the old local, downtown grocery store closed up for good.

In many cases it was easier and cheaper to run the new interstate highways right through the heart of a city or town. Swaths of cities were condemned, homes and businesses demolished and the new highways were built, fenced in and unapproachable or up on pilings above the adjacent remaining buildings. The result was, you had a city or town divided. You had noise and smog and, usually, one side of the highway or the other became isolated and difficult to get to or live in. Blight set in. Crime and decay. Such was the case of the proposed construction of I-95 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A scar path was created all the way from the top of Philly down the state line. A huge undertaking the construction included an off ramp at South Street and a long, straight highway from the Delaware River out to West Philly. This road would have been a “no man’s land” isolating the vibrant homes and businesses of South Philly from the historical Center City. The plan was approved. The banks stopped lending money on mortgages or for repairs on any buildings along the route. The value of the properties plunged.

This where I will try to explain why this road building project has something to do with the noise and congestion of the Brightline construction and operation. Just like the construction of the I-95 off ramp in Philadelphia the governmental officials and corporate interests of Brightline knew there would be a lot of noise and congestion once it was built. They held their meetings and the public put its “two cents” in, the approvals were granted and the tracks were laid. Now the people have to live with it. Or do they?

In Philadelphia a motivated group calling themselves the “South Street Renaissance” pursued a goal to “stop the I-95 off ramp”. They passed petitions. They called the government officials. They protested right down to the time when bulldozers were at the head of South Street ready to raze the first building, and, miracle of miracle, they stopped the construction. Government finally came around! But the real miracle is what is there today. South street and all of South Philly is a vibrant neighborhood, alive and fun and a great place to live and work. The mayor of Philadelphia, recognizing the efforts of the “South Street Renaissance” and the resultant positive effect of stopping the off ramp issued a proclamation on the 50^th anniversary of the group the “South Street Renaissance”, that worked so hard to make Philly a greater, happier place.

If you have a problem with the Brightline signal horns there is a possible solution. There is a mechanism that allows a local governmental body (the Martin County Board?) to apply to create a “quiet zone” and stop the horn signals on the Brightline trains. It is a Federal application and must be submitted by a local governmental body, not an individual. No amount of signatures on a petition will do the trick. No letters or protests against the trains or the Fed’s. The petitions and phone calls should go to the county politicos. They must understand the import of stopping these bothersome, and, perhaps unhealthy, noisy signals. If the folks in Philly could stop I-95, we can stop a few horns. What do you say?