(7th is a series of posts on Lehigh University)
“But let’s keep our eye on the ball. That [a walkable campus] is not what the Gadfly is raising questions about.” (Gadfly, post #6 in this series)
I admire that you are worried about low wage workers, but I think you are missing one important point. Many of these workers may already walk or take the bus to campus. If so, there would be no hardship at all imposed by these changes. In fact, it sounds like people who already take the bus or who choose to utilize the shuttle will actually benefit by having more money in their pocket. (streets.ahead, post #5 in this series)
The ball Gadfly is keeping his eye on is how low wage, non-unionized workers – some, maybe many of whom will be Bethlehem residents and tax payers — will be impacted by Lehigh’s self-conscious parking decisions on the “Path to Prominence.”
After all, one of the ways you measure a just society is the way it treats its most vulnerable people. (Does that sound silly, sentimental, old-fashioned? Gadfly is always sensitive to the charge of being a blubbery bleeding-heart. Tries not to be.)
And Gadfly literally penciled into his spiral notebook (not taking notes on his phone yet, like many of you modern technophiles do) a recent, inspiring observation by one of our local elected officials that there was “increased advocacy for people of low income” at City Hall.
Let me tell you, that wakened a smile in the little child who still lives within Gadfly, the child who grew up in an across-the-tracks neighborhood called “Tin Town.” (Our scrub football team was the “Tin Town Tigers” – colors, faded red and white — you gotta love it!)
Gadfly is simply asking questions. Questions do not imply hostility. Questions imply ignorance.
The Admin at the info session Gadfly attended was not prepared to answer the question of who would use the Northside Commuter lot and how the cafeteria-grounds-cleaning, etc. folk would be impacted, if at all.
Gadfly would simply like some conversation on this subject.
Gadfly doesn’t want this to be a tempest in a teapot.
And, to comment on streets.ahead’s two points:
1) yes, might be no hardship on low class workers; Gadfly would just like to hear Lehigh (and them) say so, and
2) Gadfly is not worried about such workers having a choice of where to park but being forced where to park.
It sounds as if “location-based” spaces on campus will fill up and that the Northside Commuter lot is necessary for the overflow.
Don’t know for sure. Just need more info.
And it is just not clear to Gadfly where the low wage workers fit into “the plan.”
Just need more info.
