4 to 5 bucks for gas coming!?

[Javaman]

43. I offer the second suggestion as a way to offset

the economic hardship that would be suffered by these folks.

The fuel credits would work in tandum with relocation.

It's one thing to move, but it's also an economic hardship to people having to that relocation.

It's not an all or nothing situation. Everything has to be done in steps.

If with the fuel credits you also offer housing credits to those who move, then a phased in policy of credits being removed over time, to match the house hold income, then people would be more open to the option of moving closer in.

but all of this would be dependant upon the city opening up affordable housing within city limits.

I have actually thought long and hard about this issue and have worked with groups brainstorming over how to approach a society with a lot less fossil fuels.

One other idea that had been floated, would be "job swaping". Just a theory of course.

The other was "satilite" offices. Where no longer there would be "central hubs" for the larger businesses or corporations.

And for those who work in jobs that require them to still drive into the city, those people would get preferential treatment for housings. aka emergency workers, police, firemen, doctors and nurses.

After them, it would be people in public works and public transport workers.

The real issue at hand, isn't the fact that people refuse to move per say, or even economic, there are also political forces at work that wish to keep certain areas free of the "riff raff". Basically the upwardly mobiles that don't want to have a mechanic living next door.

this is a result of the increasing economic divide in our nation.

Myself, as much as anyone that grew up in this nation 40 years ago, grew up in a suburb made up of doctors and lawyers who lived side by side mechanics and policemen. (FYI, my dad was a mechanic for the dept of sanitation in NYC).

And due to the now economic and class divide, people are less apt to move let alone be accepting to those of a "lower class".

The onus has to be taken off class seperation in order for any city government to move forward in making opportunities availible for those who live beyond the city limits and commute 40 miles one way.

And the only way that can happen is via understanding, compassion and to decrease the economic divide.

The solutions needed to fix the problems with transportation, fossil fuel, distance from work and the reasons why there isn't affordable housing is an amazingly complex problem that can't be solved by telling people to fend for themselves. That only creates more divide and sadly, more poverty.

And just as a qualifier, I fully understand that not everyone who make a 30-40 mile commute one way is of a lower economic situation. My work with the brainstorming was aimed only at those who don't have the economic means to move or to make a job change.