| ABOUT
THE AUTHOR |
 |
|
Hello, good
evening and welcome to the urbanity website. My name is David Bleicher, and I am the sole
author of this project. |
I was born in 1975 in West Bromwich, an industrial town in the English Midlands. I don't
remember much of West Bromwich because my family moved to London when I was a year old.
For most of my childhood, I lived in a semi-detached house which was located within easy
walking distance of shops, parks, bus lines, and a commuter rail line which took me to
school during the week, and to the sights and sounds of central London at the weekends.
I studied Architectural Engineering at Leeds University, and lived in various
accommodations including dorms and a four-story Victorian row house. My third year of
studies was spent abroad at Pennsylvania State University, in State College PA, where I
met my fiancée, Andrea. After graduating from Leeds, I lived in Manchester, England, for
one year, first in an apartment that was 5 minutes' walk from my workplace, and later in a
house that was 5 minutes' bus ride from my workplace.
In 1998, I obtained a temporary visa, and moved to the USA to work for an engineering
company in State College. Andrea and I lived for one year in a high-rise apartment, and
another year in a 1940's townhouse. It was during this time that I developed an interest
in transportation and city planning. Living in England, I had taken it for granted that I
could go almost anywhere I wanted on buses, trains, and by foot, but once I moved to the
USA, I found my mobility severely restricted by the fact that I did not own a car. I
noticed that not only was the transportation system in the USA much more geared towards
cars than in Europe, but that towns and cities were planned around the needs of cars, with
little thought for pedestrians and transit users. I wrote numerous letters to the local
newspaper during this time, and even published a few articles, on the need for better
transit services, and more responsive city planning. I also availed of the excellent
libraries at Penn State, and read numerous books on these subjects. After a year and a
half of relying on an inadequate transit system, I acquired my first car.
In July of 2000, I made another move,
to Carrboro, North Carolina, in the Raleigh metropolitan area. Although Raleigh is
probably one of the least urban metropolitan areas in the world, Carrboro and its
neighbor, Chapel Hill, are probably the most urban part of that metropolitan area, with a
reasonably well-designed urban fabric, and a rudimentary bus transit system. I started
work for an engineering company in October, after a long wait which gave me time to
compile this website. I am sad to say that I now live in a two-car household: Andrea and I
both need cars to get to our respective jobs!
I am a member of The Village Project, an ad hoc group of citizens campaigning locally for
land-use and transportation reform, and also of Carolinas Association of Passenger Trains,
a bi-state organization campaigning for the improvement and expansion of passenger rail
service.
In the future, I hope to become more active in campaigning for better transit and
city planning, and I would eventually like to move to somewhere more walkable, either in
the USA or back in Europe.
