icon Blueprint for June

The Joy of Commuting

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4 min read

In the summer following my freshman year at college, I had the privilege of interning in an over-the-counter trading room on Wall Street. But the privilege came with a catch: getting there. Each weekday morning, I would drive to the train station to catch the 7:00 am Long Island Railroad train from Huntington to Manhattan, an hour’s ride on those rare days when the train was not halted along the way. I don’t think the LIRR trains were air conditioned in those days; and if they were, it often was on the fritz. Since Huntington was near the beginning of the line, I was fortunate to get a seat in the mornings. But I almost never got one on the return home in the evening rush. After the morning commute, a long, loud day amidst the endless shouting in the frantic trading room, the subway ride from Wall Street back to Penn Station, the hot, hour-plus train ride standing pressed against sweating people on all sides of me, and the drive from the station, I arrived at home around 8:00 pm, ate dinner and passed out for the night.

If a purpose of internship is learning life lessons, that summer was a success. I pledged to myself that I was going to live smack in the midst of whatever city I landed a job in. Through much of a long career in Manhattan, Toronto and Washington, I have been able to live within walking distance of my office. In Toronto, I had but five blocks to walk, but in my first October there, when the sun began its annual five month vacation, I went to Eddie Bauer and splurged on the longest, heaviest hooded coat I have ever owned. It was like wearing a tent. My family called it my Nanook of the North getup. Still, the brief daily walk, often through sleet and snow, was preferable to the commute of my youth.

Let’s face it, commuting is a bitch. It can make your work day into your entire awake day. As the week wears on, you wear down, which isn’t great for your employer. It cuts into family relationships. The kids who feel lonely until their folks get home go to bed still lonely. And sex becomes exclusively a weekend activity.

And so I am a huge advocate of workforce housing. Anyone who has been crushed recently in rush hour in Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco, most American cities, has to be. Commuting is bad for you, your family, your health and your employer. It eats into creativity and productivity.

This issue is highlighted with case studies of a variety of workforce housing projects that address this issue.

The implementation of Income Averaging has encouraged more development of and conversion to workforce units. In a market strained by rising construction costs, it has made projects more economically feasible. And it has somewhat limited displacement as residents’ careers improve. To provide evidence, staff writer Mark Fogarty visits Dominium’s Park Avenue West project in Denver. (Income Averaging Generates Workforce Units)

Resort towns cater to the wealthy, but the wealthy don’t cater for themselves. In the exclusive ski town of Keystone, CO, Gorman & Company is constructing the Village at Wintergreen to house the workforce needed to keep the town functioning but unable to afford the $1.2 million average home price. Staff writer Mark Olshaker reports. (Weathering Wintergreen)

Massachusetts is frequently a leader in innovative housing policy. It is already embarking on the 2.0 edition of its Workforce Housing Initiative, partially due to the success of Gateway North, ten miles outside Boston in Lynn, the first project completed under this 2016 incentive plan to add workforce units to buildings in planning stages. (Workforce Housing 2.0)

And some companies are so concerned about keeping employees close by that they support or fund housing their staff can afford. As Scott Beyer reports, there is a long history of this in American business and this has caught the attention of and inspired some of the major companies in the valley of tech south of San Francisco. (The Evolution of the ‘Company Town’)

I hope you enjoy this issue—but at home please. Not on a train.

Marty Bell, Editor