Invest in Free Public Transportation, Not Electric Cars

I recently spoke to the Pittsburgh City Paper for an article Bill O’Driscoll was writing about electric vehicles. I had a slightly different take than most EV enthusiasts: changing the source that powers a large vehicle does not begin to address the rest of the problems caused by developing our cities and countries around privately-owned vehicles.

“An electric car is “still a multi-ton vehicle that requires a lot of money and resources from all over the world to produce,” notes Lolly Walsh. Walsh, a staffer for advocacy group Bike Pittsburgh, speaks as part of the loose-knit international Car Free Network. “If we just develop a different type of car … it’s just going to push back any change that we need to make.”

Land use is one of the major problems with structuring our transportation system around cars — electric or otherwise.

Though not printed in the feature story about Carnegie Mellon’s electric car, I also noted

 

that land use is one of the major problems with continually structuring our transportation

 

system around cars — electric or otherwise. If we just redevelop the car so now we plug

 

it in to an outlet powered by dirty mountain-stripping coal, we’re not improving much.

 

 

We still allow cars on nearly every single street no matter if the residents of that street

 

are young children, elderly, deaf, or blind.

 

Why isn’t an electric car the magic solution that everyone wants?

• An electric car is still dangerous to pedestrians, bicyclists, and other drivers.
• An electric car requires a tremendous amount of land to rest and operate.
• An electric car depends on coal-powered electricity in most situations.
• An electric car will not alleviate congestion.
• An electric car will not level the mobility playing field.

Free Public Transportation Now

A different type of car is not the answer because cars are not the answer.

 

We need to fully fund public transportation and eliminate user fees to get people to use it widely.

 

Fully funding public transportation is the ONLY way we can give every single person the means to get to work, to school, to fun, to appointments, to recreation.

 

As I’ve said before, we should invest in excellent public transportation that is:

1. Fast
2. Free (to the user)
3. Predictable (schedules available at all stops and on phones)
4. Attractive / Beautiful
5. Clean
6. Frequent (always less than a ten minute wait)
7. Everywhere (less than a ten minute walk from most locations)
8. Efficient (Local and Express)
9. Resourceful (should maximize options of local terrain. Pittsburgh for example could use streetcars, along side ferries and the incline to take advantage of our rivers and hills)
10. and has the right of way against all other modes of travel.

Better, Safer, Faster, and Reliable Public Transportation is the Answer

Investing in superb public transportation (in cities) is the way to go to make transportation accessible to everyone. The public transportation that we have in the US is basically an insult — no wonder so many people will do almost anything to avoid it.

Making public transportation spectacular is a much more economical and environmentally-friendly lift than ignoring all the other pitfalls of electric vehicles.

“Housing is Expensive for People but Free for Most Cars”

(Just revisited this article I wrote for Next City way back in 2010. Still holds up!)

Free Parking is Not a Right

We’ve all done it, looped endlessly around restaurants, bars, theaters, our homes, looking for the parking spot that doesn’t require walking too far, and certainly doesn’t involve paying; either in meter, lot, or garage form. For if something is free, isn’t it better to spend a few minutes driving slowly and erratically looking for a space to squeeze into? If parking in a garage could mean paying $6 an hour, isn’t it worth the time to circle around “just one more time”?

Yes, it is. And that’s the problem.

Continuously Cruising for the Perfect Spot

By providing free parking anywhere, the incentive to pay is eliminated and people will continue to drive endlessly looking for that hidden gem of a spot, and once that perfect spot is found, there is little reason to leave.

In an attempt to combat this problem, last month San Francisco became the first city to complete a “parking census” to determine how much land is allotted for parking. Surprisingly, few cities have any idea how much parking exists, and over the past 18 months, the city of San Francisco painstakingly counted every publicly available space, on-street and off, metered and free, and discovered that there are 441,541 parking spaces, 280,000 of which are on-street.

The census revealed that on-street parking comprises 940 acres of valuable land, nearly as much as Golden Gate Park (1,017 acres), one of the city’s most revered spaces. And of that, less than 10 percent is metered, meaning that 90 percent of the spots perpetuate the problem of cruising for the best free space available.

Donald Shoup, the eminent authority on parking in the U.S. had this to say: “In San Francisco, housing is expensive for people but free for most cars.”

Parking Census to Provide Real-time Data

The parking census is the first step in launching SFpark, the first “smart” parking management system which will utilize data collection sensors, additional meters, and an information dispersal system to alert users to available spots. The pilot phase of SFpark is scheduled to start this summer, last for two years, and include 6,000 of the 25,000 metered spaces as well as 12,250 spaces in 15 of 20 City-owned parking garages.

The primary goal of SFpark is to make it easier to park by providing access to real-time information. The expensive new system has a current price tag of nearly $25 million and provides tangential benefits for bicyclists, public transit users, and pedestrians.

I certainly applaud this effort: parking will be faster, bicyclists will face reduced risk from stop and go drivers, buses will be able to move more efficiently, and pedestrians will presumably be better able to predict the actions of drivers. But despite these lofty goals, they are missing the point.

“Housing is Expensive for People but Free for Most Cars.” – Donald Shoup, UCLA Professor of Urban Planning

Land is one of the most valuable resources of any city, particularly one as expensive as San Francisco, and while it is superb that the new system will take much of the guesswork out of parking, what the city really needs is to see massive financial gains from this largely untapped resource.

The city is currently grappling with a massive $522.2 million hole in its collective wallet while sitting on one of the largest potential sources of revenue available in free parking. Instead they have resorted to the uncreative, draconian measures of firing workers and cutting social services. Explaining the recent firing of 15,000 city employees — moving city workers from the payrolls to the unemployment rolls — Mayor Gavin Newsom insisted “We’re actually doing everything to avoid layoffs.”

No, they’re not. By eliminating free parking and charging people for the resources they are using, they would be able to keep people employed, and keep the city working.

Tasty Morsels for the Weekend

And now, for some delightful bits from around the internet…

Chicago is Turning Its Train System Into a Moving Library

Prison Yoga Is Helping Inmates Transcend Their Cells

Americans and Mexicans playing volleyball over the border (Mex and the City)

The Pep Talk Generator

These Portraits Of A 97-Year-Old Woman At Home Will Make You Rethink Growing Old Alone

While We Are Busy Tweeting, Texting and Spending, the World is Drifting Towards Disaster  (Jonathan Franzen)

The Transformative Power of the Gratitude Habit (Zen Habits)

Podcast: Recent, Relevant, Random: Another installment of Benjamen Walker’s Theory of Everything

Postcard Challenge Part IV: August Challenge Comes to an End!

Hello lovelies!

So, can you believe it? It’s the last day of August! Have you had a chance to send a postcard this month? If not, there’s still time to grab one, compose something charming and drop it in the mail. I sent nine but they were not the most beautiful postcards I’ve ever sent. Probably I should have sent 1-2 quality ones and instead of a bunch of just-okay ones. Sorry, friends!

If you’ve stretched your postcard muscles this past month, that’s wonderful because in just one tiny rotation of this lovely blue and green planet where we all live, it will be September! And September is a fantastic time to step up the postcard game.

If you didn’t make it in August, that’s very fine too. Try it in September. You’ll likely make someone’s day, or two!

September Postcard Challenge

Dreamboats, the September Postcard Challenge involves sending One Postcard Per Week! Can you do it? It’s quite a bit easier than it might seem and creates the potential for spreading four times as much joy.

I’m in New York right now (and about to go get a world-class bagel) and I’m going to see if I can find some stellar postcards from this delicious city.

I recently received the postcard to the left from an old flame* in the National Park Service who was working on the new lighting system for the Statue of Liberty that was damaged by Hurricane Sandy. It’s now complete! This postcard has a very pleasing texture and is a non-traditional take on a generic postcard theme.

Now I’ll think of that friend whenever I see a different image of the Statue of Liberty AND I get to keep the card forever. So much better than an “yeah, I’m here” email. Make checking the mailbox fun again!

Start creating and sending memories today!

If you’d like some more postcard inspiration, check out the previous posts in this series:

Postcard Challenge Part I: Invitation for August

Postcard Challenge Part II: 7 Easy Steps to Get Started

Postcard Challenge Part III: Check-in and Motivation

*Isn’t the phase “old flame” pretty great? Let’s get it back in circulation!

NYC Drives Over Vision Zero

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, who self-identifies as a “motorist,” said today that he is considering tearing up the pedestrian plazas in Times Square that became permanent in 2010 in order to replace them with the loud, smelly, crowded, deadly mess of the past.

Of course, he didn’t say it quite like that.

Not People Enjoying Life in Public Space!

Apparently the Mayor and the belligerent Police Commissioner are vexed that the plazas are attracting street performers. For these men, the idea that people are interacting and performing in a public space is far more egregious than the deadly dance of humans speeding (or trying to speed) and honking in private cars, cabs, and Ubers while everyone else is effectively grounded on the too-small sidewalks.

Have they even spent any time in the new Times Square? It is magnificent. And it wasn’t just put there overnight by an overzealous dreamy-eyed urban planner, it became a permanent plaza only after a trial period during which 74% of those working in the area said they preferred the new plaza, not to mention the widespread support of local business owners.

That anyone could possibly want to go back to the time of brake-slamming traffic jams while thousands and thousands of people were relegated to tiny, overcrowded sidewalks is utterly preposterous. If they want to drive their cars, I suggest they check a map. New York City is a grid filled with thousands of possible streets for their personal transit-mobiles.

“The primary mission of government is to protect the public”

Right now New York City is in the process of implementing a “Vision Zero” plan to eliminate deaths on city streets. A it says on the official page of NYC’s Department of Transportation:

“The primary mission of government is to protect the public. New York’s families deserve and expect safe streets. But today in New York, approximately 4,000 New Yorkers are seriously injured and more than 250 are killed each year in traffic crashes. Being struck by a vehicle is the leading cause of injury-related death for children under 14, and the second leading cause for seniors. On average, vehicles seriously injure or kill a New Yorker every two hours.

This status quo is unacceptable. The City of New York must no longer regard traffic crashes as mere “accidents,” but rather as preventable incidents that can be systematically addressed. No level of fatality on city streets is inevitable or acceptable.”

One arm of the government is working to eliminate deaths on city streets while the Mayor and Police Commissioner are intrigued by the prospect of sending the area back in time to an era where death and maiming by car was to be expected.

So, friends, let’s also hop in that time machine and take a look at the reasons why Broadway became car-free in the first place and why reversing that move would be a tragic mistake. Here is my report from February 12, 2010:

“Broadway Now Permanently Car-free“

Yesterday Mayor Bloomberg of New York City made an historic announcement that will have wide-reaching implications for street design and public space transformation around the country.

Broadway in Times Square (42nd St. to 47th St) and Herald Square (33rd St. to 35th St) will now be permanently closed to traffic. What initially started as an experiment to improve public safety and traffic flow in May 2009 is being widely touted as an outstanding success.

The result? Traffic speeds are up on diverted routes, pedestrian and motorist injuries have plummeted (down 63%), businesses are benefiting from increased foot traffic, noise pollution is down and the area is dominated by people rather than modes of transportation.

The move to make these stretches of Broadway permanently car-free is supported by 74% of people who work in the area, according to a survey conducted by the Times Square Alliance.

Take a look at the stark difference in the Before and After pictures of Times Square:

Times Square Before, photo by NYC DOT

Times Square After, photo by NYC DOT

The transformation has widespread support from the business community as well and was called “a 21st century idea” by Dan Biederman, director of the 34th Street Partnership (thanks to Streetsblog).

Build Cities for People

Last October I argued that temporary transformation is a more effective and legitimate way to gauge public opinion:

“People are used to roads and streets and public space being devoted to cars. That’s why it is essential to make the changes initially and give people the opportunity to feel and experience the delight of a public plaza and then to vote. New York and San Francisco are making temporary changes to demonstrate the value of returning space to people and have promised to return them to business as usual if that’s what people want.”

I’ll repeat: If you build cities for cars, you get cars. If you build cities for people, you get people.

New York did this and people love it. The rest of the country should begin following suit immediately.

Throwback Thursday: Mayor de Blasio Driving Over Vision Zero

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio who self-identifies as a “motorist” said today that he is considering tearing up the pedestrian plazas in Times Square that became permanent in 2010 in order to replace them with the loud, smelly, crowded, deadly mess of the past.

Of course, he didn’t say it quite like that.

Apparently the Mayor and the belligerent Police Commissioner are vexed that the plazas are attracting street performers. For these men, the idea that people are interacting and performing in a public space is far more egregious than the deadly dance of humans speeding (or trying to speed) and honking in private cars, cabs, and Ubers while everyone else is effectively grounded on the too-small sidewalks.

Have they even spent any time in the new Times Square? It is magnificent. And it wasn’t just put there overnight by an overzealous dreamy-eyed urban planner, it became a permanent plaza only after a trial period during which 74% of those working in the area said they preferred the new plaza, not to mention the widespread support of local business owners.

That anyone could possibly want to go back to the time of brake-slamming traffic jams while thousands and thousands of people were relegated to tiny, overcrowded sidewalks is utterly preposterous. If they want to drive their cars, I suggest they check a map. New York City is a grid filled with thousands of possible streets for their personal transit-mobiles.

Right now New York City is in the process of implementing a “Vision Zero” plan to eliminate deaths on city streets. A it says on the official page of NYC’s Department of Transportation:

“The primary mission of government is to protect the public. New York’s families deserve and expect safe streets. But today in New York, approximately 4,000 New Yorkers are seriously injured and more than 250 are killed each year in traffic crashes. Being struck by a vehicle is the leading cause of injury-related death for children under 14, and the second leading cause for seniors. On average, vehicles seriously injure or kill a New Yorker every two hours.

This status quo is unacceptable. The City of New York must no longer regard traffic crashes as mere “accidents,” but rather as preventable incidents that can be systematically addressed. No level of fatality on city streets is inevitable or acceptable.”

One arm of the government is working to eliminate deaths on city streets while the Mayor and Police Commissioner are intrigued by the prospect of sending the area back in time to an era where death and maiming by car was to be expected.

So, friends, let’s also hop in that time machine and take a look at the reasons why Broadway became car-free in the first place and why reversing that move would be a tragic mistake. Here is my report from February 12, 2010:

“Broadway Now Permanently Car-free“

Yesterday Mayor Bloomberg of New York City made an historic announcement that will have wide-reaching implications for street design and public space transformation around the country.

Broadway in Times Square (42nd St. to 47th St) and Herald Square (33rd St. to 35th St) will now be permanently closed to traffic. What initially started as an experiment to improve public safety and traffic flow in May 2009 is being widely touted as an outstanding success.

The result? Traffic speeds are up on diverted routes, pedestrian and motorist injuries have plummeted (down 63%), businesses are benefiting from increased foot traffic, noise pollution is down and the area is dominated by people rather than modes of transportation.

The move to make these stretches of Broadway permanently car-free is supported by 74% of people who work in the area, according to a survey conducted by the Times Square Alliance.

Take a look at the stark difference in the Before and After pictures of Times Square:

Times Square Before, photo by NYC DOT

Times Square After, photo by NYC DOT

The transformation has widespread support from the business community as well and was called “a 21st century idea” by Dan Biederman, director of the 34th Street Partnership (thanks to Streetsblog).

Last October I argued that temporary transformation is a more effective and legitimate way to gauge public opinion:

“People are used to roads and streets and public space being devoted to cars. That’s why it is essential to make the changes initially and give people the opportunity to feel and experience the delight of a public plaza and then to vote. New York and San Francisco are making temporary changes to demonstrate the value of returning space to people and have promised to return them to business as usual if that’s what people want.”

I’ll repeat: If you build cities for cars, you get cars. If you build cities for people, you get people.

New York did this and people love it. The rest of the country should begin following suit immediately.

The End of San Francisco

Friday morning I woke up and the first thing I saw was an article shared by one of my favorite authors, Rebecca Solnit (perpetual swoon) on the insane rent explosion in San Francisco. The astronomical cost of living in that lovely city by the Bay is no secret to anyone but just how dramatically it has increased is stunning.

According to the blog Pricenomics, “Today, the median apartment for rent in San Francisco is $3,880 per month. The median studio is $2,722, and the median one bedroom is $3,452. A two bedroom now rents for $4,400 month and three bedroom goes for $5,125.”

Whhh–what?

I moved to San Francisco in 2011 to work with Sunday Streets, the magnificent and wildly popular Open Streets program in San Francisco. Sunday Streets happens monthly and allows everyone the opportunity to experience different neighborhoods free of cars for five hours. It’s democratic and free and for everyone, and completely wonderful.

I knew I wasn’t going to be making tons of — or hardly any — money but I was okay with that because I was so giddy about working with an official program that was (temporarily) giving the streets of the city back to people.

Easter in Dolores Park, 2011

I was idealistic (and clueless) and thought that San Francisco was and would always be a place for people that are “others” somehow everywhere else. I thought it was still a place for people who were writing books and plays, making art, playing music, being themselves, ending wars, and changing the world, not just changing apps.

But I was too late. Way too late.

I had not realized how much San Francisco had been transformed by the technological giants that settled around the Bay. I had known rent was going to be expensive, but I was certain I could make it work. I had some savings and I’d lived in Washington, DC for almost a decade as a nonprofitress so I was no stranger to expensive rents and creative living.

(Phone number is no longer valid)

Since I didn’t know very many people, I made a flier about myself and my housing search and passed it around to everyone I met through my job. Living with a lot of people is one way to make living in pricey cities more affordable and I have lived in an impressive variety of  “group houses” (not homes) with as few as two other roommates and as many as 21, like the cooperative house I loved so much in Chicago. I’m an extrovert and so it’s easy and pleasant for me to live with lots of people, but I can’t imagine how difficult those circumstances must be for people who require serious alone time in order to recharge.

The Washington, DC solution of large houses filled with lots of people sharing resources didn’t seem to be as possible in San Francisco. There were still large houses but so many of them seem to have been split up into individual smaller apartments, making them way out of my price range. A landlord can charge a lot more for six one bedroom apartments in a house than for a six bedroom house.

I just couldn’t imagine  how could anyone afford to live here. How could families? How could people making minimum wage? How could people making lots more than that afford it?

I interviewed at a number of houses and managed to score a pretty great spot in the Mission, splitting an apartment with a guy who was a private chef for some Pacific Heights woman that employed two full-time chefs. He’d had lived in the apartment for ten years so there was some sort of rent control. This fella had one Porsche when I moved in and a couple months later, he had purchased another one and was renting three garage spots for all his posh cars. Our lives were … pretty different. I was squeaking by, devouring my savings on rent and basic expenses and my roommate was the owner of multiple Porsches.

Even doctors and others in traditionally well-off professions are struggling to pay for housing in San Francisco, so how could a lil’ nonprofiting lady swing it?

I couldn’t.

I bailed.

What was the point in trying to stay in formerly-dreamy San Francisco now anyway? The people keeping the city running and interesting and a place worth living in and dreaming about are being forced out faster and faster. Evictions and rapid rent increases are tools for making outrageous profits in the housing market by turning even sub-standard housing into a luxury commodity.

And frankly, it’s just boring.

Who wants to live in a city where everyone does the same thing because they are the only ones who can afford it? Everyone who makes San Francisco the magical fairy-tale land will be gone and people will survive on the memories of what it used to be.

But they’ll have an app for that.

Postcard Challenge Part III: Check-in and Motivation

Terrible photo of a postcard I made for my best friend in March.

It’s Day SIX of the ultra-easy and low commitment August Postcard Challenge.  Have you sent one yet?

To participate in this not-so-challenging Challenge, all you have to do is send ONE postcard to anyone during the entire month of August and share a photo of your postcard on Twitter (to @LollyOhMy and #augustpostcardchallenge), or you can join the August Postcard Challenge on Facebook here. Could it get any easier?

Last week I sent four because I had some postcards in my possession and stamps in my hand. Once you have overcome the obstacle of procuring postcards and stamps, everything else falls into place and you can easily send joy to anyone in your life.

• Have 20 seconds while waiting at the crosswalk? Write a postcard instead of sending a text!
• Have a minute while waiting for your computer to start up? Write a postcard instead of checking Facebook on your phone!
• Have two minutes while toasting your lunch at work? Write another postcard!

Sometimes it feels a little bit like a scavenger hunt to find those elusive blue mailboxes but I just discovered an extremely helpful site with some old-timey internet sleuthin’. Behold the Mailbox map! Of course, you could always have it picked up by your trusty mailbabe at home or work.

Morning Motivation from Pittsburgh

Get some motivation this fine Tuesday morning from these bossy steps in Pittsburgh.

Maybe going up the stairs backwards and upside down isn’t exactly what the artist on the steps was trying to inspire, but the open ended command is means anything is possible. 

Try a non-traditional approach today! Maybe this isn’t the morning to go up the stairs in a non-conventional and time-consuming manner, but take the time to look at things from a different perspective, whatever that means for you.

Go upside down, go backwards, go someplace new, go someplace old, in a new way. Perhaps you’ll find a solution to a head-scratching problem that’s been bugging you for far too long.

Perhaps it will convince you to contact some friends or family in a different way… like the August Postcard Challenge!

Postcard Challenge Part II: 7 Easy Steps to Get Started

(This is Part 2  of an occasional series on handwritten communications. See the previous post “August Postcard Challenge Part I: Invitation)

Sending postcards is easy, fun, cheap and feels great both on the sending and receiving ends. And these steps can be done in any order, except for the last one.

Nancy Drew postcard series. Send a clue to a mystery!

1. Get the stamps. Postcard stamps are just $.35! What? Ten postcard stamps for the price of a latte? Just imagine how much joy you can spread!  I think it’s easiest to buy a pack of 20 to have on hand, then you can toss one in the mailbox whenever something funny or charming pops into your head. It’s like slow, long-lasting social media!

2. Buy postcards.  It’s almost hard not to find postcards. Postcards are available in nearly every drug store but for even better ones, check out  your locally-owned, creative stationary shop. One of my favorites is  Wildcard in Pittsburgh. I could spend hours and thousands of dollars there. I’m also fond of Pandora on the Hill in Denver.

If you can’t find anything in person, I highly recommend the postcard offerings of independent publisher Chronicle Books in San Francisco.  They produce a wide variety of postcard sets such as the ones from bizarro romance novel postcards to Nancy Drew covers to sets of much beloved GRUMPY Cat. You can get packs of 20, 30, or even 100 postcards for less than $20. OR…

Last week’s super cozy postcard set-up

3. Make postcards. Even though writing a postcard is an intensely personal communication, making one takes it a step further. You can mail just about anything and call it a postcard as long as it’s flat, made of paper, and has the proper postage. Getting a handmade postcard is even more exciting and surprising than one from a store since you can tell the sender spent time constructing a personal work of art — for you!

4. Set up a dreamy spot. If you can create a lovely setting for writing or making postcards, the experience will be more enjoyable and perhaps more likely to be replicated.

5. Get the address. Make sure you have the full address of the recipient correct and visible.

6. Write something. Anything! One sentence or many, it’s all up to you. Send a recipe, confess a crush, confess a crime (less brilliant), make plans, share a joke. You don’t even have to wish they were there.

7. Drop it in the mail and start over! 

Postcard Challenge Part I: Invitation for August

Handwriting is a dying art, as more and more communication is done exclusively on the internet. And while email and texting are fast and convenient, much is lost when efficiency is king. You can’t hang a dreamy text message on the wall.

This is what I’ll grab if the house is on fire!

I’m not much of a Luddite (these days), but I believe that the surprise and beauty of receiving a handwritten piece of mail is far superior to receiving an email that someone is thinking of you.

One trickle-down effect of increased electronic communication is the lost pleasure of waiting for the mailbabe to arrive.  Once a cherished and anticipated ritual, now a visit from the hardworking people of the postal service is more likely to cause dread or irritation than celebration. Rather than handwritten envelopes or cards from friends or family, mail delivery is often junk mail or bills. These impersonal and unpleasant wastes of paper, water, trees, and ink are often sent promptly to the recycle bin or landfill.

I think it’s time to rectify this and bring back the joy of checking the mailbox. The postcard is the perfect medium for this. They are cheap and easy to find anywhere. But even more exciting, you can turn just about any paper into a postcard and sent in the mail with the proper postage.

August Postcard Challenge

I’m inviting you to join me on August 1 for the August Postcard Challenge (separate from the much more involved, but wonderful sounding August Poetry Postcard Challenge).

Here’s what it takes:

One of the best postcards I’ve received*. Thanks Caitlin!

1. Send at least one postcard anytime between August 1 and August 31.

To anyone. Just one and you’re in! How about sending one to your mother? You know she’d like to hear from you. Or a friend, one that lives far away or in your town, or both. Or maybe your romance, a neighbor, a crush, the staff of an organization whose work you admire. Someone you’d like to thank for a small gesture, for improving your day, somehow. Or all of these people.

2. Share a photo of your postcard on Twitter and use @LollyOhMy and #augustpostcardchallenge. If you prefer Facebook, you can join the August Postcard Challenge here.

That’s it!

Sunday  morning I’ll have a post with suggestions on getting started, including recommendations for where to find some stellar postcards that will leave your friends and family oohing, ahhing, and giggling for years to come (like that postcard to the above!). Next week, I’ll have tips for making postcards.

And on September 1, the September Postcard Challenge. Write one postcard per week!

What do you think about one postcard per day for the October Postcard Challenge? Could you do it?

(This is part one of an occasional series on postcards and letters. You can see Part II: 7 Easy Steps to Get Started.)