For 15 years Susan and I lived in Healdsburg, a town of 12,000 people about 75 automotive minutes north of San Francisco. As a visiting Italian once told me, "Healdsburg is a very rich town." It's a center of the American fine wine industry and a destination for foreign drinkers.
An old train line is being repaired, and soon people from Oakland will be able to ride in public transportation to wine country.
The pressing local question is where should the town open its train depot? The choice is between a location at the town square with its hotels, restaurants and shops or a location six blocks away. The city council recently voted 4-1 in favor of a site six blocks away. Arriving passengers will walk six blocks in the blazing sun to reach a water fountain.
If you are rich, you can ride by in a limo.
I recently asked a transportation expert if there were good reasons to vote for a passenger depot six blocks away from the action. He said, "No."
If there are no good reasons, there must be bad reasons.
Can a train station be used as a kind of sorting device?
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