»In which the grass is greener

Pittsburgh shows its progressive attitude: "We need to make transit equal with highways." quoth Mayor Tom Murphy.

The project will extend the light rail system from Steel Plaza to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center and, through twin tunnels under the Allegheny River to the North Shore.

As part of the full-funding agreement, the agency must demonstrate its ability to operate and maintain the light-rail system for the next 30 years to get capital improvement funds -- not an easy task when the governor has been forced to transfer millions of dollars in highway money to forestall record fare increases and service cuts.

And meanwhile, The Chronicle's John King props up London (again):

Livingstone's speech here Friday concerned his 2003 imposition of a charge any time a car enters an eight-mile-square chunk of central London. As a result, 50,000 fewer cars now enter the city on a typical weekday. Many commuters instead ride the 3,000 new buses that make mass transit more enticing.

But this unabashed socialist also has used his office to help clusters of towers sprout in central London -- including a slender glass pyramid that will rise 1,000 feet smack next to London Bridge. That way you keep the financial service firms close by (the better to tax them with). You put a dent in London's estimated demand for 30,000 new housing units a year. You even cut down on traffic -- people can walk to work.