Randal O’Toole and the Ukrainians
This is Randal O’Toole. I’ll use him as a representative for the dominant philosophy that guides North American land use and transportation policy. Mr. O’Toole is an advocate of car ownership. His logic is simple. If you have a car you have automatic access to a wide variety of geographic employment options at any time of the day or night regardless of weather. If you have a car you can live anywhere you want. If you have a car you can shop wherever you want. If you have a car you can associate with anyone you want. Auto-mobility makes everything about your life better.
Conversely, if you rely on what’s available on foot, by bike, or public transportation you’re options are sharply curtailed in space and time and you suffer the whims of heat and cold, rain and snow along with lower wages, higher prices, and worse living conditions. Looking around at the suburban landscape it’s hard to argue with O’Toole. He isn’t wrong. But it’s more complicated than that… I’m going to use a real life example of how different people find different solutions to the transportation / land use puzzle.
Ми живемо в Сан-Франциско, але маємо дачу з великим садом у сільській місцевості на північ від міста. Пропонуємо дачу українцям для поселення. Є дві спальні. Це недалеко від міста з магазинами, школою та поштою, тож до нього легко дійти пішки або покататися на велосипеді, щоб виконати більшість щоденних потреб. Добре підходить дітям і людям похилого віку.
I sponsored a series of Ukrainian war refugees this year. I created a posting on Host4Ukraine stating “Дача в Каліфорнії” or “country cottage in California.” Ukrainians understand the concept of a dacha. This is a modest part time granny house outside the city where people grow a big garden and enjoy a bit of nature during the warmer months. The house itself is nothing special and I’ve furnished it entirely with a jumble of second hand items and things brought back from various trips. It really is as close to an authentic dacha as you can find in the States. While it isn’t going to win any awards for style, it’s clean and orderly and in a great location in Sonoma north of San Francisco. It also has the virtue of no missile attacks.
At present count I’ve sponsored ten Ukrainians. (I’m going to describe the first six here for the moment. Perhaps I’ll write about the others at a later date.) They arrive, get oriented, secure proper documents, and slowly integrate into their new lives. I describe myself as the bridge, not the destination. I meet them at the airport, provide free accommodations, food, cover the gas and electric bills, drive them to their appointments, and generally make them feel welcome. Along the way I show them the highlights of the area for fun.
So far all the Ukrainians have been from Kherson which is seeing some of the worst ongoing destruction. The most recent bombings killed enough civilians to prompt the official mass evacuation of all children from the territory. Older people are reluctant to leave their homes and become refugees abroad. But the young have too much to gain by leaving.
Before anyone arrived I received a continuous live feed of information. Everyone has a television studio in their pocket these days. As is so often the case, if you ask ten people what’s happening you’ll get fifteen answers. I don’t spend any of my time searching for The Truth. Instead, I explore how different people respond given external reality.
I started with a young couple. They absolutely don’t see themselves as refugees. The young woman in particular wasn’t having any of the “poor baby” sympathy crap. She’s smart, well educated, ambitious and determined to get on with things. They were always going to leave Ukraine in search of better prospects. In fact, they both had lived and worked abroad before the war. They were born after the Soviet Union collapsed and their families endured a great deal of economic pain. Life eventually improved just in time for this new war to set them back all over again. You can be a patriot. Or you can have a better life. Pick one. Even if the war ends tomorrow there’s going to be a twenty year rebuilding period to get Ukraine back to where it was since so much critical infrastructure has been destroyed and so many young people have fled or been killed. The war solidified their understanding that there was no future for them back home.
This first couple were my guinea pigs as I slowly learned how to navigate multiple overlapping and intertwined bureaucracies. On paper these things all sound straightforward and simple, but I can assure you they absolutely are not. I’ve worked with enough Ukrainians now to understand it’s a three month ordeal. The Social Security office was reasonable because the system was rational and the staff were genuinely helpful. But the process still dragged on. Perhaps I’ll write in detail on the topic of uninsured medical services coupled with mandatory federal health certifications at some point. It’s not for the faint of heart. In the end they received their documents and began the steps toward legal employment. That was very satisfying.
I had already been giving driving lessons to Ukrainians who had been sponsored by friends in San Francisco. I continued with the young couple when they arrived. To be clear, on a really good day I’m a deeply mediocre driver. But what these people needed was use of a free car and road time to practice. I was essentially ballast sitting in the passenger seat making small talk as we toured quiet country roads. This began what we now call Uncle John’s Driving School. So far I’ve helped eight Ukrainians pass their tests and get a license.
A month later the second batch of Ukrainians arrived. They were a family with two little kids. I was slightly better at navigating some of the bureaucracies because I had already been to all the offices. But that didn’t make it easier or faster to chip away at any of them.
The young couple moved into the garden shed that functioned as an external bedroom. This gave everyone a degree of privacy and made sharing the kitchen and bath in the main house a bit more comfortable. This was always meant to be a temporary arrangement. We began to call the shed the Honeymoon Suite, which quickly got shortened to the Honeymoon.
I always knew I had great neighbors, but they really shined when they heard I was sponsoring the Ukrainians. Before the family arrived one neighbor asked how they were getting from Europe to California. I told her we hadn’t gotten that far in our plan yet. She volunteered to buy the airline tickets. I didn’t ask her. She just offered. Four transatlantic Lufthansa tickets aren’t cheap. Everyone was so incredibly generous and willing to help. It made a huge difference.
So… Here’s the transportation / land use thing I’m going to focus on right now. One of the reasons I bought this particular house was its location that hit precisely the right balance between a bucolic rural setting and a walkable, bikable built environment. Owning a car is helpful, but not necessarily mandatory.
The house is a block away from a county wide trail that allows for safe, pleasant travel without a car. In fact, this trail is extremely popular with tourists. People pay good money to come to this town for fun. It’s common to see twenty or thirty bikes parked outside a cafe, restaurant or winery.
When the young couple first arrived I showed them the bicycles I had on hand and invited them to use them. I directed them to the post office, grocery stores, and usual quotidian spots five minutes away. I also pointed out the bus stop a couple of blocks from the house. You can get to the county government center in the next big town over for $2. They began exploring and quickly discovered they could go down to the river for a swim or to town to take care of business without a car. A car would speed up the trips, but at a greatly increased cost relative to their budget.
The second group of Ukrainians had small children. When they first arrived I walked them around and pointed out all the same places. I took them to the primary school in the village. It’s a twenty minute walk or an eight minute bike ride. Bicycles, even the relatively fancy ones designed to accommodate kids and groceries, are wildly less expensive than a car - both in terms of initial purchase price and ongoing maintenance expenses. As I was describing these options I could see the look on their faces. They were completely blank and uncomprehending. I realized they had zero interest in walking to anything. They were never going to ride a bike anywhere. They were not on board. Full stop.
A week later I drove them out to suburbia where they bought a big second hand vehicle. As they signed the title transfer papers in the kitchen their desire to achieve the American Dream was palpable. They wanted the full package. Walking and bicycles are for peasants. They weren’t having any of it. On the drive home they talked about the need for a second car. Dad would be driving to work once his employment authorization papers arrived. And mom was going to need to drive the kids to school and go shopping.
Here’s what happened with the two kinds of Ukrainians I sponsored. The young couple did the math and realized that if they remained in Sonoma they were each going to need a car to access better jobs farther away from the house. The cost of buying and maintaining two cars was wildly out of sync with their financial reality. They moved to San Francisco where access to jobs and culture are concentrated rather than spread out. Walking, biking, and public transit are fast, cheap, easy and pleasant. Their economic and social options exploded compared to life in semi rural Sonoma. The switch to the city was made possible because I offered them a free apartment for a period of time while they got established. (I’ll be writing about this specific property in the future.)
Meanwhile, the family with kids is enjoying life in Sonoma and is on track to be a two car family as soon as possible. They will spend whatever money is required to achieve their personal goals. It’s what they want and it’s what they will ultimately achieve one way or another.
I am exceptionally fond of all these Ukrainians. I love them and want them to find their way to whatever makes them happy. But here’s the tricky part. Each group is currently living rent free - either in the city or the country. Their tenure is based on a limited runway of sponsorship largesse. At the end of that period (to be determined) they’re going to have to become self supporting, or at least articulate their trajectory toward independent living. I’m not going to throw anyone out onto the street. But there will be pressure to demonstrate a clear course and schedule to life after my sponsorship. Rents are high in both locations. Home values are insane in each place. They can all either find high paying work, or they can find cheap accommodations elsewhere. That’s up to them. Not my job. Either way, the ghost of Randal O’Toole will follow them wherever they go.
