NO CRY FROM SEPTA

Did you hear that silence? That's the sound of SEPTA not asking for a financial bailout. For most of the last decade, spring meant "pitchers and catchers report," the Flower Show, and SEPTA going hat in hand to Harrisburg for help to patch a leaky budget. But with Governor Rendell having provided a long-term funding solution for the transportation authority, no budget crisis. In fact, SEPTA is in a growth mode - with no transit increase on the horizon to pay for it: "SEPTA Raises Spending, Not Fares." Mark my words: as populations increase, climate change continues to be an environmental/political/economic issue, and energy prices soar, cities are going to boom, and cities that have good transit infrastructure to move people around without creating congestion and pollution will really boom.