Door to Door: The Magnificent, Maddening, Mysterious World of Transportation by Edward Humes

Author:Edward Humes
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-04-11T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

ANGELS GATE

Nearly nine out of ten Americans say their daily commute begins with the crank and cough of a car motor. The remainder report that their morning journeys start with the music of coins falling into fare boxes, or the well-oiled click of bicycle freewheels, or the ancient rhythm of soles on sidewalks. The U.S. Census keeps careful track of these commuter statistics. And, data aside, daily experience and preferences suggest these numbers make sense.

Yet the numbers mislead.

For all our preoccupation with its foibles and frustrations, our actual morning rides or walks to work are the least part of our commutes. They are not the first steps in our daily movements but the very last legs in a far longer, far more mysterious daily journey built on the thousands, even millions of miles embedded in our everyday lives, choices, and actions.

So where does our commute truly begin if not in our driveways?

More than anyplace else, the starting line can be found high atop the windswept Pacific bluff of Angels Gate where, seven days a week, the most valuable shopping list in America is created.

There, inside the whitewashed, antennae-studded headquarters of the Marine Exchange, a very pleasant, very busy mother of four by the name of Debbie Chavez crafts the Magna Carta of the buy-it-now, same-day-delivery world: the Master Queuing List. With it, Chavez holds the lion’s share of America’s consumer economy in her hands.

If you drive it, wear it, eat it, buy it, drink it, talk into it, type on it, or listen to it, some portion has first passed by Angels Gate. From the morning cup of coffee to the tires on your car to the bike you bought to replace that car to the shoes on your feet and the smartphone in your pocket, all or part passed in and out of the control of Debbie Chavez before it entered your life.

“We do keep busy here,” Chavez observes with the casual understatement of a woman who does something extraordinary so often that she mistakes it for routine.

For generations, Angels Gate has been prized for its coastal vantage point. First came the cannons placed early in the last century to stave off unwanted invasion via the waters below. Later Angels Gate became the ideal spot to track a more benevolent but no less disruptive commercial invasion in the form of a daily, miles-long procession of giant cargo vessels laden with . . . everything.

The blocky Marine Exchange control center’s one notable architectural feature, its ocean-facing picture window, offers one of the great juxtapositions in California topography. To the right is a million-dollar view of sun-dappled waves, the rocky enclave of the Palos Verdes peninsula, and the gorgeous green mountain of Catalina Island in the distance. To the left is a $400 billion view of the hard metal angles and industrial bristle of the twin Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the busiest harbor complex in North America, serving as both barometer and driver of the U.S. economy.

Each

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.