Three Smart Things That Aren't

SmartCars, Smart Growth, and some smart phones aren't smart.

I tried to fit in a SmartCar at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh recently.  I didn't fit well, nor would my family of six that, with Grandma, was seven people that day.  We'd had taken four SmartCars to tool around the 'Burgh instead of one mini-van.  Not smart.

Then, there's Smart Growth.  In Ohio, the term has proven to mean neither smart nor growth.

In Ohio, the term has come to mean the "fighting-for-my-piece-of-the-pie" group.  Their mantra is "fix it first" which has a hidden agenda.  They believe by fixing all the old stuff only, we'll make sure no one can move to the suburbs because we'll halt all capacity-building new highways. 

I say the "smart" thing is to get a bigger pie.  Let's grow our highway capacity so our income covers both fixing our old highways as well as building more. 

 

Lastly, smart phones.  I like my Windows Mobile phone and consider it quite smart.  However, not all phones deserve the term smart.  My daughter has had T-Mobile "smart" phones from which she can't download her contacts or other paid-for information.  How smart is that?  Not smart to buy.

Time to better define the term smart.