Alltel. Bell South. Time Warner. All partners in the 34-company strong local effort to reduce smog as Charlotte looks to build on three straight years of low ozone in the summer. Yet one of the easiest ways to keep Charlotte’s massive white-collar workforce off the roads during peak smog hours — telecommuting — is never mentioned as an option. Surely someone at Alltel, Bell South, and Time Warner have heard of it. What gives?
Seriously. Last week the Charlotte Business Journal did the same thing in a story on the ozone reduction campaign — talked about car pooling, mass transit, limiting trips, etc. — no telecommuting. Alltel. Bell South. Time Warner. Where are you?
It couldn’t be that telecommuting is frowned upon by the Smart Growthers precisely because it does not change lifestyles, meaning gets people out of their cars and onto mass transit, ideally rolling from one densely-packed development to another. Couldn’t be.
Meanwhile, how fraudulent is it for the local former Knight Ridder outlet to reach back to July 26, 2005 — the only code red day of 2005 out of 214 ozone-season days — for a huge, screaming CODE RED ALERT picture? Truth…or truthiness.
