Took Greyhound to the Southeastern Association and Law Schools conference in Lantana, Fla. - definitely some interesting experiences:
Began by taking bus during the day (last Sunday). We had an hour and a half layover in Orlando, and I saw what might be the future of American suburbia (well, some of American suburbia anyhow!). The Greyhound station is definitely in sprawl- 4 miles from downtown, with 6 lane roads, single family houses, and the usual big parking lots. But unlike the stereotypical suburb, this area was kind of ghetto-ish. I could see at least one boarded-up home from across the street, saw a couple of people who looked like they might be homeless, was asked for money once or twice. On the positive side, one of the strip malls had a police precinct office; by a not-so-odd coincidence, it had a decent amount of commerce (including an interesting Jamaican restaurant and a pretty well-stocked dollar store).
On the way back, I had to get to West Palm Beach's Greyhound station (at its commuter rail station). First I took a county bus (PalmTran) from Lantana to West Palm. The buses had something that definitely qualifies as "Best Practices in Public Transit"- the bus had numerous copies of "Bus Books" listing every bus schedule in the county. By contrast, in Jacksonville all you usually can find on the bus is the schedule of the route you're riding - and in most other transit systems not even that!
West Palm itself is a mixed bag: it has two very nice new urban developments downtown, chain-dominated CityPlace and funkier Clematis Street. But between the two, and between both and the train/bus station, lies a fearsome abomination of desolation. I walked several blocks down the western, not-so-funky part of Clematis to the station, and for some blocks saw not a single soul, not even a panhandler. (I suppose I should have gone somewhere and waited for a cab, but it looked like the sky was about to open up in a thunderstorm so I hurried - I figured any scary person out there probably had already found shelter!)
