Public Safety Comes in a Building?

And now in a handy $5.8 million reusable box! Just add water and serve!
So the City Council has approved looking into designs for a new building to be built in the Industrial Park? This building will purportedly serve several purposes- Store mosquito chemicals, have a firing range, have an emergency responder training center, house a fire station, provide a police outpost to ward off hostile and abusive Indian attacks- OK, I made that one up- and who knows what else...? A crib for the X-Men to hang out at?
"Public Safety" can be used to justify a lot of things that are of questionable efficacy. I would urge council members to go back to the drawing board on this. Is there enough what- crime-? in the industrial park to warrant a police station? Isn't there a fire station straight up on Demers, just a ways from the Industrial Park?
How much mosquito spray do we have to stockpile for Pete's sake? What do aerial spray contractors do with their sprays?
The concept of a training facility that would draw responders from around the area, and generate revenue? Doesn't that sound a lot like "housing federal prisoners to offset the cost of a jail"? I guess I'm not willing to give anyone the benefit of the doubt when it comes to this kind of thing. It was nice of the Feds to give us a robot and a new SWAT truck, etc. , but now we see the cost of storing and maintaining this all come to light.
*Sigh* A curmudgeon's work is never done.

UPDATE: Search no more! There is a 30,000 sq ft building west on Gateway that could be had for quite a bit under a million, nicely insulated, partition it out as you need, and there it is! Even the City council couldn't manage to spend more than 1.5 milion on it, I bet..

A CONSERVATIVE YAHOO?

Greetings go out to another new blogger in the GGF area.
"Conservative Yahoo" has a blog now. You can find him at http://2mdh.blogspot.com/ Has had for a few weeks, apparently- just too shy to mention it, I guess. He's been a faithful commentator to other blogs for some time now, must have finally realized all the fun he was missing out on. Sshhh! Don't tell him about the hate mail part- let him find out on his own.
Anyway, welcome to the blogosphere ! Enjoy!

Son of... STUCK IN STUPID

Or, Beneath the Valley of Stuck In Stupid, or Stuck In Stupid Eats Detroit....

Call this post what you want, I'm writing because of something Tu Uyen Tran had on his "City Beat" blog:

"Eliot said utilities are already regulated so that's not much of an argument. He suggested that sometimes businesses are so stupid they need the government to tell them what to do, the example being the management teams at Ford and GM who wouldn't be in the mess they're in now if they'd been forced to make more efficient automobiles."

When recounting councilman Eliot Glassheim's comments Monday night on the 20/20 initiative, he related this illustration, albeit not verbatim, of the councilman's philosophy of what government is good for. Or at, I guess. Mr Glassheim seems to be in favor of the initiative to mandate "renewable energy", and believes that same guiding principle would be applicable elsewhere in the business world. I'm not going to touch renewable energy here, however. My heartburn today is caused by his view of what ails the American auto industry. He believes that had the government intervened however many years ago, and FORCED the American automakers to build tiny fuel efficient cars, they would not find themselves in the dire straits they are in now.
I laugh.
In making so preposterous a proclamation, Mr. Glassheim is in effect saying we consumers who chose to buy and drive large SUVs and pick-ups are wrong to want or need more interior room, more safety, more visibility, more traction, more MORE. Or... maybe we're....stupid.
In Eliot's world, merely forcing the automakers to build cars no one at that time cared to buy would have saved them from- what? The crushing costs of unionized labor's wage and pension demands? Sky-high health care costs? Mandated employer contributions (taxes) ? Short-sighted policies that emphasize shareholder returns vs. long-term growth? What?
We can argue all day (and sometimes I do) about what is killing GM or Ford. But what surely DIDN'T was building what Americans wanted to buy. What good are a thousand acres of Chevy Cavaliers or Ford Aspires sitting unsold? Even when a smaller vehicle is sold, profit per unit is lower because of certain fixed costs per unit. A larger, more expensive vehicle is going to naturally have more profit per unit both in absolute terms and in percentages.
When I read of things like this being said, I cannot help but think that this betrays a certain...arrogance on the part of those who would dictate to others what vehicles we should choose. That this is the way a businessman/ councilman thinks is disturbing indeed.

By the way, I AM glad you're getting better, Eliot. We would miss you if you were gone, and we will always need a few liberals to kick around.......

61,000 POUND NASCAR TRUCKS

Er, I mean, beet season is here. Get the women and children off the streets! Every year, we put civilians into overloaded beet trucks, change their sleep patterns, and then tell everyone else to be careful of mud on the road. What's wrong with this scenario?
Most of these drivers spend 50 weeks of the year driving cars and pickups that don't weigh a tenth of what these trucks do, and then have to learn the dynamics of stopping a loaded juggernaut of a truck. And if they're lucky enough to be driving a farm truck licensed in North Dakota, there are no annual safety inspections required- nope, none. Whatever bald or recapped tires you want, no problem! Brakes shot? Still no problem. But hey, look at that $3000 paint job, and we have the farm name on the door!
And in the name of excitement, run those trucks down south Washington, onto DeMers, and through downtown! Boy, that'll piss off those city folk! The kids at Sacred Heart can pick the beets off the road along the curve in front. Watch for traffic kids!
I know the response: Beets bring umpty buctillion dollars into our communities, yada yada yada. I tell you what- that don't mean a thing to the families of those people killed or maimed in an accident involving one of these things.
Here endeth the sermon for today. In the name of American Crystal, Ag subsidies, and the Family farms. Go forth and vote for the Democrats who perpetuate this insanity. Amen.

UPDATE: Some have taken exception to my views, citing everything from me being a subscriber to the NIMBY principle, to being a city slicker, to a *gasp* liberal! That last one hurt, let me tell ya.
Look, folks, its all about safety- we have established a uniform set of laws that govern the operation and behaviour of professional freight haulers in this country, based on science and practical experience. Those laws govern the condition of the equipment, safe loading practices, the hours of operation, the qualifications, background, physical condition, and knowledge of the operators, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting.
Why, in the name of misty-eyed nostalgia, are those engaged in raising one of the most lucrative of all crops, exempt from all this? Are the laws of physics suspended for the month of October so this particular crop can be harvested? Why aren't potato farmers clamboring to dig all night? I'm sure the argument could be made that their "window of opportunity" to harvest is narrow also, maybe more so.
I await your answers.

GEEZERVILLE HERE I COME

As my latest birthday fades in the rearview mirror, I reflect on the absurd little conversations that happen when working with a younger generation.
One day, I recited along perfectly with the opening lines of the Guns N Roses song, "Civil War"- the part spoken by the Warden from the movie "Cool Hand Luke". One of the young guys was amazed to find those lines were from a movie. And who was Paul Newman? We never got to the fifty eggs part.
Then I mentioned one day a tribute song by the Drive By Truckers- "Steve McQueen" So we had to have a history lesson about him. And the chase scene from "Bullit" And how hot Faye Dunaway and Ali McGraw were. Back in the day.
Oh well. I never understood much of what passed for the pop culture of my parents' generation, either, I guess. Although, I have always liked the Andrews Sisters and Red Foley's music....
*Sigh* Where's my Mason jar? I need a drink.