Tell you one thing, friends...some days it's like DEJA VU...ALL over again.The first story here is about the CITY of Fort Wayne, Indiana (or, as I prefer to call it...Fart Waste, Indiana), and how they are robbing homeowners (What? Again you say?).
Had some tree guys come by yesterday and start sawing away at TWO of the trees along the property line.
So, naturally, I do what ANY red-blooded AMERICAN homeowner would do...I put on my Philly PD Highway Patrol hat, holster my gun under my jacket, along with pepper spray & tactical knife, and went outside to see WTF was going on (after a few good pictures taken).
When I asked them what authority OK'ed the work order (read "murder") of one of the trees, I was told the CITY because it was "strangling" the utility pole (it was not), and that it blocked the YIELD sign and the intersection (it had done NEITHER, and most of these "locals" prefer to not pay attention to ANY signage anyway). What I DID find out as I spoke to this fellow was amazing.
We have no sidewalk along the side of the house where the (defenseless) trees were "violated".
And I have a architect scale drawing of MY property boundaries...all well and good, right?
Not so fast.
The CITY lays claim to OVER FIVE FEET OF MY PROPERTY along the street (in the event they would place a sidewalk and curb there), so that means I'm being charged TAXES for a "property" that is SMALLER than the ACTUAL property lot size.How frigging amazing IS that?
What a SCAM....you pay taxes on say, a 130 x 60 ft. lot w/ house, and the CITY takes away FIVE FEET from that entire 130 ft. run...astounding. That's around 650 square feet that I really DON'T have to pay taxes on...that I AM, AND I have to MOW that damn plot as well, when the CITY "officially" owns it.
What a frigging SCAM.
I wonder how many OTHER PEOPLE have been snookered this way?
Funny thing is, IF the city OWNS that area (which they apparently DO), then WHY can't I get the CITY to properly BERM the area with STONE (as per city ordinance) anyway?
They "say" it's NOT their property, but in fact, it IS.
Another case of the city LYING through it's rotting green teeth at US, the taxpayers!
Betcha the city (and county) wouldn't take too kindly if I "decided" to PRO-RATE my property by having a surveyor "take off" the CITY OWNED area and then refuse to mow it, and bill the city BACK for the taxes I ERRONEOUSLY have been paying to them for THEIR property ALL these years. Wha'cha think about THAT?
All you readers in Allen County or Fort Wayne (or anywhere else across this nation)...check your property boundaries...YOU might also find yourselves being BILKED by our local governments. Unless you PREFER to pay for yet another "someone else".
And speaking of being "taken for a ride"....
Our President has announced new "guidelines" for the CAFE on our vehicles (and that doesn't mean better cup holders for our morning "joe").By 2016, vehicles MUST (read SHOULD) be getting a lot better mileage than we're seeing NOW (35 MPG is a nice, round number...don'cha think?).
Seems we've been down this chunk of bad road BEFORE...like right at the end of the OIL EMBARGO of the mid-late 1970s. And we ALL know how well THAT worked out for us, don't we?
Still, some folks can't wrap their brains around the whole PHYSICS aspect of making ANY vehicle get better mileage.
It's called a TRADE-OFF, people.
If you want to get BETTER mileage, the first (and easiest) thing to do is DROP THE EXCESS WEIGHT (helluva dietary plan for motorists)! In essence, MAKE THE DAMN VEHICLE SMALLER AND LIGHTER!
Now, "IF" this were the UK, where people have basically ALWAYS driven SMALL cars, I'd say no problem, but here in America, we LOVE those gas guzzlers (I personally do not, but I DO drive what I like and suck up the minuses). AND, we like to feel SAFE while driving (wrap that steel around me, baby).
Let's set that WAY-BACK machine Sherman to say...oh, 1978.
Anyone recall some of THESE cars?AMC Gremlin - AMC Pacer - Dodge Omni - Plymouth Reliant - Ford Escort - Chevy Vega - Chevy Citation - Ford Pinto - Chevy Monza - Buick Somerset - Pontiac Phoenix - Mercury Lynx...just to name the most "popular".
If you DO, then you know how well these cars went over (like a pregnant pole-vaulter).
They might have been novel when they first came out, and people thought they were "cute", and they DID get a lot better mileage than the lead-sleds Detroit was still tossing at us, but after the shine wore off, people became disenchanted with these vehicles. Some (like the Pinto) were deemed UNSAFE (yeah, I'd call any car that explodes when I'm rear-ended unsafe...but that's just me), while others were never even given a proper chance.
So, in just several decades, we find that we've come full-circle as far as fuel economy goes. We're back where we started.
And you can expect to see a lot smaller vehicles coming from these recently-bailed-out car companies.
And "YOU VILL LIKE ZEM, YA?...ACHTUNG, BITTE SCHWEINHUND!"Yeah, I'm hearing that from D.C. myself...sounds like 1930s Germany...all over again.
Anyone remember THE PEOPLE'S CAR?
Maybe you have heard of the name VOLKSWAGEN?
Car makers of AmeriKa unite...or ELSE you will wind up in a gulag.
With smaller cars DOES come greater fuel economy...and MORE FATALITIES in car crashes.
What? The government didn't TELL you that?
And you couldn't figure that much out?
Shame on you.
That's a fact of smaller vehicles...unless you're going to ban LARGE vehicles like TRUCKS, and SUVs, and POS ghettomobiles, and FREIGHT HAULERS. Make everyone "equal", as in SMALLER...or else. And while you're at it, REDUCE the highway speeds back to FIFTY, because with these overgrown roller skates, you won't be able to go MUCH FASTER, unless you want to RUIN that wonderful mileage you're getting.
See the problems that inherently come with dependency on OIL?
"Fact of life" time, people.
And don't think ETHANOL will save our asses...NO FRIGGING WAY.I stated here before that Ethanol only prolongs the inevitable. Another band-aid on a compound fracture.
Ethanol burns at about SEVENTY FIVE PERCENT EFFICIENCY of regular gasoline...so WHERE is your savings, hmm? You have to tank up more frequently, because you're NOT getting as many MPGS as you did with plain old gas.
So you say you STILL want a "performance" vehicle? Like a "hot rod"? THAT will rob you of fuel mileage as well...that's another given.
You wanna go 80+ MPH down the highway...don't expect to get 40 MPG...try more like 20MPG, TOPS (and that's if the car is clean and tuned up properly, which most vehicles are usually not).
And don't expect ANY of these "new" vehicles to be something you WANT to be seen driving....they will NOT be.
You will think them UGLIER than "Betty".
But they will get good mileage...just don't get in a wreck...or drive fast.
Russia had a POS car called the LADA...google that up and see what our future could very well become.
I guess all that talk about HYDROGEN FUEL is on the back burner AGAIN (since funding was cut 50% for research and technology). Ditto for LPG and LNG (propane and natural gas, which we have in more abundance) vehicles.
Yep, gotta love PROGRESS (which happens to still be the OPPOSITE of CONGRESS...LOL) Happy Motoring...(while you can still enjoy it).As for me?
Well, they can have my 26 year-old Pontiac Firebird when they can pull my cold, dead hands from it's wheel...and NOT before.
So...whatever you drive, and at whatever speed you travel...
Stay Safe out there, America
7 comments:
Another great post. Always something thought provoking. So it started me thinking about my rights on my property. Who is responsible if some one is injured on that strip of property? My best guess is you the property owner. I live along the river so I see I need to do some investigating.
MS:
Thanks for the compliments...
Thought-provoking...something we see too little of these days.
ANd to think that such things were once the MAINSTAY of life in America.
Culpability for injury along the "right-of'way" SHOULD be the domain of the CITY (or county), but with these mooks, you never can tell.
Living along a river might have it's own problems associated with property boundaries.
There's flood plain issues as well.
(Here, the Hoosiers call them rivers, but back in Philly, we'd call 'em CREEKS...LOL)
Now the DELAWARE...THAT'S a RIVER!
Thanks for your comments.
you probley have an alley in the back yard that the city owns also. my parents had one too. it wasnt an offical alley becouse people used it as a backyard, but it cant be fully inclosed with fencing unless done in a correct manner. i have an alley too. i personally have never fenced in my yard but my neighbors do and they have to have a certain break in the fencing to get in if needed. now my front yard has about 8 feet of city owning it. i used to have a 150 year old tree that was dying. all rotted out on the inside. no one beleived me. the city wont take it down. so i did and lo and behold there was the rotted out stump. everyone asked me how i knew. i told them that it was shedding too many branches and i could feel it had problems. of course i was a nut case then that i thought the tree had feelings. but i really thought it did then and now. it was too me like a cancer patient. just slowly dying away.
oh ya, dont worry about going 80mph down i 70 anymore. for the last few months they have cops all over the place handing out tickets. i havent received one becouse i gave up the idea of ever speeding again and i just put on the cruise and deal with it.
Indy:
Actually we DO have a REAL, bona fide ALLEY (that is used by the few people whose driveway empties into it...AND all the MORONS that use it as a "cut-thru" or to stop by a house down the street to deal drugs out BACK instead of on the street).
This neighborhood is laid out nice...but the idiots exploit that "niceness" and turn it around to serve themselves. Hell, they don't even LIVE around here.
Our BACK yard is fenced in (thankfully) as is the patio, but we really need a PERIMETER fence to keep people far enough away to that breaking our windows becomes MORE WORK for them...lol.
As to the spoped limit...I just do 55-60. I don't need to get somewhere THAT fast, that I need a pilot's license!
Besides, where I'm headed will STILL be there whenever I get there.
Right?
Thanks for stopping by.
You know... you certainly are guaranteed an interesting day down there (down as in south of Wisconsin). You've been living there for how long, ten or fifteen years right? I wonder how much "extra" taxes you've been paying the city for your property that's not really yours... :O <~ surprise and shock. I really shouldn't be surprised, after all, it is the "government."
About them thar new vehicle gas mileage "law" thingie; whatever it is... I read an article on CNN yesterday about that...they want to make the new vehicles get better gas mileage...but then they'll raise the price of gas as compensation. DUH how illogical is that! Why not just skip the 1300$ extra it's going to cost to create these "new and improved" vehicles (that's just the extra expenses they'll tag onto the already pricey piece of machinery); and just lower the gas prices so us poor middle-class sobs who live in the middle of nowhere can afford to drive to our jobs, or school, or where ever, with the vehicles we already own!
Some days I wish we all could be Vulcan...pure logic and no emotion!
P.S. What is this "progress" word you speak of? I remember in high school we were forced upon us the "facts" of which they claim is history...seems to me that it was more like a prediction of what has [or is yet to] come????
Anyways, have a nice day. Live long and Prosper! LOL
GL:
Oh yeah, gas price WILL go up...unfair, isn't it?
And if people get BETTER mileage, they will...(wait for it)...DRIVE MORE (D'OH!)
MORE gas consumption, HIGHER prices, MORE fatalities...
Will somone puh-lease stop this madness?
Thanks for the comments.
B.G.
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