Retarded government decisions

[AtomicLabMonkey]

Originally Posted by nKoan

Yeah, artistically its all pretty cool, but realistically, it doesn't seem functional or pratical. Its art for arts sake, which is fine and very pretty, but it also looks like a big waste of public money. I'd rather Cal Trans build a new -- functional and cost efficeint -- building, then spend the money saved on the potholes in front of my parents house.

/Rant

Why is government always spending money on random, impractical shit when there is always a ton of stuff that needs to be fixed? This is really starting to piss me off lately. The city of San Luis just spent upwards of 1/2 million dollars on police enforcement for ONE WEEKEND in order to completely shut down any and all Mardi Gras celebrations here. Riot gear squads, cops on every block, command centers, remote cameras all over the city, full page ads in the papers & TV commercials warning people to "Stay home, and stay safe", "The party's over", etc. (WTF!?)

Meanwhile, this city has some of the worst roads I've ever seen and every time it rains new potholes open up. Thanks guys, for a real brilliant use of our money... morons.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by sti deede

I read the article where I found this building. This building only cost $145/sq. ft. that is really reasonable. That number includes the cost of the art installation. The building created a million usable sq. ft. so the overall cost was pretty high. I guess my questions are if they really needed this building, and does it function well for the people who inhabit it.

Just because that building was reasonably priced per sq ft doesn't mean that the $50,000 (or whatever the cost of all the corporate art on that thing was) couldn't have been better spent say, replacing worn out stop signs or repainting crosswalks or something that might save lives.

And Austin... I feel you on SLO. It's the one reason I don't think I'll end up back there. That place consistantly wants to curb any and all progress. God forbid they spend all that money on the police presence and use it to keep the party safe, while making money hand-over-fist on tourism income. They'd rather spend the money and keep people away so that half-dead old people can drive they're busted ass cars down the middle of Higuera St. with the right blinker on while making left hand turns from the middle lane. They want all the benefits of a big-name school, and a performing arts center, and a tourist trade, and up-scale shops... just as long as there are no people partaking in it. Listen up retards, you can't be San Francisco, or Seattle, or San Diego without the people.

[dknv]

Originally Posted by sperry

...They'd rather spend the money and keep people away so that half-dead old people can drive they're busted ass cars down the middle of Higuera St. with the right blinker on while making left hand turns from the middle lane.

I think I'm going to take this up too, sounds like a funny way to piss off the other 99% of the drivers on the road.

Seriously, Austin, why did SLO ban a Mardi Gras celebration? Did one in a past year get out of hand or something? That's just sad.

[MattR]

Best thread ever.

[AtomicLabMonkey]

Originally Posted by sperry

God forbid they spend all that money on the police presence and use it to keep the party safe, while making money hand-over-fist on tourism income.

Seriously... I just don't get it. They had a chance to bring metric shitpiles of money into this town since Mardi Gras was getting so big here, and the city government just fucking blew it for good. People were starting to come in from all over the state for the big party weekend, and they won't be back now. New Orleans manages to consistently have relatively safe, raging good time parties in the streets for weeks on end EVERY YEAR - if they can do it, so can other cities. But when something goes wrong here the leaders panic, run around flailing their arms in the air and saturate the city with stormtroopers to preserve "order" instead of learning from their mistakes and making things better.

[AtomicLabMonkey]

Originally Posted by dknv

Seriously, Austin, why did SLO ban a Mardi Gras celebration? Did one in a past year get out of hand or something? That's just sad.

Yup, last year there was a riot near the school. From what I gathered there were a ton of drunk people milling around in the streets (Foothill & California), the police tried to clear the streets & herd people around, and a riot broke out because people got pissed off.

Now this year it was police-state central - no M.G. celebrations at all and the city was absolutely clamped down by cops. There were battalions of cops in full riot gear marching through the streets in formation in a show of force, or some shit, even though there was nothing going on. Bunch of dickheads.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by dknv

I think I'm going to take this up too, sounds like a funny way to piss off the other 99% of the drivers on the road.

Seriously, Austin, why did SLO ban a Mardi Gras celebration? Did one in a past year get out of hand or something? That's just sad.

"Poly Royal" Back in the early 90's it started getting out of hand, I think there were riots 2 years in a row. (Course a riot in SLO is like two people walking down the sidewalk after 11pm.)

Anyway, they cancelled the party. A few years later, Cal Poly implemented their Open House instead of the big Mardi Gras party. The idea was to give the masses something to do, but make it more acidemic related, and do sort of a "hometown" feeling deal for prospective students that were coming to check out the school.

'Course, by about 2000, 2001 the Mardi Gras party started coming back. I hear in '02 it got pretty hectic... a friend of a friend of mine went back there and ended up spending the night in jail for "drunken disorderly" or something... know what he did? Walked out of a bar. He wasn't even drunk. The cops were just waiting right outside the door and putting everyone that walked out into a paddywagon to get carted off to the station. Fuck that.

And, since then SLO's been sending the cops out in force... hell, they even bring in Santa Barbara's cops and the riot police. IMO the message the city councel is sending is, "we're the rich people in this town, and we hate you bastard students, even though it's your revenue that keeps this town in the green. Fuck you and your civil rights, we won't let you have a party."

And this is just for one particular event... little things like this are all over the place... like the fact that there have been no apartments build in SLO's city limits since the 80's (apartments = student living space), the time local residents smashed the windows at a Carl's Junior down-town to scare the owner out of town (they didn't want a place open after 11 that catered to students), the laws that prevent cars from parking on the sity streets in front of houses (keeps students from renting homes since the usually have more cars than garage/driveway space allows)... and on, and on...

[AtomicLabMonkey]

Thread split.

Plus, photos of our city's tax dollars at work. Morons.



Gee, she sure looks dangerous.



I'm sorry son, we don't allow students to wear hats in this town anymore. I need to see your papers.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by AtomicLabMonkey

Gee, she sure looks dangerous.

I'd like to offer my place as a half-way house to assist her with her rehabilitation.

...oh, and she can bring the handcuffs.

[Nick Koan]

Ah good. Now I can rant about Santa Barbara's Halloween Police "protection"

I didn't want to de-rail that architecture thread anymore

[AtomicLabMonkey]

I counted three (3) new Gigantor-sized potholes down a 1/4mi stretch of Broad street alone that opened up this morning due to the rain & heavy trucks. With the city's huge budget, responsible thinking and intelligent fiscal decisions, I'm sure they'll be fixed anytime now. Oh wait...

I watched this city's approach to "road maintenance" when I was sitting at a red light on that very same street a couple of days ago. I watched, slightly open-mouthed, as two guys in orange vests ran out into the street in front of me carrying a shovel apiece while the traffic was going the other direction. They proceeded to dump the steaming asphalt contents of said shovels into a pothole, lightly slap the pile of rubble with the shovels once, and scurry back to the sidewalk as our light turned green. Bravo, gentlemen. With such quality repairs in place, I'm sure the road will last another 2 whole hours before that pothole is wide open again!

[sperry]

Originally Posted by AtomicLabMonkey

I counted three (3) new Gigantor-sized potholes down a 1/4mi stretch of Broad street alone that opened up this morning due to the rain & heavy trucks. With the city's huge budget, responsible thinking and intelligent fiscal decisions, I'm sure they'll be fixed anytime now. Oh wait...

I watched this city's approach to "road maintenance" when I was sitting at a red light on that very same street a couple of days ago. I watched, slightly open-mouthed, as two guys in orange vests ran out into the street in front of me carrying a shovel apiece while the traffic was going the other direction. They proceeded to dump the steaming asphalt contents of said shovels into a pothole, lightly slap the pile of rubble with the shovels once, and scurry back to the sidewalk as our light turned green. Bravo, gentlemen. With such quality repairs in place, I'm sure the road will last another 2 whole hours before that pothole is wide open again!

You should have rolled forward, put a rear tire on the pile of asphault, and dropped the clutch spraying every last bit of it about 40 feet behind the car. Then driven away calmly.