Met Summer Banter

[HIPPYVALLEY]

9 hours ago, TheSnowman said:

Man.  You guys are going to have a Lot to say when I get my Capitalism Talk out.  I’m a Severe fan of Capitalism, and think ANY HINT of Socialism and Regulation is an Utter disaster, making for a worthless, excuse making, lazy society.  Including the Minimum Wage which is asinine that it exists.  The Free Market in a civilized society fixes everything on its own with zero regulation.  Didn’t realize many on here were fans of socialist “Help” people out by unfairly taking from other people ideals.  

[mreaves]

34 minutes ago, Dan said:

My wife wanted to fly but I just didn’t want to deal with it. Plus not many direct flights to rapid city. I don’t mind the drive myself. Will drive about 20
-24 hours in the first stint. Take a night do sleep and finish on Saturday.


.

I thought about flying into Rapid City, I could have used airline miles but I wanted to do the drive and rental cars were crazy when I checked into them. We are doing it in 3 days or so. I like road trips and have always felt that seeing new stuff along the way is part of the fun. 

[UMB WX]

38 minutes ago, Ginx snewx said:

Plenty of rural areas within 45 minutes of major SNE cities but then again who wants to go to the city these days.

Unvisitable  yet millions live in the cities.  Ok

[natedizel]

1 hour ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

I guarantee that most the homeless in that picture have drug abuse problems, cant keep jobs, in/out jail, etc 

Iv seen it first hand with employees i worked with. Nobody wants to live on the street and if you apply yourself and do the right thing in life you wont. 

[Ginx snewx]

6 hours ago, UMB WX said:

Unvisitable  yet millions live in the cities.  Ok

Enjoy 

[tamarack]

12 hours ago, mreaves said:

I've just been booking stays out in S. Dakota and Wyoming for my upcoming vacation.  My son and I are leaving next Friday and driving out west to spending some time around Mt. Rushmore and then heading over to Yellowstone.  We'll spend 2-3 days poking around the park but we probably won't see half  a quarter of what there is.  After that, we are heading back east.  I would really love to see the Canadian border open so we can go back through the UP of Michigan and Ontario.  

Don't even try - that would be the path to exhaustion and frustration.  When we visited DC in 1988 they had (probably still have) a bunch of conveyances called Tourmobiles - jump aboard to get to one's 1st stop, then take another one to the 2nd stop.  Driver of our first ride (on day 1 of 3 visiting there) said that there was more than 2 million things to see on/near the Mall so impossible to see them all.  Pick what you really want to see, and you'll have enough time to really see them.  Good advice anywhere.

[mreaves]

2 hours ago, Ginx snewx said:

Enjoy 

I take the opposite view, cities are eminently visitable, they just aren't where I choose to live.  I enjoy visiting Montreal, London, Berlin, even Boston on occasion.  I just don't want to live in one and am happy to get home.

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

9 hours ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

Anyone who thinks the free market will solve all is stubbornly obtuse just as much as those who think a welfare stare would. The truth is somewhere in the middle. The problem is we have oligarch capitalism and abused social safety nets. We’ve been going in the wrong direction with both. 

[PhineasC]

29 minutes ago, mreaves said:

I take the opposite view, cities are eminently visitable, they just aren't where I choose to live.  I enjoy visiting Montreal, London, Berlin, even Boston on occasion.  I just don't want to live in one and am happy to get home.

When do you plan to visit Baltimore? 

[CoastalWx]

LOL unvisitable. I go Boston all the time. It's a fantastic city. What a cheese head.

[mreaves]

12 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

When do you plan to visit Baltimore? 

I was there a couple of years ago.  Granted, I was there for a training but I enjoyed it.  And yes, I understand there are some real issues in that city and the Fells Point and the Inner Harbor don't represent the entire picture.  Still, I enjoyed my time there and I hope at some point they can turn it around in other areas.

[Ginx snewx]

39 minutes ago, mreaves said:

I was there a couple of years ago.  Granted, I was there for a training but I enjoyed it.  And yes, I understand there are some real issues in that city and the Fells Point and the Inner Harbor don't represent the entire picture.  Still, I enjoyed my time there and I hope at some point they can turn it around in other areas.

Don't get me wrong I understand why people do just nothing there for me that's all. I find ultimate pleasure in natural things. My life has brought me to great cities and I have had my full. I feel bad that the pandemic has really increased crime and homelessness.  Drugs alcohol gangs. There are natural places as well I won't go to such as Hampton Beach and some Boston area beaches. I avoid crowds and especially out of control teenagers.

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

35 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

LOL unvisitable. I go Boston all the time. It's a fantastic city. What a cheese head.

We love visiting big cities. I’ve been to so many of them, easily over 50, and not only in the states but abroad too….Europe, Central America. 

[PhineasC]

51 minutes ago, mreaves said:

I was there a couple of years ago.  Granted, I was there for a training but I enjoyed it.  And yes, I understand there are some real issues in that city and the Fells Point and the Inner Harbor don't represent the entire picture.  Still, I enjoyed my time there and I hope at some point they can turn it around in other areas.

It's sort of like Mogadishu now. You drive in convoy style straight to your destination and drive back out the way you came, taking major highways as much as possible. No detours.

There is something of a boycott going on now by the suburban people who are the ones who actually go to the restaurants and other events. They just stopped going. Baltimore is in big trouble.

[BuffaloWeather]

1 hour ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

Anyone who thinks the free market will solve all is stubbornly obtuse just as much as those who think a welfare stare would. The truth is somewhere in the middle. The problem is we have oligarch capitalism and abused social safety nets. We’ve been going in the wrong direction with both. 

Agreed. We just found out what our country would look like if we gave everyone universal income each month. Look at how many people abused Unemployment during covid. Even now here in NYS with the additional $300 (federal)+$504 per week (max in NYS), no one can find people to work. Some banks/retail/food locations are closing during lunch time for their employees to take lunch breaks because they cannot find workers to come back. The majority of people will take the path of least resistance and effort.

I do think health care is a universal right and shouldn't be tied to an "at will" employer that can fire you at anytime. For instance, I got laid off from a job about a decade ago and got injured playing soccer and my wife got kidney stones that same month after getting laid off. Cobra was insanely expensive, and that month had me max most credit cards. That shouldn't happen. If I didn't have cobra and that occurred a few months later I would have been in medical debt for years to come. 

[HIPPYVALLEY]

26 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

It's sort of like Mogadishu now. You drive in convoy style straight to your destination and drive back out the way you came, taking major highways as much as possible. No detours.

 

Sounds like Newark. 

[PhineasC]

2 minutes ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

Sounds like Newark. 

It't not just the murders there, although they are bad enough. There is so much urban decay and petty crime now. Low-level crimes have mostly been "de-emphasized" by the police and DA so activities such as public intoxication, petty theft, shoplifting, fighting, open-air alcohol/drug sales and consumption, blocking random streets, and public urination are all more-or-less tolerated now. It makes the whole experience down there just not worth it. There is literally nothing in Baltimore that makes it worth dealing with that BS. 

[WhitinsvilleWX]

20 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

It't not just the murders there, although they are bad enough. There is so much urban decay and petty crime now. Low-level crimes have mostly been "de-emphasized" by the police and DA so activities such as public intoxication, petty theft, shoplifting, fighting, open-air alcohol/drug sales and consumption, blocking random streets, and public urination are all more-or-less tolerated now. It makes the whole experience down there just not worth it. There is literally nothing in Baltimore that makes it worth dealing with that BS. 

Tell the truth. You like to cruise Wilkerson looking for prosty’s to take to Tim’s. 

[WhitinsvilleWX]

29 minutes ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

Sounds like Newark. 

I stopped at an IHOP in Newark near the airport a couple years ago. I was hoping I didn’t need a Kevlar vest. 

[Cyclone-68]

28 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

It't not just the murders there, although they are bad enough. There is so much urban decay and petty crime now. Low-level crimes have mostly been "de-emphasized" by the police and DA so activities such as public intoxication, petty theft, shoplifting, fighting, open-air alcohol/drug sales and consumption, blocking random streets, and public urination are all more-or-less tolerated now. It makes the whole experience down there just not worth it. There is literally nothing in Baltimore that makes it worth dealing with that BS. 

Beautiful ball park though 

[WhitinsvilleWX]

3 minutes ago, Cyclone-68 said:

Beautiful ball park though 

Last season was the fist in a long time we didn’t go. We usually go down and catch a weekend sox series. Didn’t work out to go this year either. Hopefully next season. 

[NorEastermass128]

6 minutes ago, Cyclone-68 said:

Beautiful ball park though 

Camden is a gem. I actually enjoyed the inner harbor area when I went to two Sox games there during the Summer or 2017. 

[DavisStraight]

2 hours ago, PhineasC said:

When do you plan to visit Baltimore? 

I've been several times, love the waterfront, I've been down to visit the park.

[DavisStraight]

1 hour ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

We love visiting big cities. I’ve been to so many of them, easily over 50, and not only in the states but abroad too….Europe, Central America. 

We're not quite at 50 but went to London, Rome, Paris, NY, San Fran, Chicago, Philly, Seattle, Miami, New Orleans, I'm probably missing a few.

[Typhoon Tip]

17 hours ago, ORH_wxman said:

The property value argument is a straw man because aesthetics isn’t a very convincing argument to a larger audience. The problem is you have some medium density communities that are very close to high density neighborhoods and amenities but don’t want to increase the density in their own little island.  

If you want to live in a low density area, there’s more than enough room in America, but you have to be willing to be well outside a major city. 

Probably there's also an 'ethnic, racial and economic'  stigma - that's really at the pith of it ( just imho - ) 

People do carry stereotypes - everyone does. Get real.  Stereotyping is not bad, really - liberals told us it was in the 1980s and culture is still trying to cancel what evolution provided humans with, eons ago: the ability to surmise threat from a distance.  It is what happens after stereotyping has been either supported, or proven to have been the faux interpretation.   That's when it becomes racism or ethnic prejudice ...blah blah

Now... not taking sides/dimensions, just my observations.   But that density, I strongly suspect that appeals to the stereotype mechanism, as meaning affordability to the proletariat class; which is more aptly peopled by minority ethnic groups, which are racially ( often ) distinguished, and have less than bigger economic ownership. That's a fact Liberals - not saying it is right. But the guess-work is not without empirical truism.

...And people wanna seem liberal and Kumbaya in one had, while preserving their enclave from being diluted.  You called it amenities - that's fine for me. But I also think it is tribal 'superiority' aspect that is seldom admitted, too.  "Oh great - their goes the neighborhood" 

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

11 hours ago, natedizel said:

I guarantee that most the homeless in that picture have drug abuse problems, cant keep jobs, in/out jail, etc 

Iv seen it first hand with employees i worked with. Nobody wants to live on the street and if you apply yourself and do the right thing in life you wont. 

You’d be surprised how much of it is mental health first and foremost, and, not just being an addict. But hey, keep making assumptions. 

[natedizel]

53 minutes ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

You’d be surprised how much of it is mental health first and foremost, and, not just being an addict. But hey, keep making assumptions. 

Mental health for sure. Not really making assumptions.

What percentage of people on the sidewalk are there cause of badluck or layoff?

You can strip me of all my education and leave me with nothing, you wouldnt find me on that sidewalk. 

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

1 minute ago, natedizel said:

Mental health for sure. Not really making assumptions.

What percentage of people on the sidewalk are there cause of badluck or layoff?

You can strip me of all my education and leave me with nothing, you wouldnt find me on that sidewalk. 

Good for you. Not everyone is the same. Take your own beliefs of that particular situation out of it and look at it with some compassion. Up to 45% are said to suffer from mental health issues, and roughly 11% of the 630k+ homeless are veterans. It’s not all junkies and/or people who are just aren’t that motivated to be better, as you claim. 

[PhineasC]

1 hour ago, DavisStraight said:

I've been several times, love the waterfront, I've been down to visit the park.

Yes, like visiting the US Embassy in Baghdad but with a Red Sox hat on.

[PhineasC]

1 hour ago, NorEastermass128 said:

Camden is a gem. I actually enjoyed the inner harbor area when I went to two Sox games there during the Summer or 2017. 

It probably helped that you were there to watch the Red Sox and not the Orioles...