I split my time between two liberal Democratic cities – Fort Collins, CO and Columbia, MD. Both cities have excellent bike trails*, and the cities were specifically set up to encourage healthy, environmentally friendly lifestyles. The bike trails are the main reason I choose to live in those cities.
In Fort Collins, it has been a huge success. Fort Collins is probably the fittest city on the planet, and the bike trails are constantly packed with cyclists. Columbia on the other hand has very low usage of the trails, and no one would accuse the population of being fit.
So what’s the difference? I don’t know.
* The bike trails in Fort Collins are largely due to the efforts of climate skeptic Dr. Bill Gray’s late wife, who was the very liberal Democratic mayor during the 1980’s.
Many good liberal Democrats are environmentalists, as we may be, and some seem blind to manipulation of environmental causes to suppress individual rights.
Had a chance to visit Ft. Colins this past summer and use the Bike Library. https://www.fcbikelibrary.org/index.php . Beautiful town and University. Dr. Gray’s wife and the others involved there have done a great job.
One of the main reasons I purchased land here, is accessibility to an awesome connectivity of bike trails (rehabbed my soccer tortured knees on that trail) that can can carry me across two states. I am one mile from one of the ‘Ten Most Scenic Roads’ in the US, and seven miles from the largest state park in my state. It is also a ‘Red County’ (by far) and if you do not own multiple guns in this county, you are a freak. Only one homicide in 15 years (a mentally ill son who killed his father with an axe). Property taxes are low and neighbors are awesome. Enjoy your leftist Hellholes, and UNholy Foods.
I will never divulge my location, because it is one of the best kept secrets in the US.
if i cared, and u told the truth, i cud figure it out
Wow. I’m really unimpressed. Accusations of lying with zero proof.
I’m devastated. 😆
Enjoy your insanity moron.
PS – You could figure it out, if you were not so incredibly stupid, and I’m grateful for your idiocy, as neighbors such as yourself would drive down my property values.
PPS – Learn to spell, and stop posting like an 8 year old girl.
Idaho?
Nope! Keep in mind there are many different lists compiled by many different entities that claim a ‘Top Ten’ list, just like the ‘most fit’ lists we see all the time, from many different sources.
But it is amusing to see the delusional postings from those like mpalmer, who make unsupportable claims. Likely mpalmer is someone whom I have embarrassed in the past, and is just out for a cheap ad hom, to make it’s miserable life seem meaningful.
So what is the lie?
Accessibility to an awesome connectivity of bike trails that can can carry me across two states?
The fact that I wrecked my knees playing soccer?
Or that I am one mile from one of the ‘Ten Most Scenic Roads’ in the US?
Maybe it is that I am seven miles from the largest state park in my state.
Could it be that I live in a ‘Red County’ (by far) and that if you do not own multiple guns in this county, you are a freak?
The one homicide in 15 years committed by a mentally ill son who killed his father with an axe?
It must be that property taxes are low and my neighbors are awesome. How obvious! 😆
The only ‘lie’ is that my name is not really ‘Gator69’, so mpalmer got me there. 😉
Oh the humanity! 😆
I do ‘lie’ about my name, just like ‘mpalmer’. And I do this to protect my family from nutcases like ‘mpalmer’, who could be one of the internet stalkers with whom I have dealt in the past. You see, my nephew was named after me and works for Uncle Sam in DC, and my brother works at NASA. I would actually be devastated if either of them were accosted by nutcases like ‘mpalmer’, because of my unashamed truth telling.
A quick search turns up only two previous postings by ‘mpalmer on this site, and both were this month. There could be others, and ‘mpalmer’ could be using multiple aliases. But far be it from to bear false witness against another.
Make Sure Your Vote Counted | Real Science
https://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/…/make-sure-your-vote-counted/
Posted on March 3, 2015 by stevengoddard. Apparently none … View all posts by stevengoddard ?. This entry was …. mpalmer says: March 3, 2015 at 9:15 pm.
Arctic Ice Recovery | Real Science
https://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2015/03/10/arctic-ice-recovery-2/
Posted on March 10, 2015 by stevengoddard. The animation below shows … View all posts by stevengoddard ?. This entry was …. Thanks Gail. mpalmer says:.
The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves.
-William Penn
😆
I think I may have figured it out but I am not going to say a thing beyond this.
https://media2.stickersmalin.com/produit/100/stickers-devil-smile-R1-143760-2.png
Gail, you are welcome any time, as long as you agree to keep this awesome slice of Heaven secret.
People come from all over the world to visit my county, and yet never see more than 1% of it, and we like to keep it that way. The local citiots (about an hour away) are actually afraid to wander off the scenic drive, and yet unconsciously choose to return to their murderous Hellholes daily.
I know the only homicide we had in this county in at least 15 years was real ,and very sad, but I guess it was ruled ‘insanity’ (the boy was truly, truly crazy), and when I checked my county stats this morning, they show zero homicides this century.
We moved alot when I was a military brat, but dad got roped into a high level project at Scott AFB back when I was a teenager, and that kept us at the same address for 11 years. It was another small town with a definite conservative mindset, and the first homicide there in 20 years was my music teacher, who was beaten to death with a frying pan.
Citiots just don’t get it.
All of the moving gets old doesn’t it ?
It was the loss of friends that was hard, but then new and interesting friends would fill that void soon enough. I enjoyed the adventure of new places (and still do), and I would not trade the education that living abroad affords for anything. I have lived on three continents and once could speak three languages. I got to see the world, including America, through the eyes of foreigners and gained new appreciation for what we have/had here.
The only time moving ever really bothered me, was when I would hear friends talk about growing up together, one thing I never did have a chance to do as a child.
I have now lived at the same address longer than any other in my life, and hope to die on this land, just not for a long, long time. 😉
So I guess now I am the only thing getting old. 😆
“what’s the difference?” Without knowing. Maybe demographics?
Colorado, in general, is known as a fit state with one of the greatest concentrations of health conscience populations. And the air is dry. Not so humid that when you jump on your bike you pour perspiration from start to finish of your trip.
The high humidity in Maryland is a big factor. Another one I see is people in Maryland seem to spend more time working and commuting to work. If the person in Columbia works in DC that person’s workday is going to take up 11 hours, leaving much less time to exercise.
I love the fact you said “I do not know.” Most liberal Democrats could explain it without a problem and 95% of the time they would be totally wrong. Such is the vision of the Anointed.
Of course it’s Bush’s fault. What’s wrong with you?
“So what’s the difference? I don’t know.”
The science of demographics provides your answer:
Ft Collins:
White 92.0%
Black or African American 1.4%
American Indian and Alaska Native 1.3%
Asian 3.2%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 0.3%
Other 4.6%
Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 8.8%
Columbia:
White Population 52.95%
Black or African American Population 25.74%
American Indian and Alaska Native Population 0.36%
Asian Population 12.89%
Multi-racial Population 4.95%
Other Population 3.11%
I don’t buy it Kent. As a general rule, the black population in Columbia appears much fitter than the white population. Most of the people at the gym when I go there are black.
When I moved to Columbia in 2002 I gathered from the local paper that one should not travel the paths alone, day or night. Is there a similar thought in Fort Collins? Now my wife and her friends run the paths together so it is not as if they are deemed too scary.
I travel the paths alone day and night in both places. Never had any problems.
Possibly age related as FC seems to have many young people from the east oddly enough.
Ok, alternative hypothesis?
I really don’t know.
I think the CO surroundings are inspiring. Maybe that’s part of the reason. I’m currently suffering immersion in libstania in the Bay area of CA. Hoards of people, but the foothills of this area are beautiful and constant sunshine doesn’t hurt. So I got a mountain bike. It’s also a chance to get away.
Well, for one thing there is more CO2 in each breath at sea level.
Well we can speculate all night about the difference, but until someone actually goes out there and does research on it, we won’t really know. A university student should do a paper on it perhaps…
Once upon a time “liberal” had some approximate connection with the root word “liberty” and Democracy meant something about governing by the people for the people, n that.
Been a while. Hard to say exactly where that train left the rails, but easy to see where it’s going next.
Steve and gator69,
You are really fortunate given that you could meet Scott Denning or Ned Nikolov in Walmart!
Denning is the Montfort Professor of Atmospheric Physics at Colorado State which makes him a “Climate Scientist”. However he is nothing like Michael Mann. He is prepared to discuss climate change with the general public and he is big enough to admit when he is wrong.
Denning used to assert that the warming effect of Earth’s atmosphere is 33 K given that the observed average is 288 K compared to 255 K “sans atmosphere.
https://diggingintheclay.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/unified-theory-of-climate-revisited/
Along with several others I calculated the average temperature of the Moon and found it to be ~213 K:
https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2014/04/18/a-new-lunar-thermal-model-based-on-finite-element-analysis-of-regolith-physical-properties/
Scott Denning has produced his own analysis that allows users to adjust the surface properties of airless bodiesl:
http://biocycle.atmos.colostate.edu/shiny/SimpleMoon/
Isn’t Columbia a bedroom community for DC? If so you have a lot of neighbors who can’t spare much time for fitness, though if you were actually in DC and environs you’d see large numbers of people out jogging at 5:00 a.m.
Hey Steve I just delivered a load of Nestle’s product at the Jack & Jill warehouse in Columbia, MD on Tuesday at 09:00 in the morning. Then had to go up to Essex to pick up sauces and salad dressing on the way back. Had to stop at the TA truck stop to buy a pair of load locks for the back haul. I was in a loner truck and paid the tolls for Ft. McHenry tunne
I wish the rest of the week had been that easy. The next time out I came very close to going to work for another company.
Once back at home I had some personal things that just had to get done and so got very limited sleep Tuesday night/Wed morning. Then I was called Wed. morning and told I would be taking another load of Nestle’s product to the BJ warehouse in Uxbridge, MA. I was to depart at 01:00 on Thursday. I really had to get back into my own truck because of the tolls and because the loaner did not have a New York HUT (Highway Usage Tax) sticker on it and getting caught in NY without one is a big ticket.
Now the Freight Liner dealer where my truck was being worked on is less than 5 miles from my house. I went there personally three times during the day to hound them into getting my truck fixed. They finally had it done at 11:00 PM Wed. And so I drove to the company garage and parked my personal vehicle and then had someone from there drive me back to the dealer to so I could pick up my truck. Then I drove my truck to where the loaner was parked and transferred my stuff out of it into my truck. Then I drove the loaner to the garage and turned it in and drove my vehicle back to my truck.
Finally I could actually start work and hooked to the trailer, did my inspections and paperwork and took off at exactly 01:00. I drove to my normal stopping place along I-90 at Oneida, NY when on my way out to MA and took my break. Then I received the message on my qualcom telling me my back haul would be out of Long Island City, NY. That is in the Borough of Queens right on the east river across from Manhattan.
I was shocked. In a meeting over a year before we had been promised the we would never be dispatched for a back haul out of the Boroughs of NYC. And here they were sending into the center of the city. Then I got pissed. And I mean job quitting pissed!
It just isn’t worth it to go into that city from a perspective of this driver. Besides the terrible driving conditions and traffic there are places where no driver should be forced to go. Places where every store front has the roll down steel door and window shutters. Places where larger facilities have block walls surrounding them with razor wire spools on top and the walls are covered with spray painted gang signs. I’ve been such places for weeks at a time before at other places in the world but then I was armed with deadly weapons, wearing body armor, and had highly trained bad asses fitted out the same that had my back. Also the probability of an accident jumps by a magnitude and thus the drivers safety record, so important for gaining employment with a good trucking company, is at an elevated risk. For me, an extra $150.00 doesn’t even come close to justifying that risk.
I called Kirtis who is my friend and the guy in charge of those dispatchers that sent me that message. When he returned my call he answered “Hey buddy, what’s going on.” My reply was “Kirtis, don’t Buddy me, your sending me right into the belly of the beast and promised all of us that that wouldn’t ever happen!”. And that was the tone of our conversation. He explained it was “special circumstances”. A mistake had been made and the company was committed to take the load so it had to be picked up. They would pay me an extra $150.00 to do it. My final words were “I’ll do it” and then I hung up on him while he was still apologizing for it. But I had made sure he knew that there was a good chance that this would be the last load I ever pulled for the company. Needless to say I got little sleep during that break.
After I delivered at 07:00 on Friday morning at BJs and while driving 190 mi down to that pick up I just continued to stew. “Special Circumstances” or not, I had been lied to. And NOBODY involved had the stones to call me before sending that message to explain because they knew they were wrong. When your going to make a guy take one up the wazoo for the team it is always good idea to provide a little KY Jelly before you do so. Then they are less likely to scream so loud. Bad news NEVER ages well and I knew damned well that when I had been dispatched from the terminal they already knew, or at least were pretty certain, I was going to sent on that back haul.
As I entered the heart of the beast and got off at the exit to go down into that crazy bull crap I shook all that off because total concentration to the task at hand was required. It was all I suspected it would be. The place I picked up was on 239 56th Ave one row of buildings from the east river and less than 1/2 mile south of the east end of the Midtown-Queens tunnel.
When one goes into places like that the GPS gets really wacky sometimes and hard to interpret because there are so many weird intersections, low over passes, restricted bridges, and other things. And because often there are changes to truck routes that have not been yet updated into the GPS. All of this is why larger trucking companies that haul a lot of loads into and out of NYC have drop yards out side of the city where the over the road drivers drop their loads going into the city and pickup loads coming out. From those drop yards dedicated city drivers who know the city and do nothing but pick up and deliver there take care of it.
I picked up 12 pallets of refrigerated Chinese food. Not a person I talked to or tried to talk to at the place had even a 6th grade level command of English. They were all Chinese. Getting out of the dock the right side of my trailer cleared a parked car by less than 3″ while my drivers side mirror was clearing a lamp post by less than an inch as I climbed over 5″ curb onto the side walk to get out. That is truck driving and not something that is exclusive to NYC, but the kind of situation which one is far more likely to encounter there.
Twice on the way out my GPS tried to take me where the signs said don’t go there with a big rig. I followed the signs and made it out just fine. In fact, despite the traffic, the whole ordeal lasted only a little over three hours which is making excellent time. I still had to deal with the bumper to bumper crap though and had to make my way through a two lane road where there was fire equipment on one side and double parked straight trucks on the other. If you aren’t aggressive enough you’ll never get anywhere but if your aggressive at the wrong place at the wrong time your going to have a problem.
Once out I began to stew again. From my perspective the loss of my future services to the company were worth a lousy 12 pallets of Chinese food. This, from a company that had a guy that had “Driver of the Year” for three different years on the side of his truck that told me that as far as he was concerned the Atlantic ocean starts at the Ohio-Pennsylvania border and he would never go east of there.
I made the call to tell dispatch I would need to take my personal days on Monday and Tuesday to seek other employment. Then started making phone calls to contacts to find that other employment. It was hard for me to do because I really like my job and like the Company I work for and the terminal being so close makes it very convenient and inexpensive to go to and from work. But I will NEVER drive a big truck into the NYC again and figured it would be best to get a job where they would never have any reason to force me to go there again. I already know of an opening where I would never be within 500 miles of the east coast that pays well but still not as much as I make now. And from now on with the Company I was with, every time they sent me east on a one way load I could never again be certain that I wouldn’t be dispatched there. Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, Jersey City, and Newark and such places can be bad enough but have done them all before with this company and others I’ll to there. I don’t like it sometimes, but will do it. But NYC, never again!
After my break on the way back, and a chance to cool off, I reconsidered and decided to talk to them again about it. So after I had dropped the trailer and parked the truck I called Kirtis on his own phone even though it was Saturday and he was off work. He explained that he had told the dispatcher to call me before the dispatch message to Long Island City was sent and surprised to find out that hadn’t been done. Then he told me that he had gone to his boss and told him he was really afraid they were going to lose me because of this and was told that the loss of any driver because of a back haul out of NYC is not worth it. So now the policy is that no driver will ever be dispatched for a back haul out of NYC without their specific consent FIRST! We also talked about some other things that had been bothering me and I found I had been misinformed about some of those things and he informed me of things I hadn’t known. I decided that I would stay. But if the day comes when a dispatch to NYC comes over the qualcom again I will refuse and if they try to force me I will still refuse and when I get back I will clean out the truck and turn in the keys. No if, ands, or buts, about it.
Good for you Rah for making them back down.
As you said there are city haulers with day cabs who haul loads to lots outside the cities. Taking a rig with a sleeper attached into a city can mean the difference between fitting and not fitting into a city’s tight spots.
For those not familiar with big trucks:
This is a long nosed Pete. (The long wheel base gives you more stability)
http://triplerdiesel.com/pictures/picoriginal/14916.jpg
This is a day cab and built to give you the best view and shortest length truck for city driving.
http://www.1-87vehicles.org/images/GMC/gmc_astro_blue2_lg.jpg
Most long haul truckers refuse to drive in NYC for the reasons RAH mentioned.
Also note that there was plenty of time to hire a city driver to haul that load to a pick-up lot. Someone was either too lazy or too cheap to do the job.
Come to think of it, the reason you were not told until the last minute was because the dispatcher KNEW it might occur to you to insist the load be at a transfer lot. Either there was a major language problem or the sales rep blew it and bid too low for the load. Either way you got stuck paying the price for someone’s mess-up.
May be your buddy can find out who the turkey was and see to it he gets an arse chewing.
My buddy fire who ever did it but won’t happen. Setting up the broker loads is a more complex task than most of the work done in dispatch and finding people to do it is difficult. I know the score. I know Grant who is in charge of that little section and he’s a good man. I know the girl who set that load up too. She is rather new at it.
Fact is that brokerage is better for both the drivers and the company than it has been for some time because of Grant. But the girl made a mistake and dispatcher that accepted that load made a mistake.
They had a new driver that had only two weeks on the road set up for that run I did to Uxbridge, MA with that Long Island City back haul. Kirtis saw that and changed it for me to do it. That was the right thing to do technically.
The second load I ever hauled in a big rig went to the Bronx. But then I HAD to do it because I had to finish a year at Schneider to get my training for free. You see the scam is that these big trucking companies open driving schools and get government dollars to do so. The trainee, before licensing but after getting some training signs a contract agreeing to work for the company for a year for the free training. For the first 2 months the driver is paid at a reduced rate under scale. If the driver doesn’t complete the 12 months he/she is charged at a pro rated rate for the training. Back when I went through the training was valued at $3,600.
So the more new drivers they had trained they can get to quit quickly, the more cash they were ahead because the government had already subsidized the training but they could charge who ever quit for it again.
Anyway, they had accepted the load and it was dumped on me. Those involved knew it. But I can be pretty intimidating and I suspect that is why I was not called before hand by the dispatcher as Kirtis had directed her to do. The girl that did it is a nice girl. A divorcee with two daughters that lives in a trailer. I like her. If she had called me she would have gotten an ear full but I would have done the load then talked to Kirtis about it when I got back.
But I knew none of that when the message came over qualcom.
Your showing a cab over day cab model. The tightest turning design out there except that is a three axle model. A two axle would turn tighter but could only gross 63,000 lb. with loaded trailer instead of the 80,000 a three axle can legally haul without permit in most states.
I like cab overs except in slick road conditions they’re damned near impossible to control.
Anyway. It’s over now. Though I made a mistake in my testament above. I said “But I will NEVER drive a big truck into the NYC again”. That is not exactly accurate. We do have a lone run into Queens delivering Pepsi cans to a bottler there that I will do. It is not a back haul and I have done that load before and getting in and out from there is not bad at all. But the fact is the last time I did that run they sent me right down on Broadway in Brooklyn to get used vehicle batteries for recycling. And it was my description of driving under the Elevated Train tracks to get to that place that prompted them to promise no more back hauls out of NYC again.
Unlike anywhere else I’ve ever been NY marks it’s clearance based on potential snow cover. Everywhere else if an underpass is marked 13’6″ then your good to go with a standard box trailer. In NYC if it’s marked 12′ 6″ you might get under it and you might not. Any lower than that forget it and to be really confident of clearing it needs to be marked 12′ 10″ or higher.
Also big rigs are legally forbidden in Manhattan but go there all the time. They only write those tickets if there is an accident or something else happens. It’s all a big legal game that is total BS. They need the stuff but they hate trucks. I’ve often fantasized about what would happen if every trucker refused to enter NY state and some other states that are so unfriendly to big trucks. Just three days of nothing coming in or going out would end their scam for good I suspect.
Rah, I showed the cab over day cab, three axle model because it is the best model for hauling an 80,000 load in city conditions. Not only does it have the tightest turning and best fit, you can also see the idiots suddenly J-walking in front of your truck.
I am not surprised that it is illegal to haul big loads in the city. That is what the load transfer lots are for. The city traffic is bad enough without having a Schneider newbie trying out his wings and getting lost. If the city actually wanted to do it right they would fine the NYC corporations receiving and sending loads and not the drivers.
I do not like regs but narrow congested city streets are a good reason to do a major bit of planning. Unfortunately politics not planning is what we always get. And yes, a one week simultaneous ‘vacation’ by all truckers heading into the big cities on the east and west coast might change a few minds about EVIL PETROCHEMICALS. But even that might not penetrate a liberal progressive brain.
I think it would get it through to them because the people would be on the verge or rioting if truckers boycotted going in for just three days or so let alone a week. The grocery store isles would be picked bare of many items, including things like tampons, disposable diapers, toilet paper, etc. What ya gonna do when the gasoline pumps run dry? When there is not pet food? When there is no milk or other short term perishables? So many things we all take for granted would be in very short supply or not available very quickly for millions upon millions of people. Remember just last winter in the extreme cold the US DOT suspended their hours of service rules for propane tankers because of a shortage during that very cold time.
Nope! It would not take long to get the message across to the people and they could hate truckers all they want and it wouldn’t make that much difference because many of them all ready do.
You should consider Gainesville, FL in winters instead of MD. We have decent bike trails and adding to the network all the time. Despite being a lib Dem island in N. Fla, we have a tea party mayor and two others on city commission. Mainly because voters reacted to one party rule that have us a biomass power plant and higher utility bills, among other “think global act local” policies.
My mother lives on the south side of Payne’s Prairie. My advice would be to live in Marion County, and avoid the leftist campus crowd of the university, and all the leaches it attracts. She lives minutes from where ‘Doc Hollywood’ was filmed, and I have biked those trails, they are indeed very nice.
It is possible to be a conservative and respect the environment.
Those people are called conservationists. Many here are conservationists as opposed to eco-nuts.
Agreed