And "where do city politicians fleebag when they want to hold up legislative decision-making by preventing quorum? Fitchburg?"
Previous Althouse blog coverage of the big Madison lighting-the-bike-path controversy: "We thought if we started calling it the 'Owlpath,' that would help remind people that it gets dark here at night, and that's special...."
And if you don't get the "fleebag" joke, pedal up to speed here. (The state senators fled to Illinois during the great uprising over Gov. Scott Walker's budget reforms.)
November 29, 2012
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23 comments:
Alders?
Why pick on Fitchburg? Is Fitchburg the go-to suburb to make the butt of jokes in Madison? I'd choose Middleton. Sun Prairie, even. Or if you want to pick on the Berwyn of the greater Madison area, Monona.
Aldermen.
Fitchburg. Come on, Farmer, don't be so sensitive - "Fitchburg" has the best comic ring. Besides, the Dem senators didn't flee to Berwyn. They fled due south to Rockford.
As long as shilol is around, a quorum is only one.
Meade said...
Aldermen.
Fitchburg. Come on, Farmer, don't be so sensitive - "Fitchburg" has the best comic ring. Besides, the Dem senators didn't flee to Berwyn.
Berwyn?
Which one?
Gene Autry's birthplace or one of the westernmost towns on the Main Line
Hey, I've got no dog in this fight. I don't live in Fitchburg. Outside of Curry In The Box I have no reason to spend time in Fitchburg. I just don't see why it should be Madison's whipping boy.
If you're looking for a Rockford equivalent, I'd say Stoughton fits the bill.
@edutcher - Berwyn, IL. Or as the Son of Svengoolie would say, "BERRRRRRRWYYYN???"
Isn't Madison Man from Fitchburg?
"Why pick on Fitchburg?"
Fitchburg sounds like some hillbilly town in the Appalachians.
Madison has the shittiest streets I've ever seen west of India. And I got into a traffic jam on University last night at 8pm because the traffic lights through campus aren't synched. Madison has better ways to spend that money.
I don't understand why they can't fix the traffic problem on University.
I don't know what you mean about shitty streets though. Madison streets seem fine to me.
@edutcher - Merry Christmas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AchkTcnE5Jw
Lights will make it easy to look for dropped nickels.
Back before a bar opened near the Krogers, causing them to shut down from 1-6am instead of staying open all night, I'd bike to the store in moonlit darkness around 3am.
Sometimes you could detect a ghostly cow by a fence.
If a car shows up, turn on the light for as long as needed to mark where you are, then turn it off again.
I can't imagine wanting lighting otherwise.
"...the lights presented by the Traffic Engineering department will cause temporary blindness as people move between the bright and dark spots on the path."
Since the lights issue is about safety, this is the best argument against them. I'm sure there are a lot of animals that use/cross that path at night that aren't there during the day -- raccoons, deer, coyotes, etc.
It won't be pleasant hitting something on your bike.
""Why pick on Fitchburg?"
Illinois:Wisconsin::Fitchburg:Madison
The next place over at that level of political organization.
Opponents of the lights should take photos of the nocturnal animals using the path at night. Here are gamecams you can buy from Amazon.
"I don't know what you mean about shitty streets though. Madison streets seem fine to me."
I'm probably being unfair. I lived in impeccable Northern Virginia for 25 years, and am just now getting used to Midwestern streets again. Nevertheless, they are pretty bad.
Isn't Madison Man from Fitchburg?
What a ghastly thought.
So...nobody has a light on a bike at night?
Sorun: My experience in Portland tells me there's nothing cities can better spend money on than bike paths. Except maybe trains.
Because the noisy asshat lobby loves trains and bikes, and you can cover both bits of waste with the veneer of "Green".
(Really, what Sam L. said. If you're riding your bicycle at night, you need a god-damn headlight.
It's not rocket surgery, and it's not expensive or difficult.)
If you laid every weasel end-to-end you still wouldn't reach a quorum.
"...But opponents to the lighting argued that there were no safety hazards on the path, and that the lights presented by the Traffic Engineering department will cause temporary blindness as people move between the bright and dark spots on the path."
As an astronomer, I am generally opposed to the use of outdoor lighting at night. It's usually overdone and uncontrolled. But as a person who also has to get around at night, I see some use in it.
The solution to the problem quoted above is to use amber LED lighting in 'full cut-off' fixtures. The amber lighting preserves night vision, and using full cut-off fixtures minimizes the stray light pollution that ruins our views of the night sky and also minimizes the affects on nocturnal creatures.
If breaking a quorum is wrong/immoral, then why bother requiring a quorum in the first place?
I rode the Southwest Owlpath on my bike in August, from Randall stadium to the end, the day after I drove my daughter down to Madison to her new apartment in the Vilas neighborhood. The Owlpath is really great in the neighborhoods inside the Belt line, but I would think lights might be wise down in Meadowood, which I often read about as one of Madison's more crime-prone areas.
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