NYC SUMMER STREETS: THE EPITOME OF LIBERAL INSANITY

NYC SUMMER STREETS is an asinine liberal program in NYC this summer. They close down major north-south thoroughfares to ALL motorized vehicular traffic and only allow bikes and pedestrians (joggers etc).

VIDEO HERE.

OF COURSE, THE LIBS AT THE NYTIMES LOVED LOVED LOVED LOVED THE PROGRAM:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has not had an easy time trying to unclog New York City’s gridlocked streets. Most notably, he lost a high-profile political battle a few months ago over congestion pricing. Now, though, the mayor has found a clever way to free at least some of the city’s streets some of the time.

Last weekend, Mr. Bloomberg and his commissioner of transportation,Janette Sadik-Khan, unveiled an innovative program called Summer Streets. Nearly seven miles of Manhattan streets, from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park at East 72nd Street in Manhattan — including a large stretch of Park Avenue — were shut off to car traffic for six hours on Saturday. They will be car-free again for the next two Saturdays this month.

Without honking horns and speeding taxis, the streets became serene parks, open to throngs of cyclists, in-line skaters and strollers. Yoga and fitness classes added to the therapeutic feel. Cyclists and walkers mostly seemed to respect each other, and people found themselves doing something decidedly un-New York: meandering.

... New York is not the first city to temporarily transform its traffic-clogged streets. It has been tried, with great success, in Bogotá, Colombia, where car-free Sundays and holidays are called Ciclovía, and in Paris.

The REAL result is simple: all the surroundings streets - including many major east-west streets - are EXTRA CLOGGED with cars and trucks. YUP: it creates MORE traffic where -- on the weekend -- there would normally be none.

And all those cars and trucks are BURNING EXTRA FUEL - at a high cost - and spewing EXTRA STUFF INTO THE ATMOSPHERE (which - if you're a lib who believes in AGW - is bad because it INCREASES the likelihood of the "impending global-warming catastrophe". And those extra costs actually hurt workingclass people hardest.

As the rich folks jog get their jollies off jogging and biking up the middle of an avenue (OH GOLLY HOW THRILLING!), middleclass folks in cars (who aren't just out for a spin but have someplace they need to get to) are being forced to WASTE THEIR HARD-EARNED MONEY BURNING GASOLINE THEY'D NORMALLY NOT HAVE TO BURN.


And it's so so so so SO typical of the xenophilic libs to look to FOREIGN CITIES for their leadership - as if Bogota and Paris - crime infested cities with far more serious social and economic problems than NYC - had ANYTHING to teach us about civic affairs and municipal management! Sheesh.

The whole lib misadventure is probably costing taxpayers a bundle, too: Though the city "had" to tow hundreds of cars to open the streets - which is a source of extra revenue for the city; they also have to deploy thousands of extra cops to close the streets and oversee the traffic. (I guess the police union likes that.)

This "summer streets" program sees to me to sum up liberal policy making: they fervently desire these feel-good/look-good programs whose net effect is actually detrimental in the real world.

Like their desire to raise taxes on the wealthy or on "windfall profits" of the energy companies.

These policies would actually retard economic growth and increased investment in new energy sources and therefore they would HURT everyone, especially the workingclass here in the USA - and, as our ability to consume declined, it would hurt the global economy (because the world economy depends on US consumption).

But the shallow imbecilic liberal mindset only considers the retributive/redistributive feelgood/Robin Hood aspect of the initial act of raising taxes on "the guy behind the tree", as the saying goes.

The sad and frustrating thing is - because we live in a democracy - the lib can call the shots, sometimes, and RUIN THINGS FOR EVERYONE.

YUP: Obama could be elected (GOD FORBID!) and do idiotic things like SUMMER STREETS on a "grand scale".

It will take us decades to recover - if we can recover at all.

And if we don't recover, then I'd expect the liberals to be okay with that - if not happy: as good little postmodernists, they think the USA is a big-bad-bully who needs to be taken down a notch.

BOTTOM-LINE: Don't be a dupe and fall for the shallow "feelgood" policies of the liberals - like SUMMER STREETS; they aren't remedies; they'll only make things worse.

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.