The Chainlink

Another brilliant Aldermanic proposal-- $25 license and mandatory safety course for all cyclists in Chicago

Got a call from a Trib journalist for a reaction.... 3rd ward alderwoman, no time to look up the name which I'm blocking on. Sometimes this job interferes with my internet usage...

Anyone got anything?

How many times have we been here before....

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I'm all in favor of contributing for bicycle improvements. It would possibly reduce the animosity between motorists and the bicycling contingent about who pays. Don't like the $25/year compared to my car and motorcycle. It would cost more to enforce the law than it generates in dollars so ultimately it's a voluntary contribution.

Good luck with that.

He already did. See the Trib article

Tom Dworzanski said:

Rahmbo needs to come out and unequivocally denounce this idea. Otherwise it's going to happen. Not as proposed of course. It'll start as an optional $5 registration with a pamphlet. Then a $5 requirement with a nicer pamphlet. Then a $30 requirement with a pamphlet for first-timers only. And finally a $65 requirement with no pamphlet.

Yea, I saw. After I posted. He's a good mayor. I like him a lot.

Duppie said:

He already did. See the Trib article

Tom Dworzanski said:

Rahmbo needs to come out and unequivocally denounce this idea. Otherwise it's going to happen. Not as proposed of course. It'll start as an optional $5 registration with a pamphlet. Then a $5 requirement with a nicer pamphlet. Then a $30 requirement with a pamphlet for first-timers only. And finally a $65 requirement with no pamphlet.

Maybe you should come up to Edgewater more often. Gays? Sure. Lesbians? Sure. Entitled mothers who think their brood should be allowed to scream in local establishments? yep, that too. But db hipsters who live in $550 apartments? Not really.

Now Rogers Park, that place is a hipster-cesspool, if you ask me...

globalguy said:

Well, thanks for taking the bait, Hipster DB. All I was saying was that with a little cash-based cred (how else do Rahm's bikey minions have an impact) you could get out of your Edgewater tofu flop and actually attend a Mayors Bike Advisory Blah Blah Blah and rage "I paid the fee but they took the bike lanes out of Washington Square!" ... "WTF" my Brooks-saddled Butt ...


h' $550 said:

          WTF?

The trib reporter asked if there had been proposals like this before and I told her there had, and they usually are forgotten quickly but I made it a point to lay out that the media is always all over them and she thought that was amusing.

Davis Moore said:

This is nothing and it's going nowhere. Sounds like some off the cuff remark Dowell made because her constituents (low income old folks etc.) who sit at home ad watch a lot of cable as one of the only things they can afford to do, called her up to freak out about a proposed increase to their cable bill. That's perfectly understandable. So she probably just ran this idea up the flagpole without thinking about it. She's otherwise been pretty supportive of cycling in her actions, which are probably a better indicator of her allegiences than some quickie statement to the press. The rest is just a bunch of media echo chamber. Dollars to donuts no one will be talking about it in two weeks.

Predictably, the Trib's resident Jack Kass weighs in:

www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-1024-20131024,0,...

chicagotribune.com

Dig into your spandex shorts, Little Bike People

City Hall wants its money, and a $100 fee is only fair

John Kass

October 24, 2013

A Chicago alderman has come up with a great idea that every taxpayer — except the Little Bike People — will love:

A $25 city registration fee for adults riding bikes in Chicago.

It's a great idea, but it doesn't go far enough.

Instead of a $25 registration fee, why not a $100 registration fee? That way, Mayor Rahm Emanuel can plug holes in the budget.

When I suggested on Facebook that the Rahmfather could even give Chicagoans free cable TV if he made the bike fee high enough, the hordes of Little Bike People seethed in rage.

"I hope they put a $1,000 fee on beer can chicken so everyone can have free cell phones, Internet and Netflix," wrote bicyclist Grant D. "That way, the 'little cooking people' would pay for us little bike people."

Ald. Pat Dowell told me that she rides a bike, loves the idea of bikes in Chicago and has been a proponent of increasing the number of bike lanes.

What bothered her is City Hall essentially raising the city amusement tax on cable TV, which Dowell said would hit senior citizens the hardest.

The cable TV tax boost was proposed as Emanuel introduced a $7 billion budget with a $339 million budget hole.

Emanuel, who once loudly promised he wouldn't nickel-and-dime taxpayers to death, essentially nickels-and-dimes almost everybody to death — except his favored constituency, the bike people.

"But you can't balance that on seniors," Dowell said. "Most of our seniors don't go out for fancy dinners downtown or spend a lot of money at the theater or concerts. They don't spend their entertainment dollars that way. They watch cable TV. So I thought, 'Who else could contribute?' And I thought about the bicycle riders."

Under Mayor Rahmfather's plan, car drivers will be squeezed for about $120 million in traffic tickets from his infamous speed and red light cameras.

Those cameras are fronted as being all about safety. But who are you kidding, Rahmfather? They were always about the revenue.

And bicyclists — especially the aggressive kind with their spandex shorts, cleats and wild yellow shirts, zipping through red lights — they don't pay a dime.

Why should a driver pay and not a bike rider?

Many bicyclists respect the rules of the road. They're also often in danger from thoughtless car drivers. And no, I didn't write that last line as some verbal prophylactic against the irrational hatred often directed at me by the militant two-wheelers. It's true. There are good little bike people.

But the bad ones should pay.

It's only fair. A $25 registration fee is a pittance. That's why it should be increased to a C-note.

Mayor Rahmfather should also mandate that every bike commuter have a city sticker. And a license plate, so that when they run the red lights, the city's Rahm-cams can take their photos and make them pay through the nose just like the rest of us.

At a meeting with the Tribune's editorial board Wednesday, the mayor was asked what he thought of Dowell's proposal.

Emanuel described Dowell as a thoughtful person and took pains not to criticize her.

But he also took pains not to anger the Little Bike People. He lusts after that hipster vote cycling along Milwaukee Avenue, and he's been featured in the newspaper riding a bike, though without a helmet, because he's probably worried about looking like Michael Dukakis on a two-wheeler.

"As it relates to her tax, she can propose, it's her idea, but it was our view that I don't think that's the right way to go," Emanuel said. "But she'll make her call. ... I want to see the details of what she has to say. I sure don't want police involved in policing whether you bought a bike license. I would rather them focus — as I've been clear on — violent crime rather than, 'Did you get a bike license?'"

Later, I ran into the mayor in a Tribune elevator. He repeated his concern that police resources shouldn't be diluted going after reckless bikers.

I told him police didn't have to do it. He's got plenty of payrollers in the Department of Revenue. If they're going to squeeze merchants on the cigarette tax and squeeze mom-and-pop stores, why not let them squeeze some pro-Emanuel spandex shorts?

"And if they don't have a sticker, you impound the bikes," I said, "like you impound a car."

The Rahmfather kept walking, as if I were a street-corner prophet offering a pamphlet about the end of the world. But he stopped when I said the magic words:

Can't you see all that revenue coming City Hall's way?

Then he took off down Michigan Avenue, quickly walking away, as several bicyclists ran red lights as if in homage.

Imagine Streets & San garbage trucks loaded with impounded bikes. Or bikes that had been hit with the Bike Boot.

You want your bike back? You want your car back? Pay City Hall.

"... Will you just shut up already, you 'little car person'?" wailed Nelson T. on Facebook.

But I can't, friend Nelson. I'm all about the 14th Amendment: Bikes and cars equal under the law.

Yet I can sense that seething anger in the Little Bike People. Happily, I ran into an expert clinical neuropsychologist, Dr. Robert L. Heilbronner.

Why are the LBP so angry?

"Perhaps because they feel an unbridled sense of freedom, and by warning them, what you're doing is imposing limitations on them," Heilbronner said. "You're reminding them of something that will befall them."

Like City Hall coming for the cash.

It's inevitable.

jskass@tribune.com

Twitter @John_Kass

 

I thought the hipsters with the $550 month rent lived in Little Village.

Duppie said:

Maybe you should come up to Edgewater more often. Gays? Sure. Lesbians? Sure. Entitled mothers who think their brood should be allowed to scream in local establishments? yep, that too. But db hipsters who live in $550 apartments? Not really.

Now Rogers Park, that place is a hipster-cesspool, if you ask me...

globalguy said:

Well, thanks for taking the bait, Hipster DB. All I was saying was that with a little cash-based cred (how else do Rahm's bikey minions have an impact) you could get out of your Edgewater tofu flop and actually attend a Mayors Bike Advisory Blah Blah Blah and rage "I paid the fee but they took the bike lanes out of Washington Square!" ... "WTF" my Brooks-saddled Butt ...


h' $550 said:

          WTF?

Frankly, I think that is one of his most obviously tongue in cheek pieces in recent time.  And he is quite grateful to Alderman Dowell for giving him the opportunity to jump back on this bandwagon.

Thunder Snow said:

Predictably, the Trib's resident Jack Kass weighs in:

www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-1024-20131024,0,...

chicagotribune.com

Dig into your spandex shorts, Little Bike People

City Hall wants its money, and a $100 fee is only fair

John Kass

October 24, 2013

A Chicago alderman has come up with a great idea that every taxpayer — except the Little Bike People — will love:

A $25 city registration fee for adults riding bikes in Chicago.

It's a great idea, but it doesn't go far enough.

Instead of a $25 registration fee, why not a $100 registration fee? That way, Mayor Rahm Emanuel can plug holes in the budget.

When I suggested on Facebook that the Rahmfather could even give Chicagoans free cable TV if he made the bike fee high enough, the hordes of Little Bike People seethed in rage.

"I hope they put a $1,000 fee on beer can chicken so everyone can have free cell phones, Internet and Netflix," wrote bicyclist Grant D. "That way, the 'little cooking people' would pay for us little bike people."

Ald. Pat Dowell told me that she rides a bike, loves the idea of bikes in Chicago and has been a proponent of increasing the number of bike lanes.

What bothered her is City Hall essentially raising the city amusement tax on cable TV, which Dowell said would hit senior citizens the hardest.

The cable TV tax boost was proposed as Emanuel introduced a $7 billion budget with a $339 million budget hole.

Emanuel, who once loudly promised he wouldn't nickel-and-dime taxpayers to death, essentially nickels-and-dimes almost everybody to death — except his favored constituency, the bike people.

"But you can't balance that on seniors," Dowell said. "Most of our seniors don't go out for fancy dinners downtown or spend a lot of money at the theater or concerts. They don't spend their entertainment dollars that way. They watch cable TV. So I thought, 'Who else could contribute?' And I thought about the bicycle riders."

Under Mayor Rahmfather's plan, car drivers will be squeezed for about $120 million in traffic tickets from his infamous speed and red light cameras.

Those cameras are fronted as being all about safety. But who are you kidding, Rahmfather? They were always about the revenue.

And bicyclists — especially the aggressive kind with their spandex shorts, cleats and wild yellow shirts, zipping through red lights — they don't pay a dime.

Why should a driver pay and not a bike rider?

Many bicyclists respect the rules of the road. They're also often in danger from thoughtless car drivers. And no, I didn't write that last line as some verbal prophylactic against the irrational hatred often directed at me by the militant two-wheelers. It's true. There are good little bike people.

But the bad ones should pay.

It's only fair. A $25 registration fee is a pittance. That's why it should be increased to a C-note.

Mayor Rahmfather should also mandate that every bike commuter have a city sticker. And a license plate, so that when they run the red lights, the city's Rahm-cams can take their photos and make them pay through the nose just like the rest of us.

At a meeting with the Tribune's editorial board Wednesday, the mayor was asked what he thought of Dowell's proposal.

Emanuel described Dowell as a thoughtful person and took pains not to criticize her.

But he also took pains not to anger the Little Bike People. He lusts after that hipster vote cycling along Milwaukee Avenue, and he's been featured in the newspaper riding a bike, though without a helmet, because he's probably worried about looking like Michael Dukakis on a two-wheeler.

"As it relates to her tax, she can propose, it's her idea, but it was our view that I don't think that's the right way to go," Emanuel said. "But she'll make her call. ... I want to see the details of what she has to say. I sure don't want police involved in policing whether you bought a bike license. I would rather them focus — as I've been clear on — violent crime rather than, 'Did you get a bike license?'"

Later, I ran into the mayor in a Tribune elevator. He repeated his concern that police resources shouldn't be diluted going after reckless bikers.

I told him police didn't have to do it. He's got plenty of payrollers in the Department of Revenue. If they're going to squeeze merchants on the cigarette tax and squeeze mom-and-pop stores, why not let them squeeze some pro-Emanuel spandex shorts?

"And if they don't have a sticker, you impound the bikes," I said, "like you impound a car."

The Rahmfather kept walking, as if I were a street-corner prophet offering a pamphlet about the end of the world. But he stopped when I said the magic words:

Can't you see all that revenue coming City Hall's way?

Then he took off down Michigan Avenue, quickly walking away, as several bicyclists ran red lights as if in homage.

Imagine Streets & San garbage trucks loaded with impounded bikes. Or bikes that had been hit with the Bike Boot.

You want your bike back? You want your car back? Pay City Hall.

"... Will you just shut up already, you 'little car person'?" wailed Nelson T. on Facebook.

But I can't, friend Nelson. I'm all about the 14th Amendment: Bikes and cars equal under the law.

Yet I can sense that seething anger in the Little Bike People. Happily, I ran into an expert clinical neuropsychologist, Dr. Robert L. Heilbronner.

Why are the LBP so angry?

"Perhaps because they feel an unbridled sense of freedom, and by warning them, what you're doing is imposing limitations on them," Heilbronner said. "You're reminding them of something that will befall them."

Like City Hall coming for the cash.

It's inevitable.

jskass@tribune.com

Twitter @John_Kass

 

Typical Kasshole writing a flippant screed. He deserves to be ignored.

If this would help pay public employee pensions, provide more money for for bike lanes, and come with a safety class, I'd pay $100 no question.  I love Chicago, we're in a financial standoff, so as a token for my support for all the bike infrastructure from the city I'd do it.  

I don't get the bike registration though, I'd like to scrap that idea immediately, that would just cost too much for the city to run and would make no sense.  

Oh those Edgewater snobs... :)

Duppie said:

Maybe you should come up to Edgewater more often. Gays? Sure. Lesbians? Sure. Entitled mothers who think their brood should be allowed to scream in local establishments? yep, that too. But db hipsters who live in $550 apartments? Not really.

Now Rogers Park, that place is a hipster-cesspool, if you ask me...

globalguy said:

Well, thanks for taking the bait, Hipster DB. All I was saying was that with a little cash-based cred (how else do Rahm's bikey minions have an impact) you could get out of your Edgewater tofu flop and actually attend a Mayors Bike Advisory Blah Blah Blah and rage "I paid the fee but they took the bike lanes out of Washington Square!" ... "WTF" my Brooks-saddled Butt ...


h' $550 said:

          WTF?

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