The Chainlink

Sun-Times stirring the pot

I cannot for the life of me get a comment/rebuttal to stick on the Sun-Times' website, so throwing out this sad piece of dreck in case anyone else can:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/14040438-452/art-golab-fell...

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Permalink Reply by Adam Herstein on July 30, 2012 at 1:15pm

"What Chicago needs is an interest group to fight for motorists with NRA-like tenacity."

Such a group already exists. It's called AAA.

"energy-wasting stop signs"

It's your car itself that is wasting energy, not the traffic-calming devices.

I like his analogy comparing cars to guns though, since both are efficient killing machines.

Permalink Reply by NYC (7.0 mi) on July 30, 2012 at 1:45pm

These opinion articles with no data to back up any argument should be ignored.  The "I say..." without the "because" is Fox News at its best.

Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on July 30, 2012 at 2:00pm

Here is the whole article for those who can't see it 

Art Golab: Fellow drivers: Don’t get traffic calm. Get mad!

COMMENTARY BY ART GOLAB agolab@suntimes.com July 29, 2012 4:14PM

Story Image

Nick Taylor, of Chicago, feeds quarters into a River North parking-meter box on May 3. | Richard A. Chapman~Sun-Times

Updated: July 30, 2012 9:58AM

 

There are 1.3 million cars registered in Chicago. Yet the people who own them, the largest voting bloc in the city, get pushed around like nobody else in this town.

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Parking-meter rates have gone up faster than college tuition and stop signs have sprouted like weeds. Speed bumps and potholes trash our suspensions. Streetscaping has become a euphemism for putting planters in places formerly occupied by lanes of traffic.

Parking tickets, red-light cameras, city stickers and meters extract at least half a billion dollars annually from motorists in this town. Soon speed cameras will take even more of our cash.

“Traffic calming” has become a mantra for city planners.

Motorists, this is not a time to be calm, it’s a time to get mad.

Think of other less worthy causes that make government dance to their tunes.

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According to the NRA, if the government regulates assault weapons, next they’ll be coming for your hunting rifle.

I say that if Alderman So-and-so comes for my corner with a stop sign, it won’t stop until every corner has a stop sign.

What Chicago needs is an interest group to fight for motorists with NRA-like tenacity.

I’d start such a group myself if i didn’t already have a job I love as a reporter.

But at a time when charities and civic organizations are closing their doors, I know there are experienced activists who could do the job. I call on you to step up.

Get a website, find a few committed drivers, start showing up at City Hall and soon reporters will be calling you every time some new outrage is being planned for the city’s war on cars.

Take a lesson from Jesse Jackson: Even if you haven’t signed up all 1.3 million Chicago car owners, you can speak for them.

Then sponsor a YouTube contest to generate protest songs. With any luck, you’ll get a hit like Steve Goodman’s “Lincoln Park Pirates,” which detailed the abuses of a towing company, or the Kingston Trio’s “M.T.A.” — a song about the injustice of the Boston subway fare-collection system.

It’s not impossible to change things because it has been done before. In the teens and 1920s, the Chicago Motor Club fought for better streets and roads.

But now the organization concentrates on selling towing insurance and travel planning. It was nowhere to be found when the parking-meter deal went down.

We need an organization that will keep the pressure on aldermen and the mayor when anti-car measures such as speed cameras and the parking-meter deal crop up.

Like the old Motor Club promoted roads, we need a group to demand that the city spend money on new technology to control red-light timing to improve traffic flow.

While there seems to be plenty of money to install computerized cameras to write tickets, the few streets that have timed lights now depend on mechanical technology that is decades old.

Some say that for environmental and other reasons, cars should be discouraged, not encouraged.

I say it is traffic jams, energy-wasting stop signs and inefficiently timed red lights that are an environmental disaster.

And if all the wasted time is tallied, I’m sure Chicago takes an economic hit as well.

All of us pay a gridlock tax with our precious time.

Our motorist group need not be immune to compromise. Perhaps it’s not worth going to the mat for every new stop sign. But some interest group should be there to question every one of them.

If somebody wants to lead, I and 1.3 million others are ready to follow.

Permalink Reply by wigwam on July 30, 2012 at 2:01pm

"They never told me it would cost MONEYS to have one of these things!"

-Art Golab

Permalink Reply by Michael J Blane on July 30, 2012 at 2:03pm

I especially like his line, "I’d start such a group myself if i didn’t already have a job I love as a reporter." and he has a suntimes.com email address. "COMMENTARY BY ART GOLAB agolab@suntimes.com"

Hey Art, just FYI, a commentator isn't a reporter.

So, with nothing to write about, Art gets a byline for a commentary and doesn't have to support/confirm any statements; just rant a while. No wonder he loves his job as a reporter, he doesn't have to do any reporting.

Permalink Reply by Adam Herstein on July 30, 2012 at 2:05pm

Chicago NEEDS more stop signs and red light/speed cameras because motorists flat-out REFUSE to follow the laws of the road. Speeding, and running stop signs/red lights are rampant in this city. So now, the city is forcing them to follow the law, and they are all complaining about it.

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on July 30, 2012 at 2:08pm

$10/gallon gas and $10/hour parking.  

Boo hoo.

Permalink Reply by spencewine on July 30, 2012 at 2:22pm

This guy's logic is outright hilarious:

Some say that for environmental and other reasons, cars should be discouraged, not encouraged.

I say it is traffic jams, energy-wasting stop signs and inefficiently timed red lights that are an environmental disaster.

Some say, like the majority of scientist and scientific studies in the last 2 decades? By his logic we should just get rid of stop signs and we'll reverse global warming?

 

Maybe I should get a job writing for the Sun-times, I can finally dispell the myth that the Earth revolves around the sun! I mean, I KNOW the sun revolves around the earth! And at that, the earth is indeed flat!

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on July 30, 2012 at 2:29pm

I say they remove all the stop LIGHTS and make every intersection an all-way stop. 

That should discourage a lot of the car driving.   I'd probably save the city a LOT of money on electricity too. 

Permalink Reply by spencewine on July 30, 2012 at 2:36pm

This guy also forgets that driving a car in IL is a priviledge, not a right, where as owning a gun is...unfortunately, a right.

Permalink Reply by Adam Herstein on July 30, 2012 at 2:38pm

I wonder which kills more people in IL, cars or guns. My bet would be on cars.

spencewine said:

This guy also forgets that driving a car in IL is a priviledge, not a right, where as owning a gun is...unfortunately, a right.

Permalink Reply by Sanchith on July 30, 2012 at 2:49pm

He should start writing for the Onion

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