Morning Metro: Wheatley’s Fav Facade, Indigo Girls Record with Prison Choir, and Are Playgrounds Too Safe?
Decatur Metro | November 20, 2012
- Thomas Wheatley’s favorite ATL building facade [ATL Urbanist]
- Indigo Girls recording with prison choir at Emory this morning [AJC]
- Avondale purchases automatic license plate reader [Patch]
- Take that Michigan! Georgia now 8th most populous state in nation [ABC]
- You are most likely to die at 11am [The Atlantic]
- New Playground Gear Promotes Risk-Taking to Boost Fitness And Brain Development [WSJ]
Photo courtesy of donjd2 via Flickr
My kids played on one of these “risky” playgrounds in San Francisco recently. They loved it! I must say a piece of me was worried, but they handled it pretty well, even when one of them fell! I would love to try that zip line myself, personally!
Ugh. Just what we need — more monitoring by the police. The fact that they can now quickly scan every license plate they come across does not make me feel the least bit safer. I understand we want to run the plates of people who are pulled over or where probable cause exists. But this machine suggests they’ll be scanning parked cars on a regular basis, just for the hell of it.
Not to mention, there have been too many burlaries in AE as of late. Yet what is the city concerned about when it comes to policing? License-plate readers! Add that to the fact that we constantly have cruisers wasting their day away trapping speeders on Covington Highway, and we have some excellent evidence of misplaced priorities.
1. It is likely NOT your neighbors doing the burglary work in AE.
2. Scanning plates of cars cruising through or parked in neighborhoods can help catch those burglars, many of whom stole the car first.
3. Creating communities that encourage walking and biking also entails slowing motor vehicle traffic. Drivers pick up speed as they leave Decatur and the road widens in Avondale and many end up substantially above the limit.
4. Where you see ‘evidence’ of misplaced priorities, I see none.
Sure, any additional searching of random people *might* uncover a fugitive. Then again, it is more likely that the time wasted running an innocent dude’s license plate will give a criminal across town the time he needs to finish hauling your TV into his get-away car. When NYC decided to stop and frisk people — even when based on a purported “reasonable suspicion” of some sort of criminal activity — they ended up harassing law-abiding citiens 80% of the time. Not a good record. And it just so happens that they racially profiled the stuffing out of the stop and frisk victims.
All a small price to pay for the illusion of greater security, I guess.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_stop-and-frisk_program
Also, the police would definitely be better able to catch criminals if they could read our emails without gettting search warrants. And lo and behold, looks like they’re trying to do just that.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57552225-38/senate-bill-rewrite-lets-feds-read-your-e-mail-without-warrants/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=title
But if you’re innocent and having nothing to hide, why would you care?
Re: new playground gear, sounds like a great development. Alas, our government is opposed.
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/playpubs.html
From just one of the CPSC’s mind-numbing releases:
You can teach children how to use each type of playground
equipment by pointing out the following safe play habits to them:
SWINGS
Tell children to:
– Sit in the center of the swing; never stand or kneel.
– Hold on with both hands.
– Stop the swing before getting off.
–Walk way around the swing– not too close to the front or the
back.
– Never push anyone else in the swing or allow others to push
them.
– Have one person in one swing at one time.
–Avoid swinging empty swings, and to never twist swing chains.
–Avoid putting head and feet through exercise rings on the
swing sets.
SLIDES
Instruct children to:
– Hold on with both hands as they go up the steps of the slide,
taking one step at a time; never go up the sliding surface or
the frame.
And it goes on like this . . .
Eliminate risk. Learn how to play it safe. Let government advise us on how to live. Build for a stronger tomorrow…not.
Oh for Gawd’s own sake, both of you go sit in the Egleston ER for a while before you think the world is such a safe place for children that we don’t have to worry about playgrounds.
Kids break stuff! Including themselves!
I understand that improvements can be made for future generations, and that the motto “it didn’t kill us when WE were kids!” can be dangerous, but I mean…really…is the the idea of kids executing cost/benefit analysis and risk assessment at an early age so bad? Are people not constantly grumbling of the wussification of America?
No one is forcing you or your children to use safe playgrounds. If you think they are too safe, build your own at home.
Wow, aren’t WE a cranky lot today (including myself).
Maybe we should all take up J_T’s offer to meet at Trackside soon. He still owes me a beer. This weekend would be fun but, alas, I am out of town.
This was my edited version.
Since by the same token no one is forcing anyone to play at parks that are too dangerous, we can all build our own at home and everyone will be happy.
Shades of Snow Crash? Reported in today’s WSJ, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends HIV testing for ages 15 – 65,
Am I likely to die tomorrow at 11:00 A.M.? Only if I tell my better half Wednesday morning “Honey, I’m thinking about becoming a pro-choice Democrat.”
So since I’m figuratively in a creative mood, let me bring up Wednesday, literally speaking of course (do I have this backwards?). So I was at my favorite Deccatur fast food restaurant tonight and made the following order: Two Chick fil A sandwiches, a char-broiled chicken club, one large and medium fries, and a southwest salad with spicy dressing to go. The total? $19.84 (although someone may have screwed the order up and the exact total may be different). Anyway I asked the server if he knew the significance of the amount. He seemed confused and asked if my question had something to do with Chick-fil-A. “No”, I said. “It’s the title of a famous book. You know, one you read in high school.” Still looking confused, I told him that one of his supervisors would know. He smiled and agreed with my assessment of the managers and then, I drove home hoping he would remember to ask.
So what does this have to do with tomorrow? I wonder how many kids today are like totally clueless about such 1960 literary markers as, “Oh wow man, the total is 1984! Like aren’t you glad we re-elected Obama instead of that Nazi George Bush?”
Looking forward as always to “Its literally Wednesday…”
Chris Billingsley – have I found a contemporary?