May 2007 - Page 5 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

Carbon tradeoff QUESTION

There’s been a lot of debate about this plan to allow industrial nations to “sell” their carbon emission quotas under international agreements to developing countries. The upside to the developing countries is that they get money, and the upside to the developed countries is that they recognize the real cost of polluting. Similar plans are available to individuals as well.

I don’t know. Somehow, it feels like selling indulgences, which did (or did not) happen in the Catholic Church. In fact, that’s exactly what this article suggests.

In this country, you may remember when gas was first $3 per gallon, after Hurricane Katrina, and there was a great hue and cry. I do recall, though, that some people decided to change their lifestyles and start walking or taking the bike or public transportation. Then the prices went down, and most, though not all, heaved a “problem over” sigh. Now gas is back around $3, and what do I hear? Lots of people saying, “When gas gets to $4, we may have to make some changes.” Arrgh!!

Yet, some argue, carbon offsets are better than doing nothing.

Would you folks kindly explain your thoughts on this?
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I’m also wondering, those of you in the Bay Area (San Francisco/Oakland), whether you think the large fire that wrecked some highways there recently will get more people on the BART, perhaps permanently, which will lessen the demand for gas and perhaps drive down the price of gas, if only a little?
ROG

It’s the Law

This is National Bicycle Month. Dan over at Albany Weblog has been rightly nagging about the need for bike lanes in this town.

Also, the Bicycle Commuter Act (H.R.807, S.2635) is before the U.S. Congress right now. If passed, the bill would provide a tax benefit to employers who offer cash reimbursements to employees to defray costs of riding to work. All it requires is an amendment to the Transportation Fringe Benefit of the tax code to extend the definition of “transportation” to include bicycles. Employers are given the flexibility to set their level of benefit payments, and the bike commuter can use the money to pay for a bicycle, accessories, safety equipment, insurance, and locker or shower fees. Click here for more information.

And there’s a new magazine out there dealing with practical cycling, with a free subscription. From the website: “It’s bicycling for transportation, be it on the daily commute, the run to Costco, or a trip around the world. . . We’re convinced it was a mistake to relegate the most efficient means of transportation devised by man to the aisles of recreation and sport alone.”

But that’s not (exactly) what I’m going to write about.

I came across a while back the Municipal Codes on the Internet for 20 states: Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. OK, that may be overstating it a bit. For Illinois, there’s just the city of Crystal Lake; in Nebraska, Papillion; North Carolina, Henderson County; Tennessee, the city of Memphis; Wyoming, the city of Evanston.

Anyway, the city of Albany is there, and I was interested to see what laws apply to bicycles. Some are fine; some, ?

Chapter 246: NEWSRACKS
A newsrack placed in accordance with this chapter shall not be installed or maintained:
J. Near any bicycle rack if such placement interferes with the use of such bicycle rack
Hear, hear!
Chapter 251: PARKS AND RECREATION
§ 251-5. Rules and regulations. [Amended 12-19-1983; 3-3-1986]
4) All persons are forbidden to drive over the paths devoted to pedestrians; to ride bicycles or tricycles on the paths or walkway; or to trundle barrows or obstruct the paths in any manner; or to ride, drive, propel or operate any wagon, vehicle or motor vehicle on any of the driveways of such parks, boulevards and avenues at a rate faster than fifteen (15) miles an hour.
Though, in fact, many of the paths are dual use, for people and pedalers.
Chapter 255: PEACE AND GOOD ORDER
§ 255-25. Public places.
It shall be unlawful for any person to ring any hand bell, beat or strike any pan, pail or other like article or sound any gong or blow any whistle or horn or other than musical instruments when used as part of a band of music except to give necessary signals upon a street car, motor vehicle, motorcycle, bicycle or similar vehicle or to hawk, cry or call out the sale of goods at auction or otherwise or to gain passengers for any cab, hack, taxi or other vehicle or to make, aid, continue, encourage or assist in making any other or unusual noise upon any street or other public place or in close proximity thereto so as to be distinctly and loudly audible upon any such street or place in the City of Albany.
I love the specificity of this.
Chapter 359: VEHICLES AND TRAFFIC
ARTICLE I Bicycles and All Motor Vehicles [Amended 8-7-1995 by L.L. No. 6-1995]
§ 359-1. Alarm bells for bicycles.
All persons riding or propelling with the feet a bicycle, tricycle, velocipede or other vehicle of propulsion on the public streets or avenues or in the parks of this City shall attach to and carry on such vehicle an alarm bell, which said bell the persons shall ring or sound on approaching and within 30 feet of the intersection of any street or avenue proposed to be crossed.
A velocipede?
§ 359-2. Speed limit for bicycles.
No person using a bicycle, tricycle, velocipede or other vehicle of propulsion on the public streets or avenues or parks of this City shall propel such vehicle at a rate of speed greater than eight miles an hour, and all such persons shall observe the law of the road.
Eight miles an hour? Downhill?
§ 359-3. Number abreast limited.
No greater number of persons than two abreast shall parade or ride in the streets or avenues or parks of this City at any time on such bicycles, tricycles, velocipedes or other vehicles of propulsion.
§ 359-4. Riding on sidewalks prohibited; exceptions.
No person shall ride any bicycle, tricycle, velocipede or other vehicle of propulsion on or over any footpath in any of the parks, or on or over any of the sidewalks of any of the streets or avenues in this City, except if it is to go into a yard, lot or building; provided, however, that the foregoing provision of this section shall not apply to children under 10 years of age; and provided further that this section shall not be so construed as to prohibit the riding of any bicycle, tricycle or similar vehicle upon or over the unpaved portion of the sidewalk of any such street or streets outside of the thickly settled part of the City as shall be designated in writing by the Mayor. Every designation so made as aforesaid shall be filed with the Chief of Police and may be revoked by the Mayor at any time in his discretion.
I avoid riding on the sidewalk except when feeling imperiled. The aforementioned bike lanes would help.
This also shows the awesome power of our mayor.

Then, there’s this lengthy section 359-5. Operation of vehicles generally.
A. It is required that all vehicles operated within the City of Albany be in good and safe operating condition, and each shall be operated only:
(1) While having a valid New York State Certificate of Inspection affixed on the vehicle in the proper location.
This suggests, at least, that I need to get a sticker.

I love the law.
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I don’t believe this (exactly), but it is interesting:

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments.
Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man.
And (unlike subsequent inventions for man’s convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became.
Here, for once, was a product of man’s brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it,
and of no harm or irritation to others.
Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle.

~Elizabeth West, Hovel in the Hills
ROG

U2 in Albany

A buddy at the Y told me Monday about some book – he didn’t mention the title – that conveyed this story: A young woman went to J.B. Scott’s in Albany, NY and saw U2. The next time, the young woman brought her mother, who decided she wanted to marry Bono. That reminded me that, in fact U2 played in Albany four times in 1981, once at the SUNY Albanyfest on May 7, twice during the “Boy” tour (March 5, May 23) at J.B. Scott’s, and the opening of the North American part of the “October” tour, also at J.B. Scott’s, on November 13. Here’s the set list for the latter show:

Gloria, Another Time, Another Place, I Threw A Brick Through A Window, An Cat Dubh, Into The Heart, Rejoice, The Cry, The Electric Co. / Send In The Clowns (snippet), I Fall Down, October, Stories For Boys, I Will Follow, Twilight, Out Of Control
encores: Fire, 11 O’Clock Tick Tock, The Ocean

The link here pretty well describes J.B. Scott’s as a dingy place, but with great acts.

So this begs the question: Why didn’t I see U2 when they were at J.B. Scott’s? I used to go to that venue. I liked the band, based on what I heard on the Q-104 radio station. I was single and unencumbered. Ah well.
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I watched the American Idol’s Idol Gives Back this weekend; yes, it aired a couple weeks ago. I hadn’t seen Idol all season, so I had managed to miss the Sanjaya sensation, though he was in the audience. In any case, I wanted to see Bono, who shows up in the last five minutes of the two-hour results show. I was reminded why I avoid watching the results show – they drag out who’s going home, and then decide to send no one home, after putting the contestants, especially the last ones declared “safe”, through the emotional wringer.
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Oh, yeah, Bono’s 47th birtday is today.

ROG

"Sing us a song tonight"

Chamber Music Magazine: The Piano Man gives back (June, 2007)

“Composer Laura Kaminsky was looking for scholarship money. She has started in 2004 as dean of the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College, part of the State University of New York, and soon identified some specialized area that needed funds that could not come out of a state budget. Chief among them: a graduate string quartet-in-residence. Help was on its way. “Out of the blue, we got a phone call,” Kaminsky reports. “The man told us he was representing a distinguished person in the entertainment field who had selected a number of musical institutions for grants of approximately a quarter-million each. The net result: This fall, the young iO quartet came to Purchase as its first Billy Joel String Quartet in Residence.”

Billy Joel, who is not motivated to write pop songs, despite his current single, performed around here recently, giving his fans what they came for; the preview story is here.

What brought this to mind is a book somebody gave me some years ago – it has a 1991 copyright – about the worst songs, the worst albums, and the worst rock and roll performers. At #1, worse than Paul McCartney, who was a runner-up, was Billy Joel.

I don’t buy it.

I saw Billy Joel back in 1973 or 1974, in the gym at my college, SUNY New Paltz. The band got lost somewhere between Long Island and our upstate town right on the Thruway and the concert started over two hours late. He was stiff and was practically glued to his piano stool. But somewhere along the line, he became, well, “The Entertainer”, putting lots of personality into his performances. I have a handful of Joel albums, including one of the first CDs I ever bought, his greatest hits volumes 1 & 2.

Oh, BTW, Billy Joel is 58 today.

ROG

She’ll Need Schoolin’

For me, one of the motivating factors of urban life is my long-standing belief that if the middle class leaves the city, the city will die and the ‘burbs around it will as well.

Anyway, I was having this discussion about wanting Lydia to go to school in the city, if at all possible. There was a story last month in the paper about the 38% graduation rate at Albany High School. (A later story noted a reporting error on the part of the school, so that the number was really a still dismal 53%.) Her elementary school is brand new. The middle school is problematic, though I don’t know how it’ll be seven years from now, and I indicated that, by the time she’s ready for that level, perhaps we’d put her in private school, or even home school her, but that abandoning the city was not my desire. To which someone noted, “Do you want to sacrifice your daughter for an ideal?”

You have no idea how much this ticked me off.

I never criticize those people who move out of the city to do what they think is best. But I don’t want to be criticized for staying and trying to make things better. I noted that suburban schools are not bereft of problems; note the location of many of the mass school shootings.

Anyway, this article, which eventually be at a different address in the Metroland archives, best expresses my love for the city.
ROG