Rant Ver. 2.0

[blim]

Wow, Bearskin, I thought I lived in the boonies! At least you don't have snow half the year.

Jdoors, That's awful....and since THEY are paying off the loan, HE is getting a leg up on his credit building. That stinks. We cosigned Daughter's car loan with the same rules, so far so good *knocks wood* Big advantage is she still lives at home during school breaks so she's easily accessable for nagging--and when she got a parking ticket at school, the bill came to US, being that Hubby's name is also on the registration, so WE knew about it--an opportunity to be mean

Liz

[JDoors]

Grr, parking at school --

If I were King of the Known Universe, parking at school would consist of: You park your car at school.

But Noooooo ... Only certain people are allowed to park, and only in certain places, and you have to pay for the privelege. A friend has to pay $65 for a yearly permit. You know what? That's a big school. If a thousand kids park their cars, that's an extra $65,000 A YEAR they're making. There's no way on God's Green Earth they spend $65,000 a year on maintenance for that lot, it's just pure greed and profit.

The lot's already there, it was bought and paid for a dozen years ago when the school was built. Boy, that ticks me off.

Then all the kids who can't afford to pay, or aren't allowed to park on the lot, or who choose to use their money in a more useful manner, cram their cars all over the neighborhood, creating an unnecessary nuisance for blocks around (making the streets more difficult to drive through, creating unnecessary danger for the little kids still at home 'cause you can't see them if they're running toward the street, and kids being kids there's extra trash, etc.). All the while the school's parking lot is half empty! MORONS!

So ... (yes, it gets worse), the neighborhood gets together and has the city ban parking on the street during school hours, with predictable results: You can't park YOUR OWN car in front of your house, visitors can't park there either (have an appointment with someone? TOO BAD! Friends coming over? TOO BAD! Having a Tupperware party? TOO BAD!). And the kids just park over in the next neighborhood anyway, causing the same nuisance a few blocks over.

[Honda_Boy]

$65!!! Is that high school? Ours is only $10.

[thesidekickcat]

One of the rules here in Portland that bugs me, besides the gazillion other things I dislike about this town, is that you are responsible for maintaining the city owned parking strip on street side of sidewalk. If there are trees on it you need a permit everytime you do even the least amount of pruning. If no trees and you want to plant some you need a permit and can only plant the city approved trees. So most people do without necessary pruning until tree rots away and falls down, or prune illegally, same with planting trees...plant what you want to heck with city hall, or don't plant any! Oh the city doesn't care if there are weeds or holes or whatever else that is ugly in those same parking strips (unless it blocks traffic at the corner.) Just trees.

Of course we have the standard rules to remove snow/ice from sidewalk the same day it falls, whether there is a paved sidewalk underneath or not. And there is a yard grass/weed heighth limit but I forget what it is, but doesn't pertain to parking strips...dumb!

We aren't supposed to put any fliers such as garage sale signs etc on light or phone poles, but everyone does and never takes them down. So it is hard to see which ones are current sales.

We can put up political signs for an election, but no religious ones, and of course no advertising ones.

Stores have to get permits to put up any kind of sign, even just a wall mural. There was a shop that painted a lovely mural on an ugly garage door of their new shop and got fined repeatedly until they applied for a sign permit which was denied so were penalized retroactive to application date for illegal mural. If I had had a garage I would have had them come paint it with their mural just to get back at city. Ha!

This Christmas season I read about a new to me rule that you only can have strings of holiday lights up between a certain set of dates (both residential and commercial), otherwise they have to be removed. Forget about trying to brighten up our dreary rainy winters with some pretty lights on trees on parking strips (mostly businesses did that).

Oh your cars have to be moved off the street if you aren't going to use them in I think it is 36 or 48 hours.

Some tight neighborhoods have to buy permits, or don't have any street parking at all even if they don't have garages or driveways. There are set distances on your property for gagages/cars too. No way can we do either one legally on this lot...TOUGH! If they go after the motorhome parked on our property, I will call Good Sam club to help me round up other rvers to fight them. Though a friend of ours had to move theirs from being slightly catawaumpus towards back of her property instead of totally straight in, even though that is the only way it would fit so car could come and go into garage, and motorhome was on the driveway...but it is supposed to be straight in? No written code proof of that rule, just threat of a $1000, a day fine if not fixed in 10 days. So the cars are parked on narrow street now and motorhome is legal.

Well that is all I can think of for now. I know there are more, but that is all my blood pressure can take to think of right now!

Pat

God bless everyone

[TheTerrorist_75]

well let me see what I want to rant about. we live 1/2 mile from town but we have no sewer so we have to use septic. everyone still uses propane. no building codes..man down the street just built a new, maybe $50,000 house and I'm not sure he even got a building permit. we just got cable internet about a month ago. no 911..we have a small clinic but when we have emergencies we have special insurance for a helicopter take us to the main hospital 200 miles away. no street adresses so we have po boxes or general delivery. when we order something delivered by ups we have to give a fake address, the ups guy just knows where everyone lives. the mayor also serves as the school crossing guard. we fire our guns in the front yard and the cop just asks if we shooting at a armadillo. let's see...what was I ranting about? oh yea, we have to drive 50 miles to get to lowes or wally world.

I wish I still had my place in the country. As it stands now I pay $25 for water, $35 garbage pickup and $100 sewer usage every 3 months. My house in the country had a concrete 1500 gallon septic system which was pumped out every 2 years at a cost of $50. I had 2 excellent dug wells that never ran dry (no fluoride added). I paid $30 a year for dump fees (dump was 4 miles down the road). I was able to have a wood stove which reduced my heating bill (fuel oil cost about $300 for the whole winter). My hot water and cook stove ran on propane which cost me about $45 a month. My boiler, hot water and cook stove uses natural gas in the city at the cost of over $240 every month on the budget plan.

As for regular medical I go to the city health clinic. For emergencies and major medical I go to Rochester 120 miles away (by ambulance ($890) or taxi ($155), depends on how serious). My local hospital is known as the slaughter house. You can enter, but never leave, alive.

I don't do Lowes or Walmart. I prefer buying from the local shops, hardware stores and lumber yards. It may cost more, but I can obtain a better product.

Our mayor is paid for a part time job that he performs full time. All of our mayors have been idiots. Our overstaffed police department only goes after the decent citizens who work because they can pay the fines. They allow all the riffraff welfare recipients, dope dealers and illegal immigrants do as they please until some of us threaten to take action. We wouldn't be pretending to shoot at critters.

Edited May 21, 2006 by TheTerrorist_75

[bearskin]

I don't do Lowes or Walmart. I prefer buying from the local shops, hardware stores and lumber yards. It may cost more, but I can obtain a better product.

I like to buy local but we don't have a lumber yard and the store here don't have much as far as plumbing and electrical. there is a hardware store for nuts, bolts, screws, etc. but that is 30 miles away.

[JDoors]

HB; Yeah, that $65 parking fee is for a high school.

SKC; It's not clear what a 'parking strip' is. The grass between where a sidewalk would go and the curb? I'm not sure what all the restrictions are here, we're supposed to "maintain" it but the city has arborists that take care of the tree(s), if any.

Terrorist; Almost three grand a year for natural gas? (I don't feel so bad about paying a total of $750 last year any more.)

[TheTerrorist_75]

No parking fee for high school here. Less than 400 kids with a license. Probably only 200 that can afford a car.

The strip between the sidewalk and curb must be mowed and raked by the homeowner but the trees are maintained by the city. No parking allowed on this space.

We have the second highest utility bills in the nation. My electric bill is $65 per month (budget). What makes me mad is that we have plenty of natural gas here in NY but most of it is purchased from Canada. The environmentalists don't want us drilling for the gas. The utility company charges us a high fee for the transmission of the gas.

[tenmm]

No parking fee for high school here. Less than 400 kids with a license. Probably only 200 that can afford a car.

The strip between the sidewalk and curb must be mowed and raked by the homeowner but the trees are maintained by the city. No parking allowed on this space.

We have the second highest utility bills in the nation. My electric bill is $65 per month (budget). What makes me mad is that we have plenty of natural gas here in NY but most of it is purchased from Canada. The environmentalists don't want us drilling for the gas. The utility company charges us a high fee for the transmission of the gas.

[TheTerrorist_75]

No parking fee for high school here. Less than 400 kids with a license. Probably only 200 that can afford a car.

The strip between the sidewalk and curb must be mowed and raked by the homeowner but the trees are maintained by the city. No parking allowed on this space.

We have the second highest utility bills in the nation. My electric bill is $65 per month (budget). What makes me mad is that we have plenty of natural gas here in NY but most of it is purchased from Canada. The environmentalists don't want us drilling for the gas. The utility company charges us a high fee for the transmission of the gas.

My power bill in the winter runs about $180.00,sorryTT75 but at $65 amonth your gettin off dirt cheap IMHO.

As for parking here where I live I could park a Abrams and no one would look twice.

Non of the Sr/Jr schools in this district charge for parking.

[JDoors]

$65 is for the electric (lights, computer, washer & dryer and TVs) and $240 for natural gas (heat, hot water and cooking). This is a budget price so I get to pay them $305 a month every month. My gas/electric utilities come to $3660 a year and water/sewer/garbage is $648 a year. Add $3200 a year for land and school taxes for a home that isn't worth $40,000 on the present market. Welcome to NY, land of high taxes and utiities.

[TheTerrorist_75]

It's really strange that NY is mostly comprised of Democrats who are always accused fo being the taxing party but NY has been under Republican control for many years. The Republicans sneak in user fees hoping the people don't consider them a tax, but we know better. Businesses leave NY in droves because of the high taxation, outrageous insurance costs and expensive utilties.

[JDoors]

... [politicians] sneak in user fees hoping the people don't consider them a tax, but we know better. ...

Oo-ooooo -- don't get me started on "user fees." Money that goes from my pocket to the government or government mandates are taxes and should be called what they are.

There's been a lot of talk about how much we spend on education but I don't believe they include all the fees students have to pay (books, equipment, lab fees, etc.). Over 60% of my property taxes goes to education yet you still have to pay more and more and more when the kids go to school.

... ahh, what's the use. As long as education is a government-run monopoly it'll be as efficient as any other government entity.

[blim]

Wow, Terrorist, your utilities and taxes are higher than up here--didn't think that was possible!

Interesting note on my electric bill this month. Electric is $40-$50 a month (I chase everyone around the house, yell and turn off lights and throw a hissyfit if it hits $50) and the electric company said we could join the Budget Plan for $60 month....huh? Ummmm, no thanks, I don't think so

Jdoors, that parking fee is obscene! Our HS requires stickers (so when they bring the drugpuppies in, they know who's cars are getting "tagged") but parking is free. A neighboring school charges $20, but that is to encourage students to take the busses; they're only about 1/4 full because it's "fashionable" in that town to drive to school.

Pat your parking strip (we call them terraces)/sidewalk rules sound like ours, except we are expected to keep the terraces cut and tidy. We have the same rig-a-morrow with planting restrictions.

AND even though the sidewalks "belong" to the city, when they need replacing, guess who pays for them? AND we have to use companies the city contracts with, we can't replace them ourselves! We lucked out--our sidewalks got replaced because the telephone company buried lines and they paid for it.

Laughed about the Christmas lights--our winters are so long that usually folks keep stuff up till Spring (unplug the lights! But garlands and wreaths are a fixture thru March, we need to see green) Sometimes you see a wreath or a portion of garland still hanging this time of year---yup, birds built a nest. Son's girlfriend has the wreath I made for them still hanging--baby goldfinches are more important than house appearance, right?

Liz

[tenmm]

... [politicians] sneak in user fees hoping the people don't consider them a tax, but we know better. ...

Oo-ooooo -- don't get me started on "user fees." Money that goes from my pocket to the government or government mandates are taxes and should be called what they are.

There's been a lot of talk about how much we spend on education but I don't believe they include all the fees students have to pay (books, equipment, lab fees, etc.). Over 60% of my property taxes goes to education yet you still have to pay more and more and more when the kids go to school.

... ahh, what's the use. As long as education is a government-run monopoly it'll be as efficient as any other government entity.

Not to mention some places have what they call "Pay to Play"

Football

Baseball

Tennis

Golf

French,Spanish clubs

You name it,you gotta pay extra-extra to play

TT75 I take it back,sorry

[TheTerrorist_75]

... [politicians] sneak in user fees hoping the people don't consider them a tax, but we know better. ...

Oo-ooooo -- don't get me started on "user fees." Money that goes from my pocket to the government or government mandates are taxes and should be called what they are.

There's been a lot of talk about how much we spend on education but I don't believe they include all the fees students have to pay (books, equipment, lab fees, etc.). Over 60% of my property taxes goes to education yet you still have to pay more and more and more when the kids go to school.

... ahh, what's the use. As long as education is a government-run monopoly it'll be as efficient as any other government entity.

Not to mention some places have what they call "Pay to Play"

Football

Baseball

Tennis

Golf

French,Spanish clubs

You name it,you gotta pay extra-extra to play

TT75 I take it back,sorry

I figured you didn't see my first thread with the heating costs. I need to get the hell out of NY again. I wish the surgeons would finish fixing me and let move away from here. Hopefully they will do the rest of the work on me by next year and have me visit the outpatient clinic every two years.

[JDoors]

... AND even though the sidewalks "belong" to the city, when they need replacing, guess who pays for them? AND we have to use companies the city contracts with, we can't replace them ourselves! We lucked out--our sidewalks got replaced because the telephone company buried lines and they paid for it. ...