jbabic

Not really suggesting, just making a statement. Read over his posts and draw your own conclusions.

Mine is more a statement on karma; something I recognize lately as I struggle with it myself.

BadBoy10

We do not like to admit the veracity of your statement but by and large--tis true.

I hate that.

Every action has a reaction--every choice a consequence.

rorban

Sorry... you would think on a forum people would actually be able to read...

Glad to hear you are OK joey!

ZmanKC

You guys think you have it so bad. Earlier this week someone yelled at me to get on the sidewalk during my evening commute.

Yeah, that's right, she yelled.

wunderkind

Note to self: Cross out New Orleans from places to visit.

Has the government fixed up the place yet post-Katrina?

BarracksSi

Been there myself just twice -- once for the World's Fair (trash compared to the one in Vancouver) and once at New Year's. I'm not going back.

I was talking about that with a friend just yesterday --

I don't blame the government nearly as much as I blame NOLA's locals (JoeyBike aside). I remember reading an article -- maybe National Geographic, but it's been a while -- about a Vietnamese grocery store owner who got his place up and running within just a week or two of the hurricane.

He wasn't looking for a handout, he wasn't trying to place blame, he just busted his hump and rebuilt his business.

I have no sympathy for the other people who refuse to rebuild their own community.

Lot's Knife

I heard you can drive east from New Orleans for many miles and still not find a habitable home. This, five years on.

Kimmitt 

I think the bicycle community should struggle more with its commitment to blaming victims.

Lot's Knife

There's a bicycle community?

jbabic

Could you elaborate some? I don't understand what you mean. For example, in this instance who would you say is the 'victim' - JoeyBike, or the laws he breaks for his own convenience?

JoeyBike

Like I said just above. Got a better job in a better neighborhood 8 minutes from my home. I think I am more likely to be struck by reentering space debris than a hoodlum or a motor vehicle now. Not one stoplight between home and work. So I won't be running any during commutes. And no drunken, clueless tourist Zombies wandering aimlessly across my line. Peace at last. Karma has finally caught up with me. I have paid my dues to that tramp.

As for the ignorant Katrina comments in several other posts here: Next time 80 percent of your city goes under water for a month, check back in 5 years and tell me how it's goin' for ya. As for the Gov. helping us, in case you hadn't heard, the Gov caused the flood with substandard levee construction and inept inspections. United States Corps of Engineers. Yep.

For those of you who live in more northerly climes, did you realize that EVERY YEAR snow related losses of work, transit, preparation, removal, power outages, infrastructure damage et., al., results in more cost to taxpayers than Hurricane Katrina? Every danged year. Yet I pay my taxes and am happy to help y'all out. So from all of us collectively in NOLA....bite me.

Reference to above claim: https://www.economics.noaa.gov/?goal=...now&view=costs

robatsu

Joey, I like your style. Years ago, when I was a naval officer, we called this "asserting our right to free navigation". That is, we would, for no ostensible reason, sail into waters that various countries were claiming as their own in contravention of various laws of the sea. And we would do it with a chip on shoulder, most infamously when the fleet cross the "Line of Death" in the Gulf of Sidra, received some hostilities, then bombed the heck out of Libya.

And to jbabic, IMO, all this karma, feel good stuff is cowardice posing as high minded morality. Joey has every right to ride any darn place he pleases in the USA and not be hassled for the color of his skin even if he does ride a little aggressively (what would you have said if the roles were reversed and he were a black guy being hassled by white rednecks or even a white guy being hassled by white rednecks?).

zonatandem

Smoke a cigarette while riding and throw M-80 firecrackers at 'em . . .

JoeyBike

Just to be clear, riding through sketchy neighborhoods happens as a result of avoiding the busier roads where I am likely to ignore laws. I am doing nothing wrong on those back streets. Just minding my own business. I can't even blow stop signs because of poor lines of sight. I can't break the speed limit because of all the stop signs. So I am in fact just being hassled for my skin color.

JoeyBike

I always wondered how people can smoke while cycling. I would get a burning ash in my eye first try.

robatsu

You don't even have to justify this or apologize. You have every right to be there and not be victimized or held to a higher standard of conduct because of the color of your skin. I've been going to nola for decades, my uncle came back from WWII, opened the first automatic car wash in nola, just across the the 17th St. Canal from the cemetery along Old Metairie Road. Weird, dark, disturbing place, Nola is, but nice thing is for cyclists is that it is flat as a pancake except for a few of the bridges over the expressways. Pavement sucks, though, due to all the subsidence with water pumping and all.

jbabic

With all due respect sir, I believe you are drawing an inappropriate comparison. In my argument, I am drawing in more of JoeyBike's illegal behavior in regards to traffic laws. This is not challenging navigation rights in international waters here.

Again, I think you are misunderstanding my argument with this statement. I believe that roads are for everyone's use, and laws have been put in place to make sure everyone has use to them. JoeyBikes documented behavior on these roads is offensive to others who use those roads. I am offended that he comes here looking for sympathy. That, to me, is more of an example of cowardice than what you call high minded morality.

Seriously, if you witness cycling like JoeyBike practices while you are driving a car I would have a hard time believing that you would not be offended yourself.




Again, my arguments go beyond riding in sketchy neighborhoods. I myself also ride through some depressed neighborhoods and have been challenged much like yourself. I am lucky enough to be able to pass through for whatever reason.

JoeyBike (and others) I also run red lights and otherwise offend motorists, though not to your extent. I know that I likely offend others with that behavior but I don't start seeking any sympathy for the results and consequences for those actions.

It could be that some of the reactions you are seeing is the result of your past behaviors.

Kimmitt 

Well, as long as we can blame a guy for the things that happen to him, that's way more important than anything else.

It can't be about how foolish our traffic laws are, how hyped-up and tough one has to be to get by in NOLA, or anything else. No, we're cyclists. We blame our own. Period.