October 12, 2009

Happy COWlumbus Day!


From: funtocollect.com

Once again, the City Council will be holding another COW meeting at Park Ridge City Hall beginning at 7:00 pm this evening.

Tonight's agenda (.pdf) covers topics under Public Works and Public Safety, including proposed revisions to the dangerous animals ordinance (.pdf) and an update on the Red Speed red light cameras (.pdf).

Chief of Police Kaminski's cover memo discusses background information on accident data and includes yet another request for Red Speed to do feasibility studies of certain intersections. If any of you serfidents were hoping to be able to read that information -- you're s.o.l.

We look forward to posting the videos of the meeting tomorrow!



17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am neutral on these cameras. If they improve safety and bring in money that should be looked at as a win/win.

What I do not understand is if these things pay for themselves with only a few tickets then why not just put them where we have the most accidents?

Also I wonder what is meant by the IDOT threshold? How many accidents or is it violations do you have to have before these cameras can be put up?

Anonymous said...

This is another way for the city to pick people's pockets and not have people get mad at the cops. I'm sure they haven't given up the idea of building a new police station.

Anonymous said...

Regarding Red Speed; I’ve been having an unexpected reaction to the red light camera idea and that is that I panic whenever I am in, or enter an intersection, as the light turns yellow. This sounds crazy but I am tempted to slam on my breaks the moment I see yellow, because I have no idea how to calculate the length of time it will take me to clear the intersection. I suspect this odd reaction will create a new kind of safety hazard.

Anonymous said...

311, the way to avoid getting a red light camera ticket or getting rear ended is to obey the traffic laws and NOT drive like a nervous moron. Try that.

Anonymous said...

Buzz Hill needs to step down, or be ASKED to step down. his report at last week's City Council to report this week on the violation of ethics was slickly overlooked at tonight's COW.

Scheister much? I believe your pants are on fire. Get out. We don't need you making MORE problems.

ParkRidgeUnderground said...

Anon@9:05 --

Not to pick nits, but the chairman of a meeting sets the agenda.

The chairman of the COW is Mayor Schmidtzkrieg. We seriously doubt he would try to protect the former Mayor, but that's not to say he isn't capable of gross negligence to detail and considered action.

The next set of chairmen are the respective committee chairs -- Bachtard and assWsol, who should respectively be setting their committee agendas. We believe they would be more inclined to provide protection to the former Mayor.

There's also the chance that the City Attorney couldn't get his act together fast enough to provide the report at tonight's meeting. Or, he's being pressured from PRC, et.al.

Anonymous said...

i thought we were past all this crap when we got rid of Frimark!

Bean said...

Anonymous @ 9:23,

So did I...but very sadly, I have reason to think we were both wrong.

gypsy said...

we were served a nice big platter of disappointment tonight. how discouraging.

Anonymous said...

It's not the mayors fault! He's gonna fix this. He's gonna fix everything. You have to believe.

Anonymous said...

Are you saying the fix is in!?

Anonymous said...

I'll believe it when I see it.

Bean said...

Anonymous @ 2:02,

Perhaps what you meant to say is...you'll believe what you see?

...and therein lies the problem...folks are limited to forming their opinions based on what they see...because there isn't nearly enough transparency and disclosure...despite all professions to the contrary...

Anonymous said...

No. I said, "I'll believe it when I see it." I do not believe the mayor nor the council will be dealing the the matter at hand. The transparency is in the promises that were made to people who worked to get the mayor elected.

I do not believe I will see full disclosure. Same shit, different mayor.

Bean said...

Anonymous @ 2:27,

On one point...I must disagree.

Transparency is NOT in the promises...transparency is in disclosure...which would be evidence of keeping the promise of transparency made to voters and supporters...however, I don't think transparency and disclosure are necessarily limited to elected officials on issues of public policy.

The mayor is certinaly a different mayor...but only time will tell if the shit remains the same.

Anonymous said...

Hey, think positive! With this new mayor we could all look forward to some new shit!

Anonymous said...

3:11, you mean well, but I think the intent of the yellow is to get you to stop if you're not already in the intersection. So if you substitute "step" for "slam" on your brakes, you are reacting appropriately. No calculations necessary. Just stop when you see the yellow if you aren't already in the intersection. It's news to many, but the yellow light is not simply another shade of green. Nor is tapping a brake so the brake light briefly flickers the same thing as coming to a stop. Nor is "No right turn on red when pedestrians are present" just something to fill the blank areas of a sign. But I digress...