RedScare

I have a Mercedes S class, I have nothing to be ashamed of.

Neither do we.

The hypocrisy on this board is delicious, as is the irony.    

I believe that this thread is illustrative of who is obsessed over what. FWIW, I do not think that poking fun at the faux outrage of you and Leonard over your obsession with Walmart (see Leonard's posts #2951,3,5,7), caliper inches, and unfinished sidewalks qualifies as obsession. It may, however, qualify as taunting the mentally challenged, so perhaps I should lay off, lest mako get disgusted with me.

You may be wondering why I think this is faux outrage. Well, when a couple of liberals suddenly claim outrage at $6 million government spending (minor government spending at that), yet have no problems with trillion dollar deficits, massive entitlement programs or any of the other myriad gripes expressed by libertarians and Tea Partiers, it is a good bet that the outrage expressed is cover for something else. In this case, that would be hatred of Walmart, which is expressed throughout this thread by the two of you.

That is all.  

Horrific...

And you wonder why no one takes you seriously.

Ainbinder and the City did the deal. Your hatred of Walmart makes you look petty in attempting to blame them.

Hence, my amusement.

Walmart gets none of the proceeds. Walmart did not negotiate the deal. Walmart is not the bad guy. Walmart taxes actually pay off the debt. You look measurably worse dragging them into your hatefest.

They are going to do more because people are complaining.  The only item mentioned is getting the fire hydrant out of the sidewalk.  If Isiah Carey hadn't done this report, would Ainbinder be moving the hydrant?  What else are they going to do?  It looks like they have Certificates of Occupancy from the City. 

 

And yes, the more I learn about Walmart, the more I hate Walmart.  But my issue is with the 380.  If Walmart had built without the 380 (which Ainbinder said they would) I wouldn't be discussing Walmart at all. 

 

 

Of course, if it were up to you, they'd be done because you are happy with what your tax dollars are buying. 

Since the 380 doesn't involve Walmart, you'll pardon us for not believing your statement that you wouldn't be discussing Walmart. The fact is, this is ALL about Walmart. The City pisses away millions of dollars daily. However, you and your RUDE friends have fixated on THIS 380 because it is the closest that you can get to complain about Walmart.

Not that I'm upset about it. I enjoy watching the faux outrage that you and s3mh spew. It amuses me. And, I don't mean that sarcastically. You really do amuse me!

Sprouts will siphon off business from Walmart's grocery section.

Well, they won't siphon much. I imagine people only buy produce at Walmart to save a little time while purchasing processed food and plastic stuff. If you are in the market for real produce, you probably are not starting at Walmart. Still, it will be nice to have good produce at reasonable prices, wherever it comes from.

Ahh, nice jump to a conclusion, mako. You'll fit in well here. I see that you've been a member all of 3 days, so you don't know the back story to this thread. I wouldn't dare waste any time trying to explain it to you. Your post sounds like you'd rather jump in without knowing anything and begin demagogueing, just like my other two favorite posters. Well, if that is what turns your crank, prepare to be infuriated, because I love nothing more than annoying those who take themselves too seriously.

Oh, and welcome to the forum! Be sure to follow me around as I engage in my own delightful brand of sarcasm/non-sarcasm/humor/non-humor/troll/non-troll/baiting/non-baiting. It may not be funny, but it is damned entertaining! Who knows, once you read my more than 13,000 posts, you may actually figure me out...but, I doubt it, as I don't think you'd actually spend the time to get it right before jumping to conclusions. Cuz we all know jumping to conclusions is more fun! Almost as much fun as making fun of cripples!

Yeah, I saw that my post did not load the pic. It isn't as funny without the pic. My apologies.

Saying you enjoy seeing handicapped people struggle isn't sarcasm.  It does, however, expose your character. 

It certainly does. It shows that my character absolutely loves poking a finger into the eyes of humorless tightasses such as yourselves. I might even describe y'all as a couple of humor retards...but Mayor Parker might get annoyed with me. Oh, wait, I'm annoyed with her anyway!

You know, no post about wheelchairs and retards is complete without a cripple fight reference...

Hopefully, someday they will find a cure for your sarcasm retardation. I donate to Jerry's sarcastic kids every Labor Day.

As any other business, they are constrained by supply and demand. I find the prices quite reasonable. The store is popular and stays very busy, so perhaps they are making it up on volume.

Not necessarily. I find the exact same brands for sale at Whole Foods and Kroger. Items for sale for $3.49 at Kroger go for $4.99 at Whole Foods. Whole Foods is not constrained by supply and demand, as they have convinced a sizable clientele that it is worth paying more for the same products. While not as big a gap, HEB has marketed itself similarly. I have shopped at the HEB on Katy Fwy and one in a lower middle class neighborhood in Conroe, and have noticed differences in prices between the stores.

It matters where you shop. HEB has simply figured out how to gouge shoppers in upper middle class neighborhoods. Good for them...and good for you that you do not mind.

The Montrose HEB is hugely relevant.  HEB went to great additional expense to serve the community.  They paid for road improvements out of pocket.  They offerred to do structured parking and dedicate a portion of the property to park space if funds could be raised to buy it at FMV (gee, why didn't the City do a 380 for that?).  They used a world class architect for the building design and let the community vote on the design.  In short, they lived up to their promises regardless of the cost without having to have the City hold their hand and make them do the right thing.

This rant points up just how little s3mh and his fellow whiners care about those with lower incomes. All of the things he brags that HEB did cost money. HEB is a business, so those things must be paid for in addition to profit. Therefore, the products sold at this HEB cost more, so that titty babies may be soothed by nice architecture at their grocery store. (Of course, they make up a lot of it by forcing us to buy their store brand at every aisle.) 

This is the hypocrisy of the "enlightened". They demand that everyone else sacrifice for their pleasure.

You know, I wasn't going to respond to your incessant whining, as it has grown tiresome to see a grown adult cry over and over and over about the same spilled milk. However, since you bring up the wheelchair angle again, I now must tell the story of how last Saturday (May 25) while riding my back on Yale I saw a guy in a chair at the exact corner you speak of. He crossed Yale at the crosswalk, and was none the worse for wear. I was on the other side of Yale and spoke to him when he crossed. He smiled and said hello back to me. For all of your carping and whining, I would have at least expected him to be angry at having to cross the street, but he wasn't.

The lesson to be learned here apparently is that those in wheelchairs have a much better outlook on life than those who hate Walmarts.

Man, that would have been SO funny! I wish I had been there to see it!

I enjoyed seeing everyone as usual. I especially enjoyed meeting some new faces. Hope to do it again soon.

LOL. Poor guy. You have no idea what the Texas funding lawsuit is all about, do you? Far from being a dagger into my argument, that lawsuit was a dagger into yours. The suburban schools sued because they were being forced to subsidize poor school districts, not the other way around.

I think it is hopeless to explain it to you. You simply ignore what anyone tells you. Good luck bringing about the end of suburbia. You're going to need to find homes for the 5.5 million suburbanites in Houston. But, I'm sure you can handle it.   

I'm not sure why I should waste my time. You spent no time researching the issues. You have not created a viable argument. You simply found a forum where there are other train fans and new urbanists and simply wholesale stole their posts and printed them here. Much of what is in those posts is not even applicable to the Houston demographic. And, most importantly, I pointed out a huge NON-subsidy in the form of school taxes, and you simply ignored it and posted your plagiarized data dump.

So, I'll make you a deal. You attempt to explain how paying 20-40% higher school taxes is somehow a subsidy, and then I'll point out a few of the myths and outright falsehoods in those city-data posts. Remember, you are the only person here who is even posting your side, so it's not like I have many people to convince. Everyone else already knows what I am going to write.

So, explain the school property taxes and I'll explain the rest. Otherwise, I won't waste my time.

These posts appear to have been plagiarized from this city-data thread...

http://www.city-data.com/forum/urban-planning/1186795-how-suburbs-subsidized.html

You should probably give credit to those who actually took the time to type their thoughts into the forum. By not giving credit, you give the false impression that you actually thought up these things yourself, as opposed to simply stealing them from a google search.

Why are you plagiarizing the comments of posters from city-data? Do you not have any original thoughts on this subject? Must you steal them from others and post them as if they are your own?

Double post

In post #73, I made this comment...

I see this a lot in the arguments by mass transit supporters and new urbanists. There is a less than subtle insinuation that people are inherently stupid, and that government should force them into dense cities, force them onto trains, for their own good.

Slick Vik responded by posting this...

Secondly, the majority of people are inherently stupid. Many people can't name the first president of the united states, or the vice president right now. Millions of Germans supported Hitler's reign of terror. And George Bush was voted president twice. And, most people are able to be corrupted. These two facts make it tough for good things to get done in society. But once in a while, it happens.

Wow. I must admit that I was wrong. I stated that there is a "less than subtle" insinuation of stupidity by the new urbanists. There is not. It is blatant. So keep this in mind. If you do not agree with the new urbanists, you are stupid, you voted for Bush twice, and the government needs to force things on you for your own good.

First I don't appreciate your condescending tone, you're not a better human being than me and should speak respectfully even though you disagree instead of talking like an elder schoolmaster. 

Well, well, well. Look who feels insulted. Let's review what you said first...

 If you don't believe that you are in total denial and uneducated on what went on in the 1950's.

 I'd advise you do further research before making outlandish statements on that as well.

Particularly you and Ross, as senior citizens you should be ashamed for acting like children,

That kind of rhetoric sounds pretty condescending too, do n't you think? It seems that you can dish out the insults, but you can't take it. And, when your arguments get shot down, you claim you've been insulted to change the subject. My suggestion is to stay on topic and refrain from insults in order to not be insulted yourself.

Now, let's move on to your debunked "subsidization" claim, shall we? You stated this in your post...

OK, let's make it fair. How about we make suburban Cy-Fair's tax rate $1.45 per $100 valuation. Let's make Katy's tax rate $1.52 per $100 valuation. Does that sound fair? Now, let's make inner city HISD's tax rate $1.15 per $100 valuation. That should be a great subsidy for the suburbs...oh, wait. What? HISD's tax rate is over 20% lower than the suburbs? How can that be? I thought the suburbs were subsidized? What? HISD also gets the benefit of taxes on all of the downtown skyscrapers, and much of the ship channel industry? Whoa! How can that be? I was told that the suburbs got subsidized!

Maybe things are not what they seem. Maybe those transit bloggers are feeding us a lie.

It's not a coincidence that the large rail projects that you have held up as an example of progress in modern intercity rail, in Istanbul and China, are also occurring under authoritarian regimes.  They are happening because a strong central government is pushing them, not because of popular support.

I see this a lot in the arguments by mass transit supporters and new urbanists. There is a less than subtle insinuation that people are inherently stupid, and that government should force them into dense cities, force them onto trains, for their own good. I see this trend throughout Slick Vik's posts, especially the ones about the GM conspiracy. The GM conspiracy occurred because people are stupid and easily led to the suburbs.

I find that argument to be an insidious one. As I stated at the HAIF happy hour the other night, I am actually a proponent of good mass transit. I used to office in front of the Preston Station downtown. I used to take the 70 Memorial to work. However, this belief by some that government should be more authoritarian and force people into apartments and onto trains is a dangerous one, and the main reason that I have posted responses to this thread.