Big cities are dying. This should shock you.

[Industrial Toys]

With the ugly clunky running shoes some people wear, I bet those things are good for half a million volts of insulation, easy! As they say (too often) nowadays, "no worry".

Not really, the information I was looking for, as far as getting fried, stepping out of your vehicle.

The reality is that to some, every downed "wire" is a power wire.

 

[lilranch2001]

With the ugly clunky running shoes some people wear, I bet those things are good for half a million volts of insulation, easy! As they say (too often) nowadays, "no worry".

Not really, the information I was looking for, as far as getting fried, stepping out of your vehicle.

The reality is that to some, every downed "wire" is a power wire.

For the uneducated individual, that is probably a very reasonable policy!

 

[tjkubota93]

For the uneducated individual, that is probably a very reasonable policy!

Better safe than sorry, we get alot of calls with folks flipping out about "wire down" that turns out to be cable tv and telephone. I guess that's better than licking their fingers and touching it to see if its electrified.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

That thought crossed my mind again today while out in the "general population". As for parking. They do everything in their power (it seems) to avoid exercise and then try and find time for the gym. I park in one spot and walk all over town,

I'm curious if there are cases where someones vehicle was live from downed lines and they got hurt from exiting the vehicle and making contact with ground.

You have a choice; either don't touch the power line or don't touch the ground.

I should remember that most people here are not really rural. The transmission line on my road is not really high voltage. It's 1200 volts, which is not going to create a fireball that lights up the night. Usually it doesn't even kill the beaver that dropped the tree across the line. People who live in town where there might be 1000 customers on one feeder have an entirely different infrastructure from a rural area with 20 customers on one line. It's not like they have to hi-pot the circuit to avoid arcing. A set of ag tires is plenty of insulation, and even if it gets a little leaky, the current path is through the chassis and hubs to ground, not through the operator seat.

Utility workers are trained in safety routines because they actually have to reach out and touch the wires. That's a different ball game from shoving a downed utility pole out of the way with a front loader, even if it has wires still attached.

Back to the point, which was that urban dwellers have no resources, and no ability to assess reality. Most of them can't even change a faucet washer or repair a faulty electrical circuit. They whine about garbage, when there are 100 people within earshot.

I own both sides of a quarter mile of country road, and every once in a while some Arlo Guthrie type will dump a VW van full of kitchen garbage on my property. Out comes the pitchfork and off it goes to the dump. That's just one of me, putting up with the typical slimeball who has been pulling the same crap for 30 years. What has changed in cities is not the bums, it's the business owners and homeowners who have decided it's not their responsibility and not their problem. Thirty years ago there would have been 100 people out there cleaning up the mess because they had a little pride. Now there is nobody, and they blame city hall when they are the problem. If everyone on that block hauled off a pickup load of trash a couple times a year, the street would be squeaky clean.

But then, they probably don't even own a pitchfork.

 

[ultrarunner]

Every morning when I walk the sidewalk and parking lot picking up the overnight trash it is not unusual for a passerby to say thank you or someone driving by to give the thumbs up... and yes I check it is the thumb...

This week so far it has been mostly fast food trash and people that litter like lots of Ketchup!!!

Outside of the regular 30-50 cigarette butts and a few liquor bottles someone left me a sectional sofa!

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Hah. Although we are now more suburban now than rural, we live in a development that all homes are on an acre or more, and on a cul-de-sac that only has 5 homes, all backed up by a big creek. Last Summer, saw a truck load of "illegals" unloading a huge trailer of leaves and clippings in the creek. They were about done by the time I called the cops, so they didn't get there in time to catch them. Even worse, some goober dumped a pickup load of shrub trimmings in the cul-de-sac, in front of my neighbor's drive way. They are both disabled, so I cleaned them up. Can't figure out why they dumped it here, since there are lots more open spaces close, including a 5 acre lot half mile down the road.

 

[ultrarunner]

Hah. Although we are now more suburban now than rural, we live in a development that all homes are on an acre or more, and on a cul-de-sac that only has 5 homes, all backed up by a big creek. Last Summer, saw a truck load of "illegals" unloading a huge trailer of leaves and clippings in the creek. They were about done by the time I called the cops, so they didn't get there in time to catch them. Even worse, some goober dumped a pickup load of shrub trimmings in the cul-de-sac, in front of my neighbor's drive way. They are both disabled, so I cleaned them up. Can't figure out why they dumped it here, since there are lots more open spaces close, including a 5 acre lot half mile down the road.

Since the tipping fees keep escalating dumping of public and private property is a nightly occurrence...

Two days ago a semi was hijacked, looted and burned in East Oakland and a 750,000 muni bus with all the ADA equipment torched... numerous side shows meant police could not be everywhere... looks like it will again be a long hot summer...

When I was heading off to work on Sunday I saw tremendous smoke off in the distance... like a house fire... it was just one of the many sideshows and all the smoke visible for miles was from burning rubber of tires...

200 arrests a few are Oakland residence... people find great sport in traveling 50-75 miles to tear up my city...

Another sideshow in Oakland; crowd loots truck, starts fire, videos at scene show - Story | KTVU

Oakland sideshow rages into violence, destruction as crowd sets vehicles ablaze - SFChronicle.com

I drive this intersection several times a week...

 

[lilranch2001]

I spent a year on and off around the Bay Area between SF and Brentwood. I always drove around Oakland, never drove through that city!

 

[dragoneggs]

ultra, I can't believe you still are holding out in the east bay area. I recall your mom has roots there but maybe you should spend more time in the Puget Sound before it is totally ruined as well?

 

[ultrarunner]

The call of the PNW is great this time of year...

One of the Docs I work with bought an old farm in Oregon on the Umpqua river... he is counting the days to when he packs up and moves out... more like 3 years.

For him it could mean divorce... his wife is a city girl and she said there is nothing redeeming about living on a farm in Oregon... his boys are split.

I do think that once a person leaves they often wonder what took them so long... as in the old Oakland saying "There is no there there anymore"