Ame and I are originally from Cleveland, and we return there to visit relatives. One thing I will be sure we don't do is spend money in Cleveland for several years to come.
Cleveland is one of those cities that uses traffic enforcement cameras as a revenue generator. Ame passed the cameras on Chester & E 71st, an unsavory area if there ever was one, going 52mph in a 35-zone. The pictures were provided on the "Notice of Liability", and they show that nobody was in the area, and nobody was in harms way due to Ame's rate of speed.
Where is everybody? Oh yeah- they've fled the authoritarian nanny hell that is Cleveland.This may rankle some of my absolutist pro-rule of law friends, but this is bullshit. The purpose for traffic law is to ensure the public safety. If nobody is made unsafe by the passage of traffic, what is the point of enforcing the law? Cameras are blind to circumstance. Police officers use discretion, and it's highly unlikely that an officer on the street would have pulled her over for this infraction. Obviously, this is mere revenue generation.
So, OK Cleveland. You get your $100 fine. What you won't get from me is a visit to the West Side Market for a few years. Nor will I eat in any restaurant in the city for a few years. You got $100 out of us now, but will not get $1,000 or so, thanks to the ill-will generated by this crap. Enjoy.
So, OK Cleveland. You get your $100 fine. What you won't get from me is a visit to the West Side Market for a few years. Nor will I eat in any restaurant in the city for a few years. You got $100 out of us now, but will not get $1,000 or so, thanks to the ill-will generated by this crap. Enjoy.
It will be a happy day when someone gives the camera's poles the 'Cool Hand Luke' treatment.
5 comments:
The light looks green. What am I missing?
Red light cameras aren't the panacea they were touted to be. I think perhaps their usage will begin to slowly taper off.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23710970/?GT1=43001
Not that the news does you any good in the short term.
Speed, Kevin.
Having cameras at intersections that exhibit unusually high rates of accidents IS a good idea.
Having them there for a city to "just make money" is NOT.
Better to use cameras in high CRIME areas such as dropoff points for scrap metals, drug traffic neighborhoods, parking lots, etc.
BTW, Mike...Cleveland is another Detroit, the only difference being is that THEY don't know it yet.
;)
B.G.
Cleveland does know it is another Detroit, but lives in the same sort of denial about it. I could go on endlessly about why I'm glad to have left NE Ohio.
I do hope the use of cameras for revenue generation will taper off, but am not convinced. Cities like Cleveland have so little going for them, and have pushed out so much business and so many people of means, that it is desperate to rake in whatever it can, however it can.
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