photo by chuck johnson
We have some really dumb “throwing out the baby with the bath water” laws in Greensboro, NC. My favorite example is the outlawed use of skateboards downtown.
The city legislated a ban of certain types of recreational transportation from operating in a certain area of downtown. Apparently, the city council views skateboarders and roller skaters to be in the same category as graffiti and broken windows when attempting to deter criminal offenses.
But with rising gas prices and weak public transportation options, wouldn’t you think the city would be supportive of all alternative means of transportation? Instead, they operate with blunt strokes, where the ends justify the means.
How about ratcheting down the buzz kill level to simply stopping kids from grinding on property other than their own? No matter, Chuck Johnson is on the case now.
Btw, if a cop rolled up on me riding that scooter, I’d piss myself laughing.
I saw ‘GPD’ in your twitter update and thought ‘oh lord, what has Greensboro’s finest done this time.’
this is not a scooter Sean…it’s a segway, hahaha!
those rules need to change…i pay taxes and can’t skateboard, skate or ride a scooter there?!!!
i guess since segway is not on the list they figure they’re not breaking their own rules
segw-gay. heh.
But hey, they get a poem out of it.
What I want to know is what happens when the thugs throw gravel in front of the wheels?
i’ve already offered to pimp their rides.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I saw one on my way to work this morning and didn’t even think about how hypocritical it was.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
re: the hypocrisy
a segway is not a scooter. i believe that this is the type of scooter that the ordinance is referring to, so gpd is not breaking the law. and gpd’s aren’t the first segways in downtown greensboro. about a year ago maybe, a cop friend of mine introduced me to a guy who does guided segway tours of the downtown area, so i know segways were already allowed before the cops got theirs, and the cops knew about them and obviously had no problem with them.
the greater issue here, imho, is that we have now cops riding segways in our city. i’m having a hard time reconciling this song with this image. officers, step away from the segways… ;)
yeah, i know it’s a stretch to consider a segway a scotter, but the no skateboard, roller skates or scooter ordinance is garbage.
and yes, gpd now looks hello kitty tough.