Thank-you.

In general, major cities shut down - permanently - ribbons of walkable boulevards to all but pedestrian and bicycle traffic, with trucks able to service the shops only during night (generally 2-6 am or 1-7 am).

Examples: Bordeaux, Nantes, Nice, Marseilles, Milan, Naples, Rome, various parts of Germany, Spain, etc.

If I meant "all the streets" I would have used the word "all".

Which, Fnarf's delusions and Gabriel's assumptions to the contrary ... I never did.

Bicycle fuckers.

Like, ever.

Frickin space case grammar nazi.

Isn't parking free here?

I hear you ban smoking in your bars - are you animals or what?

So no, we haven't got NYC beat by 40 years just by having the Lake Wash. blvd. bikes only thing in summer.

What are we, anyway, a bunch of dumb provincials, desperate to prove something?

As far as WiS, you can pick on grammar and avoid the substance which is that yes, lots of cities have banned autos on lots of central streets and it works great.

IOW: why, how kind. You are quite welcome, WiS.

On to other matters:

1. Correction on NYC comments: I was wrong saying the new bike area is along east river drive, it IS along several avenues going north south on the east side of Manhattan. Very cool. WiS is EVEN MORE right to compare to other cities.

2. Once again another city is even more green than us.

ohmygodhesaidwearenotgreencirclewagonsattackattackattack........

3. A look backwards. What seems to bother folks the most is my main theme from the start was Obama will have flaws and limitations, we just didn't know what they were yet. This was proven in the primary campaigns. I don't hear anyone saying what they said way back after Iowa and around Super Tuesday that he's going to win so massively and unite everyone, Democrats, independents and even republicans. What I hear Obama folks saying now is (a) he doesn't need OH and FL -- basically he's given up on some hard core Demo possibilities; (b) we hate, hate hate HRC and anyone who ever said anything pro HRC thus we don't even want to unify with the HRC wing of the party, giving up the unity theme; (c) anyone who talks of his flaws is a big fat racist (a/k/a utter denial).

So even pointing out crude factual errors like Josh saying Obama was a juggernaut as if Obama he swept the last 14 primaries and got a popular vote margin of 10-20 points produces a bitter, attack the truthteller reaction.

YWannnnnnn.....you know this groupthink appraoch is exactly what old style politics is all about. Ironic, no?
Division? Red, blue, Obamatron, Clintonista, etc.?

Bitter tribal hatred suppressing common ground and raitonal discourse. Yawn.

4. Suggestion: Get over it dudes. Unity!

5. I take back the notion Solis Doyle is a good pick.

--connections to Axelrod and Chicago aldermen is old style Chicago politics not new style politics.
--slap in the face of HRC is old style Chicago politics not new style unity politics
--"she's a Hispanic leader" um she isn't, she's hispanic, and that is old style identity politics not new politics
--she sucked, she didn't plan for caucuses, but that doesn't matter it's old style pick off the toher tribe's members and turn their loyalty around old style etc.
--stupid to start organizing the VP campaign schedule when you don't know who it is (Richardson and Nunn for example would have totally different shcedules)
--Obama campaign keeps denying this choice sends a message that HRC won't be the pick -- oh really?

Either this is a lie, old style politics, or a total fuck up in the Obama campaign,
proving that maybe, just maybe, his staff hododwinked him and led him to a bad decision i.e. he has flaws at times.

(Unlike all the Obama supporters, natch; they're different, new, pure, right; they remind me of nothing more than the Jesus loving crowd back in my high school who really discovered the "good news' and wanted to share it with everyone! Jocks, hippies smoking pot, why everyone could see the good news!! :) :) :) ))

A la prochaine....