In reply to AJ.

Here in Oakland, there's a contingent of black people who've decided that bike lanes are obviously signs of gentrification imposed by white invaders.

This comes as a surprise after decades of being told I'm an enemy of western civilization that's trying to destroy the entire local economy.

In reply to AJ.

The third-best thing Ontario could do is, if we’re going to be stuck with a PC government, at least have a party leader from somewhere like Timmins who could not give two shits about how easy or difficult it is to do 60km/h in the Annex.

In reply to Dim.

cascade of attention-deficit extremist techbros

In reply to AJ.

As the guy behind the video channel "Not Just Bikes" always says: Cars don't buy things - people do.

In reply to kfringe.

Doesn't seem particularly wacko to me. Though I am wondering what religion has scriptures pertaining to such topics? I might want to convert!

Moreover, I do not know who is telling you: "just making things hard for everyone" and I am sure you know this already and I am preaching to your dubious denominational choir; but they are fundamentally incorrect.

"Scrawled on blackboard" seems as if it is way less resource intensive and still easily updatable with seasonal specials than the poor places which have fallen prey to the "no paper menus, all ordering via scanning this QR Code" thus reducing the experience to being a physically embodied patron at an establishment as being nearly indistinguishable from a DoorDash order.

It's more or less a guarantee that the dining/drinking/etc. experience at such joints will be regularly ruined by the constant influx of wage slaves coming in off the street in their motorcycle helmets, yammering loudly on their phones, cutting any lines with "pick up for %customer" demands, oblivious to how they ruin the atmosphere, while waiting for someone else's order before scootering off.

It's particularly annoying when the QR Code only spots, do not provide WiFi, as if they expect everyone with a pocket device to have an active SIM card. Way to be complicit with the vestiges of the convicted monopoly of AT&T. Must be great for business! Just, not the one I was attempting to patronize.

In reply to AJ.

They might bring more customers, but on the other hand the business owner might have to park more than 20 feet away from his front door, so who can say which is more important to the health of the business?

In reply to tfb.

I prefer your misremembered version!

The 'E' can stand for 'Egotistical'.

In reply to James C..

Yes, this.  I had misremembered the acronym which is embarrasing.

In reply to Flurgis.

The CADT Model

In reply to tfb.

What is the CADET model?

One of the ways in which I've become a religious wacko in my old age is that I believe that a bar is better when it's cash only and the prices are scrawled on a blackboard, and I'm told that my devout fervor on that point is *just making things hard for everyone*.

In reply to Nik.

despite those same people in the UK having somehow coped with the change from crazy old money to sterling

How to tell everyone you weren't born in 1971 and also didn't bother reading the relevant history.

Decimalisation was extremely carefully planned by very competent people.  It took a couple of decades to implement fully (sixpenny bits were legal tender until 1980, shillings and florins until at least 1990). 

The people involved knew that old people existed and thought har about it.  There were lessons in schools.  There were songs and rhymes.  It was a big, big deal, organised by some very competent people.  It took the best part of two decades to implement.

And I can still remember older people asking 'how much is that in old money?' and shops pricing everything in LSD and decimal currency.

Compare that to mobile phones or anything else.  The user interfaces for these things are terrible: they are not designed cor usability, but for their addictive qualities.  And they rigorously follow the CADET model: every year or so a new batch of teenagers arrive and throw the whole thing away because stability and security are boring and not shiny, and all they care about is shiny.

Using these things is like going through decimalisation every year.  Except, you know, designed and implemented by teenagers working for fascists.

In reply to scott f.

yep, my bad. Matt Dorsey, soma.

In reply to Ike Seblon.

Do you mean Matt Dorsey? Dean Preston isn't supporting this legislation, isn't on the board currently, and when he was on the board Rocco's Cafe wasn't in his district.

In reply to Ike Seblon.

Looking through the Yelp reviews in the period before they closed, it seems pretty clear the reasons their business was struggling involved such issues as "I just kept smelling the strong scents of cleaning supplies coming out of the bathroom," "definitely not worth going back to," "I've had better meatball sandwiches at Subway," and "Note to Scott: your snide comments to reviews are not exactly endearing. It's better to take criticism silently instead of coming across looking like a jerk" rather than street construction.

Let us also keep in mind that this "vocal contingent of local business owners" are the same business geniuses who are always, always certain that a bike lane will ruin them.

Meanwhile, a group of Toronto business owners are fighting to keep their bike lanes because they've discovered (like they always do whenever this is studied) that they're actually great for business.

Not that SF is ever going to get another bike lane under the present mayoral administration. We really need a "SF Business Association of People Who Understand We Live in an Actual City and Think Cities are Good" to counterbalance the extremely loud crowd that seemingly always gets their way of small business owners whose primary concern is the ability to park in front of their own store all day long rather than, you know, business.

In reply to Scott McDowell.

article I read, it was trash-ass *Rocco's Cafe* again. They will blame absolutely any city policy for their insolvency to avoid admitting that they can't even deep fry a frozen slab of sysco chicken to edibility, and Dean Preston will always eat it up (the bullshit, not the chicken. He loves bullshit, everyone hates their chicken)

In reply to thielges.

You're drilling down on minutiae orthogonal to the thrust of my comment, so I'll just leave it there.

It's not like it was anything other than the ramblings of some sleep-deprived idealist anyway.

In reply to Nik.

heh.  burner phone.  DOXable by joining tracking records to those of an identifiable phone.  effort==moderate.

In reply to granville.

It was just the first label I thought of for arguments in favour of cash over trackable, identifiable accounts.

Rough analogue of the burner phone.

In reply to Nik.

One of the bigger issues, assuming "you are the product" is solved

Do you believe that "you are the product" is the problem that needs to be ironed out? I think it's the whole reason an anti-cash movement exists.

In reply to jwz.

Any day now. Any day.

In reply to Nik.

I'm fully in favor of Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism, you know, as long as the bugs can be worked out.

In other words, call me when the shuttle lands.

I'm fully in favour of getting rid of cash. However being from the UK I think that should be accompanied by cost- and privacy- mitigated support in law, where the protections us plebs already have aren't enough.

One of the bigger issues, assuming "you are the product" is solved, are the demographics eg older people only being able to cope with sterling cash (despite those same people in the UK having somehow coped with the change from crazy old money to sterling), the financially irresponsible (Which any kind of school education would help immeasurably), the gamblers (having a physical amount of cash is a rate limiter, but the industry already solved that with credit and threats to knees)

Like smoking and other recognised vices that we can't just ban, a transitional rolling age limit enshrined in law would manage things, but that seems to be an impossibility worldwide.

So after this essay, tl;Dr humans just can't get out of their own way, man.

“Let us also keep in mind that this "vocal contingent of local business owners" are the same business geniuses who are always, always certain that a bike lane will ruin them.” — zing!!