Chicago is descending to anarchy, and it’s not just because of the shootings.
There are also Mad Max style “street takeovers” for Chicagoans to cope with on a regular basis.
Last night, CWB Chicago reports, there were several street takeovers. And at one of them, two people were shot.
So sometimes shootings and street takeovers are synchronous.
Street takeovers generally consist of domestic muscle cars meeting at predetermined gathering spots–social media gives the when and where–and the where is also always on a main thoroughfare. The street takeovers aren’t 1950s-style cruise night parades, the sports cars engage in such dangerous and possibly deadly activities and as drag racing, drifting and spinning donuts.
Chicago street takeovers happen about once a month, although the establishment local media tends to ignore them. For the most part, the cops just watch the cars drift. Last night was different because, as once again CWB Chicago tells us. Bricks were thrown at one Southwest Side street takeover and at another Southwest Side motorized mayhem rally, multiple objects at police officers.
I’ve never been a cop, but it’s pretty easy to ascertain how to end them–in Chicago and elsewhere.
The next time there is a street takeover, cops should just place spike strips on the offended streets. The car will end up with flat tires and possibly damaged wheels and a ruined suspension, but who cares? Driving is a privilege, as we know, not a right. And reckless driving is a crime. And streets are built and paid for by taxpayers for responsible transportation, not dangerous stunts.
Yes, the jackals who attend these might throw more objects at the law enforcement officers who lay down the strips–so cops working to reestablish order need to where riot gear–but word will get out, quickly, on social media of course, that the streets of Chicago are no longer open for street takeovers.
I’m eagerly awaiting the first insurance company to decline a claim on a car damaged during a street takeover.
Yes, speed strips are an easy solution.
Apparently, the CPD owns some spike strips. Two years ago, ABC Chicago reported that a pilot project to use spike strips to combat street takeovers–but apparently this project was grounded.
But will Chicago’s pro-criminal mayor, Brandon Johnson, allow it? He’s an apologist for Chicago’s lawbreakers. For instance, while mayor-elect last year, “Branjo” dismissed a downtown riots, saying that kids make “silly decisions.”
Last week, during a run on the North Branch Trail at Harms Woods in Skokie, Illinois, a speeding cyclist came close to running me over and causing enormous physical harm to me.
And that got me thinking.
Chicagoans voted for a handful when they elected Brandon Johnson as mayor. He’s a leftist whose candidacy was pretty much paid for by the Chicago Teachers Union.
In July, his transition team released “A Blueprint for Creating a More Just and Vibrant City for All,” their gameplan for America’s third-largest city. In it you’ll find a recommendation that Chicago should “lower the default citywide speed limit to 20 mph generally and 10 mph on residential streets.” Currently, unless otherwise posted, the statewide urban default speed limit, when no signs are posted, is 30 miles per hour.
That means for what you might call a through street, or an arterial street, such as Cicero Avenue or 111th Street, unless posted differently–and yes, possibly higher–the speed limit is 30-mph. Expressways have a 55-mph speed limits in Chicago.
Residential streets, or what Chicagoans have always called side streets, appear to also have a 30-mph speed limit too. Although, common sense–there are pockets of it here and there in the city–compels most drivers to motor along around 20-mph. The many stop signs on Chicago side streets, as well as the numerous but not-so-clearly marked speed bumps, which are tall enough to scrape the bottoms of most sedans and SUVs if you are driving too fast–are another form of discipline. And believe it or not, many drivers keep an eye out for pedestrians and cyclists. I do.
An aside: A Southwest Side man, fed up with an alley speed bump damaging his car, removed it. He was fined $500.
These proposed lower speed limits are another bad idea from Chicago, which seems destined to be passed in population soon by Houston. It’s another utopian parlor game idea brought to the mainstream. Most people, even those who don’t drive cars, probably agree with me. Our economy and our society are auto-centric and will remain so indefinitely. Disclosure: I work in the automotive industry. People like their cars. And if people don’t own one, often they wish they did.
That’s not to say that bike riders have a legitimate beef about idiotic and reckless drivers. Many cyclists are severely injured and killed by cars. While running, I’ve been nearly hit by an automobile a few times. But bikers aren’t all angels either. More on that in a bit.
Now one thing conservatives and moderates don’t do, is yell and scream when liberals present fringe ideas. “That’ll never happen,” is a typical response they offer.
Abolishment of cash bail is one of those “loony” ideas that no one took seriously ten years ago. Well, liberals kept pushing, albeit slowly at first, but next week the SAFE-T Act takes effect in Illinois–it abolishes cash bail. The defund the police movement–and some municipal police departments, not in Illinois, did see cuts in funding. Defund the police was another left-wing parlor game dream concept. Thankfully there has been some pushback lately. The left’s war on popular home appliances, such as natural gas stoves, dishwashers, and even ceiling fans, has begun.
One can view the low default speed limit movement as a secondary front of government’s war on internal combustion engine automobiles. But Chicago drivers, few of whom drive EVs, also have to cope with seemingly omnipresent red-light cameras as well as speed cameras that spew out tickets to motorists for driving just 6-mph over the speed limit. A 20-mph arterial street speed limit offers a new revenue stream for Chicago, which, because of unfunded pension mandates, is functionally bankrupt.
Why aren’t more Chicagoans going full “Howard Beale?” He was the tormented antihero in the Network movie. You know, sticking your head out of the window of your home and screaming, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!” Watch the clip in the link. And the Howard Beale reaction works much better in cities.
Oh, let me return to those bicycle riders. Presumably, the proposed default 20-mph speed limit in Chicago would also apply to them. Or would it? What I call the cyclist lobby possesses the imperiousness of the green movement and the aggressiveness of a testosterone rush after a brutal workout.
Prior to the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, I saw many senior-citizen regulars on the North Branch Trail during my runs. But lockdown queen Lori Lightfoot, Johnson’s predecessor as mayor, closed Chicago’s Lakefront Bike Trail.
Where did the cyclists go?
Some brought their bikes, or rode them, to the North Branch Trail. Several cyclists nearly ran me over in 2020. My guess is that they were speeding along well over 30 mph. Did I say speeding? Harms Woods is part of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, and the speed limit on paved and dirt trails is 15 miles per hour. I suspect there were many complaints about these Tour de France wannabes, because in 2021 I noticed newly posted 15 mph speed limit signs on these trails. A year or so later, all of those signs were gone. Likely there were more complaints, but not from the same people. And not only were those speed limit signs gone, but so were those elderly trail walkers. Those hiking regulars never returned.
Wait, there’s more!
Many of these speeding trail cyclists ride three abreast on a very narrow trail. And it’s now a rarity when I hear a bell ring, horn honk, or an “on your left” shout out from cyclists passing me during a run.
The photograph at the top of this post is of the North Branch Trail during the 2020 lockdown.
When I pass a walker or a runner on a path, I always say, “On your left.” My parents taught me manners.
Oh, until the running and cyclist paths were separated on Chicago’s Lakefront Trail, I experienced numerous close collision calls with cyclists while running there. Just as when there is a crash between cyclist and a car the “winner” of that collision is obvious, so it is when a bicyclist plows over a runner, particularly one like me, who is nearing retirement age. But don’t feel sorry for me. When it’s between me and a cyclist racing up an elevated bridge on the North Branch Trail over a busy street, I usually prevail.
Northeast of where I live is Sheridan Road, which bisects some of the wealthiest communities in America. Sometimes I see packs of bicyclists of more than a dozen, zooming in and out of traffic, seemingly oblivious to cars.
While I don’t see those bike packs within Chicago’s city limits, with a 20-mph default speed limit, will emboldened cyclists misbehave recklessly in the same manner?
As for myself, I can take solace knowing that in three months the North Branch Trail will be nearly bike rider-free. Winter will be here, and the cyclists will retreat into hibernation. As they will in Chicago, whether there is a 20-mph speed limit or not.
While I see fewer runners on the trails on rainy days, particularly cold ones, I almost never see cyclists.
Say what you will about automobiles, but they have roofs and windshield wipers, as well as heating and air conditioning. Unless your car’s A/C is broken, unlike a cyclist commuting to work on a hot summer day, you won’t need to shower when you arrive at your jobsite to remove newly acquired body odor.
Oh, on occasion, I do ride a bicycle. And yes, I’m one of the good ones.
UPDATE September 12:
They’re not all gone! During this morning run, I saw a 15 mph “Share the Trail” sign in Harms Woods just north of Golf Road. I also saw many cyclists–and one jerk on a motorized bike–going much faster.
One of the side effects of California’s insane move to ban the sale of gas powered cars in 13 years is coming into play in Massachusetts.
It seems that lawmakers in several states including mine which are controlled by the left that want to be as insane as California but still believe that to do so openly might lead to defeat passed laws that tie the decisions in their states to those of California.
So because of this Massachusetts now has a bad on the sale of gas powered cars ready to go into effect in 2035 without anyone in the state actually making such a decision.
This means two things.
First if you are the Mass GOP this is a golden opportunity. The state party should be recruiting in every city and town, they should be visiting every car dealership, every repair shop, every parts dealer and every gas station to mobilize and energize voters. They should be recruiting candidate in every district with the promise to repeal any such laws that ties decision about how people in the bay state live to the whims of officials 3000 miles away that they have never voted for.
The fact that I am suggesting this instead of hearing that the GOP is already doing this however suggests that the Massachusetts GOP is going to do its best to earn the old GOP nickname of “the stupid party”, but you never know.
There is however one other point to make about this situation.
California is a very big state 163,696 square miles and while it borders three states (Oregon to the north, Nevada to the west and Arizona to the southwest its a bit of a haul to get there unless you live right on the northern, western and southern border. So when these rule kicks in you’re going to have to grin and bear it (until things collapse that is but I digress).
However not only is Massachusetts less than 1/10 of the size of California 10,565 but it borders five states (New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire) and while some spots in the state are less than a half hour drive from mains every resident in Massachusetts has a shorter drive to Maine than most people California have to any other state.
This means that if our state is stupid enough to allow this idiocy to continue then car dealers in every New England State plus NY have a windfall coming.
I bought my 1999 Buick LeSabre in Londonderry NH, it was less than an hour’s drive from my house to get it. What do you think will happen when people have the choice of paying 40-50K for a car in their own city or driving two hours or less away to get a car for not only half that price but without the prospect of some day having to pay for a battery repair that costs more than a new car?
If I’m a car dealer in any of those border states I’m salivating at this idea, and if I’m a current dealer in MA I’m looking at buying land in Hollis, or Nashua or Salem or Ringe NH or Halifax or Sanford VT or Woonsocket RI or Stafford or Thompson Ct or maybe even Boston Corner, Stephentown or Austerlitz NY.
Because barring an outbreak of sanity in Massachusetts or an even more unlikely outbreak of sanity in California you’ve going to have a steady stream of business heading your way, so you might as well get ready now.
Posted: August 28, 2010 by datechguy in fun
Tags: cars, nostalgia
On the way home from Funspot on Tuesday we passed by the Route 104 Diner were we saw a vast collection of classic cars. That’s were I met and talked to Dave:
apparently this is held every Tuesday night in Meredith NH so come on down. My photos of the cars present follow:
Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog 