After spending a day immersed in the utopian community of http://www.barcampphilly.org/ I came home to dystopian reality of dog owners in my local park. Basically Cianfrani park is a nice little community park that has been overrun by rude dog owners recently. I love dogs, having raised three. My dogs didn’t need a leash and I walked them daily off-leash, so I understand these people.

The contrast in the community is striking. At barcamp I was surrounded by people that see the web as a way for people to collaborate and communicate. These dog owners put up a site to champion their cause rather then conduct a dialog on the ‘official’ site. On the site some poster says that ‘unjust laws call for civil disobedience’. Most of the dog owners are very nice and considerate. It only takes a few bad apples to ruin a reputation. This injustice I understand since I ride a motorcycle and automatically get associated with obnoxious load harley’s and kids that recklessly weave through traffic.

Here is what I posted to the ‘dog owners’ site, maybe it was a little dramatic, but after listening to some of the people that care about this community discussing the topic I was moved to write something. Writing a blog post is the least I could do. I’ll try to do more over the next few weeks and go talk to the dog owners and see where it goes.

Philadelphia Leash Law

Leashes are required by law in the city.

There is no conspiracy against dog owners here. My neighbors have been organizing park actives in association with the city since before most of the dog owners were born. They meet regularly and openly. They meet to discuss decorating it for the holidays, they meet to discuss how to fix the dog holes, they meet to address 6 year olds that get scared on unleashed animals.

I’ve raised 3 50lb+ dogs that were all well trained and I never needed them to be leashed. BUT when a child or adult came close and looked nervously I had the respect and consideration to leash my animal as not to scare them. People are afraid of dogs. I personally don’t understand that, but I respect it.

I’ve personally asked dog owners here to control their pets and gotten snide remarks.

There are people here who care about quality of life and meet in person to manage the park. That would be a better place to have a dialogue then posting this site encouraging an ‘illegal’ activity. Civil disobedience is admirable when championing civil rights, its a little weak when it scares children.

The official site http://cianfranipark.org/

A friendly PPA agent gave me some unpleasant news today. I was respectfully loading my bike and moving it from its unobtrusive parking spot on 20th and Market when he walked by.

I’ve notices some motorcycle shaped parking spots on that corner and knew this news was coming. Turns out that if you charge 50% for motorcycle parking but put 4 bikes in a car slot you can still earn 2x in parking fees.

But you only get to make the cash if you have armies of people ‘encouraging’ riders not to park on the free abandoned lot or in alleys.

http://www.kyw1060.com/Philadelphia-Considers-Motorcycle-Only-Parking-Spa/5123020

I ride for the pleasure of it as well as for the economy. I pay as much to park my car at the septa station as I do in fuel for the entire ride.

As much as I enjoy riding if I have to pay for a day of off-street parking anyway I may as well drive the car.

With winter coming I guess the PPA is doing its share. If we all abandon 2 wheels for 4 we will warm the globe and slash heating costs this winter….

Having a bike makes Philly an even better town then it already is. I can easily zip from work in center city to dinner in chinatown and then cruise home. There must a better way to preserve Philly’s growing reputation as a scooter friendly city….

I went researching to Chevy Volt to find some facts to offset my calculator below. I did get lots of feedback about people thinking that price is not the only factor here.

So when I went to chevy to look at ‘affordability’ I found this. Check the URL

GM Working on affordability

I’ve been car shopping lately and thinking about what mileage I need in the new vehicle. The cars that I like and are more fun to drive hover just under 30mpg while the 35+ models tend to be a bit mushy on the gas (or tiny)

Today I came across this: http://www.comcast.net/articles/finance/20090811/US.GM.Volt.Mileage/

GM is unveiling a car that get 230MPG in the city!  I thought that was awesome until I came across 3 facts

1. That mileage is in City driving
2. The car is not shipping yet (and all my projects are ‘bug free’ until they ship also)
3. The car is $40k

I wrote up a quick app to let me calculate how many miles I have to drive in order to recoup the $40k price tag.  Even comparing it against a $20k hybrid that gets 50 MPG I still have to drive almost 320,000 miles to break even! (at $4/gal)