Secrets of the City

I think alliteration is one of the main causes of air pollution.

Well, vehicle exhaust is our single largest source of air pollution in Minnesota. Sounds like a good place to start…

make driving less convenient and more expensive while funding transit properly to make it more convenient and less expensive. Easy.

(AKA end the auto infrastructure subsidies, or reduce them to a similar funding level of the transit subsidy)

when the twin cities has its frequent summer smog alerts, is it the same type of smog as LA or phoenix?

Easy? I wish air pollution had an easy solution, wayne, I really do. I know you’re doing your part, math man, and we apreciate it.

I thought those were because weather patterns parked above us and trapped in particulate matters, that’s what they always say on the liar media.

Bob,
You pimp! Nice work on getting all the Ps. I think that’s a great MNSPeak trend.

We usually have greater problems with particulate pollution than ozone. Why? We have winds from the west, cooler temperature and geography that doesn’t usually trap ground-level ozone — unlike Knoxville, TN, a city at the foothills of the Smoky Mountains — their pollution, and others that blows in, gets stuck there for days.

That said, we have had ozone alerts here before. If our summers get warmer, the winds shift elsewhere, and we continue to pack our highways with gas-burners, it will only get worse.

Bob,
You pimp

(blushing) That’s the nicest thing you have ever said to me, Kevin.

By the way, I’m not the only one…

Weather is a major factor for both types of pollution alerts, kwatt, so they are partially correct. With ozone, temperature is also a key variable.

I’m just saying that reducing automobile usage by encouraging carpooling and transit use via a method other than “Won’t you guys please do it?” would help. If people start paying the real price that driving costs it’s an easy way to reduce driving and thereby emissions. We could also use a stringent smogging system like california has.

I’m unusually generous on such wonderful days as this.

Fox News puts a happy face on the 2007 SOAR.

“So you can escape city traffic by moving to the country, but you can’t always escape big city air pollution. What to do about it?“

Move UPWIND.

Sheesh. Was that so hard?

If you’re outside of the big city, you can always escape the polluted outdoors by going into a bar for a smoke…

Cute, MB, but I’m not taking your bait.

I did check to see how the air is doing today. Pretty good!

Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers; HA take that mnspeak title!

I admit, I like catchy heads for postings. My favorite.

We could also use a stringent smogging system like california has.

I see your hometown, Bakersfield, is the third-worst city in the country for air pollution, wayne. Must be because when you left, they went back to their evil ways in your absence, eh? Shame on them.

the whole central (San Joaquin) valley of Cali is smog laden. folks who live there will tell you the smog blows down from the SF bay area and can’t escape.

Are they serious? Door County, Wisconsin, away from human civilization, is graded with a big fat F for air pollution by these clowns from the American Lung Association? By what?! Smog farts from passing ore bulk carriers in the middle of Lake Michigan? Come on! Get Real! There is no way you can choke on bad air in the middle of nowhere, especially in rural America like Door County, unless it is cow poop turned into fertilizer on an nearby farm.

Yet, whoever wrote this survey for the ALA must had been on crack or something.

The ALAMN is as serious as a heart attack, G man. BTW, I believe exposure to air pollution can trigger heart attacks as well as a lot of really nasty lung illnesses.

The Door County grade sounded strange to me also, so I checked with one of our friends with ALA of Wisconsin to ask how this could be true. Turns out that Lake Michigan is the X Factor. Warmer winds from the west and south, carrying ozone and particles from the Twin Cities, Milwaukee, and all of Minnesota and Wisconsin hit the cooler air over the lake and are pushed north along the lakeshore.

That’s how it gets to Door County. Look at some of those other WI counties on the chart that got bad grades. Many are also on the same lakeshore.

In Iowa, the X Factor is dust — that’s why they do so bad on particulates — but they also are downwind on a lot of coal-burning power plants.

Thank God for that treehugger Richard Nixon and his EPA, eh?

Bob, why are these results printed in confusing tables rather than a nice color-coded map – which would be implied by the first page of the pdf?

Because it comes from our National Office in New York City, and not from us super-smart, computer-savy, white-belt hipsters in the Midwest.

Bob, why are these results printed in confusing tables rather than a nice color-coded map – which would be implied by the first page of the pdf?

Baffle ‘em with bullshit?

Actually, it’s our (America’s) EPA, Maz. That’s a point we have had to remind the current President several times — including in the US Supreme Court.

Watch for this color coded map to change soon — to all blue.

and no, there are no political implications in our use of red and blue. As many have noted, Freedom to Breathe Act of 2007 is a bipartisan bill.

That’s not a news story, that’s an editorial cleverly disguised as one. And you guys wonder why people question your movement’s credibility.

That’s not a news story, that’s an editorial cleverly disguised as one

remove “cleverly” and you have described Fox News

When does the Freedom to Smoke Legal Tobacco bill come up?

Movement? I’m ALAMN, maz, not AIM.

The fact that some people see Fox News (the ratings leader) as biased, only illustrates how much the other networks are all reading from the same set of left wing talking points published that morning in the NY Times and Washington Post. Because they don’t, Fox News looks right wing in comparison. And that’s the inconvenient truth.

no….that’s actually some happy horseshit.

When does the Freedom to Smoke Legal Tobacco bill come up?

I was wondering the same…

I plan on taking in some unclean air with my post-lunch coffee outside the Central Library Dunn Brothers just before noon today. feel free to stop by & chat…especially if you bring cigarettes.

feel free to stop by & chat…especially if you bring cigarettes.

Heh! I got a carton of Marlboro Reds on my desk — but they are for ‘visual aids’ for teevee reporters like friend Jason.

You got good taste in coffee (you can still taste, right?) Geoff. Dunn Bros. is my brand, too. I like my Joe straight up, dark as midnight and fully caffinated.

Back to the subject (in a roundabout way), I note Jason’s Station did their Good Question on the old “Food vs. Fuel” debate.

Notice that little snip of a commercial at the start of the video clip? That’s our piece on E85 that has been running on local TV stations.

same coffee for me, bob. and the smoke thing was half-kidding. If I smoked a Red right now I would pass out from the sudden nic rush. FWIW, is patio smoking legal?

In Minneapolis? Sure. Bloomington and Golden Valley have some patio smoking restrictions.

I see your hometown, Bakersfield, is the third-worst city in the country for air pollution, wayne. Must be because when you left, they went back to their evil ways in your absence, eh? Shame on them.

Actually it’s part of the reason why I don’t drive. Besides being a communist, of course.

Growing up with air that dirty and knowing it’s because everyone drives is almost enough to make me never want to drive again, though.

“That’s a point we have had to remind the current President several times — including in the US Supreme Court.“

Bob, I feel I ought to warn you: Liberal thinkers, in general, are going to want to bury that particular opinion quickly, and those who bring it up and into the public view on a regular basis are going to be pariahs eventually.

That’s the case that’s going to be cited as a prime justification when Roe v. Wade is overturned.

(I’m NOT inviting an abortion discussion here, and will stay away from any such talk. I’m making a purely legal point.)

GV has banned smoking in “Public Parks and Recreation Facilities”, but allows it “For recognized religious ritual or ceremony”…hey Maz, wanna go golfing with me @ Brookview?

hey Maz, wanna go golfing with me @ Brookview?

You have a perversely brilliant mind. Funny, too.

wait, they’re banning smoking in parks?

NOT OK!

Get cars off the ‘parkways’ then, because they spew more pollution than anyone puffing on a stogie, and they’re part of the park system too.

I’m going to go smoke in the park right now in protest.

Attention, Earth loving MNspeakers of all types ‘n stripes. ALAMN Bob speaking. The Earth Expo is at the Fairgrounds this weekend. Stop in Sunday morning to see me. Or, another time to avoid me.

You MNspeakers may mock old Bob, but they love me down in Iowa.