Now I'm lost without a map, as I have no strict orders from daddy Bojack. I guess that means I can do whatever I want while he's away. Woohoo! Party in the comments section! Don't break anything valuable.

You're kidding, right? RIGHT?

HEY, the boss’s away, lets play public policy trivia:

1. Which carries more passengers EVERY DAY, MAX in Portland or Amtrac nationally. (Data is at http//www.amtrak.com/pdf/AnnualReportCongress021705.pdf & http://www.trimet.org/inside/ridership.htm)

2. Which costs more: the $1.2 billion proposed light rail loop from the expo center to Vancouver, then East to I205 & down I205 to Gateway. Or: buying a Pearl district condo for every rider of that proposed rail loop that WOULD NOT ride the alternatively proposed $14 million upgraded bus system. (Data is at www.i-5partnership.com/reports/q3.html, a government site)

3.How much do extended (bubble) curbs reduce pedestrian accidents?

4a. How many lives are saved by speed bumps reducing traffic speed?
4b. How many lives are lost by speed bumps reducing emergency vehicle speed? (Emergency vehicle delays do cost lives and property as fires spread very quickly after a few minutes, heart attack victims chances of survival diminish rapidly after a few minutes)

5. When you double the population density of an area , how much does driving PER PERSON have to drop to keep traffic congestion the same? How much does it actually drop? What is the result on congestion. Compare your answer with “conventional wisdom”.

6. Planners like to mention “eyes on the street” provided by high density housing built close to the street.( “Eyes on the street”, supposedly to reduce street crime.) What category of people are LEGALLY REQUIRED to keep their eyes on the street?

7. Which is cheapest:
A) increasing infrastructure to accommodate more people in an area by ripping up the street, digging down to, removing (and disposing of) old pipes then installing new ones, covering the trench and repaving the street. Repeat for phone and power lines. All the time clogging up traffic.
Or
B) digging trench in vacant land, plopping a pipe in the trench and covering the trench.

8) How does the actual cost of a MAX ride compare to taxi fare per mile.

9) What pollutants are generated by MAX. Hint: think electric

10) If you have a job further away from home, you probably did it because it pays more than a closer one or it was the only one available. All other things being equal you would choose a job close to home wouldn’t you? Question: which gives you the most job opportunities, in terms of commuting radius (IE: number of jobs to choose from) in a fixed length of time: Trimet or a car?

Jack: Aren’t your proud of me - no mention of property taxes.

Thanks
JK

dear jack, my signature caps key?

ok, but who shall i tell to blog while you are gone about another high risk grouphome that i got a call about in the cully neighborhood?

randy just hangs up on citizen's that call if they say anything he doesn't like and you act if you never ever heard of one.

see jack, no caps ...period.

I guess that means I can do whatever I want while he's away.

Damn kids.

Oh, and Jack Roberts, please run for something.

All the roads lead back to a classless society, and the hormony that ideal should bring. This is embodied in the notion of equal privileges and immunities. Disharmony is not introduced solely at the cusp where one can find the existence of invidious discrimination. I would rather whine about gifts to banks and corporations. To that end here is a link to "Uncommon Thought Journal" where the author whines about the "'personhood' of corporations" but links it only to the right, not the left. The real threat is unconstrained government power without regard to who has that power.

Oh . . . don't take a watch on your trip. It might remind you of "civilization" (kind of a contradictory word meaning man made law to rule others) rather than let you simply experience nature. Enjoy your trip.

I wish only that I could shake free from the shackles of so-called civilization; even if only for a day or two, without a sense of guilt.

(Signed, Nature Boy.) (A writing instructor from the past would understand this signature, because she coined it to describe me. Not PERS.)

"show pity on the misguided among us."

Sounds like the general confession in the Episcopal book of common prayer.

Is he gone?

Cos I know where he keeps the liquor.

lurk lurk lurk

I'm Telling!

There is plenty to slam some of you about, especially you Randy Leonard, but one crucial issue is beyond all of our jabs.

Our school reform. I am watching the current debate out here and find it stunning that some are defending this calamity reform.

No one should be defending our school reform.

If you want more money for schools you better help rebuild credibility and support right now by getting rid of what is clearly souring the public and our public school system.

I may even be nicer to Randy if this reform dies the quick death it deserves.

Our state has to demonstrate that something, anything can actually be fixed.

Here is a good ooportunity to do just that.

If we can't fix this obvious monumental failure we might as well forget about everything else.

Oh my God- I think I've just had my 15 seconds of fame!! Have fun, "Daddy Bojack"!!

JK: nice list. I'd provide an opposite one debunking the lifestyle you so seem to idolize, but there are too many books and studies that already do that for me. I'm sure you've read them all.

So now we have two failed systems of living, yours and the New Urbanists. Care to propose a new one?

Jack Peek,

You can post a group home whine on my site.

I live in the Cully neighborhood.

And . . . my mom was one of the people that were strongly pushing for group homes for the mentally ill some 30 years ago, back when new drugs made institutionalization of those affected an uneconomic absurdity. She can claim to be one of the founders of NAMI.

You can continue reading . . . here "Cully Group Home -- Hum? And Jack B Goes Fishing." (My post is less than 1000 words, so I can save on MY bandwidth.)

Posted by Gordo: JK: nice list. I'd provide an opposite one debunking the lifestyle you so seem to idolize,

Do you mean freedom and equality?

Posted by Gordo: but there are too many books and studies that already do that for me. I'm sure you've read them all.

Are any of them credible, with real data? Or do you mean Marx, et al?

Posted by Gordo: So now we have two failed systems of living, yours

What failure? Our lifestyle has produced the longest life span and healthiest people in history. Most who are in poverty have color TV and no-one starves (I mean like those pictures of real starving people in Africa). We use less energy per unit of output than ever before. Our poor live better than the rich of 100 years ago. We have eliminated one serious disease from the earth (smallpox) and reduced others to small occasional outbreaks (polio, whooping cough, TB and many others)

The real dangers that we face are ignorance such as: people who advocate that we no longer treat water (killed a bunch of people in South America).

Maybe the biggest danger is those who want to use government power to rebuild society to some vision. Of course the problem is that the vision is untested and probably would be a failure. Remember the last century had a vision of “to each according to his needs, from each according to his ability” Got a few hundred million people killed. A vision of racial purity got another few hundred million killed. (Yes Hitler had a vision AND THE PEOPLE BOUGHT OFF ON IT) This is very dangerous stuff.

Yes there is abuse by corporations, but they never had the ability to put people in concentration camps or send them to gas chambers. Only government has that power.

Posted by Gordo: and the New Urbanists. Care to propose a new one?

How about our current lifestyle? It has worked since the founding fathers did the declaration of independence and the bill of rights. Yes they are not perfect, but they are better than anything else in their time. We successfully updated them to remove a lot of inequality. I think all we really need now is a set of judges that can actually READ the bill of rights, particularly things like “congress shall make no law” and “shall not infringe”.

Free people can do anything!!! (Or do you have a problem with freedom for others)
Thanks JK

Ego te absolvo.

Dear Jack: Since it's a different day and it's the SOS, (a family blog) FORGIVE ME, I know what I write about.

May 13, 2005
Cully Group Home -- Hum? And Jack B Goes Fishing.
Jack Bog goes fishing, leaving local whiners without guidance and discipline.

Jack Peek,

You can post a group home whine on my site.

I live in the Cully neighborhood.

And . . . my mom was one of the people that were strongly pushing for group homes for the mentally ill some 30 years ago, back when new drugs made institutionalization of those affected an uneconomic absurdity. She can claim to be one of the founders of NAMI.

I still believe that the economic factors are more dispositive (in aggregate) of whether someone that is genetically predisposed to vulnerability to onset of mental disease actually succumbs. (Wherein I could correlate government waste and inefficiency as a contributing to the relative, in aggregate, number of persons who's brain synapses go bonkers.

I think that the interface between mental illness and criminality might be partially explained by the last resort act of dining-and-dashing as a means of compelling the government to provide treatment that would otherwise be denied. I suppose that when that is not extreme enough then they can always escalate. . . and then they get to meet you, the opposition that says it is unsafe to have people who are wacko, and that they ought to be institutionalized rather than treated. This is the same old dynamic as thirty years ago when your view lost, but . . . inefficiency and graft in government just runs faster and faster, like the brain of a mentally ill person, until the point of exhaustion, creating even more wackos and anti-wackos as far as the eye can see.

Posted by nag at May 13, 2005 04:12 PM

Comments
OK...Ron, you asked for it!

Lets start right out on the right foot you stupid jerk, Never, ever have I SAID one word about Not seeing these people get treatment.(you can google all you want on that fact)

Lets get started with the FACT that idiot's like you and your Mom,and NAMI refuse to separate the trully mentally ill, from the "criminally insane!"

There is a reason they call these people "criminally insane!"

Lets get also to the fact, if you wish to support the placement of grouphomes, then you print a "flyer" so stating that case, put your name, address and phone number on it, an post it too as many doors as you can in your neighborhood, state also that some placements are not all dangerous,(but some are) but that is not a concern of yours.

If you have kids....DON'T HAVE ANYMORE! If your neighbors want "NEW NEIGHBORS" direct from the state mental hospital criminally insane ward, ask them to call the same people that are placing a "COMMUNITY PLACEMENT" of the mentally ill in Cully, but ask them to be real sure what they are getting...and then, when they find out that according too idiots like you, and your Mom, an NAMI, "that information is none of their business according to current law!" They may have a few questions for you at your next meeting.

If you don't like the "tone" of my response, I didn't like finding out that "nice" mentally ill people next door had killed, raped, or burned someones home, while I traveled 12 states to earn a living and my wife and kids were home alone.

Now that is out of the way, "Wanna know a way you can have your grouphome in Cully and some of your neighbors will thank you for what you did? I have the answer.

A big PS. I GOT A CRIMINALLY INSANE GROUPHOME, YOURS MAYBE NOT THAT WAY..BUT BY LAW, THEY CAN PUT ONE ANYWHERE THEY WANT.

Do we wait until Randy Leonard suggest's a "law" asking for what I seek in the name of some dead kid?

Jack and a host of others: The reason I continue this is there is a horrible "pattern" that is forming as it has other places when "community placement" of "ANY" High risk, difficult to place client(the last out of PDC loan documenet)is made without full accountibility from those that manage said clients. Randy Leonard has given a BS reason blaming me for not attending a meeting with the same people I tried to convince at over 30 meetings they were risking too much.

There is a person in Seattle,WA. I talked with, she got into this similar issue when her daughter was killed by a guy who walked away from a similar house...she vowed to get into politics and fix some of this crap. She was chair of the ways and means committee of the state parole and probation board, and might I say she was a B-word to get along with. So, just keep ignoring me, and maybe you can have ten years in Salem for a good cause.

PS.In this city..it's just not nice to be so MEAN! I have no intention of moving to Salem to continue this fight.."THAT'S WHAT I VOTED FOR RANDY LEONARD TO DO.

Well, Jack Peek, you made it almost exactly 12 hours without using the caps key.

Dammit! Bog hid the liquor!

TOO bad, I always feel like a drink after slogging through one of Peek's posts.

Well, Jack Peek, you made it almost exactly 12 hours without using the caps key.

Posted by Lily:

Dear Lily, You really think in the spirit of honest debate.....on an issue that could ruin your day, or some little kid's, that my use of the "caps' key is really what is wrong with this post? SEEK HELP! get off me, and on Randy L.

The problem is still there and the fact you think I'm the problem leads me to think Dr. Savage's new book will reach #1 by Sunday.

There is a person in Seattle,WA. I talked with, she got into this similar issue when her daughter was killed by a guy who walked away from a similar house...she vowed to get into politics and fix some of this crap. She was chair of the ways and means committee of the state parole and probation board, and might I say she was a B-word to get along with. So, just keep ignoring me, and maybe you can have ten years in Salem for a good cause.

PS.In this city..it's just not nice to be so MEAN! I have no intention of moving to Salem to continue this fight.."THAT'S WHAT I VOTED FOR RANDY LEONARD TO DO.

Dear Lily, Got a loved one in a PDX neighborhood that would be worth ten yrs in Salem?

b!X, I don't know what you're talking about - I'm wasted. Wanna make out?

JP

SHORT ANSWER:

Here is a suggestion. Wear the pro-Group Home hat and advocate, for example, that Randy's South Waterfront project include Group Home units in rough proportion to the general need for them citywide. Don't let Randy find other spots far far away from the little enclave of wealthy idiots who will buy those downtown units. This would provide a rough corollary to the special tax burden that will be saddled on others.

Hey Randy Leonard, any comments on my public policy trivia post.

Thanks
JK

SHORT ANSWER:

Here is a suggestion. Wear the pro-Group Home hat and advocate, for example, that Randy's South Waterfront project include Group Home units in rough proportion to the general need for them citywide. Don't let Randy find other spots far far away from the little enclave of wealthy idiots who will buy those downtown units. This would provide a rough corollary to the special tax burden that will be saddled on others.

Posted by Ron Ledbury at May 13, 2005 11:32 PM

RON: You advocate, ITS OK WITH YOU...right?

If you do this then RANDY will post "he is offended and won't post here anymore!"

Second thought, you might make some of us real happy to see that happen.

JP, I really wouldn't recommend moving to Salem to avoid group homes. As far as I can tell, I live within two blocks of three of them. While I'm a bit sympathetic to your cause, my sympathy is limited by the perception that the city of Salem is pulling a lot of Portland's weight when it comes to this sort of thing. (Plus, with the state pen to the East of me and the state capitol to the West, you know I must be in a high-crime neighborhood!)

Adding group homes to the South Waterfront development sounds like a good idea, though... they can just set aside a few condos from each tower. How about in the Pearl, too? Or does old town's open-air treatment facility count as close enough?

Alan..Do you think Homer Williams would bend for a Criminally insane groupgome?

The idea isn't bad, when you consider what property is going for here...and the federal laws say that if Cascadia healthcare would bitch enough, they could with the full force of the law behind them, plant one right up Homer's ...ahhhhh, developement.

What I want, and will get across, is that some, not all,of these "wonderful community placements", can be a safety issue.

What I don't want for those that could get this type of home, is the reality that certain segments of these clients are dangerous and should not be there. If we have to get this fact the hard way......GEE FOLKS, I told you so.

Alan, "google" the subject, like someone suggested before, then decide if you want your very own criminally insane house next to your wife and kids loose for 90 minutes unsupervised at a time.

When the home was discribed as "nice mentally ill people" with 24 hour care, we said yes as a part of a letter of support for a loan from PDC from our neighborhood association.

It was not as we were told...a little "truth" in advertising is also what I seek as part of a state or city law or ordinance pointed towards the people that put them there.

What none of you don't get, is what I WOULD have told Randy Leonard if he had met with me first.

I support as many of these places as possible. LET ME SAY THAT AGAIN, place as many of these homes for this narrow part of the mentally ill community in all areas of the city, just hold those who run the place...RESPONSIBLE. so lets see who responds to that idea...it won't be Randy, I'm sure of that. Over 300 people are coming to your neighborhood...some of you will bake cookies for them, most of you will call Randy, and demand he not raise tax's on your cell phone and write a law for what is coming soon as a part of "community placement" (gee, has a nice ring too it)

"Hey Randy Leonard, any comments on my public policy trivia post.

Thanks
JK"

Yeah...I am telling on you when Bog gets back.

Randy Leonard Yeah...I am telling on you when Bog gets back.

JK: Tattletale

Jack Bog, say something interesting more than once in twenty posts.

JP, I just said it was a "good" idea, not an achievable one. Sarcasm, dontchya know. You're right, Homer probably wouldn't do that... willingly.

And by the way, I do actually live across the street and down the block (with the fiancee and kids) from a group-home diversion program for juvenile offenders, and there's a lot of "free-range mental health care" in my neighborhood. So, again, my sympathy is a bit limited.

If there is no chance for you to see what little I have asked the elected officals of this state for, that being the consideration of the impact of safety for kids an familys in the area,then this city can take tolerence too the highest possible level and pay the price.

Thanks for your consideration.

And sympathy Alan,is not what I have looked for, but just like the lady I mentioned up in Washington that got into politics because her daughter was killed by somebody you would tolerate because that's what "WE"(CAPS LILY)do here in Portland...... my sympathy is for the lady and her kids you mentioned because of folks like you who wouldn't even consider demanding a reality check from a jerk elected offical that said that's what he was about...SAFETY! How does safety equate to a cell phone tax??? BLOG THAT!

Just read this:

Conclusions

More effective methods for managing this complex clinical forensic population and for improving outcomes are needed. Important work remains to clarify the characteristics of offenders that are amenable to rehabilitative efforts and to develop programs that can treat these individuals cost-effectively. Challenging clinical questions must be addressed. For example, what is an acceptable level of recidivism? Predicting behaviors with low rates of occurrence in the general population, such as criminal behaviors and violence, remains problematic, and thus determining who requires more intensive treatment and monitoring can be fraught with peril. We need guidelines for assessing and managing risk.

WHAT PART OF THIS DOESN'T SET IN

a group-home diversion program for juvenile offenders....in your neigborhood

GEE, ALAN, PUPPIES COMPARED TO 5 GUYS, ALL WHO DID MURDER, ARSON OR RAPE, AND WERE NUTS TOO> You got a comic book, we have a nightmare, and they are next to a grade school with 400 little kids.

Jack Peek-

You forget, I live in Buckman where there are OVER 40 social service agencies including group homes. Why don't you take some of the energy you've spent posting here and find something else to do with it? I sincerely doubt you are garnering people on "your side" with all of your insults and ravings. I wish Jack Bog would suspend you from this site again.

Yup. When the cat's away, the mouse forgets to take his meds.

Damn y'all are funny. A chance for a semi-serious debate and most of you settle for childlike name-calling and schoolyard politics.

Bleah!

Tell us about the group home, Jack Peek.
(Read: Tell me about the rabbits, George)

You forget, I live in Buckman where there are OVER 40 social service agencies including group homes. Said the "flower" of PDX BLOGS.

Hey instead of kissing RANDYS ample ----, WHY DON'T YOU WORK too fix the above, familys including BOGDANSKI's LEFT BUCKMAN. When Andy Eiseman (former Buckman neighborhood president)said to ERIK STEN, that Buckman had a saturation issue, like Randy's standard answer it was "WHATEVER".

Your right none of you people care a fig!

The information I have gathered over the years say's your as nuts as some in the homes! One day soon, you will read about what have forecasted, your answer..."WHATEVER!" Sick, JUST SICK!

You forget, I live in Buckman where there are OVER 40 social service agencies including group homes...said lily, her usual response !

Lily, does the fact that families have moved from Buckman because of the above not bother you? Of course it doesn't.

Hey instead of kissing RANDY'S ample ----, WHY DON'T YOU WORK too fix the above, familles including BOGDANSKI's LEFT BUCKMAN. When Andy Eiseman (former Buckman neighborhood president) said to ERIK STEN, that Buckman had a saturation issue, like Randy's standard answer it was "WHATEVER."

Your right none of you people care a fig!

The information I have gathered over the years say's your as nuts as some in the homes! One day soon, you will read about what I have forecasted, your answer..."WHATEVER!" Sick, JUST SICK!

And to the rest of you, its a sad day when people stop caring.

Gee, now that I'm on Buckman, I sure hope that god awful piece of architecture where the Kienow's used to be isn't going to be a retail group home, where people will be coming at all hours of the night to buy CRAZY PEOPLE.

(P.S., I like Peek's new strategy to rally people to his cause by calling his critics "as nuts as some in the homes". It's an interesting new twist in what otherwise had become a rather repetitive storyline.)

"on Buckman" = "in Buckman"

And now for something completely different…</