We have the weather. We have the terrain. Give us the bike lanes. It is time to make Charleston the bicycling capital of the Southeast.

After slogging my way through about half of Ken Burns new documentary, my only conclusion is that it is time to take his funding away.

He has done some great work in the past but as time goes on he gets further and further bogged down in the creeping, plodding style that does not work for every subject. I am very disappointed as the National Parks are a great subject for a documentary. If only someone else had done it.

Hey ya’ll. Long time no hablar. I hope everyone out there in Chuck town is hanging in and keeping it loose. Fall is here, the stock market is on the rise(well except for yesterday), and life is good.

Well I’m just dropping a line in here, gonna try to step up the surveil, and report back to youz troops in the fashion reg’lar.

Of course I don’t get out much, but I’ll do my bestest.

Rocket

A public service campaign, coupled with increased rates for speeding tickets and strict enforcement of the speed limit would do a whole host of good for our city and county.

One, through better gas mileage achieved, would reduce the amount of money that we spend on gasoline, money that goes directly out of our county since we import every drop that we use. This results in more wealth staying in the local economy.

Two, it would result in lower accident rates, lower hospitalization rates, and lower medical bills.

Three, in time, a lower accident rate would result in lower automobile insurance rates for the lowcountry.

Four, a temporary boost in city and county revenues as people adjust to the new program.

Five, a decline in airborne pollution from combustion engine exhaust as people learn to drive more efficiently.

Six, a collective feeling that we are doing something as a community to better the quality of life for ourselves.

Such a plan should be accompanied by a reevaluation of posted speed limits throughout the city and county, bringing them in line with what the actual safe driving speed is along our various highways and city and county roadways.

I would like to put forth a program that collects and publishes our energy usage as a county, either monthly or quarterly.

Gasoline, Natural Gas, Electricity, water, recycling and solid waste.

Publishing these statistics will make us much more aware how much we are actually consuming. Using these numbers, we can track together how much we use, and collectively work to bring these numbers down.

Sometimes it is hard to get motivated to conserve when looking at individual home energy bills, when only a few dollars are at stake each month. It would be different if we tracked these numbers as a county where tens of thousands of dollars of potential savings are at stake. It is even more important when you realize that we import almost all of the energy we use.

Carry on.

MUSC handles budget shortfall with furloughs.

I would like to suggest that MUSC, as well as University Medical Associates, stop using out of state companies to process their billing.

After recently using the emergency room facilities, after an unfortunate interlude with an automobile while on my bicycle, I received bills from each of them, MUSC wanting me to send a check to a p.o. box in Atlanta and UMA asking me to send a check to a p.o. box in Raleigh. I paid both bills locally.

Surely they realize they are sending jobs out of state at a time when unemployment is high. They are also reducing our state’s tax base with these practices.

Carry on.