There's more than one way...

Forsoothe!

Imperial Masterpiece
Messages
6,878
Reaction score
9,248
Location
Michigan
USDA Zone
6b
Ya know how the trees & brush along side the highways grow out into the right-of-way and the county road commission trims them? They have new machinery now that attaches to a vehicle and the guy just drives slowly at the edge of the road and has a mechanical arm that reaches out and grabs a limb or a bunch of limbs and breaks them off. I watched him yesterday on North River Rd. This, is what the aftermath of such devices leaves..Twp road-side clean up crew trims trees.JPG
And on a single trunk...
Twp road-side clean up crew trims tree.JPG
Your tax dollars at work, so to speak. These are the people that want to set standards for us citizens.
 

Agriff

Mame
Messages
155
Reaction score
113
Location
Minneapolis, MN
USDA Zone
4b
I mean, they probably do it that way because it's cheaper than the alternative, so with tax dollars you literally get what you pay for. I'm sure some politician could run on a platform of raising taxes to make roadsides look prettier, but that probably wouldn't be too popular.

I agree it's pretty grotesque though. I for one would be willing to suffer a tax hike to do away with shit like this.
 

Forsoothe!

Imperial Masterpiece
Messages
6,878
Reaction score
9,248
Location
Michigan
USDA Zone
6b
I mean, they probably do it that way because it's cheaper than the alternative, so with tax dollars you literally get what you pay for. I'm sure some politician could run on a platform of raising taxes to make roadsides look prettier, but that probably wouldn't be too popular.

I agree it's pretty grotesque though. I for one would be willing to suffer a tax hike to do away with shit like this.
We mean your taxes are too low? Minneapolis cut $8,000,000 from the police budget. Did your taxes go down?
 

Agriff

Mame
Messages
155
Reaction score
113
Location
Minneapolis, MN
USDA Zone
4b
We mean your taxes are too low? Minneapolis cut $8,000,000 from the police budget. Did your taxes go down?
I believe that money got shuffled into other areas of the budget, but I haven't looked too closely so don't quote me on that. I wouldn't be surprised though: $8 million goes pretty fast when you're budgeting for a city of 3 million.
 

QuantumSparky

Shohin
Messages
297
Reaction score
285
Location
Eastern Pennsylvania, USA
USDA Zone
6b
They donated that 8mil to a terrorist organization!

Sorce
Which organization? :p

8 million is nothing to cities, I'm sure it just got put towards better things.

I hate to see trees cut up like that but tbh it's better than having a road shut down so that workers can take longer to do a more expensive job on a spot that people will see for maybe 2 seconds while they fly by in their cars.
 

Forsoothe!

Imperial Masterpiece
Messages
6,878
Reaction score
9,248
Location
Michigan
USDA Zone
6b
Which organization? :p

8 million is nothing to cities, I'm sure it just got put towards better things.

I hate to see trees cut up like that but tbh it's better than having a road shut down so that workers can take longer to do a more expensive job on a spot that people will see for maybe 2 seconds while they fly by in their cars.
Actually, they had the usual set of vehicles that slowed traffic. They didn't do anything that an ordinary run-of-the-mill commercial landscaping crew couldn't do better walking through with a chain saw followed by chipper/shredder and a Brush Hog in half the time and at a lower hourly rate. There isn't a place in the US where a commercial outfit would be allowed to leave the scene looking like this and get paid and not removed from the approved source list. Argue with that. Contractors can be fired for doing a poor job and yet some people don't object when a civil servant (an oxymoron) does it for higher costs. We are doomed.
 

Adair M

Pinus Envy
Messages
14,402
Reaction score
34,873
Location
NEGeorgia
USDA Zone
7a
Actually, they had the usual set of vehicles that slowed traffic. They didn't do anything that an ordinary run-of-the-mill commercial landscaping crew couldn't do better walking through with a chain saw followed by chipper/shredder and a Brush Hog in half the time and at a lower hourly rate. There isn't a place in the US where a commercial outfit would be allowed to leave the scene looking like this and get paid and not removed from the approved source list. Argue with that. Contractors can be fired for doing a poor job and yet some people don't object when a civil servant (an oxymoron) does it for higher costs. We are doomed.
Higher costs? You think a crew doing this by hand with chain saws, chippers and shredders would cost less than this machine? Maybe if the crew was prison labor…

I don’t think it’s very attractive. The trees do grow back, and you dont really notice it in a couple of months. It’s the price we pay to have safe roads.
 

Agriff

Mame
Messages
155
Reaction score
113
Location
Minneapolis, MN
USDA Zone
4b
They were doing this work by hand with chain saws, chippers and shredders before this machine came along. Your theory is that they switched to the machine because it was either a) easier for the workers, b) allowed the state to pay their workers more, or c) both?

The government is not some type of fraternity that takes care of its own. The people in charge of budgetary decisions don't give a shit about how easy it is for the people doing the work, and they certainly wouldn't waste budget money for the sake of padding a few people's salaries. They only care about the bottom line. The reason this looks crappy is because it's the cheapest option. I work in govt and a lot of my coworkers are hard ass republicans who got into the work expressly to prevent wasteful spending.
 

Forsoothe!

Imperial Masterpiece
Messages
6,878
Reaction score
9,248
Location
Michigan
USDA Zone
6b
They were doing this work by hand with chain saws, chippers and shredders before this machine came along. Your theory is that they switched to the machine because it was either a) easier for the workers, b) allowed the state to pay their workers more, or c) both?

The government is not some type of fraternity that takes care of its own. The people in charge of budgetary decisions don't give a shit about how easy it is for the people doing the work, and they certainly wouldn't waste budget money for the sake of padding a few people's salaries. They only care about the bottom line. The reason this looks crappy is because it's the cheapest option. I work in govt and a lot of my coworkers are hard ass republicans who got into the work expressly to prevent wasteful spending.
I suspected that you were one of them. I won't bother with arguing with you. Only a government worker thinks the government is worth a shit.
 

just.wing.it

Deadwood Head
Messages
12,141
Reaction score
17,546
Location
Just South of the Mason Dixon
USDA Zone
6B
I'm sure it just got put towards better things.
Right....
Like clean needle/pipe programs, pop tents for the vagrants, pay raises for teacher's unions after sitting at home for a year, building low income housing projects in decent neighborhoods.....ya know.....the better things.
Who needs cops anyway?
 

QuantumSparky

Shohin
Messages
297
Reaction score
285
Location
Eastern Pennsylvania, USA
USDA Zone
6b
Right....
Like clean needle/pipe programs, pop tents for the vagrants, pay raises for teacher's unions after sitting at home for a year, building low income housing projects in decent neighborhoods.....ya know.....the better things.
Who needs cops anyway?
Literally all of those things are better than overfunding the police force haha. Nobody is saying we don't need cops, we just don't need a militarized police force. Like cops shouldn't even be doing traffic stops, that should be a completely different department. Cops are for when someone is in danger, not for holding homeless people at gunpoint because they tried to sleep on a bench, or launching tear gas into peaceful protestors. Luckily the bootlickers are outnumbered in this country and the well-educated are starting to fix the US and eradicate the racism and bigotry. Sucks for the narrow-minded individuals on the blatantly wrong side of history :p
 

just.wing.it

Deadwood Head
Messages
12,141
Reaction score
17,546
Location
Just South of the Mason Dixon
USDA Zone
6B
Literally all of those things are better than overfunding the police force haha. Nobody is saying we don't need cops, we just don't need a militarized police force. Like cops shouldn't even be doing traffic stops, that should be a completely different department. Cops are for when someone is in danger, not for holding homeless people at gunpoint because they tried to sleep on a bench, or launching tear gas into peaceful protestors. Luckily the bootlickers are outnumbered in this country and the well-educated are starting to fix the US and eradicate the racism and bigotry. Sucks for the narrow-minded individuals on the blatantly wrong side of history :p
Actually vagrancy is a crime. We used to have standards in this country. But if it wasn't for double standards left wing idiots would have no standards at all.
 
Top Bottom