# my RO aneurysm: Uppity middle-class society destroyers don't want sidewalks! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 9, 2007, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ro-aneurysm-uppity-middle-class-society-destroyers-dont-want-sidewalks/403419 "2007-05-09T17:12:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ro-aneurysm-uppity-middle-class-society-destroyers-dont-want-sidewalks/403419/21 "2007-05-09T18:31:26Z")
[QUOTE=Mr. Moto] If everyone took a deep breath and calmed down and did this, we’d all be a bit happier. [/QUOTE] But then I wouldn’t get to see VCO3’s head explode. And I’ve grown bored with that Bop a Monkey game that promises me a PS3. ---
**Author:** ![Monstera\_deliciosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monstera_deliciosa/32/109_2.png) [@Monstera\_deliciosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstera_deliciosa)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ro-aneurysm-uppity-middle-class-society-destroyers-dont-want-sidewalks/403419/22 "2007-05-09T18:38:36Z")
From the linked article: > [@](#): > > “You obviously need a sidewalk on Michigan Avenue, you need one in Oak Park and in downtown Naperville,” Norquist said. “But when you get out to places like McHenry County, it’s remote and people are probably going to be driving just about everywhere.” Methinks this Norquist needs to get his head out of his ass and visit his neighbors up here in the far northwestern suburbs. I’ve lived in McHenry County for the past four years. We’ve got plenty of sidewalks. People here do have to drive way too much, IMO, but we do have pedestrians and kids who walk to school. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ro-aneurysm-uppity-middle-class-society-destroyers-dont-want-sidewalks/403419/23 "2007-05-09T18:43:55Z")
[QUOTE=VCO3] This affects all of us - we’re living in a society! [/QUOTE] This explains everything. **VCO3** is George Costanza. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ro-aneurysm-uppity-middle-class-society-destroyers-dont-want-sidewalks/403419/24 "2007-05-09T18:59:09Z")
I think sidewalks are ugly. I would rather see a asphalt (slightly winding) path for the walkways. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ro-aneurysm-uppity-middle-class-society-destroyers-dont-want-sidewalks/403419/25 "2007-05-09T18:59:54Z")
I’m not willing to get quite as melodramatic over this as VCO3, but I’m inclined to agree that this is a sign of a disturbing social trend. We, as a culture, should be encouraging people to walk more, both for health and environmental reasons, and instead we’re barricading ourselves and our kids behind closed doors due to a vague sense of paranoia. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ro-aneurysm-uppity-middle-class-society-destroyers-dont-want-sidewalks/403419/26 "2007-05-09T19:19:21Z")
[QUOTE=Fretful Porpentine] I’m not willing to get quite as melodramatic over this as VCO3, but I’m inclined to agree that this is a sign of a disturbing social trend. [/QUOTE] I’m not sure how much of a trend it is. Before I moved to the city, I lived in 4 different houses. My parents now live in a new house. I remember my sister’s and brother’s old houses. That’s seven houses. Two of those had sidewalks. No family member of mine has lived in a house with a sidewalk since 1969. It ain’t new. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ro-aneurysm-uppity-middle-class-society-destroyers-dont-want-sidewalks/403419/27 "2007-05-09T19:19:31Z")
[QUOTE=Fretful Porpentine] I’m inclined to agree that this is a sign of a disturbing social trend. We, as a culture, should be encouraging people to walk more, both for health and environmental reasons, and instead we’re barricading ourselves and our kids behind closed doors due to a vague sense of paranoia. [/QUOTE] I agree, and that guy’s explanation is really stupid.\* But what’s the need for sidewalks? Is anybody going to stay inside because they aren’t there? \*You can just imagine the criminals: “Dude, those people look loaded! Let’s rob the house!” “No way, man. There’s no sidewalk and they’ve got one of those ‘this lawn has been sprayed for pests’ signs on the grass. I’m not getting myself poisoned to death so you can make a big score!” ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ro-aneurysm-uppity-middle-class-society-destroyers-dont-want-sidewalks/403419/28 "2007-05-09T19:30:58Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] I’m not sure how much of a trend it is. Before I moved to the city, I lived in 4 different houses. My parents now live in a new house. I remember my sister’s and brother’s old houses. That’s seven houses. Two of those had sidewalks. No family member of mine has lived in a house with a sidewalk since 1969. It ain’t new. [/QUOTE] Likely because you’re all a bunch of baby-seal clubbing, environment-raping, SUV-driving _suburbanites_. Right? RIGHT??!?!? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ro-aneurysm-uppity-middle-class-society-destroyers-dont-want-sidewalks/403419/29 "2007-05-09T19:36:11Z")
[QUOTE=JohnT] Likely because you’re all a bunch of baby-seal clubbing, environment-raping, SUV-driving _suburbanites_. Right? RIGHT??!?!? 😛 [/QUOTE] Oh, bullshit. It wasn’t the environment that we raped. What? ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ro-aneurysm-uppity-middle-class-society-destroyers-dont-want-sidewalks/403419/30 "2007-05-09T19:47:19Z")
There’s a proven link between neighborhood sidewalks and a rise in criminal activity by tricycle gangs. Someone did a study. ---
**Author:** ![Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c4cdca/32.png) [@Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quiddity_Glomfuster)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ro-aneurysm-uppity-middle-class-society-destroyers-dont-want-sidewalks/403419/31 "2007-05-09T20:09:28Z")
[QUOTE=ForumBot] This increases likelihood that children will be hit by cars when they’re walking to their neighbor’s to play jacks. Oh please, won’t somebody think of the children? [/QUOTE] Children no longer walk. Due to fears over terrorists/baby-rapers/anybody adult, children are forbidden to use their actual legs when outdoors. They must be driven to friends’ houses where they and the friends sit on their butts and play video games. When they are old enough to conduct their own affairs; they must immediately be given vehicles so that they don’t actually walk. Soon, children will have no legs at all as evolutionary adaptation has its way with our offspring. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ro-aneurysm-uppity-middle-class-society-destroyers-dont-want-sidewalks/403419/32 "2007-05-09T20:16:40Z")
I hate to agree with Grover Nordquist, but I’ll bet the assessment for those sizewalks cost quite a bit of money, upwards of $5,000 per lot. That’s a big hit to the pocketbook. If I was a homeowner there I’d be yelling about them too. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ro-aneurysm-uppity-middle-class-society-destroyers-dont-want-sidewalks/403419/33 "2007-05-09T20:20:11Z")
[QUOTE=Sean Factotum] About half of my neighborhood has sidewalks. I have one in front of my house. The guy to my left doesn’t, and the two families to my right do - there are three houses on my street “served” by this sidewalk. I wouldn’t miss it if the city wised up and ripped it out. [/QUOTE] Same here, my sidewalk only goes from the porch to the driveway one direction and to the neighbor’s drive the other. His sidewalk only goes from his drive to his porch, his other neighbor has no walk (3 lots), and the rest of my yard (another lot) from my drive to the next neighbor has no walk. So no walk for 1/3 of a block, 3 lots with a mix of walk/no walk, and the rest of the block has walks on both sides of the street. The three offending no walk (or semi-walk) landowners (about half the block on one side) mow each other’s grass, bring each other food, gather each other’s mail/newspapers when gone, care for each other’s pets when gone, visit each other daily, etc. Pretty good sense of community for a bunch of no sidewalk, secluded, anti-social suburbanites. Oh wait…we ain’t in the suburbs. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ro-aneurysm-uppity-middle-class-society-destroyers-dont-want-sidewalks/403419/34 "2007-05-09T20:24:11Z")
[QUOTE=zamboniracer] I hate to agree with Grover Nordquist, but I’ll bet the assessment for those sizewalks cost quite a bit of money, upwards of $5,000 per lot. That’s a big hit to the pocketbook. If I was a homeowner there I’d be yelling about them too. [/QUOTE] You gave me a major scare there, but fortunately, the man being quoted is a different Norquist. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ro-aneurysm-uppity-middle-class-society-destroyers-dont-want-sidewalks/403419/35 "2007-05-09T20:30:12Z")
[QUOTE=Quiddity Glomfuster] Soon, children will have no legs at all as evolutionary adaptation has its way with our offspring. [/QUOTE] Your dystopian vision of a nightmarish future society of Weeble children intrigues me and I’d like to tune my foil antenna to your radio newsletter. However, there are a few skateboard punks constantly clattering their boards across the pavement in my tiny condo complex lately (in their endless Quixotic quest to one day actually _pull off_ whatever lame curb-jumping stunt they’re attempting, rather than just falling and busting ass over and over, board flying off, hundreds of times in a row) whom I really wouldn’t mind seeing suddenly legless. ---
**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ro-aneurysm-uppity-middle-class-society-destroyers-dont-want-sidewalks/403419/36 "2007-05-09T20:30:31Z")
[QUOTE=zamboniracer] I hate to agree with Grover Nordquist, but I’ll bet the assessment for those sizewalks cost quite a bit of money, upwards of $5,000 per lot. That’s a big hit to the pocketbook. If I was a homeowner there I’d be yelling about them too. [/QUOTE] True but uppity rich middle-class bitches can afford it. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ro-aneurysm-uppity-middle-class-society-destroyers-dont-want-sidewalks/403419/37 "2007-05-09T20:35:24Z")
I don’t see the problem here. I find it more comfortable to walk across their Turfbuilder[sup]®[/sup] lawns than a concrete sidewalk anyway. ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ro-aneurysm-uppity-middle-class-society-destroyers-dont-want-sidewalks/403419/38 "2007-05-09T20:39:02Z")
[QUOTE=zamboniracer] I hate to agree with Grover Nordquist, but I’ll bet the assessment for those sizewalks cost quite a bit of money, upwards of $5,000 per lot. That’s a big hit to the pocketbook. If I was a homeowner there I’d be yelling about them too. [/QUOTE] “I don’t want to pay for it” is a legitimate, if perhaps selfish, argument. “OMG terrorists!” is not a legitimate argument. ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ro-aneurysm-uppity-middle-class-society-destroyers-dont-want-sidewalks/403419/39 "2007-05-09T21:00:13Z")
We don’t have sidewalks in our neighborhood. It’s frustrating when I take my daughter for a walk, because we basically have to walk in the street, or in peoples yards. That being said, I can’t wait until we sell our house and have an acre or so for my daughter to run around in without worrying about being hit by a car. The downside is learning to ride a bike on grass is a bitch, but learning to ride a pony is MUCH better. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![lokij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5e9695/32.png) [@lokij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lokij)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2007, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ro-aneurysm-uppity-middle-class-society-destroyers-dont-want-sidewalks/403419/40 "2007-05-09T21:12:08Z")
Maybe they just don’t want construction crews impeding residential traffic for weeks, having their lawns torn up and tax dollars spent on a sidewalk that they know will see very little use because of the relatively low population density. … NAHH It’s because they’re evil, fat, greedy, lazy, sociopathic, racist, suburban YUPPIES! :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ro-aneurysm-uppity-middle-class-society-destroyers-dont-want-sidewalks/403419.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ro-aneurysm-uppity-middle-class-society-destroyers-dont-want-sidewalks/403419.md?page=3)