words for discourse
I wasn’t talking about racism.
I do not understand this modern world.
I was at the Louvre in the days before smart phones and social media. There was a big crowd around the Mona Lisa of course but I dutifully waited my turn and stood behind the barrier to contemplate it for a bit. After not too much time a meat head in a University of Michigan sweatshirt and ball cap yelled “excuse me” and shoved me out of the way. He immediately turned his back to it so his friend could take a picture and then walked away.
Upper Lower Michigan I-75 S at one of the most excellent rest stops and overlooks one late afternoon we saw a man standing on a picnic table overlooking an autumnal spectacle conducting iirc a sun salutation. Truth be told I wanted to join him.
There’s almost 120 million more people in the US now than there were then. In the 1970’s most people didn’t fly on vacations, and many families still had only one car (and one television, which had four options: ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS). For home entertainment, people often read books! Completely different world.
But one thing hasn’t changed, and that is that people only have a tiny little wee set of ideas of where to go and what to do. The leaves turn all over New England, but out of staters only visit a handful of sites in the entire region. When people visit, say, California, an enormous state full of wonders, they only want to see the five or six places that everyone else does. Preferably at a breakneck pace.
There’s just a whole lot more people to cram themselves and their cars into those five or six places.
Okay, everyone! The Turtleback Dome dopefest is ON!
I’ll book the band and food trucks. @blondebear, can you pick up ice on your way? Thanks.
I know a few influencers who’d be interested in this!
I’ll be up in Yosemite next week…see you there? 
For those who can’t make it, you can take in the view here. (Hmmm…the webcam used to face east looking towards El Cap and Half Dome. The new view with the webcam pointing west isn’t nearly as scenic…oh well.)
See? They already sense us coming & are trying to ward us off.
The poor are getting rowdy. Kick them out of the royal forests.
I actually saw some of this in action over the weekend.
I went with my son’s boy scout troop to Palo Duro Canyon over the weekend, and we hiked the Lighthouse trail. Just under six miles round trip, and the last quarter mile are very difficult- hands and feet climbing in many areas.
Texas Parks and Wildlife notes that this is the #1 trail for hiker rescues in that park, with up to 40 in one day, primarily because people don’t bring enough water - they recommend a liter per mile, which even we couldn’t quite hack, and with it not being summer, probably could get away with 2 per person.
Big signs at the trailhead, a thermometer right there, etc… Recommendations for boots, etc…
Despite all that, about 20% of the hikers just looked like they were out for a family walk- no water, or maybe one small water bottle for 3 people. Tennis shoes. And so forth.
About 20% of the total were young girls wearing Lululemon leggins and tank tops, cute shoes, and carrying NO water.
I could totally see TPWD being cranky about it, if push comes to shove. There seemed to be a rather blatant disregard for basic safety and good sense, in the interest of getting to the top of the Lighthouse formation for cool selfies.
True… I meant that they couldn’t explicitly target outsiders with the regulations, and that it more than likely wouldn’t stand up in court.
But they can absolutely strictly enforce traffic, parking, trash, etc… laws that are primarily broken by outsiders.
There’s a beach near where we live. The houses around there are in the $3-8M range. There is no parking near there, nearest parking is 0.8 miles away at another beach, where you need a town resident permit to park, except for four spaces open to non residents.
There is a cop stationed there who will harass folks parking in the non resident spots and walking the 0.8 miles to the “private-in-all-but-name” beach. Two weeks ago, a cop stopped me and told me that my dog leash was too long, and if I continued he would seize the dog. He said YTD leash could not be more than 6 feet, by town by-law.
I went back to the car and got a five foot leash. He followed me for a good 100 yards warning me not to let my dog go onto people’s yards.
There’s a fine line between enforcing laws and turning that into harassment of “outsiders”
I don’t think there would be a problem with that. During construction or other disruptive times (major events) I often see signs that road access is restricted to people who live on a particular street. In other places it is perminent. No reason that the town in VT can’t do the same during leaf season. Enforcement might be a pain in the ass, but it would be legal.
I kind of think that’s a little different though- that’s saying that if you don’t live on that street, don’t drive down it because there’s construction going on. If people didn’t live there, they’d just shut it off entirely.
I think that enforcement of anything that would exclude outsiders would quickly devolve into some sort of “Papers, please.” sort of thing, or worse, where the local cops would just ticket people with out-of-town license plates for merely being nearby. That also skates awfully close IMO, to sundown town type of BS, and for that reason alone in today’s political and social climate, I think it would be a bad idea.
Now what could potentially work, would be some sort of town meeting saying “Be where you’re going to be by 8 am tomorrow, or park at home- any cars outside of the limited, designated parking spots within the town borders are going to get a $300 ticket.” And if the town’s sufficiently remote, let people off with a warning if and only if they show up in person on the 3rd Wednesday each month from 8-8:15 AM to meet with the judge. That way, locals ensnared could achieve it, but outsiders are unlikely to drive that far to get out of a ticket that early in the morning.
I think you’re taking this to an illogical extreme. Whether it’s a bad idea or not is a separate issue.
As I mentioned, there are roads just like that now around me (greater Boston area). Access is limited perminently to local residents, there’s no construction going on or events happening. Those, however, may be private roads so perhaps it’s not a direct comparison. But it’s much more common when an event is happening, or during certain times of day so commuting traffic doesn’t cut through. It would be trivial to simply say that during leaf season (really only 2 weeks a year) that the roads are restricted to local access only. And that’s what they appear to have done in VT.
It’s really not difficult to find examples of this all over the place. Restricting driving access to people who live or have business in a certain area for periods of time is relatively commonplace. I’m sure it can be abused, but it doesn’t have to be.
Wealthy beachfront residents who think they own public beaches are a pain.
There are also those whose idea of a nice day at the beach is…peculiar.
First, more details on the decision to close it.
Second, the property used to be owned by Joe Perry of Aerosmith. Go figure.