"La Cebolla de Las Cruces"

April 1, 2008

Sidewalks: Do We Need Them?

Guest Writer Noel Carnut
Noel Carnut relocated to Las Cruces from California two years ago and is heading a committee with other members of the Picacho Peak Homeowner’s Association to ban all city sidewalks.

Move over, Detroit – you’re not the only Motor City in America! Las Cruces is 100 now and has seen a lot of changes and growth in the past century. A large part of that change came with the invention of the automobile.

We’re Americans and we deserve to live however we please. For most of us, our livelihood is that thing sitting on four wheels out in the garage and I’ll be damned if anyone tries to take that away from me! Think about it: big companies build shopping malls surrounded by acres of parking lots – for cars! And take Las Cruces as a perfect example when those dummies back in the 1960s decided it would look “pretty” to raze Main Street and make the Downtown Mall a car-free zone. Hello! Nobody wants to walk! They want to drive their car everywhere. And now downtown is like, dead.

guy sleeping on sidewalk
Some guy sleeping on the sidewalk
The only people who use sidewalks are homeless folks and other poor people who have to ride the bus. I mean, sure we can be all sympathetic and keep building sidewalks for homeless people, or we can stop building sidewalks so there’s nowhere for those people to walk and they’ll just go to Tucson. Problem solved, and we taxpayers will save money for our children.

Sometimes I see poor people riding, like, bicycles in the street, as if they have some kind of right to even be there. Bicycles and cars do not mix – if you are too poor to buy a car then stay off the road! If we take out all the sidewalks and drive really close to cyclists who are holding up all the traffic, then they will also have nowhere to go. Another problem solved, more money saved.

In Las Cruces sidewalks are legally supposed to be at least 4 feet wide. That’s a whole lot of extra cement and space that we, the majority of people, need for our community roadways. If we got rid of all the sidewalks, we could probably add an extra driving lane on all of our roads. More people could drive their cars and there would be less traffic.

The environmentalist wackos fight openly to build more sidewalks for homeless people and cyclists, and tell everyone to stop driving so much because of this whole “global warming” nonsense. Well, let me tell you that we, the majority of people, will win because there are now less sidewalks being built and the ones that were built before are crumbling into disrepair or are purposefully blocked. There’s a reason for that, but some people are just too stupid to see it! Just spend five minutes walking along Las Cruces sidewalks and you’ll find out why we are working hard toward the abolishment of sidewalks.

You want to walk, ride your bike, or get around in a wheelchair? Not in my town. Just get a car like everybody else so we can tear down these sidewalks for good!

broken sidewalk
Crumbling concrete wheel blocks with rebar sticking out in front of the donut shop

broken sidewalk
Railroad ties protruding onto the sidewalk along Ave. de Mesilla

broken sidewalk
A fire hydrant blocking the sidewalk in front of the DMV office

broken sidewalk
Broken, dangerous sidewalk near railroad tracks

broken sidewalk
Utility pole in the middle of the sidewalk

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a great article! The streets are FUCKED in Las Cruces, you can't walk around unless you own a car and are just walking from the parking lot! The bike lanes are lacking as well.

koochzilla said...

i love whoever does this blog.

Raggies said...

Love the Skidmark! I'm in a band called the Raggies (you can Google it). We would be happy to distribute your paper at our shows. Maybe we can trade for some advertising or something?

Good luck,
Jack

John Z Wetmore said...

Along a similar vein, Peter Koltnow gives a keynote presentation at the 12th Annual International Pedestrian Conference: The Pedestrian Agenda, in Bethesda, Maryland, on October 2, 1991. Are pedestrians suffering from neglect, or is there a conspiracy to get rid of them?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD9_7zUuR9w