Perhaps you could buy the local college football team some beers . . . only those over 21, of course . . . and have them persuade the drag racers that it would be unhealthy for them to return
If a bunch of 6’5" 280 pound guys told me I wasn’t welcome, I would stay the hell away from that place . . .
“one mile strech of straight road”
It doesn’t have to be. One neighbor hood nearby that was plagued by thru trucks regardless of the signs, just plopped a traffic island in the middle and had the road bend on either side around it, so much so, large trucks couldn’t get through. They simply entered from the either side to make deliveries on either end when needed but it eliminated thru trucks. The same technique could be done but with less bend in the road to slow traffic down. It would be a two day job for each island. It’s completely non invasive and only a problem if you drive too fast.
After reading Wheresrick, I have sympathy. When I was a kid we couldn’t even run our under powered go carts on the sidewalk or street without getting chased out. For good or bad every state i a little different in their organization, but if the Sheriff doesn’t respond, it might be worth a letter to the Attorney General. Usually they can take action state-wide on a number of issues and a letter from them to the Sheriff might get some attention. Like I said though, I kind of am amazed at some of the ways some states are organized. I had no idea, for example, the Mayor of New York controlled the school system. In Minnesota we have local school districts and mayors have nothing to do with it.
@ ok4450
they are not booby traps…
They fell off a truck… 
@ db4690
or try cheerleaders and use them as boob-y traps… The racers will slow down guaranteed! 
What about the State Police? When I lived in PA, they were interested in what the local police did, and would intervene if they had good reason to. And contacting local elected officials works well, too. There is nothing they like better than leaning on a local sheriff that isn’t doing his job. Invite one over for the show one Sunday morning. These low level officials see this as free advertising. They look good to the public and there is absolutely nothing the sheriff can do about it.
Do not litter the road with anything. That is a sure trip to jail, and possibly a long one.
yep a few meso morphs,doing a few reps of miscreants overhead should send the message(if that dont work suggest they swap to the “strong arm” and try again,after the dummy toss,of course)-Kevin
While there are some great ideas above, it pays to be extra cautious and research the laws. Sometimes, purposefully spreading debris or creating a barrier can result in either criminal or civil law problems.
Personally, I like the idea of a sign (on private property) that says something about security cameras - and follow that up with something that looks like one that can be plainly seen.
I also like the idea of video taping the activity (even though they don’t use tape anymore) and showing that to the sheriff with a word that you intend to show this to the local news outlets (paper and TV).
BUT be sure to not come off as an old guy with a “get off my lawn” kind of attitude.
I have to agree that over zealous enforcement sucks, however no enforcement is worse. It wouldn’t be a huge problem if they just let the minor stuff slide, stuff that isn’t hurting anyone. But here they let everything slide, they are simply there to react, there is no proactive policing here at all.
We have had two banks robbed in the past 3 months, no suspects. Two unsolved murders in the past 3 years, one of which was a 93 year old man. One unsolved shooting, a guy was putting the tractor in his barn and got shot in the head. He survived and moved out of the area, there is not even a suspect but when the police went knocking on doors in the immediate area they found not one but two active meth labs. It goes on and on.
We have had trouble with prostitution and drugs at a local truck stop (not bashing truckers, there are a few bad apples, but most of the drugs went to locals in cars, not semi trucks, and most of the truckers found the prostitution a big turnoff to that truck stop, and it closed for a while due to lack of business), the local police were of little help, eventually it came to the point the FBI raided several homes in our area in connection with a statewide drug ring and the sheriff threw a fit because he wasn’t involved in the surprised raids. The FBI basically told him to suck it.
So now I am going to try to leave the area, I have a lot of loose ends to tie up first. I am truly sick of living here…
The state police are a great resource here in Indiana. The enforcement we do have in my county generally comes from the state police, if you get stopped for speeding 99 percent of the time its by the state police and I can not tell you how many times they stop a car for speeding and find a meth lab cooking and even a kidnapped child! one time.
If she writes a letter to the local paper and she lived in my county, some of the local police will identify you and target you and then you will be the one getting pulled over for going 2mph over the limit or some other trumped up charge even though they do not pull people over for going 15 over.
This is one reason I hate living in areas where the law is enforced by a county sheriff. County sheriffs have such a large area to patrol that they can’t really engage in community policing. I much prefer to live in a town that has its own police force. They are much more responsive to my and my neighbors’ needs, which makes them more effective.
Whitey is absolutley right. A neighbor of mine had his windows on his parked camper broken during holloween. The sheriff was there two weeks later following up. Everything has a priority and county law enforcement road sde traffic monitoring may not be one of them. All good suggestions. Another easy one is to create traffic during the time of the races. If they generally race at say 10 am, that would be a great time to run a yard sale, so to speak, and park a bunch of cars on both sides of the road.
Is there street side parking available along the mile stretch ?
you park a vehicle on the far side, the next neighbor parks one on the far side, the next on the near side etc. creating a not-so-straight roadway except for the driving lanes. ( the drag racers prefer wider lanes and might balk at the narrowness of the standard driving lanes. )
Another idea. Build some signs on stands and place them in the center stripe. ( those 3x3 diamond shaped orange signs like in construction zones. ) SPEED LIMIT XXX - SLOW DOWN - WE’RE TAKING LICENSE NIMBERS , etc might be some wording.
@Rick, sounds like a good idea to me,you can certainly find a place where things are more civilized-but remember the"New Guy"(you) is going to be on trial for awhile,hope you find your “Shangri-Lai”-Kevin
Don’t come to Los Angeles, unless you’re rich
Otherwise, you’ll be living on the same street as the gangbangers
We’ve also got substandard roads and a very lacking public transportation system . . . it’s getting better, but it’s going to take awhile
Not to mention the very mediocre schools . . . unless you’ve got a ton of money for private school
For the record, I’m not against public schools . . . I just think they’ve been abandoned by any parents who aren’t poor. It seems that nobody in Los Angeles actually wants to send their kids to a public school.
Don’t get me wrong. I actually like living here. But I acknowledge the city has major shortcomings.
“Don’t come to Los Angeles, unless you’re rich…
Not to mention the very mediocre schools”
Unfortunately, that is nothing new.
I can recall getting a transfer student from LA in our suburban NJ high school about 25 years ago. When I (finally) received her official transcript from John C. Fremont HS, it revealed that this young woman was at least 3 years away from qualifying for graduation in NJ, despite the fact that LA classified her as a HS senior!
As a result, I phoned John C. Fremont HS, in order to get clarification of the credits that this young woman had earned in her preceding 3 years of HS, and in order to get some reality regarding CA’s graduation requirements. Among the credits that had been granted to her were credits for Homeroom (no that is not a joke, and I actually asked the principal repeat his statement that CA awarded credits for sitting in homeroom), and also academic credits for being a library aide.
As it turned out, at that point in time, CA required only 2 years of English, 1 year of US history, 1 year of science, one year of math, and the rest of the graduation requirements could be satisfied by sitting in homeroom without being disruptive, by stamping forms for the school librarian, and by taking courses that–by traditional academic standards–had little to do with actual education. In short, the CA educational system was a total disgrace 25 years ago. Whether it has improved, I cannot say.
To my shock and dismay, I was told that this student was “on track to graduate this year” if she had remained in California. By NJ standards, she was barely a sophomore. And, when I administered some standardized tests, her test scores were so shockingly low that it could have taken…many years…for her to qualify for graduation in NJ, even if she had met our course requirements.
When we gave this young woman some reality regarding her status in NJ vis-a-vis graduation requirements, she opted to leave our school and enroll in an adult school GED program. I have no idea how she fared in that program, but given her totally inadequate education in CA, I tend to think that she did not do well in the adult school program.
Very sad…very sad…
What VDCdriver has related is both shockingly bad and disgusting; and in a way, not very surprising.
Due to the school overstepping their bounds and prying into the private life of my wife and I, we allowed our daughter to drop out of high school 3 weeks into her junior year. That is something she had been pushing for.
She finished her studies at home, passed the GED about 4 months later, and was accepted into a major university at 17 years of age; all before her former classmates even started their senior year at HS. She even maintained a 3.5 GPA and now works as an accountant.
The university was impressed enough that they offered her considerably more in scholarships than she would have gotten by staying in a public HS.
Only 3 things matter at her old public school; the Ag program, the athletic programs, and enlarging the bureaucracy.
On the topic of CA schools, here’s a picture of a partial list of questions that are asked of high school students when they get a physical before they can play sports at school:
@db4690, @VDCdriver, and @ok4450–You have really hit a sore point with me. One of my colleagues took his family on a vacation to Colorado. While in Colorado, the family visited Air Force Academy. His son, Junior, who was an 8th grader at the time, said “Pop, I want to go to Air Force Academy”. Pop said, “Junior, if that is your goal, you must take all the challenging courses and excel in these courses if you want an appointment to Air Force Academy”. Well, Junior took Pop seriously, took all the top classes and had As in these classes. When it came time to sign up for his senior year, Junior went to the guidance counselor with the courses he planned to take–calculus, physics, second year chemistry, a third year of a foreign language, etc. The guidance counselor said, “Junior, you don’t want these courses. All you need to do is take two courses to graduate”. Junior tried to explain that he needed the calculus, physics, etc. because he was seeking an appointment to Air Force Academy, but his plea fell on deaf ears. When he told Pop what had happened, Pop couldn’t believe it, so Pop went in to see the guidance counselor. The guidance counselor told Pop the same thing about his son only needing two courses and would only be signed up for these 2 classes. Pop really lost it and threatened to go to the superintendent, the school board, and if necessary, the press. The guidance counselor finally caved in, Junior took the challenging classes and did go to Air Force Academy.
I compare this with a student who was about five years older than I am and attended the small country school that I did. I saw her after she retired as a teacher and she told me that when she started high school, she had signed up for vocational courses. The principal pulled her into his office and said, "You are in the wrong classes. You are going to take algebra, biology, a foreign language, etc. She said, “Why would I take these courses?” The principal replied, “These are the courses you take to go to college”. My friend replied, “I can’t go to college. Nobody in my family has gone to college and our family has no money”. The principal replied, “Don’t worry about the money. When you are ready to go to college, the money will be there”. My friend took the college prep courses, did very well, and had a full ride scholarship to college. This happened 25 years before Junior had the battle with the guidance counselor.
I am afraid that today’s schools are just interested in mediocrity.
I think athletes should be held to a higher standard. One college basketball player recently told me about some of the rules she has to follow if she wants to stay on the basketball team. She has to show up to every class, five minutes before class starts. She has a curfew. She has a bunch of other restrictions, but I can’t remember what they are.
Hmmm. Those California seniors 25 years ago have been voting for some time and probably have grandkids. Kinda scary.
Today’s schools face budget constraints like every other “business”. No one likes to admitt it, but unlike schools of yesterday, they are working under two of many influences. First, “everyone” must be allowed to participate in our public schools and just making everyone attend public schools does a lot to lower juvenile crime. Schools are often a holding pen for the less fortunate which is good for them but breeds mediocrity especially when schools can not afford to offer suitable programs for everyone.
Secondly, failing students and not passing them on has a big affect on budget planning when teacher hiring, school construction and entire budgets are built around projected enrollments. All schools operate under these budget constraints and the biggest, is inadequate funding. By necessity, the biggest burden on property taxes locally is school teacher salaries. The more money spent on things like national defense as a direct result of happenings like 911 and our continuous war-ing has a huge impact on educational opportunities because of the lack of funds from state and fed budgets into local municipalities which then directly affects school budgets. Revenue shaing from our state has dried up. These are OUR tax dollars and not gifts from the state and federal govt. This is not a political statement. This is a fact of life. We have prioritized everywhere but here at home. A simple goal of offering full educational opportunities to everyone who qualifies and not just those who can afford it would do wonders for a child’s expectations.
With all do respect @Treidaq, college was not on my radar because it was too expensive, even ffty years ago for me. Only when I excelled in sports and had a goal of athletic scholarship help and a women, my wife now, who believed in me, did I ever dream of taking the right courses and trying harder in school. Most students with my mindset today, with the college expenses as they are have little to no chance of ever making it into college. I known, everyone will respond with all the wonderfully gifted students they know who came from no where and succeeded by working for good grades and getting all the help they needed. Unfortunately, the world succeds not just by the gifted few who are encourage, but we succeeded with those in mediocrity like me; the mediocre students who succeeds not because they try and become exceptional students but succeeds well enought to still contribute to society and feel like they make a difference.
Society can NOT and would not afford to scholastically help the average student like me and I could only do it through athletics which most are not fortunate enough to be able to do. The average to low average student and the average parent has little to no chance or need of aspiring to post secondary education. In situations when advanced educational opportunities are open to all financially who can qualify, more students and more parents will insist that their schools prepare their students to do just that. They will also happily fund them as long as our national goal puts our youth, our future as a priority. Until then, we will have a lot of great stories of a few who succeed, but no real solution for those who don’t.
