Des Moines, Iowa - Part V, Events and Public Trasportation (Part B)

http://www.metro-magazine.com/news/story/2009/08/iowa-unveils-first-hybrid-bus.aspx

So, I suppose you were wondering what happened to the public transportation thingy?  Oh c'mon, have a li'l patience, willyaalready?  Here it is!!

So whaddya say we move right along to the bus system.  Now, I've been riding the MTA/DART since I was a wee guy...or at least as wee as 15 yr. old teens get, that is...and there's quite a bit that I've had to complain about, of this you can be certain.  One of things that always seems to irritate me the most is that we can always afford hybrid 3 busses with all the bells and whistles, but we can't ever seem to afford to update to the quality service that we should have with said new busses.

I moved away a few times to the wonderful little capital city of Madison, WI on a few occassions...and the thing I always noticed was how phenomenal and way ahead of us the bus system was there.  Granted, one of the biggest colleges in the midwest is located in the city, UW.  With over 10,000 students there at any one given time; most without cars; they had best have a great bus system, no question.  There's oh so much we could learn about the bus system from these people, however, and if we were to ever implement any of it, we might just boast the same numbers in our ridership as well.

Let's take a look at all the glaringly noticeable differences in the two systems (remember, this was the last time I was there, in 2009...I'm sure they've already improved it massively by now).

DES MOINES:  Dart Central, a brand new station in the lower downtown area.  Here, you can buy your bus passes, complain a lot, and pick up schedules.  As soon as you walk outside the building, you may just notice a security officer running towards you, because you chose to take the quickest route to the bus you want, because it looks like it might be on it's way out of the station.  After the security officer (or the bus driver, or the supervisor, or anybody with any kind of a helpful nature) diverts you to a central strip of walk that you have to go clear out of your way to get to, because you had to catch the bus that's directly parallel to the one you got off of, you have to go half way west, then back to the east side of the station again, because you can't walk anyplace off of that walk, unless you go back inside.  When you just about get there, the bus begins to pull off, because it's time he gets going.  You wave frantically at the driver to get him to hold up for you, but he totally ignores you and drives straight ahead in order to get away from you.  You see, once a bus begins to pull away, it doesn't matter if you lay in front of it, he'll wait til you get up and move away, then he'll leave you again, because once they pull away from the ramp, it's too late, and you have to wait for the next one.  Also, when the busses get here, don't always expect to get right on it, because this is now where the bus drivers take their breaks.  If you run out in the cold to catch him from leaving you, you end up waiting, because actually, this is his break time, and he just got off...and now you have to stand out in the cold til he gets back - in five minutes, or right up to the time he has to leave, you never know.  Since you're now starting to get cold, you might turn to go back inside, and then the driver comes back, pulls two inches away from the curb, and now you're stuck waiting for the next one.

MADISON:  They have a central station as well.  The only time the busses go there is if the drivers are coming on or getting off.  The routes all come downtown, just like in Des Moines, but they go all the way around the square in Madison, making sure that you don't have much of a chance to miss it.  If you slap the bus, they'll stop for you.

DES MOINES:  Bus passes are $48 for a month.  If you buy one on June 1, then you lose it June 2nd, and you were smart enough to know that if you wrote down all the numbers that identify it, they can stop whoever found the pass from using it, then when they've done this, they'll issue you another.  Of course, this could be a week or so later, forcing you to buy a weekly one to tide you over at $16.  If you're not much into this course of action, then you could be forced to buy another $48 bus pass, now good for only 29 days instead of the original 30 or 31 days.

MADISON:  They sell you a 31 day bus pass.  There, they have a printer on each bus.  You can keep the pass in your wallet for the whole year if you want, and when you decide to pull it out, you stick it in the printer, then it prints the date that you first used the pass on it, then it's good for exactly 31 days after this.  If you lose your pass, the next one is full price of course, but it's still good for 31 days from when you use it the first time.

DES MOINES:  The fare is $1.75.  When you get on, you get a free paper transfer which allows you to ride the bus again...as long as you're getting on a different route altogether, or are going in the original direction of travel on the same route.  If you go to the local grocery store, then take a bus back to your home; because it's going the opposite direction, you have to pay another $1.75.

MADISON:  The fare *was* $2.00.  When you get on, you can ask for a transfer, which is a printed card that you can use for 2 hours to go anywhere, any direction.

DES MOINES:  Your choices for passes are monthy and weekly.

MADISON:  You can buy the yearly passes, monthly passes, weekly passes and daily all-day passes.

DES MOINES:  Got GPS a couple years ago.

MADISON:  Has had verbal GPS for at least 8 years.

DES MOINES:  Takes every holiday off, whether you have to work on the holiday or not.  A third of the routes only run at peak times, morning and afternoon.  Another third stops running at around 6 p.m.  The major and busiest routes, approximately 4 of them, run til 10:45 p.m.  On Sunday, all the busses only run til 6 p.m.  On the weekend they only run about once an hour, with the more busy routes running every half hour, approximately 3 of them.

MADISON:  Every route, with the exception of maybe 2 or 3 of them, run from 6 a.m. to midnight.  They run every day, even holidays.  They don't slow down much for the weekend, although they finally slow to once an hour on the holidays.  They hit just about every street anywhere in the city, especially where all their business is.  They have four transfer points with each one having a bus that runs to a corresponding one elsewhere in the city (i.e., the north one has 3 busses that only run to other transfer points).  Their main and busiest routes change to every 15 minutes during peak times, and every single bus in Madison is full...to standing up even.

This is probably the thing I hate the most though.  If they start a new route, they run it for a season (usually til the next change), then cut it if it doesn't work out.  Now come on guys.  You gotta give people a while to realize the damn thing is running by their house, don't you???

No, no, I'm sorry...the thing I hate the MOST is the fact that every business in Des Moines has, at one time or another, moved way out West, where just about every business has gone.  Dart runs people that way maybe 2 times a day...in the morning and at night.  If you want a decent job, this is where the work is.  You can't get there, but that's where they are.  Nice.

OK.  Enough bitching for the day.  Enjoy your lunch.  :D

Des Moines, Iowa - Part V, Events and Public Trasportation (Part A)

http://iowagirlonthego.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/img_5073.jpg

Yeah, Yeah...I know.  Start something, then WHAM!!  Shiny object!!  Well, here I am again.  We're baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!

Hmm....where were we again?  Oh yeah...that stupid list again.  Aww screw it...there's a few things I wanna address first, hokay?

You know, I just gotta say this, there's nothing more embarrasing than living in a city that tries to be two times (or better) bigger than it really is.  What's more, there's REALLY nothing more embarrasing than a city that thinks it has great events and happenings around town...and they got diddly.  And what couldn't possibly more shameful is the fact that its citizens really buy into it.  Such is our capitol city.  We have a definate monopoly on false and unfounded pride...for truly.  In abundance.

We're gonna talk about the happenings in Des Moines, which, right along with everything I just mentioned, not only happen a lot, but also have to all happen in pretty much the same damn place.  Right smack in the middle of downtown, where everything else happens.  There are many BS reasons for this.  Amongst these are (in no particular order):

1.  To promote the downtown area.  Bring more business to downtown.  I don't know about the rest of my city, but I just gotta say that there's really no need.  Not only has pretty much every building already been replaced with big business already since I moved here in 1975, there's more than enough that already happens, without these stupid little happenings that we feel all have to be here as well, right smack dab in everyone's way.  This wouldn't be quite so bad, were it not for these two things.  A.) There's nothing I hate more than to find that I have to completely detour around the entire downtown area because there's a marathon running today...the farmer's market is today (I'm so used to this one now, it really doesn't bother me at all anymore), or the Italian or the Art festival is in full swing.  These events usually are located dead center, and block off as many as 5-10 square blocks of prime "Getting the hell out of downtown Des Moines for real, though!" real estate.  See, if you're going North or South, you're almost FORCED to go through at least SOME, if not MOST of this prime driveway, so be prepared to take a rather poorly planned detour, which I've notice goes pretty much ALL THE WAY outta the way to wherever it is that you're going.

The other thing, that pretty much goes hand in hand with this last paragraph, mind you, is the fact that a lot of the streets are one way.  Any detour that you should run across, due to these li'l happenings, is gonna be guaranteed to either a.) a minimum of 20 blocks of twists and turns, mostly out of your way by tons of quarters of miles, or b.  Get you a ticket.  It's stupid.

2.  To bring back business and businesses to the downtown areas.  WHY?  Everything that involved big money, or is to yet involve big money is now west.  Waukee, Urbandale, West Des Moines, Clive, and Windsor Heights.  We citizens gave up on the Downtown area already, eons ago, and now theyre thinking how to bring it back?  Those people aren't stupid, they've thought this through.  It's US that needs to change OUR way of thinking here...Downtown Des Moines has seen it's day, and should be kept as it is, with everything going primarily west, because I think that it's really not only our best side of town, but the only one that hasn't been screwed over by natural disasters like immigration and drug use.

There's plenty of area in our city, move some of this stuff over to those areas.  Everybody gets very confused and massively inconvenienced (as well as morally detoured) when the happenings happen.  Let's move it outwards and give it up already!!

We'll continue this in a part B.

Des Moines, Iowa - Part IV, Intermission - CityView Magazine

logo courtesy of http://www.dmcityview.com/

Well, I did promise Darren Tromblay I'd do something for him, ....on we go, eh?

I have to admit, I was rather waiting for the perfect issue.  Something I could really go on about.  See, I've always loved CityView...its quirky views, wordy writers and, of course, everyone's favorites...the RapSheet, Crimestoppers, the Des Moines Blotter...News of the Weird, etc.  Oh, and I kinda like the option to try and think up something funny for the caption of a weekly picture. I did recently notice the absence of the usual fare of criminal faces to match up with their crimes.  Also obviously missing was probably the most entertaining thing in CityView, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.  I suppose that could have either had something to do with a suggestion by Mr. Darren Tromblay, CityView's newest editor...or maybe they managed to pick on the wrong criminal; one that had a slew of cash behind him looking to pounce on the first person to take his story public, to put his/her business out there for the world to see and laugh at...and CV just happened to be the lucky recipient of that vengeance opportunity.  I guess we'll see, eh?

Every once in a while, there might even be something slightly interesting to read...story wise, and/or a good opinion or two.  Granted, there's usually more than one, in most cases.  I most certainly prefer it nine times out of ten concerning the DM Register, and 12 times out of ten, when it comes to Juice.  Juice to me is a barely past pubescent rag that sports rock shows and pub appearances more than it does usable content, and, in this writer's opinion, barely holds a candle to CivyView.  Now that my opine is starting to fall off for CV as well, I'm starting to scout around for newer options...hell, I even gave a thought towards starting my own underground rag to compete and put up at HyVee locations as well, just so they'd have another choice for the mix..

The perfect issue has by no means come along, like I previously stated, but this may be the closest I'm gonna get this year.  We'll be, of course, covering the most recent issue this time, July 24-30, Year of our Lord 2014.

Let's start with the fact that a lot of what used to be radical and different is starting to look a lot like more popular offerings.  What used to be more trendy and interesting is becoming a lot more blase.  What used to be something is becoming more run-of-the-mill with every issue.  This is pretty much the danger of anything underground, alternative or unique; as it becomes more the thing to look for in the stands, the more the consumer of such products gets catered to, and the less interesting it tends to be.

One of the things I pride myself on is that my blog, "Americas Deadly Sins" (http://themightyswordamericas26deadlysins.blogspot.com) is not advertised on, nor is traffic diverted or driven there.  Every reader is real, and every follower gained from sweat and content; they came...they saw...they followed.  I simply post it on Twitter as a tweet, share it on my google+ page, and post it on Facebook.  No one is bothered to read it, no one is made to indulge in its obvious disparity, and no one is required to comment.  It's only OUT THERE...whether you choose to go there, or read it, is entirely up to you.

I once approached CityView to become a possible contributor.  Open Source?  Came to me to contribute to them...though I haven't had much time of late to do so.  I don't know if it's my writing style, my propensity to make it personal...or my occasional swear words...who would know.  Maybe I use too many triple dots, who can say?  Maybe my content is too controversial.  Maybe I'm just too out there for most.  All I know is, I'm evidently too much, or maybe they just aren't ready for someone who opens their mouth and says it like it is.

I would have toned it down.  Heck, I even asked the editor for some help in improving my style...he said he'd be happy to at a little later time..ok, I understand, quite possibly you're under the gun...or whatever the case.  He managed to ignore my requests entirely, after a time, and yah, I'm a bit miffed....which is probably why I decided to write about them.

So what happened to my ripping them a new orifice?  Oh yeah...all righty then, let's get to it.

Help me Obi-Wan?  Surely with a new editor and smart employees, one of which was more than likely hired because he thought of more than one caption for the weekly funny pictures they feature.  So why the great picture...with a lame 34 yr. old caption?  Movin' right along...

Snake Oil?  (I didn't read it because it said that by the way...I just read it because I'm going in order trying to find things to rag about the rag...lol).  The Jody Ernst thing...that shoulda been the snake oil here.  I would have been less likely to read that story.

I cannot STAND the "Paid for by the taxpayers in..." portion of this paper.  Who cares?  We all know the city, county, state and federal governments rip us off on a daily basis, why do we need this rubbed in our faces weekly??

Oh, and I bet they were truly proud to have landed Duffy in their paper...but be careful Darren...there's an awful lot of people out there that believe in the "Send 'em packin" policy that spits in the face of a very unpopular President right now...running Duffy's latest offering makes Terry look bad, granted...and no one despises the Mustache as much as I do, believe it.  I was sick of him the first time around within months of his taking office.  But I believe, like most Americans, that the Mustache's policy here is well-founded.  Good luck recovering from this cartoon.

Last but certainly not least, with the exception of Tech Talk, a much needed section of any publication these days, the reviews (not that great) of movies, books, etc. are pretty cliche, as are the obvious attempts to print bar pics in an effort to be more Juice-like.  You're becoming way too yawn-inducing, for sure, and I think bringing you down a few pegs shouldn't take long, with the arrival of, perhaps, a more progressive paper; edited and produced by a more forward thinking in-charge type.

Sure, I still prefer them over most of the rest of the garbage in Des Moines, news or other, but I think it's time we had something that was just a bit more "alternative"...and means it.  I wont be guaranteeing anything just yet as far as a timeline for production, but let it be known that a more interesting paper for Des Moines is on it's way.