Dart Des Moines

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I'm sure the lot of you, reading this blog of late, are aware of my feelings, not only on this city, but on it's lovely bus service as well.

Keep in mind, if you will, that I have NEVER EVER been thrown off of a bus in this town, nor have I ever been rejected from getting on a bus either.  I've been riding the bus here since I was 14, some 38 odd years.

So I get on the bus, and I sit in the front, by the bus driver.  Now, everyone knows that these seats are for the elderly and the handicapped, as they get on.  I'm usually ALWAYS the first to move in such a case.  So while I'm sitting there, looking at my phone (and, please note, the seats across from me, ALSO What at the front of the bus, are FREE AND OPEN), all of a sudden the bus driver yells at me and says, "Hey, you wanna move so this guy can have a seat?". I look around, and there is NOBODY...niether do I see any person waiting to sit down.  I said "What guy?", and "You can't ask if I could please move?  What is your problem?" and under my breath "asshole".  He says "What did you say?"  and I moved towards the back door to get off (knowing he was fixing to throw me off anyway) and said "Let me off the bus, you dick".  He did so, stranding me at Broadlawns till another bus came.

So a couple of days go by, and I'm waiting...on a Sunday, when the busses only run once an hour, and I have to be someplace...and who should pull up, but the same driver, who immediately stops me from getting on his bus, and tells me I have to wait for another one.  Once again, customer service tells me TOO BAD, WAIT FOR ANOTHER BUS...can you believe this stuff?  What is wrong with these people?  It's ok for their drivers to be rude to the customers?  Another guy (black ofr course), wouldn't stop at the stop I wanted to go to, making me late for an appointment, because he says I didn't ring the bell (there was only two people on the bus, and I was standing in the doorway to get off.  If the drier couldn't notice that, he shouldn't be driving a bus, if he has no peripheral vision)...I was sure I had rung that bell, but had no way to prove it.

I willl be filing a discrimination lawsuit against these people; both against me, and against my service dog, who they will not let me take on the bus without a carrier...even though I had a letter from the management of DART to do so.  'magine that.  Make sure to read my other posts on DART, you'll see we could very easily do without their kind of service. Eery spare moment I have, I will also be picketing about their racist drivers, as well as their discriminatory behavior.  See ya soon DART!

Des Moines, Iowa; Part VIII, Even More Rankings - #4 America's Most LGBT Friendly Cities

https://www.facebook.com/CapitalCityPrideIowa/photos/
a.140525829431007.31501.139048769578713/313866902096898/?type=1&theater

NOTE:  I am pro LGBT, before you read this.  I've been told it's a little confusing what side I'm on here...I'm on no side for this post, only ripping on our rankings, on the Des Moines Partnership site.

Hey Y'all.  What it be like?  Nice storm last night, eh?  How about all that flash flooding?

Annnnyway...

Back to the rankings.  Today's fun topic would be:

#4 America's most LGBT-Friendly Cities - Huffington Post

Now, I'm not quite sure what the Partnership was thinking when they posted this ranking.  Unless they're wanting us to be another San Francisco, I wouldn't rightly believe they'd wanna post this one.  Not that I care mind you, some o' my friends are of this variety.  But Des Moines, I'd like to think, is really grasping at just about anything to improve our population, even if it is greatly controversial in nature.  Whatever works for ya pally.

What they're not thinking on is the fact that we're (supposedly) also ranked as #6, best place to raise a family.  Oh really?  So....you think these families are really gonna want their children learning about how to be LGBT then?  Yeeah.  I'm betting they could live without it.

Oh, but what about the fact that we legalized gay marriage?  Sorry, we're already trying to back-pedal on that one.  There's a huge effort already in place to repeal that law.

Back in the early 80's, they had two major gay bars right downtown; OP's (Our Place) and the "Goose".  I"m sure you remember those.  They all shook hands really well (and were located extremely close to) with the dirty bookstores we had right down-town; Bachelor's Library, Court Avenue News, and the Gallery.  But, because of these bars, as well as the host of dirty book stores we had right downtown, we decided we didn't particularly care for them.  We shoved the bookstores almost all the way out to the outskirts of town (with the notable exception of the Gallery, which has continued in it's proud tradition as the only dirty bookstore in the downtown area), and the gay bars were pushed over into the East Village...which, I imagine, will change once the East Village becomes more the place to go, which isn't too far off.  Like anything controversial, these things are stashed away into the corners, because of our personal feelings, as well as those things, like homelessness and prostitution, that we don't want our children to see.  Why do you think the Garden chose a spot that was almost in the Southest Bottoms?  Because they were smart, I'll warrant.  Not much chance that one will ever get chased away; it's already in a corner hardly anybody goes into.  Yeah, real LGBT-friendly.

And so, once again, yet another bulls*** ranking.  Sure, we'll say it, just so we might find another bunch of people that are looking for a new place to live.  However, I'm betting that, even though we say we are, that if we got too many LGBT's here, that we wouldn't be nearly so friendly.  It ultimately comes down to our moral compasses in the end; and that moral compass generally doesn't point to LGBT's as something we particularly care to have out in the open for everyone to admire.  It'd almost be as ridiculous, really, as saying that we're Prostitution-friendly, if you think about it really hard.  I'd even have to say that Des Moines isn't really any more friendly to LGBT's than any other city...we just happen to have an obvious populace who are; so, in order to keep them living here, we'll say it just to keep them happy.  Other than that, I wouldn't count on anyone going out of their way to say "Oh, you're gay?  WONDERFUL!!  Let me introduce you to the wife and kids!  Oh, and can you tell my children what it's like to be gay please?  I've always wanted to teach them about that, but I never knew anything about it really, so I didn't think it was my place.  It's so good to have you around for that, if nothing else!  Happy to make your acquaintance, and please, come over anytime you want, and bring your significant other, I insist!  I'd really love to have Johnny seeing you two kiss!  Oh, no, really...I don't mind confusing him, it makes life more interesting!"  :D