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Equal Access to Our Parks
November 24,
1999 Tony Acosta Director, Office of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Affairs 1520 Lakeside Drive Oakland, CA 94612 Access to Joaquin Miller Park Dear Sir: I am very concerned about the arbitrary and discriminatory management of Oakland's parks. I like to practice bulldozer racing (also known as "bulldozer scrambling", or BS, for short). That is my way of enjoying nature. Who are you to tell me how I should enjoy nature?! Why is your way of enjoying the outdoors any better than mine?! You allow roller-bladers, equestrians, mountain bikers, and even hikers in your parks. But I am excluded, and can't enjoy the parks that I pay taxes for. You obviously like them better than me, or maybe you belong to one of those user groups, so you are biased towards them. In any case, you are discriminating against me and other bulldozer racers, and I demand that this discrimination, which violates the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, stop immediately! I know that bulldozer racers have a bad name, but that's just because we are the new kid on the block. We are a tiny minority. I know that there have been some problems, such as some people riding recklessly, going off the designated trails, and even secretly constructing illegal trails. But those are a small minority of bulldozer riders. You shouldn't allow a small minority to give the majority of us bulldozer racers, who ride responsibly, a bad name. Why should we be punished, just because of them, and be forced to walk, just like everybody else? I also know that some extremist tree-huggers claim that it's a violation of CEQA (the California Environmental Quality Act) to allow a new use of the park trails, and the creation of new trails, without doing an EIR (Environmental Impact Report). But you are right: mountain biking and bulldozer racing, when performed in an environmentally responsible manner, doesn't have a significant impact on the environment. In fact, it's actually beneficial to wildlife. You can tell that, by the fact that you often see deer tracks on the mountain biking trails. If the trails didn't benefit them, they wouldn't use them, now would they? Bulldozer racing doesn't drive out wildlife. That is a myth. I see lots of wildlife where I ride. Some people say that we ride too fast to avoid killing small animals on the trail, such as snakes -- that we have to pay attention to avoid crashing, and can't also look out for wildlife. Are they that slow? What about "survival of the fittest"? If they are that slow, they aren't going to survive, anyway. Some HOHAs ("Hateful Old Hikers", as the mountain bikers call them) claim that bulldozer racing does more harm to the environment than hiking. But a scientific study was done in New Zealand, proving that bulldozer racing does no more harm than hiking. Another scientific study showed that most erosion is caused by nature, and so any additional erosion caused by bulldozer racing is not significant, by comparison. Would you rather have the park clear-cut, or turned into another gated community for the rich? Without the support of strong environmentalists like us, that's what will inevitably happen! We are your strongest defense against development. If a park doesn't have a strong constituency of recreational users, no one will care about it, and it will inevitably be lost. (That's what those environmental extremists call "destroying it, in order to save it". But what do they know?) The HOHAs claim that vehicles make it too easy for lazy, uncaring people to get into wildlife habitat. But if nobody goes there, who will protect the park? The more people go to a park, the better it is for the wildlife! Another claim is that we compact the soil around redwoods, killing them! Can you believe that?! In Muir Woods National Monument, they don't even let people walk next to them, making them stick to pavement or raised walkways. They must be run by an environmental extremist tree-hugger! I know that some HOHAs claim that bulldozer racing is annoying, and destroys their experience of nature. I guess they're superior to everybody else. They are just being selfish. They just don't want to share "their" trails with anybody else! That's obvious. The older ones claim that they have given up going there, because they are afraid of being hit, or are tired of constantly having to get off the trail to let bulldozers go by. Isn't that just evolution -- survival of the fittest? Why should hikers, or anyone else, have the whole park to themselves? We pay taxes, too. We have just as much right to be there as they do. We are just as much environmentalists as they are. We love nature! That's why we want to ride there! When you have spent as much on your equipment as we have, believe me, it is very frustrating, not to have any place to use it! We don't, of course, condone illegal trail building. However, we can understand the frustration of people whose only sin is preferring a different way of enjoying nature. They think that, because they are able to purchase a piece of equipment that lets them go off-road, the public is obligated to give them a place to use it. That's understandable -- isn't that the American way? Aren't they just like the pioneers? We bulldozer racers ("BS-ers") belong in the parks just as much as everybody else. If the HOHAs don't want us on their trails, because we allegedly create narrow ruts, and make them difficult to walk on, then we deserve to have our own trails, which we will gladly build for free. There is plenty of space for everyone. If the wildlife don't like it, they can always move! It's just survival of the fittest. As I said, that's what evolution is all about. We will even police our own riders, so that you won't have any additional expenses. After all, how would you catch a renegade bulldozer racer? Your rangers would also need to drive bulldozers, increasing the wear and tear on the trails. We can do that for you. How about it? There are more and more of us every day. And we vote. Sincerely, Michael J. Vandeman, Ph.D. === I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8 years fighting auto dependence and road construction.) Please don't put a cell phone next to any part of your body that you are fond of! http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande |
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#2
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Equal Access to Our Parks
"Mike Vandeman" wrote in message ... November 24, 1999 Tony Acosta Director, Office of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Affairs 1520 Lakeside Drive Oakland, CA 94612 Access to Joaquin Miller Park Dear Sir: Here you have Mike's most prized piece of work, he's so proud of this little attempt to be funny, he has posted it over and over again since 1999. What a wasted life. |
#3
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Equal Access to Our Parks
top post
Yawn. You have been posting this crap several times a year for nearly 7 years now. It has been soundly debunked each and every time you post it, yet it appears again. Are you stupid, or what? /top post snip |
#4
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Equal Access to Our Parks
"Jeff Strickland" wrote in message
... Mike Vandeman wrote http://groups.google.com/group/alt.m...75473a090d4e2c PS: I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8 years fighting auto dependence and road construction.) [Jeff] Yawn. You, Mike Vandeman have been posting this crap several times a year for nearly 7 years now. It has been soundly debunked each and every time you post it, yet it appears again. Are you stupid, or what? [hanson] ahahahaha...Jeff!... VDman is not stupid in the generally accepted sense. VD is a class 3 enviro who ever so desperately tries to rise into the lucrative class 1 or 2 enviro classes. He so implies this in his PS in every post of his. So far VD has not qualified and remains relegated to be a poverty stricken class 3 greenie... ahahaha... ahahaha... ahahahanson Key: Modern, attributal definitions of enviro classifications: ========= enviro Class (1) --- the Green ****(s): ....are the ones who advocate, promote, support, legalize, institute and extort the permit charges, the user fees, the enviro surtaxes and the CO2/Carbon tax, all reflected in HIGHER PRICES of goods and services!, ...and being responsible for much of the OUT-SOURCING! ========= enviro Class (2) -- the Green turd(s): .... are the ones who are recipients and beneficiaries from the lootings of (1), directly or indirectly. ========= enviro Class (3) -- the Little green idiot(s): ... are the unpaid, well-meaning ones who think they do something for the "environment", when in fact they are only the enablers and facilitators for (2) who are harvesting the green $$$ that (1) has extorted. |
#5
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Equal Access to Our Parks
On Sun, 22 Oct 2006 07:33:33 -0500, "di" wrote:
"Mike Vandeman" wrote in message .. . November 24, 1999 Tony Acosta Director, Office of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Affairs 1520 Lakeside Drive Oakland, CA 94612 Access to Joaquin Miller Park Dear Sir: Here you have Mike's most prized piece of work, he's so proud of this little attempt to be funny, he has posted it over and over again since 1999. Vastly superior to your lame comments.... What a wasted life. === I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8 years fighting auto dependence and road construction.) Please don't put a cell phone next to any part of your body that you are fond of! http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande |
#6
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Equal Access to Our Parks
On Sun, 22 Oct 2006 10:03:56 -0700, "Jeff Strickland"
wrote: top post Yawn. You have been posting this crap several times a year for nearly 7 years now. It has been soundly debunked each and every time you post it, Show me or shut up, LIAR. yet it appears again. Are you stupid, or what? /top post snip === I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8 years fighting auto dependence and road construction.) Please don't put a cell phone next to any part of your body that you are fond of! http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande |
#7
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Equal Access to Our Parks
Mike Vandeman wrote:
Show me or shut up, LIAR. Ohh the irony of it all, I wonder if you can even see the irony mikey you're so blinded. |
#8
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Equal Access to Our Parks
Mike Vandeman wrote:
On Sun, 22 Oct 2006 07:33:33 -0500, "di" wrote: "Mike Vandeman" wrote in message ... November 24, 1999 Tony Acosta Director, Office of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Affairs 1520 Lakeside Drive Oakland, CA 94612 Access to Joaquin Miller Park Dear Sir: Here you have Mike's most prized piece of work, he's so proud of this little attempt to be funny, he has posted it over and over again since 1999. Vastly superior to your lame comments.... says who? douchebag .. What a wasted life. === I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8 years fighting auto dependence and road construction.) Please don't put a cell phone next to any part of your body that you are fond of! http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande |
#9
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Equal Access to Our Parks
jason wrote:
Mike Vandeman wrote: Show me or shut up, LIAR. Ohh the irony of it all, I wonder if you can even see the irony mikey you're so blinded. You are attempting rational discourse with an irrational being. PH |
#10
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Equal Access to Our Parks
"Mike Vandeman" wrote in message ... On Sun, 22 Oct 2006 10:03:56 -0700, "Jeff Strickland" wrote: top post Yawn. You have been posting this crap several times a year for nearly 7 years now. It has been soundly debunked each and every time you post it, Show me or shut up, LIAR. When I first asked if you were stupid, it was a rhetorical question. Now, it sounds like a silly question. I don't need to explain "rhetorical", do I? |
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