RochesterRob

I cross an unprotected crossing when I have to go to a certain business. It's out in the sticks and the crossing is pretty well blind from the south due to vegetation other than the pavement of the road. I always stop as a person is supposed to and one time although I can normally hear the rumbling and/or see the exhaust of the locomotive I did not see or hear anything. I inch towards the track and the locomotive is maybe 100 feet away and lays on the whistle. I was where I was supposed to be but if I had decided to blow through who knows what might have happened.

I believe 30 MPH is the default speed for populated areas concerning trains but most routes have precise speed ratings for every mile along the way. I was told before the speed reduction on the old Portage trestle (Letchworth Park) that some engineers were unnerved by the height and crossed considerably under the designated speed. This can create a problem if that train needs to be out of the area so another can pass through shortly thereafter.

Interesting. I've been through Fairport and have crossed the area you mention a few times. Nice town. My understanding is that crossing procedure is set by the feds and the engineers have very limited discretion concerning crossings. I'm glad they blow the whistle even at the most remote crossings as sometimes that is the only warning you get as they approach. I think the feds raised the standards in terms of lighting at crossings but I don't think every crossing has warning lights even in 2018. I've been fascinated with trains since I got my Lionel set as a kid. A little disappointed as a kid since I got a Santa Fe locomotive instead of an area line but grew to like it. One Erie RR car in the set on the other hand.

Going through a town after getting tires for my pickup. Went over a track and notice the one house along the street could not be more than 15 feet from the track. Being at a street crossing the train by law has to blow its whistle which would have to be deafening at 15 feet. Further, there were younger kids playing outside with little in the way of a yard. Hopefully, they have a good healthy fear of a locomotive as it passes through versus playing inches away from the track. There was a story in the news a while back about a home owner whose property butts up against a railroad track. The owner had moved there recently and got it into his head that the railroad track there was not active so he parks things like his boat tight to the tracks. Long story made short is train passes through during the night so the engineer does not see the boat so edge of boat closest to the tracks gets hit creating 2-3 thousand dollars worth of damage. Interesting to me as there are still plenty of railroad tracks across WNY and even though you may never see a train at a given crossing but if you sit there long enough you will see a train pass through.

Yep. Discretion was of the highest order a generation ago. Now, the whole town knows within a week at the latest. I've been pondering your statement for a couple of hours now. None of my grade school teachers were hot. One was attractive in a mousey sort of way. Further, she was just out of college so the ages between her and the senior students was as minimal as possible. One teacher was OK but but she gave the vibe she was fairly horny while at school. A couple of time she sat in what I would consider an inappropriate way which had the intent of extending an invitation so to speak.

College stadiums are a little different game as the university can work the alumni angle to access key political connections. The Bills most likely has far less in the way of connections to Albany politicians. Also, SU has the media school and certain alums which could be used to make certain politicians uncomfortable. Get back to me when St Bonnie or some other school with a high profile sports program walks away with 100's of millions of dollars just for asking.

I agree with a lot of what you say. The local VFW about a decade ago had problems with "outsiders" crashing parties that were specifically for vets. D-bags know where to get a jacket and/or shirt along with cap to look like they were in the military. Let's face it in that we do not live in Mayberry where everybody knows everybody else and has been so for decades. Also, everybody today knows how to throw a tantrum to discourage the meek from enforcing the rules. You have to be tough with people and make them prove it until they know otherwise. If you are a newbie in town then you will have to show ID until people get to know you. Yep, never take it to be that any person knows what you need to know in terms of building codes. Especially in a retail establishment. Most employees in such places are there to put inventory on the shelf and tidy the store up. In most situations no training is provided so an employee can learn electrical, plumbing, heating, etc. Managers often make dumbass decisions when it comes to hiring. One of the earliest jobs after college was at a chain lumber and home improvement store. Store manager hired a bunch of management trainees including myself. The tall good looking guy who actually had a good disposition always screwed up on recommendations especially on electrical. One time he made a 10,000 dollar blunder on a recommendation for a McMansion and the worst he got was an "oh well. everybody makes mistakes." Another homely guy who was one one pound box of 16 Common nails short on a 3,000 dollar order got reamed pretty hard and the customer really was not the problem. Myself? The boss' daughter who worked part time evenings took a liking to me so I was doomed from that point onward. The boss was responsible for management training and I found through his boss the district manager my training was falling more and more behind. The DM would ask me why my training was not progressing and I said the store manager has not made the time. Only a few weeks had to go by of this to know my boss wanted me gone. The point of the story? Despite the notion of professionalism prevailing in business many times people are ruled by their emotions and prejudices. The homely guy had nearly two decades of experience but he was the first one gone out of the program that summer. I hung on until the season slowed down in October.

It's been put out many times that Lamonica was having an affair with a defensive player's wife and a defensive player who was significantly larger than Lamonica if it came down to a brawl. Lamonica was shipped to to stabilize the locker room. Probably one reason we only got chicken feed for him as most likely enough of the AFL knew the Bills had a problem to take care of so it amounted to a fire sale. Maybe somebody in the know such as Paul Maguire can speak on this at some point. Maybe somebody is waiting until all the suspects are no longer with us before they tell.

Both parties failed the voters horribly in 2016 so while I am a Republican I don't necessarily support the party's nominee 100 percent of the time. Best case scenario with Trump of which I have some hope for is that he is a circuit breaker for the more polished DC crooks. While I would have liked to have somebody such as Batman as POTUS in the real world Trump was probably the best alternative for shaking up the status quo. Make the case for me in that Clinton in your mind was very accomplished in her jobs as US Senator and SOS. What legislation has she sponsored that positively impacted 10's of millions of Americans? What peace negotiations has she performed or what treaties has she drawn up? Really, Hillary was on par or even below par with Trump in terms of accomplishments. I did not complain when Obama won although my expectations were not set high as he did not have a lengthy career on the federal level and was a lightning rod for some unfortunately. Was not a Obama supporter but was never categorically against him, either. When Clinton won in '92 it was a fracture of the Republican Party when Ross Perot ran so the "mob" was not squarely in the Clinton corner.

And how was this unqualified person supposed to be stopped? By magic? Implementing the electoral college was the best preventative measure for under-qualified individuals getting elected as they could not simply spout rhetoric to appeal to the uneducated masses which more often than not lived in the city prior to mass public education which occurred in the 19th Century. So you more or less are supporting my point. Big city mob rule = demagogue ruler. By the way that (EC) succeeded when a certain former First Lady did not get elected whose greatest achievement as US Senator was to get a section of highway in WNY named after a great man in Tim Russert oddly enough. Even her health care ideas which liberals fawned over was nothing more than a rehash of 1960's and early 1970's Democratic Party ideas.

Were you this concerned about the EC in 1992, 1996, 2008, and 2012? The Founding Fathers saw the festering poverty of the large cities of Old Europe and the root causes therefore they considered it detrimental to let large cities have a majority of voting power.

The trouble is the money has moved out to the burbs over the past 50 years where people may or may not take TBN. Most advertising is about reaching people with money for discretionary spending. Businesses that are comparatively less sensitive to discretionary income such as grocers (Wegman's) are using less newspaper advertising with Wegman's itself using very little outside of mailings for advertising purposes.

Interesting points but I still think there are issues in terms of TBN being a potent ad conveyor. What is the income profile of the 460,000 readers of TBN? Does it make sense for certain businesses to reach them via TBN versus another medium? What is the income profile of those who do not read or subscribe to TBN? Is it inefficient to use advertising money to reach them via TBN versus the local paper in places such as Jamestown, Batavia, Albion, etc. which TBN supplies as well? There is a difference versus 20, 30, 40 years or more ago. Democratic politics were about being pro-labor, pro-women's rights, pro-education, pro-scale down the military. Today the newspapers are just off the rails in opposition to anything the Republicans favor. The previously mentioned thoughts are now forgotten in favor of more or less unchecked immigration, reparations to African-Americans for slavery, isolationist other than export money to hostile governments to make them play nice, etc. for the newspapers.

I don't think I am missing the point and am not sure you understand mine. Your point of interest is TBN and I am saying for many there simply is no interest in marketing through the TBN or there are better print news options that will better reach a targeted consumer. Lets look at Deere again. The lower entry point products are handled through the big box stores (Lowe's around here) and it is up to Lowe's marketing people what form of ad (mailer and TV typically) and what products will be featured. It's entirely possible a product you may be interested in may not be part of a campaign and would be up to you to inquire about at Lowe's. The high end mowers, UTV's, Compact utility tractors, and so forth will be through an authorized private dealer and it will be up to Deere and the dealer to reach the targeted customer. TBN might be inefficient based on cost to reach those potential buyers versus advertising in local papers in the outlying communities from Buffalo. Getting around to your last sentence if a regional newspaper was the best means to reach customers then they would be doing it so that tells me if the advertising for mowers is not there then there is a problem with the marketing plan. Not lack of effort or drive. One problem I see is targeted customers who would be interested in such advertising are not getting TBN not because it lacks marketing ads for mowers but because of other issues such as news and editorial content.

Lets take your lawnmower issue for example. It takes two to tango so to speak. You have to have motivated business people that believe and can afford advertising and that is not the case anymore. The guy in town who had a Snapper or Gravely franchise is gone because those two brands among others are gone or are a part of a big box store marketing plan. So if Cub Cadet is through the big box chain (Home Depot around here?) it is up to their advertising people how much they want to market CC via print. Do they do a flyer or advertise via the area paper and if so just a few select models or a general campaign? Other manufacturers rely on yet different means such as John Deere who advertises more during television prime time in the evening, sporting events, and AM radio. Deere also markets by zip code so there typically would be ads in rural and well to do suburbs in terms of newspaper. As said before there is not much left after the examples I mentioned other than a guy who fixes mowers out of his garage when he is not working at WalMart and there is so little money in that there is nothing for advertising. His expectations are that he makes enough to have steak and the sides once a week and a couple 24 can packs of cheap beer to wash it down. If you want used mowers then Craigslist or the equivalent is where it is and will be. Just no getting around that.

I live outside the area covered by the BN but the few times I read it at the in-laws it was pretty much as you describe it.

I guess that I would add that the prospects for many area businesses look worse than they did a decade or more ago. I sure would hate to be a new car dealer today receiving pressure from my manufacturer to build a new Taj Mahal type building just to sell a new Ford or Chevy as many regional dealers have done. The spending money is with people who are getting up there in years and simply will not be around or paying all their disposable income to the nursing home. Leasing is the venue that gets most younger 10-12 dollar per hour wage earners into new vehicles. If that goes away due to a glut of used inventory to sell off that would seriously hurt most new car dealers. Similar situation for consumer product type dealers such as Harley-Davidson. What younger person with a family who is blue collar can afford a 30K bike?

I'm not sure the advertising problem can be fixed. Consolidation and the internet have eliminated a lot of local small business. Look at your local broadcast news. A few decades ago you would have shoe stores, Sears, grocery stores, appliance and electronics stores with most of those being locally owned small businesses. Most of those local businesses have died off. 95 percent of advertising today for the local news is liability lawyers (who are based out of town in a number of circumstances), national insurance companies, and large volume car dealers. The change is not devastating for the local news as they only need to several minutes and the ambulance chasing lawyers have filled in for the mom and pop furniture and appliance stores that have gone out of business. A paper relies on a much larger advertiser volume which simply does not exist any more. Two thirds of the car dealers that advertised in the local paper 30 years ago are no longer in business. The advertising problem can not be fixed to a point to be like it was a generation ago.

Not overly inefficient. Most cattle are raised in systems other than confined lots. The soils that they graze generally do not allow for other types of agriculture beyond grazing/hay. Cattle for dairy and beef is very prevalent in areas such as the Southern Tier as the soils typically are not suited for grain or vegetable production. Wheat production went mass scale in the Southern Tier during WWI and the results were a disaster. Imagine your favorite wooded area in Stueben, Allegany, Cattaraugus, etc. counties bare around 1917 other than wheat and some pasture/hay and that was going on. I can't imagine walking upright alone never mind in back of a horse and plow on some of that terrain. Soil erosion was pretty bad and the hills did not produce well so when wheat went off peak prices around 1920 many were forced to let the hills go back to wooded land. That is the ones who did not go broke thinking the boom was going to go on for many years after WWI.

Yep, the royals are not my thing but each to their own desire. Normally, I don't care for outsiders peeing on other's social occasions but I think it was kind of funny the Episcopal Minister brought up slavery in his address. Too bad the royals are of not the Tudor line that allowed slavery in the North American colonies.

I am not sure that ticket revenue for the preseason is a big deal for the NFL if the truth be told. Probably less of a big deal for Buffalo area fans who feel like they are being held hostage if they want season tickets which forces them to buy in on two preseason games. I think most Buffalo area fans would only be too happy to have a choice as to whether they want to buy in on both preseason games or not. Let Syracuse have one preseason Bills game if SU wants it. Again, at this point in time I question whether the Pegula's would have the tiniest amount interest in a regular season game there so Buffalo area fans need not fear that. That SU would want to host a regular season game is equally unlikely at present. The whole thing probably mattered more when the Jets had camp at Cortland with an eye on the WNY market when ownership of the Bills was up in the air. Most likely smaller than the Giants who have a far longer history but even with Jets camp in Cortland a few years ago you did not see many sporting Jets gear in points east of Rochester.

The Carolina's are still considered growing in terms of economy and population (which surprises me) so that helps with the value appreciation. If the NFL starts looking at relocation as no holds barred then the Bills, Browns, Bengals, etc. would be worth as much if not more if those franchises could be moved to Toronto, London, Berlin, Tokyo, etc..

This is a good question but it still comes down to lacking the broadcast technology and there has been no indication SU wants to invest in that. Supposedly, SU is looking to replace the dome in the next 10-20 years so it makes it less likely they will spend heavily on the dome. Then there would be the issue of territory and whether Syracuse is considered Bills territory. If the Jets chose to play a game there it would open the door for other teams to play games deep in other teams' territories and I don't think that any one NFL team wants to open the door to that. Then there is the cost of playing a home game away from the permanent facilities. Lastly, I have never heard any rumor as far as SU wanting to have an NFL game played there.

The dome to my understanding does not have the broadcast technology the NFL desires to make an NFL game possible never mind desirable. Yep, seems to be mostly Bills or Giants fans to any degree of concentration. If it were to be done it would have happened by now. I think when Ralph was still running things he would have been open to a game in Syracuse and perhaps a game played in December in what most likely would have been poor weather. But still as stated before the dome would have to have upgrades for broadcast purposes and I doubt SU would have paid for them. For the time being I don't see the Pegula's as being interested in a game down to Syracuse.

This is probably true even though you are talking about my "generation" when talking about kids from the 1950's and 1960's. Opportunities for those lacking advanced skills or education is less today versus coming of age during the 1970's and 1980's. I am far from being a commie-liberal but there will be a need for UBI (universal basic income) going into the future as it will not be possible to make every last person a white collar professional. The alternative would be to let those of limited ability resort to crime to fill in the income gaps. Then there is the matter of educating younger people about social responsibility in that it is not up to society to provide a living like a millionaire without the individual taking the personal steps in an ethical manner to make it so.