FOOL ALERT! NO LEFT TURN INTO PARKING SPACES DOWNTOWN!

Rob_Sandow said:

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

Tom_R said:
J
Me: Quite. Most people making the illegal left turn take ten to twelve reverses to park, and I've seen traffic backed up to Durand; you did it with only eight and only backed traffic to the St. James.

TomR

 I bet I could do it in two reverses. I have a sedan (though pretty long). The trick is to pull 1 1/2 spaces beyond the space you want to left turn, into. Pull to the right curb in front of Bagel Ch., then hard, left on the wheel. 
--- Damn. I wouldn't be surprised if I could do it in one swing.



Now ya got me thinkin' .....

 In my Mini Cooper, I could do it with zero reverses, if I was so inclined, which I'm not.  

 Well, there ya go. We have a solution. 

"Left turns onto Maplewood Avenue, onto parking spaces are prohibited, except for Rob, when he is driving his Mini and FJJ."

The Maplewoodians who survived the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s here, I think have a special pride of place.

jeffl said:
I witnessed the greatest illegal parking job ever in Maplewood:

Picture if you will:  You're eating dinner at Arturo's, outside, facing Baker Street.  Here comes a car driving down the wrong side of Baker (from Maplewood Avenue towards Valley), on the wrong side of the small median strip, attempting to take a left into an angled spot facing all of us dining outside.
The beauty of this attempt was that not only was this being witnessed by every diner at Arturo's, it was also being witnessed by one of Maplewood's finest, who promptly pulled up behind the driver while he was attempting to make 10 turns to get into the spot.  After 30 minutes, the ticket had been written and the young man with NY plates had to endure the embarrassment of being watched by all of us.  The police officer looked at all of us, laughing, and throwing his hands up in the air.  He said, "I was too kind.  I could have given him even more tickets!"
Priceless.

I wish he had given him more tickets. 

mtierney said:
The Maplewoodians who survived the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s here, I think have a special pride of place.

 I survived the Great Reval of 2000.

mtierney said:
The Maplewoodians who survived the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s here, I think have a special pride of place.

everyone who lives anywhere for a long time tends to have a special pride of place.  

But I'm not sure what y'all had to survive though.  We lived in Hoboken in the '90s right near the projects.  The corner across the street from us was a drug market, and a guy was shot to death there one night.  Living in a neighborhood like that -- that's "survival."  

Tonight I nabbed another one. He (another high entitlement SUV, of course) was waiting to turn left into a space in front of Words — I wagged my personal conduct finger at him and gleefully pulled into the space ahead of him (fact: it’s always men). Result: he gave me a bird curse (which was hurtful). Should one alert the police when a citizen ignores a personal conduct code directive?

ligeti said:
Tonight I nabbed another one. He (another high entitlement SUV, of course) was waiting to turn left into a space in front of Words — I wagged my personal conduct finger at him and gleefully pulled into the space ahead of him (fact: it’s always men). Result: he gave me a bird curse (which was hurtful). Should one alert the police when a citizen ignores a personal conduct code directive?

Stick to your mission, ligeti. You're the point of the spear! Don't be distracted by horrified bystanders or imminently available peace officers. And remember: SMILE!

Your tale of battle with the Dark Side wins you this week's award...

-s.

ml1 said:

mtierney said:
The Maplewoodians who survived the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s here, I think have a special pride of place.

everyone who lives anywhere for a long time tends to have a special pride of place.  
But I'm not sure what y'all had to survive though.  We lived in Hoboken in the '90s right near the projects.  The corner across the street from us was a drug market, and a guy was shot to death there one night.  Living in a neighborhood like that -- that's "survival."  

 Really, a shooting?! Drugs in Hoboken?

My four kids were in elementary school in the ‘70s. A time when the school district grappled with state mandates and the three Ds: Declining enrollment, Desegregation, and Deteriorating schools. It was a time when white flight west took off in Maplewood as well as South Orange. Redlining was whispered about.

The sight of the armed National Guard at the Maplewood border with Maplewood keeping the peace was a heart-stopper after the Newark riots preceding in 1967.

There are all degrees of violence. The turmoil of closing schools, I remember First St, Fielding, Montrose, Newstead, Seth Boyden and there may have been another. Only way to cope was by introducing district wide busing.

The local scene was turned upside down— too bad MOL wasn’t around.

Living on the “other” side of town, the Irvington business district was my first shopping choice, followed by downtown Newark (Bambergers, Etc). Actually for finer shopping and entertainment, Central Ave and Main St in East Orange offered Best, Orbachs, Lord & Taylor, specialty shops, many restaurants, movie and an arts theatre, etc etc.

One of the benefits of staying put was to live to see change for the better! Of course, the electrification of our little chocho train (no a/c, rattan seats, and cinders in the eye) into Manhattan was the most important element. Now, to witness progress in East Orange and Orange as desirable real estate choices is amazing.

And, Nohero, we survivors of the 2000 reval truly deserve to receive acknowledgment! MOL was in its infancy as a dial-up. 

Remember the bull-horns at the jammed packed town hall used as communication?

People talking like they survived the Battle for Aleppo.

Actually, for those of us whose families have been in town for a long time (my great grandparents built the house I grew up in) it was a lot of upheaval.  Maybe not on the scale of a battle, but still the town changed a great deal.

I remember the button on my winter coat in kindergarten that protested the proposed closing of Seth Boyden.  I definitely remember my parents discussing if we should move.  Heck, in one year, we had our car radios stolen seven times while the car was parked (locked) in our driveway.  Our school district is nothing like it once was, my father graduated school with someone who was a tuition student from Millburn because we were a better school district; that hasn't been true in a long time.

And I clearly remember the day that my father and I were driving home from the center and witnessed a drug bust at Oakview and Prospect.  We ended up moving within a year for my mother's career, but trust me that incident impacted my father's willingness to uproot his career.

That being said, a lot of us love this place.  When I could, I moved back and have no plans of ever living anywhere else.  But give us a break if sometimes we get nostalgic.

I miss when everyone was on horseback so illegal lefts weren't a problem.

Bella, thanks for telling us your memories. But compassion or understanding for you, me,  or anyone else who shows feelings, are sure to be undercut.

Is is stupidity, callousness, hatred, or the belief here that it is better to be snide than interested?

Why is showing disrespect  a default setting for some posters? 

mtierney said:
Bella, thanks for telling us your memories. But compassion or understanding for you, me,  or anyone else who shows feelings, are sure to be undercut.
Is is stupidity, callousness, hatred, or the belief here that it is better to be snide than interested?
Why is showing disrespect  a default setting for some posters? 

 Maybe it was the tone of "us old timers are somehow better".

tjohn said:

mtierney said:
Bella, thanks for telling us your memories. But compassion or understanding for you, me,  or anyone else who shows feelings, are sure to be undercut.
Is is stupidity, callousness, hatred, or the belief here that it is better to be snide than interested?
Why is showing disrespect  a default setting for some posters? 

 Maybe it was the tone of "us old timers are somehow better".

it's this.

And I'll admit maybe I've got a bit of a chip on my shoulder on this topic.  I grew up in a family of 5 crammed into a 1000 square foot home in a working class NJ neighborhood.  When I started attending Seton Hall and arrived in SOMA, I thought the people all lived in mansions around here.  And compared to my neighborhood, they were mansions.  When we first moved here into our "fixer upper" I felt like George Jefferson ("a de-luxe apartment in the sky"!).  My childhood home would have entirely fit into the kitchen, dining room and living room of our first Maplewood home.  So maybe I'm being callous or mean to not understand that living here back in the day meant "survival."  Because to me when I was a teenager, these two towns were where the rich people lived.  You had a country club!

not buying it.

mtierney said:
not buying it.

 you think I'm making up where I came from?  Why would I do that?

ml1 said:

tjohn said:

mtierney said:
Bella, thanks for telling us your memories. But compassion or understanding for you, me,  or anyone else who shows feelings, are sure to be undercut.
Is is stupidity, callousness, hatred, or the belief here that it is better to be snide than interested?
Why is showing disrespect  a default setting for some posters? 

 Maybe it was the tone of "us old timers are somehow better".

it's this.
And I'll admit maybe I've got a bit of a chip on my shoulder on this topic.  I grew up in a family of 5 crammed into a 1000 square foot home in a working class NJ neighborhood.  When I started attending Seton Hall and arrived in SOMA, I thought the people all lived in mansions around here.  And compared to my neighborhood, they were mansions.  When we first moved here into our "fixer upper" I felt like George Jefferson ("a de-luxe apartment in the sky"!).  My childhood home would have entirely fit into the kitchen, dining room and living room of our first Maplewood home.  So maybe I'm being callous or mean to not understand that living here back in the day meant "survival."  Because to me when I was a teenager, these two towns were where the rich people lived.  You had a country club!

The father of one of my daughter's teammates on her softball team was a Newark detective who lived in South Bloomfield.  Upon learning that my daughter was from Maplewood, he said to her something like, "Oh, where all the spoiled kids live".

mtierney said:
not buying it.

Not buying what???

Scully said:

mtierney said:
not buying it.

 
Not buying what???

Mtierney is convinced that when I made a comment about old timers reminiscing about "hard times" that it was out of malice as opposed to being made to feel like the old timers are somehow better Maplewoodians.

tjohn said:

mtierney said:
Bella, thanks for telling us your memories. But compassion or understanding for you, me,  or anyone else who shows feelings, are sure to be undercut.
Is is stupidity, callousness, hatred, or the belief here that it is better to be snide than interested?
Why is showing disrespect  a default setting for some posters? 

 Maybe it was the tone of "us old timers are somehow better".

 How did I show disrespect?  By commenting earlier that real estate marketing ploys that have changed what people call things irk me?  If so, I guess it is disrespectful that I can't stand when people say "I'm loving it" rather than "I love it" for which I blame the McDonald's advertising campaign.

I didn't say I was better than anyone, nor did I imply that.  

tjohn said:

mtierney said:
Bella, thanks for telling us your memories. But compassion or understanding for you, me,  or anyone else who shows feelings, are sure to be undercut.
Is is stupidity, callousness, hatred, or the belief here that it is better to be snide than interested?
Why is showing disrespect  a default setting for some posters? 

 Maybe it was the tone of "us old timers are somehow better".

 This is what I am not buying. I did not read anything which could be construed as bragging.

The poster really started this turn in the thread when he said someone had been shot in his former neighborhood as his creds for surviving hardships.

mtierney said:

The poster really started this turn in the thread when he said someone had been shot in his former neighborhood as his creds for surviving hardships.

no.

ml1 said:

mtierney said:
The Maplewoodians who survived the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s here, I think have a special pride of place.

everyone who lives anywhere for a long time tends to have a special pride of place.  
But I'm not sure what y'all had to survive though.  We lived in Hoboken in the '90s right near the projects.  The corner across the street from us was a drug market, and a guy was shot to death there one night.  Living in a neighborhood like that -- that's "survival."  

 Hmmm, looks like a “yes” to me.

mtierney said:

ml1 said:

mtierney said:
The Maplewoodians who survived the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s here, I think have a special pride of place.

everyone who lives anywhere for a long time tends to have a special pride of place.  
But I'm not sure what y'all had to survive though.  We lived in Hoboken in the '90s right near the projects.  The corner across the street from us was a drug market, and a guy was shot to death there one night.  Living in a neighborhood like that -- that's "survival."  

 Hmmm, looks like a “yes” to me.

 no. It was a reaction to the notion that  the privileged white people in SOMA were "survivors." I don't claim to have any "street cred" and never have. But for sure the people who lived near me and had been there for decades did a lot more "surviving" than people in a comfortable suburb did. 

The 60s, 70s and 80s were rough in a lot of places. Maplewood was really nothing special in that regard.

tom said:
The 60s, 70s and 80s were rough in a lot of places. Maplewood was really nothing special in that regard.

 it was a hell of a lot better than most places. 

tom said:
The 60s, 70s and 80s were rough in a lot of places. Maplewood was really nothing special in that regard.

 I moved here in 1962. When did you? 

mtierney said:

tom said:
The 60s, 70s and 80s were rough in a lot of places. Maplewood was really nothing special in that regard.

 I moved here in 1962. When did you? 

 Who cares?

Dennis_Seelbach said:

mtierney said:

tom said:
The 60s, 70s and 80s were rough in a lot of places. Maplewood was really nothing special in that regard.

 I moved here in 1962. When did you? 

 Who cares?

We all do, because you're not a real Maplewoodian unless you have lived here since the Newark riots or before.  Of course, it is said that if you can remember the 60's you weren't there, so I don't really know what to think.

mtierney - I've lived here way before 1962.,longer I'm sure than anyone on MOL. That's beside the point. Personally I think Maplewood is better now than it ever was. Growing up here it really was a snobby community and if you weren't a Republican forget about it.  Let's not discuss what was but think of today and our beautiful town.  I love the mix of people and cultures. Hurrah for Maplewood!!