Friday, March 09, 2007

First Pedestrian Congestion Charge

The charge? $330/pedestrian mile. Any questions?

46 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes. Where is it? I want to get there first.

Anonymous said...

Having been to the Grand Canyon - not sue I like that new bridge.

Anonymous said...

It's at the Grand Canyon. The Hualapi (sp.) Indians are building a glass enclosed walkway as a tourist attraction. The walkway will give users the sensation and feeling of "walking on air" above the canyon.

Anyway, the Hualapi community is extremely impoverished; they believe that this project may gain them some economic empowerment.

Anonymous said...

Are their billion dollar casino's not working for them?

Anonymous said...

Just looked this up"

"Upon completion, the Glass Bridge will be suspended 4,000 feet above the Colorado River on the very edge of the Grand Canyon. On May 2005, the final test was conducted and the stucture passed engineering requirements by 400 percent, enabling it to withstand the weight of 71 fully loaded Boeing 747 airplanes (more than 71 million pounds). The bridge will be able to sustain winds in excess of 100 miles per hour from 8 different directions, as well as an 8.0 magnitude earthquake within 50 miles. More than one million pounds of steel will go into the construction of the Grand Canyon Skywalk."

It will open March 28.

http://www.destinationgrandcanyon.com/skywalk.html

Anonymous said...

@ Original Kev

Not all tribes can, or are allowed to have casinos.

Anonymous said...

The Hualapi operate casinos. Still a fairly neat bridge.

Anonymous said...

Actually, I am stupid and if I'd bothered to RTFM I would have known that their attempts at running a gambling op failed in 1995. Mea culpa.

Anonymous said...

The costs to build a tourist attraction at the Grand Canyon have zero bearing on whether or not urbanism is good.

Anonymous said...

I'll pass on that gimmick. Ugh, I can't deal with any place that's chockablock with annoying tourists.

Anonymous said...

Maybe I meet Casey there and throw him off. That would be sweet.

Anonymous said...

Well in that case, maybe it *is* worth the ten Bajillion dollars it cost to construct.

Anonymous said...

So is it nearly finished? The 'official' site has a broken linked image on it and nothing else.

Anonymous said...

bob dawg, where did you see the pricing info for the bridge? It's not on the bridge's website.

As for the merits of the bridge, I think its a great thing. It's certaintly cheaper than taking a helicoptor ride or a plane ride over the canyon, and you get the same visuals.

Anonymous said...

$25 per the website.

Anonymous said...

Cost was about $30 mill, put up by a private investor. Entry fee is $25/head. Said investor gets a share of the profits.

Not only is it cheaper than plane/chopper - It's much quieter and impacts the experience far less.

I've led groups into the Havasupai canyon three times now. With a group of thirty paying $50-60 each for camping fees, plus mule rental we can make a positive impact on the impoverished communities.

However, you don't need a compass or GPS to navigate - just follow the helicopter which runs north/south every 10 minutes.

Anonymous said...

Looks like Casey has stolen StephJ's picture:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sercasey/414342923/

He claims "somebody" found it floating "out there".

Fucking snowflake has no shame.

Anonymous said...

@Anon 4:36

Assuming a 4000' free fall, CS would have about 16 seconds to:

a) Contemplate his sins
b) Find religion
c) Say FUCK! about 100 times
d) Do one more sweet deal

ratlab said...

@Jean Val Jean

Would that be the same type of floating one would feel walking on that Grand Canyon bridge?

Anonymous said...

@Sir Isaac

e) Learn to fly

Anonymous said...

@ Jean Val Jean

Yeah, he ripped off mine too. Claimed it was made by somebody...

ME, dammit! And he knows it. Sheesh.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sercasey/407429516/in/set-72157594541002979/

Anonymous said...

@ sierra club outings

I used to be a program officer/grant monitor for a health care research grant; I've worked with grantees in both the Hualapai and Havasupai tribes. The tourist trade isn't that great for the Havasupai health care system. They live at the bottom of the canyon, if you're pregnant and you need to deliver, if you can't foot the $200 for a helicopter ride, you have to go up by mule. Our grant helped the Havasupai to establish a community health worker program to help the pregnant women and new moms access to health care. It was a cool thing.

So keep doing those tours...they could use the money. And those tours look interesting. I'd love to go, myself.

Lou Minatti said...

Looks cool to me. I plan on walking it.

Lou Minatti said...

BTW, why does everyone say Casey is gay? Plenty of heterosexual men put organic wax and highlights in their hair, carry a purse and polish their fingernails to a glossy sheen.

Anonymous said...

Casey has been posting his next business deal on Craigslist.

http://stlouis.craigslist.org/rnr/290917358.html

Anonymous said...

@Katie

And every shack in the village has a satellite TV dish.

This is probably OT. My email involves wagga (an outback city in Australia) at comcast (an ISP in California) dot net. I have a lot of photos (and good memories) of my havasupai trips. Feel free to contact me.

Anonymous said...

@katie

And every shack has a satellite dish.

This is probably OT. I have lots of photos and fond memories.

This is probably OT. Please feel free to contact me at wagga (a city in outback Australia) at Comcast (an ISP in California) dot net.

Anonymous said...

Nice selection of Men's Purses.....or Murses as we call them here.

http://shopping.yahoo.com/s:Bags%20&%20Wallets:4347-Style=Purses:4601-Gender=Men's

Check out the Purse Money Box....reckon Casey would go for the feather trim to match his famouse blue shirt?

Anonymous said...

Anon 7:59 has murse envy.

True story.

Anonymous said...

T, definitely agree on the murse envy. Still streamlining my tin hat, though.

Anonymous said...

God damn is Nigel condescending. This was posted by a reader responding to his inaccuracies:

"With rates dropping, mortgage applications went up. More of those three trillion in ARM resets are being refinanced into fixed rate loans.

Mortgage applications are one of the worst barometers of direction in this market. The majority of borrowers who are out there cannot refinance out of their 80/20 or option arm to save their life let alone their house. Just becuase there are more people trying to put square pegs in round holes, doesn't mean any of them will have any success.

Then Nigel posts:

Data please

----------------

What a freaking idiot.

Anonymous said...

Nigel is too lazy to even wipe his ass, let alone actually read something that may enlighten him. He seems to believe that everyone out here in bloggsville is falling all over themselves to run to his website for his
"stimulating" "brain wracking" "intelligent but polite" commentary.
He will do the same thing with data that Casey does with his countrywide loan "hmmm, this could be bad for me, hence I don't believe it, and so it must not exist!"
Frankly I don't know who I hate more at this point, Casey the scamster, or Nigel the scamsters' crotch appendage.

Anonymous said...

There is a certain beauty in a properly constructed tin hat, isn't there?

Anonymous said...

I am currently tuning into mine. However, I must just be another 300 lb looser dyke who has nothing better to do on a Friday night.

Anonymous said...

Things I dislike: obstruction of justice.
Things I like: unobstructed justice.
Things I love: truth
Things I hate: lies.
Things I don't know what else to do with: everything else.

Anonymous said...

This afternoon I got really bored so I sat out on my front lawn and started chewing on the garden hose. After a while I went back inside to check IAFF.

The hose was more interesting.

Anonymous said...

OT but....

“A Santa Rosa man was convicted Thursday of defrauding two mortgage companies and a title company in an effort to eliminate a $240,000 home mortgage. Robison said he learned the mortgage elimination process through books and seminars, and doesn’t believe it’s illegal.

(Excerpt from a Press Democrat article posted on Ben's Housing Bubble blog earlier today)

Hmm...where have I heard that before?

Anonymous said...

I'm sure the difference is, Casey intended to pay every penny BACK, and I don't think this guy did. Er, that's what I assume anyway. Hey is it illegal to have 80 pot plants growing in my house? Not that it matters - when the cops bust down my door I'd simply tell them I didn't know it was illegal and that I will gladly dispose of them.

Oh they are going to bust a LOT of people. Just a matter of time...

"He says he is not facing criminal or civil charges"

Hahahahahahaha!

Those evil mortgage brokers made me do it!

Anonymous said...

"The charge? $330/pedestrian mile. Any questions?"

At first glance the cost would seem prohibitive, I believe our ancestors would beg to differ.

Due to the aforementioned contraption's remote location, would the cost per pedestrian mile include imbedded costs such as travel to and from the canyon in a hummer with gasoline at the surprising yet credible potential price of ten bucks per US gal.?

Anonymous said...

anyone find it funny that casey got free hosting, and now his site is a zweg splash page...

has he been taken for a ride again?

Anonymous said...

@ Sierra Club

The town is called Wagga Wagga - pronounced Wogga-Wogga. Not super outback-y - i.e. not like Alice Springs or anywhere in the desert. We used to stop there when driving to Sydney for vacations.

Anonymous said...

Base jumping, anyone?

Anonymous said...

Eth real

Excellet for base jumping, that was my original thought. The canyon is 4000' deep at that spot - higher than the Sears tower, higher than Taipei 101 or Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. It's freaking deep.

Not sure how you get out though when you're done!

Anonymous said...

Ahahahaha!

Looks like Zewg is gonna own his ass for a little while lest those pics of Galina find their way back. Wonder what else he gave them in exchange for hosting? I wonder how long the Zewg splash plage sits there.

Way to set up another sweet deal Casey!

Anonymous said...

Homey's back! See the 8:08 AM post on the Casey Wars: Episode I thread.

Anonymous said...

@TK
Perhaps base jumping mules??