Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Hyde Park Community Meetings Influence the Nation

posted by chicago pop


The Hyde Park Style:
Bearded White Guy Yelling at The Man
(Based on Very Little True Information)

Hyde Park didn't just give the nation a President.

We gave the nation an ATTITUDE.

And now the rest of the nation is only finding out about it.

Hyde Park: where the nutball community meeting was invented.


11 comments:

Famac said...

Maybe you ought to read the bill.

Karl Leonard said...

Decided to post this here because I couldn't figure out how else to submit a question.

Anybody have any idea what's going on with the "model yacht basin" near Regents Park off 51st? Why is the gate always locked? Are there any plans to actually make it available for use? Why would they build it and then leave it closed off for over a year?

Anonymous said...

Karl:

At least they put water in it this year... it was empty for one or two seasons. But I'm with you, why not let people run their model boats in it as intended?

LOL at the yelling bearded guy.

chicago pop said...

I'm glad y'all noticed that this post was really all coded to be about the Model Yacht Basin, despite appearances.

I live nearby, and would luv to sail a model yacht there. I suspect tanking City finances have something to do with that little extravagance not materializing.

David Farley said...

Has anybody ever sailed a model yacht in the model yacht basin? I seem to recall reading somewhere that it was built because Central Park has one (that is actually used) and someone out here had a brain fever that HP needed one, too.

Sort of back on topic... By odd coincidence, I happened to go to college near where the first photo with the shouty beardy man was taken. And I happen to know someone from HP who was at the St. Louis tea party in the video.

Elizabeth Fama said...

C-Pop, why do you think tanking City finances would cause them to lock the boat pond? It seems to me that completing the repairs and filling it with water (i.e. the expenses) have been done already. Maybe it's a safety/liability issue.

chicago pop said...

Maybe they didn't want to hire the staff to man the boat concession and the associated overhead. Small change, but easy to cut if you're looking for savings. But I have no idea, really.

Richard Gill said...

"Has anybody ever sailed a model yacht in the model yacht basin?"

Yes, I have - once. Some twenty-plus years ago, I made a small, very crude, boat out of balsa wood, with a Saran Wrap sail. My daughter, who was about eight at the time, wanted to try it. The boat decomposed upon hitting the water, as I had used Elmer's glue or something. Not bright.

Later, I reassembled the boat using Super Glue or some such product. The boat actually worked, crossing the entire pond without turning over. I had tied a long string to the stern, as the pond was not clean and had broken glass on the bottom and I wasn't going to wade in to retrieve the boat.

Heave ho, yonder thar, and swab the poop deck!

Elizabeth Fama said...

Yeah, C-Pop, I don't think the pond was ever planned as something that had a boat rental concession. In the old days (the last decade?) I'd see guys racing their model power boats in there -- all privately owned.

Richard Gill said...

I'm so old, I remember when Lake Shore Drive's southbound lanes wrapped around the west side of the sailing pond, so it was necessary to cross the Drive to get to the pond and that part of the park. At some point the City moved the traffic lanes east of the pond, making pedestrian access to the whole park easier and safer. If I recall correctly, that precipitated perhaps the first tree hugger rebellion, with people chaining themselves to trees in the path of the new lanes. It wasn't good enough that the park was getting connected to the neighborhood.

David Farley said...

This is what you do with a model yacht pool.

http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2009/08/naval-battle/

This is not the pool in Central Park, but out in Corona Park, near my old neighborhood (note the Unisphere).