"NS"

Well here we are once again celebrating "National Hug A Tree Day" and the environmentalist are spreading the word of our impending doom. Not just any doom but that pressing day that we all turn into Kingsford charcoal and flame up under the heat generated by all those unregulated 89 Corollas. Wait a minute.....we might just all drown from the tidal wave of Arctic water that surges from those melting polar ice caps. I wonder if the polar bear will become the new state animal of lower Alabama? Either way the battle of global destruction rages on.

People who do not really know me that well tend to throw me in the environmental wacko category because I (like most sensible humans) care about the environment. The problem is that I see the problem slightly different from those chaining themselves to the largest tree they can find. To me it seems like we are all on the sinking Titanic and people are up in arms about the possibility that the boat may catch on fire.

When it comes to environmental issues I prefer to focus on issues that do not take 25 years of research to figure out. Every time someone asks me about global warming....I say if the smartest scientists on the planet can't seem to agree on whether this is scare tactics or true science......how the Hell am i going to know. every month the earth is getting hotter according to some and colder according to others. The truth is we will never know who is right because we will all be dead before they come to some agreement. So what is it that I am concerned about? Well the Meeker considers himself a common sense kind of guy.

I give you my official stance on the environment in two simple causes that I feel passionate about......and they have nothing to do with global warming!

Somehow we have replaced the word POLLUTION with GLOBAL WARMING. People understand pollution. Pollution affect everyone RIGHT NOW! There is no guessing and no debate about dirty air and water. When I was a kid, you could grab a fishing pole and head out to any body of water in Mobile and eat what ever you caught. You could swim with your mouth open! You could lay in the salt water of the beach and clear up a dozen mosquito bites in one vacation day. I would not eat a fish out of dog river or swim in Mobile Bay if you paid me. At least a dozen times a year we are alerted to the ever familiar warning of contaminates in the water way. Don't swim of this beach. Don't eat fish from the bay. Don't get in the water with an open wound if you like having flesh cover your bones. A few years back the Press register had an article revealing the mercury count in fish along the Gulf Coast. Let me tell you that it was not something to brag about. Not even a month ago we were alerted to the coal sludge that was pouring into the bay over at Mcduffie Terminal. By focusing all this time and effort to something that might eventually happen with the temperature, we have neglected the things that have an IMMEDIATE impact on life at this moment. I am not as concerned about the chance of global temperature rise in 100 years because we are all going to be standing around with our thumb up our ass scared to do anything. Lets think about quality of life people. Lets think about preserving and protecting what we have right now. You do not need a PHD or a Verizon style network of politicians to tell you that we are dirtying up or own porches. What a disgrace to think that we are already to the point where eating fish that is not stamped Winn Dixie is something they did before your time.

MY BIGGEST complaint is that we are not focusing on a problem that a 6th grader can see. It's not so much about temperature folks. It is about garbage. People always wonder why I am against all the plastic crap that we like to produce and use. All those damn Walmart bags and bottled waters do not go anywhere. They do not turn into dirt. They do not just disappear when you chunk them in the BFI can. Where do we think all this garbage is going? For on week just look at the amount of garbage you throw out. Now just try and think about where all this crap is going. You can keep digging holes and filling them over with dirt but eventually you are going to run out of room. The land fills are becoming such prized real estate that the Mississippi river has become a log jam of garbage filled barges headed to the less dense southern states for dumping. Other countries have resorted to just dumping their garbage right in the ocean. This has led to a wonderful phenomenon of destruction. So I beg all you tree hugging people and Prius owners to take a step back and start looking at things that are not up for debate. Try putting more time into preserving what planet and beautiful land we have or who will really give a sh%$ if we eventually burn up. We will be so tired of the mountains of garbage and the smell that we will gladly line up for the barbecue. So on this Earth Day, please take a moment to consider a problem that is not going away and is increasing every day. Try getting off the plastic bags and don't be scared to recycle the plastic you do use.

"Americans use 2 million plastic drink bottles every 5 minutes......every day"

COME ON DOWN TO MOBILE AND BEFORE YOU TAKE THAT CRUISE OUT OF THE GREAT PORT CITY....YOU CAN ENJOY OUR FINE ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICT AND MINGLE WITH SOME OF OUR LOCAL FOLK. ISN'T THIS THE PLACE YOU YOU HAVE ALWAYS DREAMED OF LIVING THE GOOD LIFE.
I signed on to the old Facebook today to see what was happening in the world of social networking. I had a hot invitation in my mailbox to join one of the 7 million groups that exist in this cyberspace playground. Normally I just ignore most of these unless I am just bored tired of receiving the same invitation every day. SO I notice I had been sent one of these golden invites to join the "Make Some Noise" group for downtown Mobile. My first thought was.....is this some kind of new save the polar ice caps approach?

I managed to get about half way through the description tag when I started to shake my head. What is wrong with this community? Where are the people with an interest in progress? Why are college kids running this city?

This loosely formed group of rabid music fans are highly pissed off that some of the new residence in the LODA are upset with the late night party scene. Wow, imagine that! The late night party crowd has taken a territorial approach with the belief that they were there long before these new squatters invaded their little mecca of cheap beer and amateur music. So who is right in this epic battle for lower Dauphin?

Before you start calling me a big fat hypocrite, I will say that I had my fair share of fun as a young man under the watchful eye of the green Admiral Semmes statue. Those days are long gone and hopefully for those of you reading this post. So what is my take on this whole situation?

I am amazed every time I drive down Dauphin street at how slow the area is changing. It has been a decade now since we first heard of the "String of Pearls" that was going to turn downtown into an entertainment district similar to other cities our size. Other than some wider sidewalks, couple of trees, some bike stands, and Cathedral Park, what has actually changed. All this better walking area still leads to the same type of business.....the ratty bar! Lets be honest with ourselves. There are now a few art places and the theater has a face lift, but the majority of money spent is from drunk college kids shooting purple hooters. Is this really the long term plan the city is banking on for economic growth?

Most of the bars are just shitty looking! I know it and you know it. Hayles is a dump, the garage is a dump........you can just keep going down the list. If you are not embarrassed by the Heroes deck overlapping into the middle of a city street....you might need to stop reading now. Is this really the look we want people to see when they arrive in a major metropolitan city. You have to love the tourism potential of cheap paper signs, flyer's and stickers in the windows as you stroll down those neat new sidewalks. It must be some kind of Mobile "thang" that the uglier and nastier your bar looks, the more business you generate. Let me give you a clue to why the downtown crowd is not very diverse. People in their thirties and up have no interest in going to the LODA to hear broke down cover bands play music at volume 11. The people with good jobs and money to spend are looking for a night out that doesn't bring back memories of their frat days.

I went to an event at the Mitchel Center last night (I will blog about later). This was a show with huge international appeal. It was the kind of night that you actually put some church clothes on and act like an adult. I was shocked at the number of faded Polo's, t-shirts, flip flops, blue jeans, baseball caps, and tennis shoes. I just can't help but think that Mobile is becoming exactly what downtown has been all these years.......ugly. This city is set on being nothing more than casual. You see it in every restaurant. You see it in stores. This sense of ugly and poor looking is the best we can do. I am tired of going to other cities and actually seeing people who look like they have some direction in the lifestyle they want to live. It is OK to tuck a shirt in and go to bar that is actually clean. I am getting way off subject here, but this whole concept of "lower class" is something that keeps downtown Mobile under the foot of the college moron. I just wish half of Mobile would go to a city where people actually go downtown for something other than a Bud Lite and a Cowboy Junkies cover band.

Until we realize that the people making a commitment to living, shopping, dinning a and spending in downtown Mobile are more important than the nightly cover charge, the city will never progress. The opportunity to be an upscale attraction and a city with a high standard of living is right in front of our eyes. Is this the downtown that evokes the phrase..."I want to live in Mobile". Is this the city that is going to wow all those new corporations? We always hear people bitching about more culture...more art in downtown. That will never come because it will always play second fiddle to the beer stained stages and popped collars that is Mobile Entertainment. Lets get some new blood and build a city that brings in real money and real opportunity. Don't let me down Eastern Shore. If you build it, we will come! Any body got a key to the bulldozer?

NO I WILL NOT JOIN THAT GROUP!