Booby traps in South Mountain

he's so busy trying to f everyone else he forgot to charge his phone. Who TF lets it run down to 28%?

wat a maroon, lock him up just for stupidity.
 
hope the cops get this creep soon. Failing that, one can only hope he runs afoul of a bear... nature justice!
 
If our case at Watchung is any indication, your efforts to legitimize riding in SM will bring out the irrationals/crazies like this guy. Fortunately in our (Watchung) case, the County identified that the MTB community was the voice of reason, and the crazies were the vocal minority. I know there was some serious let-down in prior efforts with Essex County, but if you do choose to take on legalizing riding in SM, I suggest the organized, diplomatic approach. Fill the room at Essex County Freeholders meetings. It worked for us.
 
Shorepoints said:
If our case at Watchung is any indication, your efforts to legitimize riding in SM will bring out the irrationals/crazies like this guy. Fortunately in our (Watchung) case, the County identified that the MTB community was the voice of reason, and the crazies were the vocal minority. I know there was some serious let-down in prior efforts with Essex County, but if you do choose to take on legalizing riding in SM, I suggest the organized, diplomatic approach. Fill the room at Essex County Freeholders meetings. It worked for us.
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A SOMO effort will open a huge can of worms, as it has for 20 years. What's going on at WR may have popped the lid open a little.
 
RSAmerica said:
A SOMO effort will open a huge can of worms, as it has for 20 years. What's going on at WR may have popped the lid open a little.
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I understand the "don't talk about fight club" attitude has been in place for years at SM as it was at WR. In the case of WR, finally talking about it seems to be yielding a result beyond our expectations (for the good). Can't say this will be the case for SM because I've never ridden there and don't know much about the inner workings of Essex County politics. But yes, hopefully success at WR will tilt the possibilities at SM in the right direction.
 
Shorepoints said:
I understand the "don't talk about fight club" attitude has been in place for years at SM as it was at WR. In the case of WR, finally talking about it seems to be yielding a result beyond our expectations (for the good). Can't say this will be the case for SM because I've never ridden there and don't know much about the inner workings of Essex County politics. But yes, hopefully success at WR will tilt the possibilities at SM in the right direction.
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Essex County is far worse than Union County when it comes to politics. Joe D is a corrupt slimeball that somehow finds a way to stay in power. I recall that JORBA was looking to partner with the South Mountain Conservancy a few years back and did a bunch of trail maintenance there, but it was for naught. I attended a few of the meetings and they went nowhere.
 
goodvibe said:
Essex County is far worse than Union County when it comes to politics. Joe D is a corrupt slimeball that somehow finds a way to stay in power. I recall that JORBA was looking to partner with the South Mountain Conservancy a few years back and did a bunch of trail maintenance there, but it was for naught. I attended a few of the meetings and they went nowhere.
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Yes Ken told me the JORBA/SOMO debacle story. As I said I don't know much about Essex Politics, but you could say similar things about Union. The event that spurred us to organize in Union was the musical signs with the taking down, then putting back up of no bikes signs. This pretty much required we act, and the result was positive. Maybe this vigilante justice stuff going on at SM is a similar call to action. I got my hands full with Watchung now but anyone feel free to message me for advice/insight on what worked (and didn't) for our efforts at WR.
 
@Shorepoints I don't think there's any active advocacy going on for mountain biking in Essex County parks at the moment. Perhaps different than Union Co, there's not a whole lot of enforcement of the "no mtb" laws, so it's more of a live-and-let-live atmosphere than in Union Co. The real problem is the vigilantes, and frankly I don't think that problem would go away even if MTB was legalized.
 
Dominos said:
@Shorepoints I don't think there's any active advocacy going on for mountain biking in Essex County parks at the moment. Perhaps different than Union Co, there's not a whole lot of enforcement of the "no mtb" laws, so it's more of a live-and-let-live atmosphere than in Union Co. The real problem is the vigilantes, and frankly I don't think that problem would go away even if MTB was legalized.
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Actually I think the situations are/were very similar. It has been "live and let live" for the past 20 years at Union also. There wasn't anything organized/active in UC until this summer (August) when the new no-bike/atv signs went up and enforcement stepped up. They went up because some of the anti-bike people started complaining that the no biking ordinances weren't being enforced, thus the County had to respond.

It appears now in SM at least one anti-bike person is acting up, forcing the police to get involved...and putting the situation on the radar, for better or worse. Pretty much the same thing as Watchung. Union's solution to satisfy the anti-bike lobby is to make a bike only trail and leave the bikes off the existing hiking trails. So far the anti-bike lobby has quieted down and we are no longer getting resistance from them. This isn't ideal from a "sharing" perspective but it seems to be working amazing as a compromise and we are getting an all new bike-specific trail that is built by MTB riders and for MTB riders. Not a bad outcome. Hey, I'm not saying it will be smooth sledding for us or any future efforts at SM, but at some point, you may be forced to act.
 
I asked around about SoMo a bit just a few weeks ago and this is what i was told:
Roughly 10 years ago there was a push to allow biking in the park. Joe D said that he would allow it if SoMo Conservancy would go along. They (SOMO Conservancy) approved of the measure and took a year to evaluate the situation and then they came back with a written proposal. All that was needed was a signature from Joe's office but it stalled because he was up for re-election and presumably did not want to spark a backlash. From there the traction died and we are left with the don't ask don't tell policy currently in place. I think that there is at least a good chance that a similar type of agreement could be reached in SoMo as was in Watchung but I guess there is a slight risk of firing up the opposition?? I do live in Essex and would be happy to support any effort to push forward with biking in the parks so please let me know if any of you are planning anything.
 
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