Thursday, September 18, 2014

Fairlington Resident to Fisette: Major League Arms Dealer Operating Out of Fairlington


Hello,

AY attended last night's Fairlington monthly civic association meeting where County Board Chairman Jay Fisette was being grilled about the Pike Streetcar after doing his usual  civic association PR pitch promoting  the Pike streetcar.

Suddenly, out of the blue, a Fairlington resident asked Jay: "What can the County do about the arms dealer who is selling major league weapons out of his Fairlington townhouse/" Jay's response: "Oh we know about him, he tried to start a gun store in Nauck."

Jay then promised that he would definitely "do something" if the Fairlington resident contacted him. Consternation among the audience.

But of course County Government knows all about the arms dealer, since he has a business license from Commissioner of the Revenue Ingrid Morroy and has to pay personal property and business taxes to Ingrid and County Treasurer Carla de la Pava. Arlington Police are obviously good buds with the arms dealer, as is ATF which licenses him. An ATF Class III firearms license (machine guns) is pretty tough to get. If (as the Fairlington resident complained) the arms dealer is dealing with the Pentagon he may be dealing some serious artillery, above and beyond machine guns.

But what else could Jay say? County Board Member Libby Garvey, who despises guns, was in the audience.

Stay tuned to Saturday's County Board meeting for further developments.

Cindy


Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Tuscon Accident Data - Shared Street Streetcars Are Not Compatible With Bicycles

Hey Yupette,

I visited my alma mater, University of  Arizona, last week. Arlington residents should be aware there have been a HUGE number of bicycle accidents related to streetcars and streetcar tracks along streetcar routes in Tuscon over the past two years. Most of the accidents have not been reported but of those that have been reported many were serious and involved veteran bicyclists. The data were collected by a non-profit bicyclist and pedestrian advocacy group, the Living Streets Alliance. Based on 86 reported accidents the group determined that there were several causes of accidents resulting from streetcars and streetcar tracks and bicyclists, the most common being bicyclists crossing streetcar tracks at a bad angle. Another big cause of bicyclist injures was bicyclists having to veer into streetcars or get caught in streetcar tracks while avoiding some obstacle. Latest consensus opinion among bicycle groups is that bicycles should not share streets with streetcars.

Anyway, you can see for yourself by searching "Tuscon bicycles streetcars accidents" on the Web.

Linda, 22205