Am from sunny California and am moving to Boston soon.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by bronsin

It time for a story!


I have a Honda ST1300 sport touring motorcycle. Its capable of going 100 mph all day long like sitting on your sofa.

I ride it to work all year here in NJ.

On e day in November there was a 10% change of RAIN so I rode to wrok.

We got one inch of ICE during the day!

People we leaving work for home at noon. I planned to stay until 5 or so and have my wife come get me when she got out of work. By 3pm traffic and road conditions were so bad people who had left at noon were not home yet and they lived six miles away!

But then at 4 second shift John came in and said "Paul its not that bad. The ice has melted a lot." I live about 6.5 miles away but I can go home on the freeway or city streets. I figured I would take the city streets. I figured the people with the problems were on the freeway.

So at five I got out to my motorcycle prepared to leave for home. Sure enough the parking lot was clear.

Just then my wife pulled up. "Paul Kneisl GET IN THIS CAR RIGHT NOW!"

I said "Follow me!"

So we left for Westmont NJ down the city streets of Camden NJ, Murder Capatal of the World. (drugs!)

Sure enough John was wrong and my wife was right, the streets were coated with an inch or ice outside the parking lot.

But... I have a lot of eperience riding a motorcycle and Id ridden on ice before but not very far.

The streets were deserted of traffic. Everything went fine until I came to a red light and stopped and put my foot down. It slipped right out from under me and over the bike went. It weighs 700 pounds but is designed to tip over and not be dammaged.

I have a bad back and a repaired disk in my neck. Picking up the bike was out of the question. My wife got out of her car and said "Now what are you going to do? These people are all drug dealers around here!" (maybe!)

"Well we'll just ask some of the drug dealers to help!"

There were no cars but lots of people on the street. I didnt have to ask anyone to help a bunch of them came right over and picked up the bike for me.

My wife said "LEAVE THE BIKE HERE AND GET IN THE CAR!"

I said "Follow me!"

The rest of the way home I didnt stop for red lights just slowed down to check for traffic. I went about 15 mph. I didnt use the brakes just let off the throttle. I had to make a couple of left and right hand turns too. There were few if any people out driving.

We got home without further incident!

Wow. When I was a kid, my dad worked for a jewelry company based in Camden for a couple of years (was a West Coast rep). Every time he'd come home from a business trip to Camden, he'd shake his head. My dad was just about the opposite of a wimp. He was 6'7'', and an ex-Golden Gloves boxer. In 2006 (or might have been 2007) I was trying to get back to where I was staying in Maple Shade and found myself driving in Camden. I remember asking for directions at a gas station and was amazed that the guy had lived there for 10 years and didn't know his way around more than just a few blocks away from the gas station. I drove through some of what must be some of the worst parts of Camden. I've been in awful parts of NYC, Detroit, Cleveland, Atlantic City, Houston, Mobile (AL), Miami, San Francisco, LA, San Diego, Oakland, Dallas, Memphis, Richmond (CA), Holyoke (MA), Tucson, Albuquerque, and other cities. The only places (in the U.S.) I've seen that are as bad as the parts of Camden I saw during that journey are parts of Cleveland, and parts of Detroit.

[bronsin]

Originally Posted by nookandcrannycar

Wow. When I was a kid, my dad worked for a jewelry company based in Camden for a couple of years (was a West Coast rep). Every time he'd come home from a business trip to Camden, he'd shake his head. My dad was just about the opposite of a wimp. He was 6'7'', and an ex-Golden Gloves boxer. In 2006 (or might have been 2007) I was trying to get back to where I was staying in Maple Shade and found myself driving in Camden. I remember asking for directions at a gas station and was amazed that the guy had lived there for 10 years and didn't know his way around more than just a few blocks away from the gas station. I drove through some of what must be some of the worst parts of Camden. I've been in awful parts of NYC, Detroit, Cleveland, Atlantic City, Houston, Mobile (AL), Miami, San Francisco, LA, San Diego, Oakland, Dallas, Memphis, Richmond (CA), Holyoke (MA), Tucson, Albuquerque, and other cities. The only places (in the U.S.) I've seen that are as bad as the parts of Camden I saw during that journey are parts of Cleveland, and parts of Detroit.

I work in downtown Camden and there it is quite safe. However you enter the neighbohoods at your own risk! Sometimes the main road into Camden (The Admiral Wilson Boulevard) is closed due to flooding or traffic so my "escape route" is 27th street to route 38 or 70. One of my friends at work who lives in the Cramer Hill section of Camden, when she heard I sometime drive down 27th street, said "Dont go there. People get shot there!"

Me? Shoot me? As nice as I am?

Its like people from the west and midwest going to NYC for the first time. Its got a reputation as a "badass place" so its kind of thrilling to see it!

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by bronsin

I work in downtown Camden and there it is quite safe. However you enter the neighbohoods at your own risk! Sometimes the main road into Camden (The Admiral Wilson Boulevard) is closed due to flooding or traffic so my "escape route" is 27th street to route 38 or 70. One of my friends at work who lives in the Cramer Hill section of Camden, when she heard I sometime drive down 27th street, said "Dont go there. People get shot there!"

Me? Shoot me? As nice as I am?

Its like people from the west and midwest going to NYC for the first time. Its got a reputation as a "badass place" so its kind of thrilling to see it!

Yep. But the NYC of today is pretty different from the NYC of the past....a much cleaner and safer place than it used to be.

[bronsin]

Originally Posted by nookandcrannycar

Yep. But the NYC of today is pretty different from the NYC of the past....a much cleaner and safer place than it used to be.

I know...they ruined it!

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by bronsin

I know...they ruined it!

...I have kind of mixed feelings about that. I like not having to step over down and out people 'stopped'* (*) on stairs in the subway, but I don't really like how (for example) Times Square has become sort of a strange combination of the movie The Truman Show and a military installation .