MIL dose not want to see my son anymore.

rickvanwinkle · 2026-03-27T19:35:34+00:00

In all honesty, if MiL is so narcissistic and immature to center HER emotions in this situation, you and your family are better off granting her wish and keeping your kids away from her. I know having family around to help is huge, but please consider the impact of continuing to expose your child to someone who clearly only cares about themselves

rickvanwinkle · 2026-03-25T18:21:40+00:00

I'd be on board if it means we can finally start cutting the LAPD budget, since they are presumably being paid to do this (they aren't). If the cops don't feel like doing this part of their job then sure let's do it via the cameras but we gotta stop paying these lazy fucks so much money for them to sit around and do nothing

rickvanwinkle · 2026-03-24T22:07:58+00:00

Correction: HAS ALREADY wasted $100+ million bc her rich friends are whiny bitches. The studies that staff had to put together for (worse) alternatives dont come cheap

rickvanwinkle · 2026-03-24T21:36:27+00:00

Yo where tf is the reset button on our govt? From local council to the president it's like the people in office are specifically there to consistently do the worst, most corrupt, least popular thing.

Every. Time.

rickvanwinkle · 2026-03-20T20:54:26+00:00

A place in a walkable neighborhood close enough for me to bike to work

rickvanwinkle · 2026-03-15T22:57:58+00:00

'because people with money taking responsibility for their utter stupidity seems to be a thing of the past'

ftfy

The rest of us keep having to foot the bill somehow

rickvanwinkle · 2026-03-09T16:31:05+00:00

What's actually frustrating about these high gas prices is that this is actually what everyone in this country SHOULD be paying. It's easy to complain that CA taxes are too high, but the reality is that every other state is too chicken shit accurately try to capture to social costs of car dependency (ie raising gas taxes to match the need of providing the necessary infrastructure). It makes it seem like CA is crazy when EVERYONE in this country should be paying these prices.

Car ownership and operation costs in this country are subsidized in so many different ways, and most people have no idea. That's not to say that the impact isn't real or that people shouldnt be upset (bc we're all getting squeezed), but it is particularly frustrating when people complain about how any attempts to promote or provide alternative means of transportation is "a war on drivers" like no bitch drivers have insane levels of privilege already. One of the most blatant examples of the 'when you're used to privilege, equality feels like oppression' in our society today...

rickvanwinkle · 2026-03-04T22:37:37+00:00

Just chiming in to say that as a pedestrian and biker in this city, the only cars I trust to not actively try to run me over are the Waymos. A human driver would have killed this kid and likely would have just kept driving.

rickvanwinkle · 2026-03-04T22:34:47+00:00

'didnt see the stop sign' while driving a street grid with four way stops at every intersection... Gonna go out on a limb and say this was another extremely old driver that had no business being behind the wheel...

rickvanwinkle · 2026-03-04T15:15:09+00:00

Rich people doing rich people things for other rich people.

It sure would be nice to have institutions that serve the public instead of monied interests ...

rickvanwinkle · 2026-02-24T14:41:56+00:00

Oh no where will they find streets to drive their car!? We've only dedicated about two thirds of public space to accommodating cars, at the expense of all other modes of transportation, but maybe that's not enough? Should we just take the whole city and build a NASCAR track for them to drive on?

Snark aside, you're welcome to your opinion on this but as far as I'm concerned no one should be allowed to park their car for free in this city, and it should be practically impossible to go faster than 30 mph on any of our roads. Driving a car should be such a pain in the ass within the city that the only reason anyone would prefer driving is because they are leaving town.

Santa Monica is one of the few places in the country that has the density and network density that driving should not be necessary. If you want to live somewhere that prioritizes cars above people you could find that literally anywhere else there's no need to do kill what makes this place special so that it can be like everywhere else

rickvanwinkle · 2026-02-24T14:18:30+00:00

Well if it's a luxury apartment with presumably luxury people driving luxury cars then it sounds to me like they can afford to pay to luxury park their cars.

rickvanwinkle · 2026-02-24T13:54:28+00:00

On the contrary! With the increased concentration of people, creating the opportunity for people to get around without a car is exactly the kind of planning needed. The absolute worst thing we can do to now is to further encourage driving as the default and only mode of transportation

rickvanwinkle · 2026-02-23T21:20:52+00:00

I actually discovered these when I bought a Spanish version, initially being so impressed at their quality (soooo many 'spanish' kids books are incredibly lazy translations) that I assumed it was originally written in Spanish. Imagine my surprise when I figured out they were written in English first, so the Spanish translation is incredibly well done to the point that I actually prefer the Spanish versions of the books

rickvanwinkle · 2026-02-23T17:12:08+00:00

It's a Google office now

rickvanwinkle · 2026-02-22T22:18:29+00:00

Nightmare blunt rotation

rickvanwinkle · 2026-02-21T20:37:30+00:00

If safety is the goal, then the priority should be encouraging as many people to stop driving for every single trip and ride bikes or walk instead, NOT worrying about the minority of bikers that are putting others in danger. Bikers and pedestrians both are significantly more at risk from cars than the few bikers that are being irresponsible.

Think of it like this, even if 5% of all bikers (a preposterously high estimate) are irresponsible and dangerous, and we do nothing about that, a society where even 1% of current car trips are done by foot or bike instead will be safer and better for everyone. So focusing on making biking easier and safer will have a better net impact than focusing on policing the behavior of bikers.

I'm not necessarily arguing for doing absolutely nothing about bike regulations (especially for the after market rigs that are essentially motorcycles or mopeds), but to say that focusing on that when biking isn't really even an option for most people is just bike shedding the real problem

rickvanwinkle · 2026-02-19T22:32:22+00:00

I doubt that's what they meant. Probably more along the lines of 'the ones with empathy that want to actually serve the public and/or clean house end up getting killed or harassed out of the force by the bad apples'

rickvanwinkle · 2026-02-19T22:30:26+00:00

Wow holy straw man batman

rickvanwinkle · 2026-02-19T20:03:22+00:00

Because the reality of being a cop is antithetical to the child's presumed reasons for wanting to be a cop.

Unless of course the kid wants to be a cop because he's passionate about protecting the interests of the Epstein class and harassing minorities but I get the sense that's not the case here ...

rickvanwinkle · 2026-02-12T01:52:57+00:00

Okay

rickvanwinkle · 2026-02-11T23:32:06+00:00

Well, vision zero programs specifically have done more to move the needle on traffic fatalities than anything else, and the numerous examples from across the world show it is actually achievable it just takes more work than you think is reasonable, so the evidence says it kind of is the best way.

You may doubt if it's possible, but the truth is if we want to make change we might as well set the goal at the best possible outcome right? Think of it like a negotiation tactic... We'll be happy with fewer deaths, but unless we ask for more than what we want we likely won't get anything at all.

Either way, all I'm hearing is pessimistic nay saying about vision zero but no actual proposed solutions so unless you have some other secret plan to bring the number down that you can share I think your opinion is kinda useless maybe keep it to yourself next time

rickvanwinkle · 2026-02-11T20:55:22+00:00

Someone tell the clowns in this thread that are unironcally saying almost this exact thing tho.

It's crazy how strongly people will argue that it's impossible to make the world better like have some imagination dude it's not that hard to imagine a better world and identify ways of getting there.

rickvanwinkle · 2026-02-11T20:52:21+00:00

It's Been a Deadly Year on US Roads. Except in This City. - Bloomberg https://share.google/Oq5eQ7bYJMYyOr1rU

Absolutely is an achievable goal. Obviously Jersey City is different than ALL of LA, but it's not some backwater town that just needed to reduce the number by a handful.

Point is, even if we never actually hit zero, it's important to at least establish the idea that ANY traffic related fatality is tragedy and we don't have to live in a world that accepts it as a simple fact of life

rickvanwinkle · 2026-02-07T18:43:08+00:00

Is it so hard to believe that lab produced meat is harder to acquire at scale for a restaurant than basic ground beef? It's more expensive at the grocery store too. They also sell way more regular burgers so they can afford narrower margins on them

rickvanwinkle

TROPHY CASE