Ozone Alert call for July 31st

[RecycleMichael]

If you are low on gas, buy it tonight. Buying gas tomorrow morning is bad.

Make a lunch to take to work tomorrow. Driving to lunch tomorrow is bad.

Avoid any vehicle miles traveled possible. Carpool or just work from home.

We are so close to failing and if we all try really hard tomorrow, we can make it.

[carltonplace]

Great excuse to work from home people.

or is that bad too?

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by RecycleMichael

If you are low on gas, buy it tonight. Buying gas tomorrow morning is bad.

Make a lunch to take to work tomorrow. Driving to lunch tomorrow is bad.

Avoid any vehicle miles traveled possible. Carpool or just work from home.

We are so close to failing and if we all try really hard tomorrow, we can make it.

Going to OKC to raise their ozone level tomorrow.

[RecycleMichael]

We are in trouble...the numbers are already very high...

They have already called another ozone alert day for tomorrow.

[bbriscoe]

quote:Originally posted by RecycleMichael

We are in trouble...the numbers are already very high...

They have already called another ozone alert day for tomorrow.

If we all fart towards the south at the same time, will that create enough wind to blow the ozone down to Texas?[}:)]

[carltonplace]

quote:Originally posted by RecycleMichael

We are in trouble...the numbers are already very high...

They have already called another ozone alert day for tomorrow.

RM, tomorrow is the start of the tax free weekend. Lotsa folks will be heading out to shop.

[RecycleMichael]

Maybe they will all carpool.

Come on folks, riding around with friends is fun. We can play music loud and all sing along...or listen to sports talk shows and talk manly stuff...

Everybody...for one day...tomorrow...carpool...

Carpool Diem.

[booWorld]

quote:Originally posted by RecycleMichael

Everybody...for one day...tomorrow...carpool...

Before INCOG and the City pushed and pushed to re-zone my property against my wishes, I paid attention to Ozone Alerts.

I begged the TMAPC and the City Council to stop re-zoning central Tulsa neighborhoods to ridiculously low densities which force more people to drive, but guess what?  The INCOG staffers and the City officials had to have things their way, and my property was re-zoned against my wishes.

Strangely enough, the City Council met to re-zone my property against my wishes to a density which encourages people to drive (which creates more ozone) on an Ozone Alert Day.  I WALKED to the City Council meeting in order to beg the Councilors not to re-zone my property against my wishes to a density which leads to increased levels of ozone, but my pleas were DENIED.  I'm willing to bet that each Councilor drove to that meeting separately.  I really doubt if any of them carpooled there, even though it was an Ozone Alert Day.

I don't keep track of the [8D]zone Alert announcements much anymore.  I tried to follow the Comprehensive Plan in order to make my neighborhood more sustainable for the future, but INCOG land planning staff, the TMAPC, and the City Council forced me into a re-zoning case which I never requested in the first place.

Others can carpool if they wish.  I'd rather not concern myself with a bunch of hypocritical "planners" who don't practice what they preach.

[RecycleMichael]

The ozone alert team doesn't have anything to do with the zoning section of INCOG. I hate to see you transfer your feelings toward them about zoning into an environmental concern.

Yes, there are two employees of INCOG paid to work on air quality issues and provide staff support. But the Ozone Alert program is almost 100% a volunteer effort. Our Ozone Alert PR team includes about a dozen of us who meet hours and hours each month of the year, man booths at events like neighborfest and Dfest, and tell all our friends about the importance of caring about our air.

Thousands of Tulsans do something on ozone days and have changed their habits this summer. Bus ridership is up on Ozone Alert days, people buy less gas, do carpool, and bring their lunch...all voluntarily. No one forces them to, they just do.

We have hundreds of company coordinators who receive e-mails and pass them on through their networks, every meteoroligist in town talks about our program and the Tulsa World prints our efforts almost every day in the summer.

We do it, not because INCOG spokesperson says do it, we voluntarily do it because we want clean air for our families. It is a very regulated program and there our bureacrats involved at every level, but you should care because it OUR air.

[Hoss]

quote:Originally posted by RecycleMichael

The ozone alert team doesn't have anything to do with the zoning section of INCOG. I hate to see you transfer your feelings toward them about zoning into an environmental concern.

Yes, there are two employees of INCOG paid to work on air quality issues and provide staff support. But the Ozone Alert program is almost 100% a volunteer effort. Our Ozone Alert PR team includes about a dozen of us who meet hours and hours each month of the year, man booths at events like neighborfest and Dfest, and tell all our friends about the importance of caring about our air.

Thousands of Tulsans do something on ozone days and have changed their habits this summer. Bus ridership is up on Ozone Alert days, people buy less gas, do carpool, and bring their lunch...all voluntarily. No one forces them to, they just do.

We have hundreds of company coordinators who receive e-mails and pass them on through their networks, every meteoroligist in town talks about our program and the Tulsa World prints our efforts almost every day in the summer.

We do it, not because INCOG spokesperson says do it, we voluntarily do it because we want clean air for our families. It is a very regulated program and there our bureacrats involved at every level, but you should care because it OUR air.

And, not a lot of people know this, but our Ozone Alert program is/was the first of its kind in the nation, and is the model that other cities look to when creating one of their own.

[Double A]

quote:Originally posted by RecycleMichael


We do it, not because INCOG spokesperson says do it, we voluntarily do it because we want clean air for our families. It is a very regulated program and there our bureacrats involved at every level, but you should care because it OUR air.

That's not entirely true, this is part of the plan approved by EPA that has given us leeway to play loose and fast with the numbers. If we didn't have any plan in place we'd already be on the dirty air list. Because we do, we've gotten exceptions to the rules.

Problem is, this plan isn't cutting it anymore and the EPA is not allowing mulligans this time. Those who could develop a new plan are too busy with PR trying to salvage this structurally deficient, outdated plan.

We raged about this topic here last year, and still nothing changed, no new plan, content to continue the status quo. So here we are, probably past the point of no return towards going on the dirty air list. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

[RecycleMichael]

How can you be so negative and so uninformed at the same time?

We did not fail last year...why are you lying about that?

We do have new things in the plan this year. We have a bunch of new industry incentives with a bunch of local industry stepping up. Just because we don't have a press conference every time we install new smokestack pollution control doesn't mean it isn't happening.

We also have a new campaign this year stressing all summer long positive things you can do to help air quality. We have been having breakfasts with new company coordinators to get out the message. We have a new website and new partners.

I don't know why you continually attack things in this town. You methods are just getting old and your credibilty has left.

[booWorld]

quote:Originally posted by RecycleMichael

The ozone alert team doesn't have anything to do with the zoning section of INCOG.

I am aware of that.  I also understand that land planning and transportation planning are separate departments at INCOG.  I'm talking about land planning, the TMAPC, and the City Council.  That's why I mentioned them in my post.

quote:I hate to see you transfer your feelings toward them about zoning into an environmental concern.

No need for your hatred in this case.  Our built environment is the result of planning.  The re-zoning of my property against my wishes was done contrary to the goals set forth in the Comprehensive Plan.  The process was initiated by others, and it resulted in a neighborhood re-zoned to the type of low densities which force many people to drive, creating more ozone.  The way we formulate and enforce land use policy has significant ramifications on environmental quality.

quote:Yes, there are two employees of INCOG paid to work on air quality issues and provide staff support. But the Ozone Alert program is almost 100% a volunteer effort. Our Ozone Alert PR team includes about a dozen of us who meet hours and hours each month of the year, man booths at events like neighborfest and Dfest, and tell all our friends about the importance of caring about our air.

Those volunteer efforts are fine, as far as I'm concerned.  I've spent hours and hours at TMAPC and City Council meetings and writing letters and emails to public officials asking and begging them to stop creating land use policies which encourage sprawl and low densities.  If they would do as I suggest, Tulsa would have a good chance to improve its air quality because I'm in favor of walkable urban neighborhoods with densities high enough to support mass transit systems.

quote:Thousands of Tulsans do something on ozone days and have changed their habits this summer. Bus ridership is up on Ozone Alert days, people buy less gas, do carpool, and bring their lunch...all voluntarily. No one forces them to, they just do.

I'm one of those thousands.  I drive very little.  I don't carpool often, but I usually take my lunch or walk to a restaurant.  If all Tulsans behaved as I do, I seriously doubt if there would be ozone in excess of the mandated limits.

quote:We have hundreds of company coordinators who receive e-mails and pass them on through their networks, every meteoroligist in town talks about our program and the Tulsa World prints our efforts almost every day in the summer.

I usually see the alerts.  I knew Thursday and Saturday were Ozone Alert days, but I didn't realize Friday was until I saw an article in the Tulsa World on Saturday morning.  I drove by myself on Friday for a distance of approximately 2 or 3 miles.  I didn't refuel.  I didn't mow any grass with a gasoline powered lawnmower.

quote:We do it, not because INCOG spokesperson says do it, we voluntarily do it because we want clean air for our families. It is a very regulated program and there our bureacrats involved at every level, but you should care because it OUR air.

I do care about the quality of Tulsa's environment.  That's why I voluntarily have spent countless hours of my own time begging the TMAPC to adopt sustainable land use policies.

But I don't care much for what the bureaucrats or elected officials have to say about ozone.  Too many of them don't walk the walk.  Ozone Alerts are issued now and then.  We need to start thinking about how to live more sustainably on a long-term basis, not only for a few hot summer days.

[Double A]

quote:Originally posted by RecycleMichael

How can you be so negative and so uninformed at the same time?

How come you have so much time to post on message boards if you are working yourself to death to solve this problem? If I'm so uniformed(I'm not), isn't that a failing on your part considering all the PR work you've done?

We did not fail last year...why are you lying about that?

I never said that, go back and read the post. Don't even try to put your filthy spittle soaked spin in my mouth because it leaves a horribly sulfurous aftertaste

I don't know why you continually attack things in this town. You methods are just getting old and your credibilty has left.

How many times do I have to say it, I'd rather be an honest naysayer than a dishonest cheerleader. Your credibilty gap is bigger than your well-rounded waste line and your  manipulative, machiavellian, methods are getting exposed for the menace they are. Maybe if you really felt like you were doing an adequate job you wouldn't blow a gasket and get all defensive every time you perceive something to be remotely critical of you. BTW, I didn't call you out, you're the one who took it personal and started attacking me for offering my observations on this situation. You should start a magazine, cause you've got plenty of issues

Just for the Record:

Spincycle qoute-

quote:"The early action compact is all voluntary measures that we are trying to do curry favor with EPA. The intent is to make a list of everything you do...then, if you fail, EPA knows it is not your fault. You did everything you could and the weather conditions made it impossible to succeed."

Spincycle quote-

quote:"I am also getting a little leery about what I say on this forum. My comments on TulsaNow made the UrbanTulsa this week on a story about a downtown picket line and I pissed off some homeless people."

You should be, because they can also be used to expose your deceptions and distortions.

[TURobY]

quote:Originally posted by Double A


Spincycle quote-

quote:"I am also getting a little leery about what I say on this forum. My comments on TulsaNow made the UrbanTulsa this week on a story about a downtown picket line and I pissed off some homeless people."

You should be, because they can also be used to expose your deceptions and distortions.

Homeless people can be used to expose deceptions and distortions? I just got a brilliant idea....