Random black helicopter sighting, May 14 2016

They probably love it when I do this and post such randomness... I saw a blackhawk helicopter with no (or low visibility) markings heading northbound towards KUGN at 1:55PM. Not too many miltary birds around these parts, so I do the plane spotter thing when the odd one shows up. I wonder what the story behind it is?

9AM Helicopter - What was it?

I didn't get up to see it this morning, but there was a REALLY LOUD helicopter sometime after 9AM this morning. This thing sounded louder than a Huey, so it had to be something out of the ususal. My guess is a V-22 Osprey, but again I didn't get to see it. I wonder what it's doing around here?

Waukegan short of revenue B.S.

Saw in the local paper that this city is crying because a grant for the police department has expired, and now they're short of revenue...

To which I say, THAT'S A BUNCH OF B.S.!

Why? The city is completely slacking off on all the things they could be doing to collect this revenue.

Heres a short list:

1. Traffic enforcement: Every morning and afternoon, I see vehicular traffic going twice the posted speed limit on the major roadways in this city. If there was any kind of regular and active traffic enforcement you probably wouldn't see this. Doesn't anyone else think that cars doing over 60MPH on a roadway with a posted 35 is a bit much?
2. Get rid of the retarded-ass parking meters downtown! Those things cost the city more in lost sales taxes than they make for a bit of chump change. Yes, I know they're there to keep the county courthouse from taking up all the parking. However there is a way to limit that too. Ditch the meters and have a regularly enforced 2-hour parking limit. This will attract more business, particularly from the curious who aren't stopping otherwise. And with a two hour limit, you can keep some of the meter attendants busy chalking tires and enforcing that ordinance instead.
3. Code enforcement: There's more to the city than downtown. A lot of houses are overcrowded. When the code inspectors see more than 5 cars out front, that should be a big clue. Some residences intended for 6 people have cots and subdivided rooms housing 20 people. Not only is it not safe if there's ever a fire, but they're actively cheating the city out of a lot of taxes. Other than that, properties that aren't maintained should have the current owner fined. That should even be the case for banks or holding companies with the current title for forclosed properties.
4. Raise taxes on multiple-unit dwellings: A good portion of the city population lives in apartments, and they're not chipping in anywhere near as much as the homeowners to the city tax base. But they still create costs on infrastructure and services in the city.

That's why their "short on revenue" complaint is B.S. If the city made an honest effort on any of these things instead of slacking-off, they'd have the money to make up for that and then some.

Septran driver, use your eyes!

Some lady driving for Septran almost hit me coming from McAree and going onto Atlantic at 3:45PM. Don't they teach people in driver's ed to look around a corner before you make your turn? At least they did way back when I had it. Anyhow, it's not cool to cut into the other lane of traffic when making a turn, particularly WHEN ANOTHER CAR IS THERE!

C'mon, you need to do better.

Gurnee Ghettos make Wauktown look bad

A lot of people think the property along the west side of Green Bay Rd (131) is Waukegan. Well, I have news for you. If you look at a map, the city limits tend to gerrymander. Thus those properties are actually part of Gurnee (and a bit of Park City). Complaining to Waukegan gov't or about how bad "that part of Waukegan" (which really isn't) won't get much done. You got to talk to Gurnee or Park City about them.

I also wish Waukegan would bring up something about this with the Lake County Gov't, as Gurnee's ghetto gets our city all the blame. Gurnee really needs to clean up and enforce code on what they have west of Delany Rd.

What, you thought Gurnee was just those nice estates, Six Flags, and the mall? Think again.

Another random helicopter sighting

1:25 PM this afternoon. Black MD-500 helicopter heading south-southwest from KUGN. If only I knew it was there, I would have taken my camera to the airport during lunch break. It's kind of funny actually.

(Probably funny because of old conspiracy stories about unmarked black helicopters, and here's one going innocuously about its business and I just happen to notice it going on its way.)

Something going on at KUGN?

I noticed a lot of air traffic going to/from the airport today. So after being done hiking by the lake, I went to see if anything was going on. Well, something was going on. They had squads blocking off the south lot (normally publicly accessible) and ambulances and such ready. Talked to some other person observing and they said there was some aircraft with a gear problem.

But if that's the case, why the extra squad cars. One or two I could understand, but more than a dozen with two or three unmarked? That doesn't make much sense if blocking off the lot was the only thing they needed to do.

It was really tempting to take photos. (I had my gear.) But I figured that would have gotten more attention than I cared for.

If only I knew somebody that lived adjacent. I would have stopped by and done some "spying" from there. ;)