Let Me Repeat Myself Briefly

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:17):
This says the Uncle Henry Show here on News Radio
seventy ten WNTM. Thank you again for listening to the
Uncle Henry Show. Now this half hour of show, going
to take a look at a few news items and
perhaps I'll go into the voicemail. My first news item

(00:38):
I'd like to take a look at. I saw that
there was an update on the Marti Gras drunk train.
I know everybody's excited about the fact that a chee
choo train, a chee choo train is going to start
going between Mobile and New Orleans and Banks so people
can get drunk, the Marti Gras train, whatever they're calling it.

(01:01):
And they had promised us they would announce a start
date by the end of June, and we're getting closer
and closer and closer to the end of June. Here
is what Fox ten has reported on the Amtrak drunken
Marti Grass train announcement. Here is the latest from Fox ten.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Platform is taking shaping downtown Mobile, but the port city
anxiously waits the announcement of the train start date, so
the train will go from Mobile to New Orleans. Two
weeks ago, CEO of Visit Mobile and Southern Rail Commission
member David Clark told us a start date would hopefully
be announced by the end of June. Today, Clark tells
us there was supposed to be an announcement tomorrow, but

(01:43):
that's been delayed until when he's not so sure. We're
told the platform is nearly done minus a signage and lighting.
All track work except the buffer stuff at the end
of the sidetrack is also done.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
All right, So they're doing the work, but they have
no idea when they're going to tell us when it starts.
All right, Well, just just calm down, don't worry. You'll
be able to get on the train and have a
cocktail and go to New Orleans' get you'll get your wish.
Just calm down. It's just not happening yet, all right.
Let's see what else. Oh, another news item now talked

(02:16):
on the Uncle Henry Show the first two days of
this week about this plan that the Mobile City Council
will unanimously voted on to change some of the stuff
in the streets of downtown Mobile, removing some traffic lights
and replacing these traffic lights with stop signs, because that's
progress that'll slow down the traffic, and also to make

(02:41):
some one way streets two way streets. Now here is
Fox ten's report. I wanted to listen to this with
you because the headline on Fox ten's story is that
despite some reluctance, Mobile City Council approves this. Now, I

(03:01):
wonder why they were reluctant. Maybe because stop signs are
not progressed from traffic lights. Let's listen together and find
out what the reluctance was. If they tell us on.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Time, opill could be changing. The city council thought about
postponing two resolutions, talking.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
About that the idea was to give money or the
city more time to address community concerns. And Brendan Kirby has.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Your coverage and Brendan they went ahead with the vote.

Speaker 3 (03:28):
Yeah, they did, Cameron lnise, and it was unanimous. But
city officials say there's still time to address concerns about
specific streets and make adjustments to the design during construction.
A contract approved Tuesday by the Mobile City Council will
result in nearly two dozen traffic lights getting replaced by
stop signs.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Two dozen, two dozen. Can you imagine the excitement back
in the day when when those traffic lights were put up?
Two dozen traffic lights. People probably thought we have arrived.
Now all of the problems have been solved. We've had
all these these four way stops clogging up things, four

(04:08):
way stomp sign situations clogging up things down here, and
now we've got the progress. We're going to put in
two dozen traffic lights. Well now two dozen lights coming down,
going back to the era of stomp signs. Maybe also,
as I mentioned yesterday, maybe they're going to put some

(04:29):
places for me to tie up my horse down there
if I want to ride my horse down there.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
A contractor proof Tuesday by the Mobile City Council will
result in nearly two dozen traffic light It's getting two
dozen placed by stop signs. A yes vote on a
second contract will change several one way streets into two
way roads. The plan, which city officials called Street Optimization.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
Street Optimization, grew out.

Speaker 3 (04:59):
Of a st authorized by the Mobile Downtown a Lion
several years ago. It's meant to slow traffic and meet
downtown seafer for a.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
Head gummet meant to slow traffic. Well, you know, look,
I'm a pedestrian. I am I've I've walked numerous places
in my life, and I do enjoy walking because It's
wonderful to be able to walk at my age, and
that's the way I get exercise in my life is
by walking. But what about those of us. I'm also

(05:28):
a driver, I'm also I'm also a driver. Well, I
guess they don't want me in downtown Mobile. This was
meant to slow things down.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
Kind a lion several years ago. It's meant to slow
traffic and meet Downtown safer for pedestrians and cyclists.

Speaker 4 (05:46):
We passed this day with the intent of making streets
more comfortable, making them slower, make.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
Mobile City councilving William more comfortable. All right, more comfortable street.
Maybe we can Maybe I'll get a good night's sleep
down there, just laying on the street.

Speaker 3 (06:03):
Carol, who represents Downtown, says he's heard from business owners
on Deerborn and Warren Streets who are concerned that making
the road two way will take away parking and make
the roads harder to navigate.

Speaker 4 (06:17):
Well, some of them are mostly concerned about the business
side is the ability to have major deliveries.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
With box trucks and things like that. But they may
not be able to get down the street.

Speaker 5 (06:25):
And those are some of the things we need to
get worked.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
Out, and the answer to that is yes.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
Nick Amberger, Executive director of Engineering and Infrastructure, says the
design includes marked parking spots along the street, similar to
what the city recently did on Conger Street. He says
the city can adapt as the construction proceeds.

Speaker 6 (06:44):
If the reconfiguration approves to be very egregious for them
and something it just does not work.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
By the way, I'm going to use the word egregious
more often in my own life because I feel like
a lot of things that are done to me have
been egregious. They have been egregious. I wish I'd had
that word to deploy.

Speaker 4 (07:00):
You know, we always have the ability to come back
in and adjust accordingly.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
Dory Blake owns Mobtown Grinds Community Gym on Warren Street.
Freddie Blosch owns a glass blowing company called Muffin Jaw
Designs at the corner of North Dearborn in Saint Anthony Streets.
They both tell me cars already drive in both directions
on the one way streets.

Speaker 5 (07:21):
It's pretty unique that we have a bunch of street parking,
so if that gets affected, that could potentially knock out
some people coming in, especially those that don't have parking lots,
as long as they have at least some street parking.
It should aid everybody and help have customers come in
and out easily.

Speaker 3 (07:36):
I think it's dangerous, but people already do it.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
So as long as the you know, the streets are
lined and the signs are up, you know they're doing it.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
Anyway, Now that the contracts are approved city official sale,
we'll take a couple of months before the work begins,
and then six to eight months after that before it's finished. Now,
if you want to get a closer look at the
streets that will be changing, we've got a couple of
maps on our website foxtentv dot com.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
All right, that was Brendan Kirby, the often disheveled investigative
reporter for Fox ten. All right, well, I've said it.
This will be the third day in a row. I've
said it, and I promise to not harp on this
in the future. But I predict now the streets will
probably stay going both ways in the future. But I

(08:20):
predict in twelve to fifteen years new politicians will arrive
in downtown Mobile and the new politicians will say, you
know what we really need? What we really need that
would make downtown go to the next level would be
some traffic lights. That's what's gonna happen. They're removing all
these traffic lights, almost two dozen in about twelve to
fifteen years. Somebody's gonna forget this all happened. They're gonna

(08:44):
propose that we get up some new traffic lights. All right, look,
gotta go to break. I'll be back after the break.
Let's take the break. That says the Uncle Henry's show

(09:10):
on News Radio seven ten WNTM. News headlines are coming
up in ten minutes here on WNTM. Before we get
to the news headlines, I want to go through a
few voicemails. I've had some voicemails stack up. Some of
these I forgot I had them. My apologies to the voicemailers.
Some of these are getting stale. I'm gonna have to

(09:31):
play before they lose all their freshness. The voicemail number
two five one two one six, nineteen seventy six. That's
two five one two one six, nineteen seventy six. Now,
in recent weeks I have mentioned that I thought it
would be a good deterrent we have people shooting each
other lots of young people shooting each other in the streets, unfortunately,

(09:53):
not just a mobile but around the country in different
big cities, cities this size at least. And I've mentioned
on several shows that I thought one way, one deterrent
would be to make a field trip to take middle
school kids every year down to the jail and walk. Yeah,

(10:13):
let them see the jail. Let them see the jail
when there are prisoners in the jail, and there are
I guess all the time. Let them go in there
and look and see. Don't show video of a jail
or pictures of a jail, or have people talk about
a jail. My suggestion is to take them down and
let them see what it's like to actually be in jail,

(10:35):
because I've been told that for some young people, it
gives you street cred to use a slang term, if
you've been in jail. But I don't know. If I
don't know if middle school kids saw what it's really like,
if they would be as willing to run around with
a stolen gun shooting each other if they knew they

(10:57):
were going to end up in jail. I just think
that's a uh. I think that's something that would make
a difference if young young children were shown real life
in a jail. Now, somebody called in let me let
me listen to this. This is a voicemail responding to
that suggestion of mine.

Speaker 6 (11:17):
Hey, Ace, listening to your podcast from yesterday, and uh
he broddered up several times about letting the kids take
a tour of Metro. Yes, I was at the Sanger
when this went down. I got grandkids.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
There Singer theater. The shooting at the Sanger Theater.

Speaker 6 (11:42):
Unfortunately, one of the grandkids, age ten, was on stage
when this went down. She was very traumatized, as were
the other two that were in the backstage. Uh.

Speaker 7 (11:58):
The children have went through psychiatric uh counseling which helped.
But uh, you know, I agree with you one thousand percent.
Mental schoolers should go to see the conditions.

Speaker 8 (12:23):
At the jail.

Speaker 7 (12:24):
Never been there, don't want to go. But years past,
all the eighth Prayers used to go to the Civic
Center and see a thing called Worlds of Opportunity and
they would have welding booths.

Speaker 4 (12:45):
Different utilities would have boots, community colleges, mobile water, mobile,
gas power company, everybody.

Speaker 7 (12:56):
Would have boots and stuff like that set up. So
eighth graders could see what's out there to broaden their
horizon and outlook on what's available for them to look
at either vocational or you know, career opportunities when they.

Speaker 8 (13:19):
Get out of school.

Speaker 7 (13:20):
Yeah, so I think that's an excellent idea of what
you had.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
Thank you, all right, sure, thank you, And I'm pray
that your your grandchild and those other kids are are
are doing well after having to witness that horrible thing
that happened down there. Let's see, I don't know if
I have time to play. I've got one more voicemail
that is almost losing its freshness here. Let me see

(13:47):
if I can. I don't think I can fit all
of it into this segment of the show. So let's
let's see what I can fit.

Speaker 8 (13:54):
I'll what Henry Rob Morris here, I'm sure you're having
a wonderful social for I have to call in because
I got a lot of things to do. But look
at here. I just wanted to bring into everybody's attention.
First of all, yesterday's show, Oh my goodness, Killer Bees.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
And Killer Bees was on the show last week.

Speaker 8 (14:15):
Mister row Street with the Ryan's recuse was a wonderful,
heartwarming program. Thank you for broadcasting now, thank you. I
really enjoyed it and I hope it does work out for.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
Him, Thank you very much.

Speaker 8 (14:28):
On the national side of things, look at here. You've
heard of the US E Dash four D night Watch.
Now it's also known as the doomsday plane.

Speaker 9 (14:40):
Okay, Now, Ovan Henry Day lies in a suburb in
DC just the other day.

Speaker 8 (14:47):
Now, this plane was what George W. Bush rode on
after nine to eleven attacks.

Speaker 9 (14:52):
Okay, it can withstand a nuclear attack, It can withstand
in Electrode mac Nettie pulse. They can control all the
war thing scenarios on local, civic, national, worldwide view satellites.

Speaker 8 (15:13):
I mean, this plane has so many capabilities to keep
continuity of government going in a moment of crisis.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
Good okay, Okay, well, look I'm gonna have to bail
out there because the amount of time. But the plane
sounds wonderful. It'd be nice if we could all have
like little apartments on that plane right all right, out
of time. Thank you for listening to the Uncle Henry Show.
As they say in Sarland, have a good one, and
as they say in Theodore, take it easy all right. Later,