Why no one in Bluff City stood up to the camera clowns

Well, the Bluff City speed cameras are about to be turned back on, the speed limit will be reduced and the length of the speed trap will be extended. The city "leaders" continue to maintain the incredulous position that the extension of the speed trap is for "traffic calming." In any event, some of my non-local readers might be interested in knowing why no one in Bluff City would bother showing up at the Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting to complain. It's simple, really.

1. Very few people actually live in the speed trap. It's in a commercial area.


2. Very few people live in Bluff City to begin with and, those that do, benefit greatly from it because nearly 100% of the violaters are from outside of Bluff City. Bluff City has a population of under 1,700 people, but yet they pull in millions from these two speed cameras. You do the math. It allows the citizens of Bluff City to have a much larger government than they otherwise would and they don't have the burden of having to pay for it.


3. The area of the speed trap is essentially strip-annexed into Bluff City. The center of mass of the population of Bluff City is well outside of the speed trap. Depending on the direction of travel, many residents of the area that has been historically known as Bluff City can partially or entirely avoid the speed trap, particularly if they are traveling toward Elizabethton or Bristol.

In other words, why should the citizens of Bluff City care? You're paying for it! It's the new American way - get others to pay for stuff that you want. Whenever one group gets all the benefits and pays little of the costs, what do we expect will happen? It's the same thing that we see happening when over half of the citizens of this country pay no income tax....but that's an issue for another rant.