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How Would YOU Fix the Statue of Liberty?

Sep 21st - 11:18am | Ron

You all have good points! I believe She needs to be removed and clean and put up in Front of The old Twin Tower's {she would then be finnish bout the time the NEW TOWER WAS Finish}.

Sep 20th - 20:59pm | Merryland

The Statue is really not very large. I remember fondly several lunch breaks from my days as a trainer -- munching on a reuben from the Stage Door Deli, sitting at the top of the World Trade Center, staring off to the south, amazed at how small the Statue of Liberty really was in the scheme of things. When you're young, it's outrageously huge.

Sep 20th - 20:18pm | Lone Hiker

P.S. You're kidding that nobody had the foresight to consider an elevator, right?

Sep 20th - 19:57pm | Lone Hiker

You nailed it Jeremy. The inscription that I was referring to, that is.

Sep 20th - 17:50pm | jersu

Lone Hiker - you are indeed stirring the pot! Here is the poem you make reference to (I think), engraved on a plaque found on Liberty's pedestal:

Sep 20th - 16:22pm | Lone Hiker

I'll render an opinion for the vast minority. I've never been much of a fan of super-sized artwork. At this point in our nation's history, super-sized is not very "PC", like anybody cares. The statue represents a lost ideal from our nation's glorious beginnings. "Liberty and justice for ALL", is how the statement reads I believe.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Vandalized

Sep 21st - 10:13am | Anonymous

Jeremy, this is absolutely pathetic that one can stoop so low to create such an grievous act of horrendous vandalism. If the perpetrators of this sick act of vandalism are caught, may justice be swift to the fullest extent of the law...and SEVER...and I mean SEVER!!

St Louis Wants to Develop Land under Gateway Arch

Sep 21st - 08:42am | Merryland

Yep -- too much "do" and what have ya got? Doodoo...

Sep 21st - 05:43am | jsmacdonald

Jon, okay, but St. Louis should be one of those places? (Isn't one Kansas City enough? JUST KIDDING!)

Sep 20th - 21:09pm | Merryland

We need more places where there's "little to do"...

Sep 20th - 15:05pm | jersu

Daniel, sounds like you've got a pretty close park service connection. Thanks very much for the additional input.

Sep 20th - 10:32am | Daniel

By all means, state your opinions about the whole matter, but please be careful that your information is factual.

Sep 20th - 09:12am | Lone Hiker

While Chicago's lakefront is one of the best utilizations of any city's downtown shorelines in the nation, Millennium Park was designed more with an eye of regenerating "local" interest in the Grant Park area than as a major source of tourism.

Sep 20th - 06:19am | jsmacdonald

Of course, East St. Louis is in Illinois, and there is a vested interest from the East St. Louis perspective in having the Arch area not be cluttered; it's an amazing view across the river. However, East St. Louis is one of the most depressed cities in the entire country - just an utter mess, and the view from the Arch toward East St.

Sep 20th - 00:35am | Constance

I was born and raised in St. Louis and I think the Arch should stay just the way it is. It is close to Union station , the Law library and City Hall, and Laclead's Landing. If Senator Danforth wants to develope something then he can spend money on Laclead's Landing. What Sentor Danforth has forgotten the property the Arch sits on has repeatly flooded over the years.

Sep 19th - 22:12pm | Merryland

And then 5 years from now after a week of rain somewhere upstream they'll claim it's a federal disaster area and beg for emergency relief dollars to bail out the karaoke bars, souvenir shops, parking garages, and Hooter-Rock Cafe restaurant chains... no thanks.

Sep 19th - 21:20pm | Merryland

Great, another NickDonald's... haven't we learned over and over and over what happens when you build in the floodplain? Collective amnesia at its finest.

Sep 19th - 20:05pm | Anonymous

I think it is a great idea. I lived in St. Louis for 7 years up until July and I went to the Arch once. I would love to see better use of the area and have it more accessible from downtown. The Arch is cool, but it is a one time deal for most people.

Sep 19th - 16:27pm | Kath

Just north of the Gateway Arch is Laclede's Landing. It's a former warehouse area of old distinctive brick buildings with some bars and restaurants but it is underutilized and would be the perfect area for more restaurants, an aquarium, etc. etc. Laclede's Landing is walking distance to the Gateway Arch and its museum. There's no reason to use land anywhere under the Gateway Arch.

Arches and Canyonlands In the Fall: Rock Architecture and Dwindling Crowds

Sep 20th - 15:54pm | Lone Hiker

I'm glad to see you give these parks their due Kurt. By far, two of the most beautiful and least crowded of the national parks by any standard.

Sep 20th - 08:15am | Mookie

Couldn't agree with you more Kurt. Ed Abbey knew what he was talking about when he said, "This is the most beautiful place on Earth." Another high-end option outside Moab is the Red Cliffs Lodge, about 14 miles up the Colorado River. Rooms/cabins right on the Colorado, and they have their own winery on site as well.

Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite

Sep 19th - 12:23pm | Tom Christensen

Excellent! I was there that night in 1959, when my buddy Lloyd Bradshaw wrecked in front of me at Bridelveil Falls Parking exit... t.

Centennial Projects: Mountain Biking in Big Bend National Park

Sep 19th - 10:21am | Random Walker

All ready there is 150+ miles of trails and 260+ miles of roads stuffed into 801,163 acres, and they are going to slash a brand new trail through the park!?! How is this preserving nature for future generations?

Sep 18th - 21:09pm | Merryland

I like Grand Canyon where some of the paved roads are closed to vehicular traffic in the high volume months but allow bikes to share the road with the occasional bus -- that's more akin to "safe, family-friendly biking" where sightseeing while riding is possible without a huge risk of killing yourself. I enjoy both the road and trail.

Sep 18th - 20:36pm | zack

While I can't comment on what the Park Service has actually written regarding cutting new singletrack, trails 5 feet in width are far wider than most singletrack utilized by mountain bikers.

Sep 18th - 18:36pm | haunted hiker

I disagree with the last two posters. Mountain biking can be a wonderful addition to other methods of self propelled travel in national parks.

Sep 17th - 17:08pm | Glenn Scofield ...

Here, here, Anonomous (not verified) 2... well put.

Sep 17th - 16:05pm | Anonymous

mountain bike trails do nothing for transportation, especially when you follow the mountain bike centric IMBA trail building standards, (http://www.imba.com/resources/trail_building/) they exist primarily for the thrill of biking on a trail, so let's be sure to minimize any expectation that the parks will somehow work to "reduce their

Sep 17th - 08:53am | Anonymous

In July I spent a week at Far View in Mesa Verde nat. park, where bikes of any kind are apparently not allowed, at least I never saw any. That surprised me. I just assumed bikes and specific bike trails or paved bike paths would be a natural benefit to such a location by reducing auto traffic and its air pollution.

If You Have to Ask the Price, The Ahwahnee And Jenny Lake Lodge Are Probably Out of Reach

Sep 18th - 22:22pm | djhouston

I had the privelege (not the right) to spend about 30 days camping in the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone when I was about 12 years old. My dad and mom took me there (from Cheyenne, FE Warren AFB) and it was what I talk about over 50 years later to my grandchildren. I am also lucky enough to have some old black and white browney pictures to show them.

Sep 18th - 07:35am | jsmacdonald

Let's be a little clear hear. In the parks where companies like Xanterra and Delaware North are running concessions, they are already to that extent privatized - regulated, in many cases monopolized (in Yellowstone, there is some competition for some services between those two concessions, for instance), but raked in by a corporation.

Sep 17th - 22:33pm | joe

I have deep concerns about privatizing the amminites of the NPS. The next maybe a company from Spain gains the bid for these concessions. Then the 80% of the profits are not even invested in the US. Also once this profit making system is estiblished what next? Will they start to place private security forces in place of forest rangers. We're doing that to fight our wars.

Sep 17th - 21:36pm | Anonymous

I do remember this kind of fiasco with the MCA Corporation. They actively and shewedly screwed the NPS with there Yosemite Concessions and made millions, while kicking in a measly 2% to the Parks coffers! MCA is gone, but talk about a sweetheart deal with back room corruption. This trend still continues till this day!

Sep 17th - 18:38pm | Glenn Scofield ...

I agree, Beamis. They are not.

Sep 17th - 17:21pm | Glenn Scofield ...

The idea that fair market competition would lower prices in Yosemite or any other park is absolutely absurd. Where in the rest of the world does that happen? Resort industries have a monopoly by their very presence in the valued place so prices only go up up up.

Sep 17th - 16:37pm | Kath

I agree with competition. If one company operated the Yosemite Lodge and another operated Curry Village, the competition would likely spark improvements to both properties as each vied to be the better facility with the better rates.

Sep 17th - 10:16am | Kath

Places like the Ahwahnee were built specifically to cater to the super-rich. Stephen Mather, first NPS superintendent, thought that in order for the National Parks to get the funding and approvals needed in Washington, they had to be places where the wealthy movers and shakers in the East Coast elite wanted to vacation. So the parks needed hotels that would attract that sort.

Sep 15th - 19:32pm | Merryland

I'm pretty much not interested in these sorts of accomodations so long as I can still carry my tent and sleeping bag. I did, however, get the steak dinner at Phantom Ranch once when hiking through the canyon and boy oh boy was that a good investment regardless of the price, which I no longer recall. After eating astronaut food for a day or two or three, that was one awesome meal.

Sep 15th - 12:57pm | Anonymous

Gotcha Frank! Excellent points made!!

Sep 15th - 12:04pm | Anonymous

Kath, if your a well heeled silicon valley boy, the Ahawahee Hotel is no subject of high prices. Why can't we All have a taste of the good life at the Ahawahee. The hotel systems in the National Parks should bear in mind that the super rich shouldn't alway's get that carte blanche treatment.

Sep 15th - 08:59am | Kath

All the prices for lodging in Yosemite are very high compared to comparable lodgings elsewhere. Tent cabins in White Wolf are $93. per night for four cots and a Franklin stove. No electricity. The motel rooms at Curry Village are approx. $170. with tiny bathrooms. Yet, these accommodations are almost always full during the summer so using basic Economics 101, they are not overpriced.

This Just In : Fort Hancock STILL a Mess

Sep 18th - 05:21am | Merryland

Make a decision NPS -- are the buildings worth keeping or not?

Sep 18th - 03:25am | MRC

I repeat my thoughts on the Presidio of San Francisco: If you believe modern, commercial uses of large, multi-building areas are inconsistent with the purpose of a unit in the National Park system, then take them out of the System and give them to the BLM or create a new agency to manage federal property of this kind.

Successful Search in Rocky Mountain National Park

Sep 15th - 06:17am | Judy

I am glad that this turned out well. However, they should never have split up. In my training and experience it is the obligation of the stronger hiker to adjust their pace to their partner or slowest of the group. You DO NOT abandon people on the trail!

Olympic National Park Ready for Wolves?

Sep 14th - 20:08pm | jsmacdonald

Wyoming's plan doesn't just call for a hunting season; Wyoming's plan calls for wolves outside a certain area to be classified as vermin. There is a lot of question also whether the number of packs that Wyoming must maintain can be maintained with the policies in place.

Sep 14th - 14:13pm | Random Walker

This is the best news I have heard since my return home to the PNW. Now to do something about those pesky Mountain Goats in the Olympic National Park ;-} "Real life ain't always like a Kevin Costner movie." Nor is it like Disney's "Never Cry Wolf." Thank the heavens...

Sep 14th - 14:11pm | Mike

It will take several years before anyone can go "hog wild" in any state. Actually there will never be anyone ever going "hog wild". The animals are far to protected to allow that to happen and hunting is actually the best way to control the species populations of game animals. Hunting isn't a free for all, it is a thoroughly managed and proven effective way to control species populations.

Sep 14th - 10:43am | jsmacdonald

One note on booming wolf numbers, a report by Ed Bangs on Wyoming wolf numbers put out this summer suggests that Wyoming wolf totals this year may decrease slightly (this is before Wyoming plans to go hog wild in exterminating wolves).

Sep 14th - 10:21am | Mike

I think wolves are great. If kept in check they do good things for their environment. But it sounds like at least one of the people in that meeting have their heads in the clouds when it comes to how "wild", wild wolves really are. These are not the neighbor's chocolate lab down the street, they are amazing hunting and killing machines.

Private Party At Charlestown Navy Yard Doesn't Lack Alcohol

Sep 14th - 15:59pm | Anonymous

The person who arrested the guy was a "Park law enforcment ranger" not a "Police Officer" although they call themselves police officers..

The Essential RVing Guide

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