I like to inform any visitors of problem bars in Newark, Ohio because the town seems small and harmless, but we do have a few establishments that are full of people looking for trouble. It’s not uncommon for a group of cowards to gang up on someone that’s not familiar to them. As shown in this incident, simply wearing a team jacket they don’t like is enough to start a potentially lethal altercation. Police intervention at these spots is rare for reasons I can’t prove.

If it looks like a “neighborhood” bar, chances are it’s a problem bar in Newark. If you’re not sure, don’t go in or keep a low profile while you’re there.

 

Who Is Robert Renee Uniforms Wikipedia

I decided to check out the available ways to get clothing that met the new standard. Of course, Wal-Mart was the least expensive. An entire set of uniforms for under $100. When I checked the schools order form, I found the prices to be more expensive. Why? Was did the preferred company have better quality and service? I started researching the company and their products like a wise consumer should do.

Here’s where I really started thinking, “This is a big scam!”. I could find no physical address and the company website for Robert Renee Uniforms had errors on every link. I checked back multiple times. A functional website can be done for well under $100, so this is not a good sign of a real company. The schools website said to contact Joan Renee, so I tried to look this lady up. Here’s all that I could find:

• A LinkedIn Profile for the Joan Renee who is the National Account Manager for Robert Renee uniforms out of Charlottesville, VA.
• A Google search only returned a Mount Vernon phone number with no physical address.
• http://joanrenee.com/ a fashion consultant with a fashion degree from Kent State University.

Something isn’t right here! The Newark City schools are buying from an out-of-town vendor from a business that has no presence? They should be associating with local companies that they are proud to associate with. My guess is that this is some acquaintance with some capacity in the schools operations. They couldn’t find a local vendor? They couldn’t find a vendor with an established business presence?

They are asking the good people of Newark, Ohio to donate hard earned money that will go this elusive company. What happens when there are problems with the clothes? It’s not like it’s a local company where problems can be corrected immediately. The child depending on the clothing to stay in compliance will be in trouble because of a problem.

This is the type of problem that happens with an agenda driven solution. People start doing crazy things to get everyone to go along with their agenda. The agenda to mask real problems with uniforms and the yearning by a certain sect to have every child look the same has clouded judgement to the point that they are ordering from what is most likely a lady sitting on her laptop on the kitchen table. Of course, they’re asking the public for the money to do it.

At best, this is just a poor management of money. I would expect a school district that operates on such poor financial principles to think about the quality and service that they are buying. At worst, this entire project is being done and forcing the will of a few on many to line the pockets of people with donated money.

Keep in mind, your tax dollars that you work hard for paid the Newark, Ohio City School Board to come up with this plan. You didn’t ask for the uniforms, but you are paying them to solve problems. Uniforms are the best solution that they could come up with and the elusive Robert Renee Uniform company is the best supplier that they could find. This is the return from your investment in their salary.

Can you find any good in this? If so, let me know. Do you have any further information about the connection between Robert Renee Uniforms and members or employees of Newark City Schools. If so PLEASE send me an e-mail. We would all like to know why such poor decisions are being made.

Update – Robert Renee Uniforms Not A Real Uniform Company

After some discussion with others and some research, I found that Robert Renee Uniforms is just one person named Terry Totman who operates out of his Mount Vernon home. No office, warehouse, or anything else that one would expect a business to have.

This is getting very shady. The Newark City Schools are promoting his catalog for him on the Newark City Schools website. The schools have put more effort into marketing the uniforms than Terry Totman himself has! They’ve done this using school employees who claim that they are already overloaded. A private company was promoted with your tax dollars.

School Uniforms Click for photo's owner. via Flickr

Many parents claim that they lack the funds to buy clothing, so Newark City Schools has put out the word via their blog that they are asking for donations for uniforms. The donations will go to clothe children who receive free breakfast and lunch from government programs. You’re already feeding other people’s children, why not clothe them too?

They have also identified a particular retailer of choice from which the clothing purchased will be made. They are the Robert Renee Uniform Company out of Mount Vernon, Ohio. Apparently there were no local businesses that wanted to sell uniforms.

Look for grand inflated statistics from the Newark City Schools soon! Immediately after the statistics come out, expect a request for another levy. I don’t have a crystal ball, but I don’t think one is required for this prediction.

Motorcylists, beware.Wikipedia

There have been many motorcycle accidents recently in the Licking County area. All of them that I know about were not what I consider to be “accidents” at all. They were acts of total careless and wreckless abandon by many parties involved. They were avoidable.

You can’t talk about the specific accidents without offending the survivors of the deceased and that is not my intent. I would find it ignorant to ignore the safety principles and laws violated that caused them. I have 26 years of experience riding motorcycles, military vehicles, 18-wheelers, and cars. I’ve driven in 48 states, Canada, and Europe. I’ve had numerous safety courses in all types of vehicles. I know what I’m talking about.

The recent accidents I can recall are as follows:

Super Chopper With A Drunk Rider

Customized hot-rod chopper leaves a bar north of Newark. He’s drunk and showing off. He kills himself and injures his rider severly. No reports of intoxication even though many witnesses drank with him and noted that he was going to kill himself before he left the bar. No safety gear involved, obviously.

Super Bike Stunt Rider

After an evening at a bar on 21st street, a rider on a sportbike decides to impress the group he’s with by doing a wheelie down Newark’s most heavily traveled area. He reaches a very fast speed and a car fails to see him  due to his headight pointing at the sky. He kills himself when he hits the car.

Bikers Passing Slow Vehicles

I know of 2 recent crashes where large vehicles were slowing to turn. The claim is they didn’t have a turn signal on. Regardless, the impatient bikers went to pass, the large vehicles turned left into their path and crashed them. If you have a large vehicle slowing near an intersection, guess what, they’re going to turn. I know, it’s a violation of all that’s good and holy to not signal, but it happens. Tired truckers, tired farmers in over-sized equipment, they do stupid things. Prepare for it.

Sports Cars With Young Drivers Making Erratic Moves

A teenager in a sports car goes from a high rate of speed to slamming on the brakes to make a turn. Biker swerves to miss and kills the rider. Neither rider was wearing safety gear. A spoiled teenager in a performance car that they’re parents got them just because that’s what they wanted. What does that tell you? Does it sound like a situation that you want to be near in any vehicle? When you see it, get ready for a problem.

The list could go on. What can be noted is that these are not the usual 100% fault of the car drivers that we are used to. These are preventable by the motorcyclist. I understand the usual problems of car drivers not caring at all. Those problems are still prevalent, but there’s nothing we can do about them except to prepare for their lack of skills or attention. We can control our actions.

Look around you at the friends and families being maimed and injured. The old arguments are dead and laws will not correct the problem.

• Where your safety gear and persuade others to also.
• Take safety courses and practice what you learn.
• Don’t go to the bar if you must drink there. If you can’t do that, sell the motorcycle. There are less painful ways of suicide if that is your goal.
• Save the stunts for safe areas. There are multiple locations where you can put your sportbike through it’s paces.

And As For The Car Drivers…

Ignore the assumption that car drivers need to pay attention and drive in a legal matter. It’s not going to happen. It’s only worsened over the years. The legal penalties are light and mean very little. Look at how they drive. Cell phones, stoned on anti-depressants, texting, drunk, inattentive, and careless. The assumption one’s self is much more important than anything else around them has increased.

Look what they do after they kill a biker. The cry and wail to the police, “I didn’t see him!”, when they did. The tears are for their carelessness finally catching up with them, not for those they’ve hurt and killed. They’re not going to attend the funeral or even apologize to the survivors. It’s not an “accident”. Nothing you can say or do can correct this problem. It’s a matter of a personal decision by the driver to place their personal activities importance at a greater level than the safety of those around them.

Prepare yourself for their stupidity. When you see a car approach a driveway and slow with no turn signal, guess what. They’re going to turn left into your path! It’s going to happen. Get your brakes covered and ready. Wear your safety gear to increase your survivability by over 40%. Stay sober. Get trained on emergency maneuvers to avoid them. If you can’t manage to do these things, get rid of the bike.

Newark, Ohio‘s Bloggers are few. I don’t know why, but they are. If they’re not, they don’t make it known that they’re from Newark. Recently, I’ve seen a surge of bloggers, primarily business people. I’ve noticed this surge after I’ve seen a push by “branding” specialists that it’s a good idea to get involved with social websites and blogging. This is good news, but the blogs get a little odd.

A few have posted many times that they are tired of the negative blogging. They want to only push positive posts. I find this a negative in and of itself. They’re going to tire of only looking for positive things to say when the world itself just isn’t 100% positive.

Look at Newark’s history. We live in a once productive town that was at the top of the Glass, Metal, Aerospace, and even home appliance industries! Today, we’re reduced to a rusting giant basket, and a few remnants of the past that are barely hanging on. You’re going to have a little negativity when you discuss solutions to this problem.

When you bring up government solutions, expect some serious backlash. Currently, one of the areas only promising companies, ArmorSource, is facing a serious situation where possible corruption is placing them in jeopardy. The Army is considering tossing $25 million dollars worth of ArmorSource gear into the trash can and favoring other companies who have fondled the Obama administration more to their liking. Don’t ask us to look to the government as a solution to anything and don’t expect everyone to consider their involvement in anything as a positive.

We’re looking at downtown renovations orchestrated by a select few wealthy people. These people did not get wealthy through the productive engines that Newark was accustomed to. Some invested heavily in organizations that took an active part in shipping our jobs overseas. Some of these wealthy people gained their seed start-up money by scavenging from the remnants of a once great town. This may not make them bad people, but it certainly brings up questions as to their best interests for the people of Newark, Ohio. Don’t expect full positive compliance with their wishes.

Don’t take every disagreement as a negative. It’s not. It’s a disagreement. Don’t take every view of non-compliance as an attack, it’s not. It’s healthy debate. We have the technology to debate on a level never seen before. You’re not going to squelch it by just “being positive”.

Best Hamburgers In The Area

Strange as it seems, there are very few places to get a really good hamburger anymore. You would think that American restaurants would have perfected this time honored food, but it’s a lost art.

The problem is that you need a true grill cook. None of the chains can produce a true grill cook. It’s all in the care of the grill.

Thanks to a neighbor taking me to lunch one day, I’ve found the perfect hamburger at Freddie’s in Saint Louisville, Ohio. Just head north on 13, go through Vanatta, then SLOW to 45mph at the Saint Louisville, Ohio city limits and you’ll soon see Freddie’s. When I say slow down, I mean slow down if you don’t want to meet the notorious Saint Louisville police. The love to write tickets in this little speed trap town.

Don’t let the look of the old bar fool you. Yes, it’s a biker bar, but the bikers are just a bunch of old Harley riders and they’re not interested in anything but a beer and a good burger. Trouble is a rare thing. This is a neighborhood biker bar. The place may look a little old, but the kitchen is clean. You can see it all from the bar.

Mike, the owner is usually working. He’s the grill master that you’re looking for. The last I was there, a single was only $2.95. Don’t get the double unless you are really hungry. The onion rings are good too.

After reading the outrageous comments in the local news, I found a positive in this otherwise useless policy. Everyone is getting what they deserve. Everyone.

• The school board gets a policy that will divert attention from all matters of substance. While parents are busy complaining about this, the school board can do as it pleases and nobody will notice. They deserve this break because they deal with parents that dwell on trivial matters instead of important ones all of the time.
• The faculty won’t be able to enforce this much better than they could enforce the original code. They’re going to pull their hair out trying to make this work. They’re going to pull their hair out trying to make this appear as a stunning success with any figure they can find. They are at least going to have to try and make something look like it’s improved. The faculty deserves this.
• Parents will have to buy certain clothes. A change in  routine, but hardly an inconvenience for parents. They won’t have to argue about what is appropriate when they shop for their children. Bad parents may get their first taste of telling their children, “No”. They can choose to blame the schools, but why not take advantage of it and just tell them, “No!”. Parents are digging for excuses for why this isn’t fair for their kid, yet some of them were willing to send their kids to school with inappropriate clothing. Those who just comply will not have any problem. Parents deserve this.
• Kids can forget about being trendy and risky with the fashion choices at school. They can get a taste of why who you vote for IS important. They are going to learn who is really on their side. The parents didn’t make this decision. This is what a controlling government does. The kids couldn’t behave with the old dress code and many tend to buy the liberal agenda that this policy serves. They deserve this.
• Everyone involved gets to blame somebody else for the policy. The board can blame the parents. The parents can blame the board, the faculty can blame everybody, and the kids can blame the faculty that must enforce this.

So everyone involved with the schools, when everybody loses, everybody gets what they deserve. Enjoy!

Newark, Ohio has a perceived parking problem, not a real one. People that think Newark, Ohio has a problem, have never seen a parking problem. The problem is not parking, it’s laziness.

Recently Newark, Ohio removed their parking enforcement. The police are left to enforce parking. The union is in an uproar at this horrible, horrible thought that officers have to right traffic tickets. It’s parking pandemonium.

My issue? There’s plenty of parking. You probably will not find a space right in front of where you need to be, but you will find parking within leisurely walking distance. There is a huge gravel parking area behind the south side of the square, a parking garage, and on-street parking.

I do think that more spaces should be freed up for the elderly and handicapped. That’s right, just being elderly should get you a pass. Most folks I know that are complaining are simply to lazy. There is no solution for the downtown area that will allow everyone to park directly in front of their business of choice.

Businesses complaining that they lose business due to parking have no basis for their theory. If this were true, how would a mall ever stay in business? You must walk to every store there. Don’t put your claims of losses on the back of the city’s parking policy. If your customer was not willing to walk a couple of hundred yards, they probably weren’t that interested in your business. Save your energy for improving your business on this non-issue.

I’m not a “foodie” or a restaurant aficionado, so you can take this into account with anything that I have to say about the Kanji Japanese Steakhouse. It was different and I could only see going back there for someone that really enjoys it that wants my company or if someone who’s really curious wants to go.

I did not dislike the Kanji Japanese Steakhouse, I just don’t want to go back. The food was good, but way overpriced. It had nothing to do with culture. If you think this is culture, you’d do yourself a favor to just watch Shogun or buy a Toyota. It’s going to have the same “culture” effect. The thing is that this is a show. There’s some skill involved, but overall, it’s not a great show. Here’s how the experience went for me, please excuse the cell phone pics.

You start with a clean grill and alcohol. You’re going to need the alcohol. The grill is the centerpiece of the entire event. You order from a list of appetizers that you don’t have a clue what they are. The waitress starts to explain, but after about the 5th explanation, you get the sense that you should just pick something and go with it. If you have a “foodie” in the group this is where they’ll get a chance to shine and talk like their studies have finally paid off. Thankfully, no experts or the alcohol would have been a bad idea. I was just wishing for the option of a hamburger at this point.

The Japanese Steak Chef then starts throwing food into the air and people try to catch it with their mouth. I told you that you would need alcohol. Sadly, I didn’t have enough and just couldn’t bring myself to get into this.

The chef then does an impressive array of fast moves with his utensils and food. This would require serious skill and it was an impressive part of the show.

Flames are a big part of the show. The chef seemed to control them well, but I see this as an accident just waiting to happen. I don’t have the luck of a person that enjoys sitting next to a giant uncontrolled flame.

After the flame show, he took a pile of smoking onions and made choo-choo sounds like it was a train. My fears were confirmed that this guy shouldn’t be trusted with fire. If kids were there, I’d understand the choo-choo thing, but they weren’t. He said and did a lot of things that were just plain odd. I couldn’t understand what he was saying well enough to quote it all back.

If all of this sounds like fun, and I can understand how many would see it that way, go for it. It’s worth the price if you want the show. The food was very good, no complaints. As for me, I’d rather eat food that I understand what it is made from with the normal waitress/customer service that I’m accustomed to.

I did a post a while back about the Newark, Ohio songs that came out. I really didn’t think much about it at the time. I’ve heard these types of songs before and thought, “It’s just some good humored rivalry among cities.”. The following post may well be me over-thinking what this really is, but since these songs came out, I’ve noticed a relentless bashing of Newark on many media outlets and there are an enormous amount of posts in forums and blogs.

I’ll go way back in history to show that my theory on this is nothing new. Growing up in Mount Vernon, Ohio, I learned how Mount Vernon became the county seat for Knox County. The neighboring towns of Gambier, Fredricktown, Centerburg, and Danville all had as much going for them as Mount Vernon did. Fredricktown was the most likely choice. The town leaders in Mount Vernon had a plan to put Mount Vernon ahead though. Mount Vernon cleaned up the town and staged drunk and disorderly scenes in all of the other towns. When the state government officials made their scheduled visits, Mount Vernon looked like the most pleasing place and the other towns had the illusion of disorder.

Modern times have an entirely different motive – MONEY. What would be the motive of a radio station to put out a professionally done song to bash an entire area of their listeners? I remember Lancaster, Ohio, Logan, Ohio, Zanesville, Ohio, and even Grove City, Ohio being the target of these songs right before some big industries came to town. They didn’t have the added benefit of being able to make the song go “viral” in those days, but I think that this is done to demoralize a town.

What is the benefit to industry to demoralize a town? If you’re going to pull some shady legal tactics, you want the surrounding population to not sympathize with the victims. The thought that, “Oh well, those lazy, uneducated, hillbillies had that coming to them. Not much going on in that dump anyhow. What’s the harm?”. The companies doing as they please come out the hero and are considered a beneficial improvement to the city no matter what the reality of the deeds are. Demoralization in lowered perceived value of an area also drives property prices down. If you can get the general population to feel that they really are of lower value, they’ll except lower wages too.

Corporations pay the bills for major media outlets. If you think that they don’t have a major influence in what news is reported, you’re mistaken. Have you noticed that every slightly odd thing that happens in Newark hits the national news? It’s never good news either. Drunken barstool ride, KC And the Sunshine Band child molester, alternative proms for kids that want to perform simulated sex, after school fights on YouTube, etc. These are hardly worthy of national attention, but they have been pushed to the major outlets. Newark rarely made the news for much at all until recently.

One of the most glaring, a recent New York Times article about a Newark High School Orchestra member really stood out. The story was a poor wayward teenager had been kicked out of her house and made to live out by a dumpster. She strived and overcame and rose to new heights with music. Even though her Newark, Ohio school was so underfunded and her community was so full of hopelessness,  her heroic teacher helped her rise above it all. I happen to know the real story behind this one. Wayward teenager is right! No need to tell of her problems that have nothing to do with Newark, Ohio, it’s education system, or an apartment with a dumpster facility, the real problem there was common to many teenage girls all across the country. How did this story of slightly above average achievement reach such a huge level? Who pushed that and why?

So what do you do? Stop accepting and discounting the area. Newark is no worse than the surrounding area. Ask them what their graduation rate is. Ask them why thongs on big people and oversized pickups in Newark are so interesting when you see them everywhere else too. Ask them about the “blight” in their city. Why are crumbling neighborhoods in every neighboring area less interesting than ours. Make them quantify their baseless comments. You can start demanding that the lax property codes are enforced. You can quit bashing the city government on every slightest misstep or odd comment and start forcing them on the real issues.

The best thing you can do though is to start watching who is orchestrating this. You can start exposing them for what they’re about. Watch the large land purchases, then research what they’ve done in other cities. Stand up for your neighbors when bankers want to confiscate their property with legal loopholes. When they say they will do great things in Newark refer to their not-so-great things in other cities.

The big road is almost here. This is when the land grab and free-for-all in Newark will start. I’ll be watching. Will you?