Sorry but I have to defend my little state of Georgia. I live here.
It's not utopia, but it's not bad. What Ben said is correct, the law was
passed to remove a bunch of trashy shanty-towns on the state waterways.
It's also true the extended the limit to 90 days. What's not generally
known is that Georgia, being a "good old boy" run state takes laws as
ways to control undesirables, not as fact. If you aren't bothering
anyone or making a pest of yourself, the law here will leave you alone.
It's just a different system of justice from it's northern counterparts.
There are hundreds, maybe thousands of live-aboards in Georgia waters
and have been forever. The politicians on the coast recognize they
spend money, vote and are less of a problem than urban crackheads so
don't bother them. When some do-gooder (usually a northern transplant)
complains, they post warning signs around the marinas outlining the
law. Eventually the signs fade away and I guess the do-gooders go away
or get convinced of the error of their ways. I've been hanging around
the marinas and live-aboards in Brunswick for over 10 years and never
have heard of anyone in authority hassling them.
There really is a different mentality to law enforcement in the state of
Georgia. For instance, how many states would allow a car to be driven
daily with expired (5+ years ago) NJ plates? There was one in the
parking lot at work every day for years.
Back 50 years ago or so, Georgia was the king of speed traps. One
Governor was so pissed about the bad publicity that he got the
legislature to pass the most reasonable laws I've ever seen. To quote:
* Georgia has a speed trap law that applies to all police agencies
except State Patrol. Some of the regulations regarding Speed
Measuring Device (SMD) use include: (1) cannot issue tickets for
less than 10 mph over posted speed limit, (2) cannot use SMD on
downhill road with more than a 7% downgrade, (3) cannot use SMD
closer than 500 feet inside a changed speed limit zone (4) police
vehicle using SMD must be seen by all approaching vehicles at least
500 feet or more, and (5) any municipality using SMD must have
warning signs on major road at city or county limits stating so.
Note that the State Patrol has the authority to issue tickets at any
excessive speed but follows the >10 mph guidelines unless there are
extenuating circumstances. Also the above restrictions don't apply to
some special zones, such as hospital, school and construction.
Prior to the law a Governor (don't know if it's the same one) had
billboards erected around towns with know speed traps warning
motorists. One Sherrif kept burning them down as fast as they went up
until the Gov. placed guards on them.
Georgia isn't quite the police state some of you seem to think it is.
It just works differently from what you might be used to. Except for FL
I've never lived in any other southern state but I wouldn't be surprised
the same attitudes exist in other southern states.
Oh and by the way, please continue to avoid the ICW through GA. I'd
hate to have all that beautiful water cluttered up with boats. It's so
pleasant to wander up through the marsh and find a deep creek absolutely
devoid of any sign of civilization and teeming with wildlife. And
remember there are some 4' deep areas of the ICW which need to be
avoided at all costs, but do forget we have 9' spring tides here that
make planning your route through shallow water necessary. :-)
Marsh view http://windangel.org/images/P9290805.JPG
Jim.
On 11/22/2012 07:48 PM, Ben Okopnik wrote:
On Thu, Nov 22, 2012 at 09:55:43AM -0500, Norm wrote:
When I first arrived in north Florida the locals told me the St Johns river
flows north because Georgia sucks. I thought it had something to do with
college football until I found it was more personal than that.
Just in the interests of maintaining current information (NOT defending
the place - there's no love lost between me and Georgia; in fact, I
wouldn't extinguish a state-threatening fire there even if my bladder
was full), GA appears to have a) passed this law to specifically chase
away the live-aboard "house barges" (i.e., floating shanty-towns)
proliferating in the lakes around Atlanta and the Altamaha River, and b)
has recently passed a bill through the state senate extending the period
to 90 days.
http://coastalgadnr.org/msp/ap/Liveab
But yeah, Georgia could suck-start a Harley. Or suck a baseball through
a mile of garden hose. Scientifically proven fact; I'm pretty sure I saw
an article in JAMA or something...
Ben
_______________________________________________
Liveaboard mailing list
[email protected]
To adjust your membership settings over the web
http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard
To subscribe send an email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/
To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
The Mailman Users Guide can be found here
http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
