Mountains out of molehills.

A $10,000 grant to pay for increased education and enforcement for sidewalk bikers?

When did that become a big problem? I can't remember the last time I saw a biker on the sidewalk. Yes, I saw the picture on the front page of the Bulletin, but that just sort of reminded me that -- no, I don't see that very often.

Now, skateboarders, that's another story. But then those bad boys (and girls) know they're not supposed to be doing that and they don't care. Put up all the signs and stickers you want.

But really, I can think of dozens of things about downtown that the 10K would be more useful for.

We could always go back to the Downtowners former plan to put cameras on every corner. Big brother is watching.

We seem to over-react to small problems, from graffiti to parking to bikers. Most of these things are either unavoidable and/or will go away on their own, or just aren't that big a deal. Not saying they don't have to be addressed, but sometimes making it a big deal just makes it a big deal.

Like I said, I don't see bikers as even a small problem.

You get the feeling that some mid-level bureaucrat somewhere heard a complaint and decided to launch a big study that resulted in a grant to Downtowns. Meanwhile, the city is going, Oh? You want to give us 10K to play with, and some cool stickers? Well, sure!

I hope they'll use about 10% of that money on some funky stickers, and use the rest to enforce the traffic laws -- drivers going too fast, not stopping for pedestrians, talking on their cell phones, stuff like that.

That would actually be useful.