At last night’s City Council Meeting, the City Manager unveiled the City’s ARPA Stimulus money proposal. In short, the City is receiving $9,000,000 to be used for a limited number of purposes and it must be spent by 2024. I urge all of you to watch that fifteen minute segment of the meeting and read … Continue reading “Christmas In July: The ARPA Stimulus Money Request”
Engagement
Constructive Criticism
Categories Campaigning, Engagement, Neighborhoods, Public SafetyI got the following message from a resident the morning after our last City Council Meeting : “It looks like you guys were getting along. What happened?” 😀 I can only speak for myself: I self-censored. I avoided several uncomfortable conversations that should be happening. Frankly, some nights? I just don’t feel like fighting. Administration … Continue reading “Constructive Criticism”
City Currents Magazine Spring 2021
City Current Magazine Summer 2021
2003 Furniture Store Guy
Categories Economic Development, Engagement, Neighborhoods, TransparencyAnother old guy reference: There’s this moment in the movie Amadeus, where the Emperor walks in on a rehearsal of Mozart’s newest music and he sees something so obviously wrong he’s rendered speechless with confusion. My ‘fix the web site’ proposal At last week’s City Council Meeting, I felt a lot like this guy (not … Continue reading “2003 Furniture Store Guy”
Two quick examples of the transparency problem
Categories Engagement, TransparencyLeave a comment on Two quick examples of the transparency problemAt our last City Council Meeting there was a contentious discussion about providing public comment. But the problem of transparency and public engagement is actually far more profound and I am concerned that the discussion made it seem more trivial than it is. There is no obvious way for a member of the public to … Continue reading “Two quick examples of the transparency problem”
The Minority Report (Part 2 of 2: Policy)
Categories Airport, Economic Development, Engagement, Marina, Policy, Public Safety, Taxes, Transparency, TransportationThis is the second half of our response to the April 15th State Of The City presentation. Part 1 discussed our objections to the way it was carried out. Here we’ll talk about some specific policy differences. For those of you short on time, you can follow along with this presentation packet. As noted last … Continue reading “The Minority Report (Part 2 of 2: Policy)”
Veterans Day 2020
Categories EngagementI always wondered why my father never spoke of his time in the Army. He spent four years in the Service during World War II and in addition to not talking about it he apparently kept no memorabilia of any kind. The whole thing was a complete mystery to me. The short version is that … Continue reading “Veterans Day 2020”
How To Get What You Want From Elected Officials
Categories Engagement, Policy2 Comments on How To Get What You Want From Elected OfficialsI get at least two letters every week from residents where they ask me to do something. I give them the honest answer about getting their request fulfilled and… usually never hear from them again. And I can just feel their unhappiness with my reply (which I’ll share with you in a sec). Darwinism As … Continue reading “How To Get What You Want From Elected Officials”