My excuse today is that I have the day off, so I slept in. I’m starting this at the time that I normally have it and another post done. And I have no time pressure, so it will take even longer.
LOBBYING
Some people don’t understand why I care about this issue. Maybe this will help explain. If that doesn’t work, Lukas can spell it out for you.
GOOGLE FIBER MEETING
I’m amazed at how hard it was to find out what happened at the meeting, not just that there was a meeting and there were people there. Now what? What next? I would have thought with that many geeks in the room, someone would have live blogged or somehow made the info available quickly. Perhaps it is because it was too boring. Based on what I could read, I don’t see anything brilliant that came out of the meeting. Daily Cardinal. Badger Herald. Channel 3 Channel 15 Here’s a website that has more info, that I found through the Badger Herald, which seems most helpful. [ADDED this morning: Isthmus, Dane 101]
CITY ASLEEP AT THE SWITCH
Even tho the angry guy from the CDA said it, I agree. But I can’t tell if this is a serious proposal for a rail station or a trial balloon. If it was serious, I would think they have an estimate on what it would cost.
SLEEP IN TUESDAY
When I read the headline, I thought it was a school budget proposal fix. Sounds like logistically its a nightmare. And odd to be discussing it in the middle of the budget crisis.
SPEAKING OF SCHOOL BUDGETS
Grim reading. Lukas places blame.
POWERPOINT
This is Rob’s link for the week.
If your going to make a powerpoint presentation make it fun!
i.e. don’t blame me.
SCHOOL BOARD FORUM
This one will be in English and Spanish at Centro Hispano on Saturday March 20th at 12:30.
NOT A BAD IDEA
Of course the realtors don’t like it. But hey, maybe they should think about other ways to fix the problem.
The city last year created Milwaukee Neighborhood Reclamation Co. LLC, which buys houses and hires companies to maintain or rehabilitate them. The goals are to have homeowners, not renters, move into the houses and to prevent investors from buying houses and renting them out after doing minimal repairs, said Steven Mahan, director of Milwaukee’s Community Development Block Grant administration.
“We’re not looking for speculators to own and milk properties,” he said.
Milwaukee landlords are a whole different breed and I think this program is needed.
BLAME THE PRESS
I saw this on the news the other morning and I was impressed, so it bears repeating. The news followed it up by saying this guy wasn’t running for office again. Why can’t people act like this when they are running for re-election? I think people appreciate plain talk and passion in a politician.
GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIZED JOUNRALISM
If done correctly, I’m afraid we might have to. Media plays an important role as noted above. I haven’t read the book . . . yet. But it looks like I should.
AIR QUALITY
I appreciated this explanation.
I liked their editorial on the RTA simply because it was plain talk about what happened:
Those who fear public transportation peddled the notion that a Dane County Regional Transit Authority Board would be so determined to get the trains running on time that it would raise taxes without consulting the voters.That spin was never anything more than an attempt to prevent the county from beginning to make the smart transportation decisions that will be needed to avoid gridlock in the 21st century.
But it gained traction, especially among conservative County Board members — and their media echo chamber — who thought they could maintain a dysfunctional status quo by fooling enough of the people enough of the time.
That’s it for now, but I have lots of time on my hands today . . . but I bet I find something to distract me . . .
