So, its time for comments on a smattering of things that went on this week and other miscellaneous items!
VERVEER SAYS HE IS NOT BAD
I’ve been asked to clarify. Verveer has not actually introduced, nor does he plan to at the moment, anything to do with the street musicians. He simply intends to talk about it at the next meeting. Apparently, the issue he sees is that the musicians are in the places that the vendors at the Farmer’s Market have paid for. If that’s the only issue, then why not just address that? I guess I’ll have suspend my judgment about if Verveer is BAD or not.
CRAZY COUNCIL MEETING
I blogged about the insanity at the council meeting this week. It had several county board members last night rightly feeling pretty smug that they run a good meeting. Several people thanked me for shining a light on this matter and I got several new followers on Twitter and Facebook as a result. However, while my description was mostly a blow by blow of the meeting with a few comments interspersed, Dusty’s description was much better. This week’s “bad” designation goes to Dean Mosiman and his editors! I think they should be made to watch that segment of the meeting over, and over and over and over!
SPEAKING OF THE COUNTY BOARD (STICKING IT TO THE SHERIFF?)
I nearly fell off my chair last night when the County Board refused to change the ordinance that would allow the sheriff to charge the eviction fees that they had passed in the budget. I wonder if they were sticking it to the sheriff because he refuses to listen to them on the immigration issues, or if that is just wishful thinking? Either way, its good news for both landlords and tenants in that the landlord will be charged less to do an eviction therefore less money will get passed along to the tenants! It was freaky to record a vote with both Vedder and Bruskewitz!
WHAT’D WE MISS?
I sent out the blog posts of Forward Our Motto and myself responding to Blaska’s plan for addressing issues in Meadowood. I asked people what solutions we missed. I got very few responses, but there were some interesting things I thought I should share:
– Some people think that the neighborhood is already meeting and trying to solve the problems.
– The community gardens and the new farmer’s market are two positive steps that the community is taking. And of course, they have their neighborhood center which their Alder voted against! grrrr . . .
– Some people appreciate that landlords will do month to month leases with probation and parole clients. I appreciate it too, I just don’t think it should be mandated. Unless we mandate that they have to rent to people on probation and parole! 🙂
– I thought some might be interested in what faith communities are doing in the Allied Drive Neighborhood:
Faith communities are already involved in the Allied Drive Neighborhood – Fountain of Life holds services there, the Allied Partners (a collaboration of MUM and about fifteen other faith communities) is actively engaged, supporting community events like the Allied Festival and Community Meals, the food pantry, eviction prevention, the Allied Wellness Center, special funding to the Urban League to help them get a transportation component for a new jobs initiative off the ground, and support of the Neighborhood Association. And the group is working with the Wellness Center and others to develop a cooperative program that emphasizes responsibility, accountability, empowerment and community development from the grassroots level. I just wanted to make sure that people understand that faith communities are involved, those who are not as involved often don’t know that. Faith Communities involved in the Allied Drive Community include First Baptist, Society of Friends, Good Shepherd Lutheran, Westminster Presbyterian, Fountain of Life, Bethany United Methodist, Our Lady Queen of Peace, Memorial United Church of Christ, Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ and others.
I’m still kinda surprised I didn’t get more responses about what people thought was needed. Perhaps community policing instead of more police and human services are just the answer. However, I do have to note, while many say that the police are not in the area enough, I have also heard others refer to it as a “police state”. Interesting differences of perception.
ALLIED DRIVE PEACE MARCH
One of the responses I got mentioned that this was going on and I thought I should pass it along:
The Allied Drive Neighborhood Association is planning a peace march next Thursday 6/25 at 8:00 p.m. beginning in front of their offices. Those who would like to participate in a prayer session pre-march can come at 7:30.
SORRY IF I MADE YOU CRASH!
On Monday I started getting calls from City staff that my blog was down. They were upset, they needed their fix! So, I didn’t think anything of it because it worked for me on several computers in several locations, but I got more complaints and then tried to think about what would be doing it. At first I assumed it was a blogger issue, then I remembered that I added the “share” button to my posts late last week. And come to think about it, the views of my blog were down quite a bit. So, I removed the share button, had someone test it and voila! the website worked on the city machines. IT staff explained that “It looks like the share button is hosted on a website that is blocked by our Internet Content Filter.” Well, that explains it! But, when sharing this story with others, I learned that apparently I was crashing computers all over the city. My humble apologies!!!
IF A HOMELESS MAN DIES DOES ANYONE KNOW
Usually not. Unless he dies on the Capital grounds! Of course, that limited recognition only lasted a few moment as hours later they were setting up for a noon event in the very same area.
ALDERS REFUSE THEIR SALARIES!
Ok, not so much. Remember the hoopla Pham-Remmele made over the ordinance change that would allow alders to turn in their salaries if they didn’t want them? Well, they had 30 days from the day that they were sworn in to notify the clerk if they wanted to refuse a portion or all of their salary. Well, the first opportunity to do so was with the last election and how many do you think turned in a portion or all of their pay. Zero. Zip. Nada. Not even the Queen of Grandstanding herself, the sponsor of the ordinance Ms. Pham-Remmele. Hmmm . . . some might say that was a waste of time.
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the blog readers for your lovely comments over the past few weeks. I’m glad so many find value (information) and humor in my posts. And thanks to those who said they voted for me in the Isthmus poll. I’m glad that so many are finding that they know so much more about what is going on in local government these days. And I appreciate everyone who thinks I should get paid to do this . . . the only problem is . . . while I could use a copy editor (sigh!) I don’t think I’d want to give up my content control!
