POTD: St. Mark's Basilica

"Gold mosaics shine,
stories looted from the East,
Faith wrapped in conquest."
— h/t ChatGPT

From 2024 09 11 Venice

Today's photo-of-the-day is from St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, Italy. "It is dedicated to and holds the relics of Saint Mark the Evangelist, the patron saint of the city...The present structure is the third church, begun probably in 1063 to express Venice's growing civic consciousness and pride. Like the two earlier churches, its model was the sixth-century Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople...Middle-Byzantine, Romanesque, and Islamic influences are also evident, and Gothic elements were later incorporated. To convey the republic's wealth and power, the original brick façades and interior walls were embellished over time with precious stones and rare marbles, primarily in the thirteenth century. Many of the columns, reliefs, and sculptures were spoils stripped from the churches, palaces, and public monuments of Constantinople as a result of the Venetian participation in the Fourth Crusade. Among the plundered artefacts brought back to Venice were the four ancient bronze horses that were placed prominently over the entry."

Random Thoughts: Random NextDoor Post

2025-07-14: Random NextDoor post: "Want to know how many times I get pulled over for nothing. There about to break there previous record."
There's a sentence there with two uses of the word "there", both spelled wrong. Impressive.

City Council Goals 2025-2027 (Part 4 of 4)

This is the fourth part of my thoughts on the City of Richardson's Goal setting meeting. Let's see if I can get through Strategies and Tactics in this one.

City Council Goals 2025-2027 (Part 3 of 4)

This is the third part of my thoughts on the City of Richardson's Goal setting meeting. I'm finally getting to the Goals. The Council reviewed the existing goals:

Goals

To effectively, efficiently, and transparently manage city resources while maintaining and enhancing city services

To have residents and all stakeholders choose Richardson as the best place to locate, contribute, and engage

To have clear, effective, efficient, continuously improved, and consistently applied processes and policies that make it easy for residents, employees, and all stakeholders to interact with the City

To have well-trained, engaged, and innovative employees who deliver an exceptional customer experience while working in a safe, inclusive, and equitable environment

Source: City of Richardson.

City Council Goals 2025-2027 (Part 2 of 4)

The City of Richardson's City Council spends a day at the beginning of each term developing its Goals, Strategies, and Tactics. For the last several years, this was facilitated by Rick Robinson of Ramsey Consulting Group. He explained the terminology involved in strategic planning that would be used in this exercise. He started with Mission. He explained why he doesn't do mission statements for cities: "because every city has 99% the same mission — to create a clean, save place for people to eat, work, stay, play, visit, blah, blah, blah, alright?" Exactly. So let's move on.