Thursday, April 4, 2013
What Will The Mayor Do For Me?
I decided to keep my ears open for promises made by the candidates, promises of what they would attempt to accomplish in the next council term. The word "promise" is used loosely, as both candidates are aware of and emphasized that the mayor can't unilaterally implement anything, that without the support of the council, the city staff, and the community, any mayor's program can't advance. With that caveat, what I heard the candidates' promise is after the jump.
Monday, April 5, 2010
A Tale Of Two Cities
It was the best of meetings. It was the worst of meetings. The meeting referred to was the first of three community meetings to gather input on redevelopment plans for the west Spring Valley Road area in Richardson. After the jump, two different perspectives of that meeting.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Mayoral Forums: Stay To The Bitter End
Those were the first words spoken by a stranger sitting in front of me after the forum. I used to think so, too, but my confidence in both candidates is beginning to flag. The forum started on an upbeat note. The candidates were asked to "say something nice about your opponent." The forum ended with closing statements that reflected none of the good cheer displayed at the start. It's hard to say exactly how the candidates ended up where they did, as they agreed more often than they disagreed in between. Much is going on under the surface. Stress levels are rising. Chinks are beginning to appear in the armor of both candidates.They were both impressive. Either one will be good for the city.
After the jump, the play by play.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Twitter Tracks: State Budget Cuts, City Candidate Forums, Trees
Twitter tracks from April, 2011:
- 2011 04 01 - For your April Fool's pleasure ... Rent-a-Grave. This might sound like an April Fool's story, but it's not. http://www.slate.com/id/2285478/
- 2011 04 01 - Richardson Heights NA urges members to turn out to *support* the city. How refreshing. Is "IMBY" an acronym? http://goo.gl/vWeKG
- 2011 04 01 - Headline: "Unemployment rate falls to 8.8 pct, two-year low." GOP blames health care reform.
- 2011 04 01 - I grew up loving baseball. I'm glad Rangers won pennant. Still, steroids & money & mismanagement spoiled it all for me. No excitement today.
- 2011 04 01 - By critics' logic, we ought to pave parks. If they really want to help Richardson, they can find more sponsors to cover more costs of trees.
- 2011 04 01 - The Adjustment Bureau (2011): Bourne meets The Matrix meets The Candidate with a touch of Mad Men style. Most of all, a love story. B+
- 2011 04 02 - Mark's Stylebook: Maybe the rest of us don't know what a compositor is, but he can only blame himself if the movie credit reads "composter".
- 2011 04 02 - Get yourself over to Eastside. Free food. Great weather. Party atmosphere. Hurry. 'Til 4. Oh, did I remember to say free?
- 2011 04 03 - Metropolis (1927): Long overdue viewing of this classic. Overwrought story but some amazing imagery. Will Avatar look as good in 2100? C+
- 2011 04 03 - RT @amiromar: "Tree the Town inspires Tree North Tx." @amiromar doubles down. No concessions, then? In your face, critics?
- 2011 04 03 - Tree North Texas: "a plan to plant 3 million trees in North Texas." http://goo.gl/joiMO Just think of the water that'll suck up. ;-)
After the jump, more Twitter tracks.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
"Ladies First"
The first forum, sponsored by the GOP, was held at Richardson's country club. The unique questions were about Agenda 21 and fluoride in our drinking water. The next forum was at a public school, sponsored by a neighborhood association. Someone wanted to know where the candidates live in relation to their neighborhood. Someone else asked the candidates to do something about speeding on Grove Rd. The third forum (which I missed) was at a BBQ joint, sponsored by the tea party. They wanted to know how much a natatorium was going to cost Richardson taxpayers. The most recent forum was in Richardson's Chinatown, sponsored by the Dallas Chinese Community Center. The moderator set the unique tone with her polite explanation of how it was decided which candidate would speak first: "Ladies first."
After the jump, a progress report on the campaigning skills of Laura Maczka and Amir Omar.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Garland's Answer To "Tree The Town"
Richardson might have its "Tree the Town" initiative to plant 50,000 trees in Richardson over the next ten years. Now, Garland ISD is thinking of going one step farther -- growing its own trees. School board member Larry Glick's idea is to to give students training in horticulture and, as a byproduct, provide shade on school playgrounds as well. Garland ISD would start a tree farm, run by students who would both grow the trees and transplant them to playgrounds. Win-win.
After the jump, a look back at an Richardson effort to shade those playgrounds.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Japan Journal
After working in the lab at the Institute for Solid State Physics at the University of Tokyo, Scott remembered a video he had once found on the Internet. Sure enough. Same lab. Looks like a fun project! (Video version 210T is the best version.)
The following journal records his experiences...
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Open Mike Night: Goals
Andrew Laska offered his suggestions for the Statement of Goals for the 2011-2013 council term. You know the routine for such documents -- Vision, Mission, Priorities, Goals and Action Items liberally sprinkled throughout with Snooze. Even the best of these efforts are often painful to read. Worse, Richardson's past efforts weren't among the best of these efforts.
After the jump, my own rant about Richardson's past efforts and Andrew Laska's recommendations.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Department Store Time Machine
Photo by Elliott Muñoz
All good time travel stories need a time machine. H.G. Wells used a Victorian sled. For us, light rail provided the vehicle.
Waiting at the Richardson DART station was a couple wearing Dallas Stars' jerseys. It wasn't hard to guess where they were headed. Also waiting was a young couple with two children, aged about 4 and 2. I think I know where this family was headed, too, and it wasn't to a hockey game. The boy was excited by the adventure by train, asking questions only a four year old can ask. "What are we waiting for?" The simple answer, a train, wasn't what he really wanted to know. "Why is this a train station?" Syntactically fine, yet impossible to know exactly what he meant or how to answer. Across the tracks was a billboard for a 4G cell phone service that promised "Waiting for the train was never this entertaining." I had to agree, but not because of the video streaming offered by my mobile phone provider.
After the jump, our train ride to a younger America.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Where Are All the Candidates?
We're into the filing period for the Richardson City Council election (May 14) and the list of announced candidates is slim despite a dozen or more potential candidates having picked up packets from city hall. Where are all the candidates?
After the jump, a review of the field ... so far.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Trail at Yale, FAIL
Richardson, Texas, has an abundant and growing urban trail system. Not only are more trails being added all the time, existing trails are being enhanced and expanded. For example, in the Duck Creek Linear Park, the spillways in the creek bed were reinforced for erosion control; the Tree the Town initiative planted a hundred trees along the trail; and a side trail was added through Huffhines Park connecting to the Glenville Trail. This constant attention to the quality of life in Richardson is much appreciated.
Still, there's been one aspect of the Duck Creek Trail that I've never been happy with. After the jump, see if you can spot what it is.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Election Wrap: Promises, Promises
The most important loose end is a need to document the promises Laura Maczka made in her campaign for mayor. Here are the promises made at just one candidate forum, the one held on April 2, 2013, at RISD's MST Magnet School, sponsored by the Highland Terrace NA.
Selection of Mayor pro tem: Maczka promised to support the selection of the next mayor pro tem in open session, versus the prior practice of doing this in closed, executive session. (This promise has already been fulfilled ... kind of. The council did not use executive session to privately deliberate their choice for Mayor Pro Tem. But they didn't deliberate in public, either. There was one nomination, no discussion and a quick unanimous vote.)
City Charter Review: Laura Maczka promised to support a full city charter review in the next term.
Changes to council agendas: Maczka promised to add a regular agenda item at the end of each council meeting for the council to discuss and propose future agenda items.
Zero-based budgeting: Maczka expressed support for the idea of zero-based budgeting and a top-to-bottom departmental financial review. Maczka fudged her answer enough to give herself wriggle room later as to exactly what that means.
Less trash collection: Maczka gave trash collection as an example of an expense in the city budget that she would look at to save money. She says Richardson residents enjoy four separate collections on a weekly basis: two for trash, one for recyclables, one for bulky items. She promised to look at this, perhaps reducing the number of collections or adding a fee for some collections.
Less tree planting: Maczka gave the cost of watering the trees planted as part of the "Tree the Town" program as an example of an expense in the city budget that might not be the best use of Richardson tax money.
Change pensions to 401k: Maczka expressed a willingness to look at the possibility of converting the defined benefit pension system for city employees to a defined contribution 401k-type system. She did not promise to make the change, only to look at it. Maczka promised that any changes would apply only to future employees, not current employees.
Crackdown on speeding: Maczka promised to crack down on speeding on Grove Rd. "Absolutely," Maczka said. Lucky you if you live on Grove Rd., or not so lucky, depending on your driving habits.
What Maczka will *not* do:
Narcotics squad: Maczka opposed fund and staffing a narcotics squad within the Richardson Police Department.
RISD Natatorium: Maczka opposed partnering with the RISD in sharing facilities like natatoria. In a different forum, she expressed interest in a public/private partnership to provide such facilities.
Monday, March 25, 2024
The Problem with RISD's School Closures
"Don't tax you.
Don't tax me.
Tax that fellow behind the tree."
— Louisiana Senator Russell B. Long
In local school politics, that political adage might be:
Don't close your school.
Don't close my own.
Close that school way across town.
With votes Thursday evening, March 21, 2024, the Richardson ISD officially moved to close four elementary schools all over town. In December, I called school closures the "third rail of local school politics. Touch it and you die." I knew that no matter how long RISD dragged out the community discussions, the community would never reach agreement on which schools to close. So just two months later in February, when I first heard of Project RightSize, I said, "Bold. Quick. Decisive. Well done." Now, a month later it's official. And I was wrong (again).
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Twitter Tracks: Baseball, Local Election, Oil Spill
Twitter tracks from May, 2010:
- 2010 05 01 - Congrats to Berkner and Richardson HS baseball teams, co-champs of District 9-5A. One game playoff today to determine top seed in playoffs.
- 2010 05 01 - Play In May! That's the goal of every high school baseball team in Texas. Two RISD co-champions went at it today. http://goo.gl/miKc
- 2010 05 01 - Thanks to the entire DMN team for coverage of today's rally for immigration rights. Add "si se puede" to the great American rallying cries.
- 2010 05 01 - I'm just going to enjoy the spectacle of the Kentucky Derby and all its excesses and not once think of Sen. Mitch McConnell. ... Drats.
- 2010 05 01 - The best thing about the Kentucky Derby and all other big betting events??? Despite the fact that my pick loses, I never lose any money. :-)
- 2010 05 01 - I was for Richardson's bond election before, but now I've learned that my alley will likely get replaced if the bond passes. Woot!
- 2010 05 01 - The Blind Side: good feel-good movie, more a family movie than a football movie. Sandra Bullock was good, not great. Compare with Precious.
- 2010 05 02 - Richardson Echo letter to the editor: "Don't let Richardson become Bedford, Texas all over again." Ouch! http://goo.gl/etdD
- 2010 05 02 - Catch Conan on "60 Minutes?" You know how long that show has been on the air? It uses a mechanical stopwatch and a magazine as brand symbols
- 2010 05 02 - RT @WalkableDFW: "Funny that my iPhone always uses it's and its incorrectly and imposes its will upon me." Yeah, that's my story, too.
- 2010 05 02 - Headline: "Pope all but endorses authenticity of Turin Shroud." I detect a man desperate to change subject, even at cost of sounding silly.
After the jump, more Twitter tracks.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
The Permanent Campaign Comes to Richardson
After the jump, the implications.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
First Impressions of the Candidates
The May 14 Richardson City Council election has 14 candidates for 7 seats. That's a lot of candidates to learn about. So, let's get started. Here are my first impressions of the candidates. I know that first impressions are often wrong. But they can be hard to shake, so it's best that the candidates be aware of the crazy ideas about them that are out there. Let's just say this is a public service to help candidates shape their campaign message to overcome false impressions. That's it -- a public service.
After the jump, let's get busy with first impressions.
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
OTBR: Trail of the Tough in Estonia
Longitude: E 022° 12.060
A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.
After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
Richardson Cares More about Celebrating History than Preserving It
Four years ago, I wrote a blog post ("The Ice House Goeth") giving the history of a little, neglected, unused commercial building on Richardson's Main Street in old downtown. I didn't stop at the history. I also advocated for the City of Richardson to do something to preserve this little bit of its history. I didn't hear from the City at the time. I still haven't, but this week the City of Richardson's Facebook page dedicated to posting history for the City's sesquicentennial celebration lifted my blog post without attribution. They included the history I had researched, but left out all of my advocacy for the City to preserve that history. I conclude the City is interested in celebrating its history, at least every 150 years, but is less interested in preserving the history they extol.
Friday, March 5, 2010
OTBR: Underneath a Prickly Pear Cactus
Longitude: 111.248299° W
A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.
After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".
Monday, January 1, 2018
Idle Thoughts: Cognitive Dissonance
Idle thoughts from December, 2017:
- Dec 2 2017: Cognitive dissonance is being at Dickens on the Strand listening to youth band with 15 bagpipes playing Camptown Races.
- Dec 2 2017: Pete Sessions is pleased with a massive tax hike on the middle class to pay for a massive tax cut for the 1%. I look forward to voting him out in 2018.
- Dec 2 2017: RT @NumbersMuncher: "From a year ago, but point remains: Ted Cruz propped up Trump during the primaries because he desperately wanted Trump's supporters. Ted Cruz is the worst."
Ted Cruz is the worst...and not just for his cynical support for Trump in the early 2016 primaries. - Dec 2 2017: RT @TASBGR: "Behind Oklahoma, Texas Has Made Deepest Cuts To State Education Funding In Past Decade."
Don't let Villalba or Button or even Koop claim to support education without complaining about this to high heaven.
After the jump, more idle thoughts.