Monday night the NTMWD addressed the Richardson City Council about plans to replace the Lookout Trash Transfer Station. Neighbors of the transfer station are objecting to the project. There are some bogus claims making the rounds. Not in what the NTMWD presented, but in what's being said by the public. The longer such claims go uncorrected, the more deeply they take root as established "facts". After the jump, two examples.
Kinda. Sorta. We don't have any new officially-filed candidates, but the agitators are beginning to stir. In a move eagerly anticipated by many (and by many, I mean me), the Richardson Citizens Alliance launched a website this week.
After the jump, what we can learn about the Alliance from their own words.
2023-07-01: In the "Black Mirror" episode "Beyond the Sea" (S6, E3), astronauts on a deep space mission get R&R by periodically transferring their consciousness to replicas on Earth. If this technology exists, why wouldn't NASA use it the other way around, sending replicas into space and keeping the humans safe on Earth, except when needed in space?
2023-07-03: Life would be easier to figure out if it were accompanied by melodramatic music like in bad movies.
2023-07-03: I'm reminded of when I taught high school in Australia in 1976. I told my students that in honor of the upcoming American bicentennial, there would be no school on July 4. An initial burst of excitement was quicky followed by irritation when they realized July 4, 1976, fell on a Sunday.
"The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday -- but never jam today."Just like the White Queen, politicians have a way of insisting on one set of behaviors yesterday, and maybe tomorrow, but not necessarily today. Washington politicians are particularly adept at this.
--The White Queen, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
For example, take the scripted GOP talking point all through 2009 and early 2010 that the Democrats were wrong to "waste time" on health care reform when the sick economy was what needed the country's full attention. So, what does the GOP do as their first priority when they take control of Congress? Well, waste time with a symbolic vote to repeal health care reform, of course. Jam yesterday and jam tomorrow, but not today. That even they realized how hypocritical it was is evidenced by them putting "job-killing" into the title of the bill, "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act."
After the jump, changing the menu in Richardson depending on what day it is.
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It's out. It's the most anticipated mailing of the year. It's even better than the Sears Christmas Wish Book of old (ask your parents). It's the Richardson Coalition 2011 Voter's Guide.
After the jump, let's pore over our new Wish Book.
The voters have spoken. The votes have been tallied. The new City Council in Richardson has been seated. Another council term is already underway. Before we get into all the issues to be faced by the new council, let's take one last look back to see if there are any surprises to be found in a precinct-by-precinct vote analysis.
After the jump, crunching the numbers.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the end of slavery, the most abominable stain on American history. One hundred fifty years ago Christmas Eve, on December 24, 1860, the government of South Carolina declared its secession from the United States of America. You might think this would be an anniversary to be marked by a day of atonement or at least by a vigil remembering the lives and deaths of those who suffered in slavery or died to end it. You would be wrong.
On December 20, 2010, the Sons of Confederate Veterans is holding a $100-per-person celebration, a "Secession Gala", in Charleston, South Carolina. Organizer Jeff Antley says, "It has nothing to do with slavery as far as I'm concerned. What I'm doing is honoring the men from this state who stood up for their self-government and their rights under law -- the right to secede was understood."
Nothing to do with slavery. It's about honoring heritage, not racism. Expect a lot of that shameful rationalization over the next five years, as white Southerners revise history in an attempt to whitewash the original sin of America, slavery, from their heritage.
After the jump, a closer look at the declaration of causes for South Carolina's secession.
Repeat tweets from June, 2011:
After the jump, more repeat tweets.
Fresh off their victory (?) over the rebuilding and expansion of the Lookout Drive trash transfer station, the Neighborhood Protection Alliance of Richardson (NPAR) has focused its attention on the planned development for the open land southeast of the US 75 and the President George Bush Tollway (PGBT). In an email blast (I can't find it on the group's website to link to), NPAR Chair Maitri Smithhisler rallied the neighbors to attend a City Planning Commission meeting Tuesday Dec 7th, at 7PM at City Hall, at which it will be considering the Parliament planned development for the open land.
Now, I'm all in favor of grassroots involvement in civic matters such as this, even if I fear that a reflexive NIMBY attitude is likely to prevail. Smithhisler's email suggests that risk is real in this case, although I'm encouraged by the appearance of an open mind: "Please note: while the significant traffic increase, the massive apartment presence and the form-based code pose great concern, there are many aspects to this development that preliminarily look positive."
Hey, it's the corner of an 8-lane freeway and an 8-lane tollway, with a DART station in the middle and another rail line, the Cotton Belt, on the drawing boards. If that's not tailor-made for high-density development - offices, apartments, retail -- what is? The increased tax base will help pay for those parks and rec centers and trails that everyone else in Richardson likes so much. This kind of development should come as a surprise only to the most clueless home buyers for about the last 20 years. And form-based code is a plus. It's what enables mixed-use and reduces the need for people to use cars to get from a neighborhood zoned residential to a neighborhood zoned commercial. If you want to free Richardson from its shackles to the automobile, support form-based zoning.
So, let's hope that Smithhisler's open mind is genuine and that she can persuade other homeowners to keep an open mind, too.
P.S. My earlier post with comments on the subject, comparing it to another development in downtown Dallas, can be read here.
Imagine the world a thousand years from now. Go ahead, I'll wait. What did you come up with? A Jetsons' world with flying cars and moon colonies or a Mad Max post-apocalyptic world of violent gangs looting what's left of civilization? Those are the two most common visions.
After the jump, the outlook by Michael Ruppert, former cop and now an independent writer and the subject of a 2009 documentary titled "Collapse." Hint: the title gives away which vision of the future Ruppert holds. ;-)
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My blog topics recently have tended towards two topics: the Richardson Lookout Transfer Station and the tone of politics at city council meetings (for example, see here and here). Those two topics intersect in a Twitter "tweet" from council member Amir Omar:
"Just had a very positive meeting w/ HOA Pres & stakeholder re the Richardson LOTS. Working towards a win/win solution."
I've called for the Richardson City Council to conduct more outreach to the neighborhood associations, so this news from council member Amir Omar is good news. I don't like the fact that Omar didn't tell us the name of the HOA president he met with, leaving the impression that it's sensitive information. (And, as before, I'm dissatisfied that he tells us that he's getting good ideas without ever telling us what those ideas are.) But, just hearing that someone from the council is talking to any HOA president is welcome news. The news is more welcome than the claim by someone else (anonymously) that city council members deliberately steered clear of a recent meeting of HOA presidents on the Lookout Transfer Station. If true, that would go counter to the need for more outreach. Maybe the city council can afford to limit engagement with the chronic malcontents. But it can't afford to lose the neighborhood assocations.
The City of Richardson has a bond election coming up on Saturday -- $66 million for streets and alleys, parks and rec centers, fire stations and neighborhood vitality projects. The "yes" side says we need these things to keep Richardson an attractive place to live, work, shop and play. The "no" side says we only want these items, not need them, and we can't afford them in any case.
After the jump, another way to look at the election.
For the last several years, the City of Richardson has been defending itself from two lawsuits regarding, not eminent domain or taxes or even trash pickup, but how the city council conducts its meetings. One lawsuit charges the city with holding closed executive sessions prohibited by city charter. The city council implicitly acknowledged this (if not legally admitting to anything) by holding a charter amendment election in 2007, which passed, making the offenses alleged in the lawsuit moot today. The other lawsuit charges the city with unlawfully lobbying for passage of the charter amendment.
The lawuits have been making their way through the courts, slowly, as most such lawsuits do. In December, city attorney Pete Smith briefed the council, in open session about the status of the cases.
After the jump, an update.
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...
A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about a disturbing development in Richardson politics. The title was "Richardson at the Crossroads: Dialog or Pitchforks?" This is an update. The good news is that the ranks of the pitchfork-wielding villagers is still limited to a handful of bloggers and commenters on Internet forums. The bad news is that there's no evidence of outreach on the part of the city council to engage the moderate members of the public. After the jump, what you are not missing by steering clear of the blogs.
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".
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Dear Mr. Sowell,
Congratulations on your hire as the City of Richardson's first director of communications. Richardson is a fine place to live, work, and play. Improved community outreach by the city government can help ensure it remains that way.
After the jump, some unsolicited advice. (You'll get a lot of that.)