Lost Opportunities

I've been overwhelmed by the costs of NOT acting (opportunity cost) lately. Here's a list of lost or potentially lost opportunities in our community:

• If Katrina Ryan is not appointed to fill Mark Chilton's seat on the Carrboro Board of Alderman, will that signify the last possible opportunity for bringing the northern residents into the community or will it be the last straw that makes them fight for years to change the community? Will we lose Carrboro through the disenfranchisement while trying to save it from Katrina's different way of looking at the world?
  
  
• If Chapel Hill doesn't move more quickly on creating a wireless network, will they lose the opportunity to telecommunication lobbists that want to stop municipal networks altogether?
  
  
• Is there any chance that the Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools can really improve minority student achievement now that they've enacted the requirement for passing end-of-course test in order to pass the course? Or have they further alienated students who already feel marginalized?

Downtown Wifi Update

Yesterday the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership Board of Directors voted to survey downtown business owners about their current provision/costs/use of wireless internet connectivity, their perception on customer demand for the service, the benefits, and the challenges of offering it as a town-supplied service.

I have four concerns with this approach:

1. Business owners are not the only stakeholders in downtown. Such a survey would omit the interests and perspectives of students, residents, and visitors. If we believe the decision to take action on a municipal network (in either direction) should be an inclusive process, then we need to survey everyone simultaneously, ensuring that the surveys are aligned with one another for planning purposes.
   
   
2. What happens if the business owners express their lack of support for the project? Does it get put on hold or is the town's technology committee then forced to move forward in opposition to the business owners?
   
   
3. We've talked this issue to death without providing compelling reasons for moving forward. Here’s my compelling reasons: a) Wireless should be undertaken to ensure regular & reliable access to broadband service, a basic need for participation in the political and economic sectors of our community. b) Wireless has been demonstrated to significantly improve the responsiveness of emergency services such as police and fire. With all the complaints about crime in downtown, how can we possibly consider a municipal network as a business amenity only? I do not support the creation of a municipal network just because it might bring more shoppers into downtown Chapel Hill.
   
   
4. Reliability on surveys requires some degree of common understanding respondents. Demographic questions provide a way of determining how understanding might vary among different categories of respondents. To be fair, the researcher proposing the survey will be adding demographic questions to the draft survey, but I don't believe we know enough about the downtown business owners understanding of wireless to determine what demographic factors may influence their responses. Does business size matter (number of employees, net income, etc.)? Current use of technology (backend system, basis for operation, nice-to-have)? etc. The only thing I know about this group is that, according to the news media, several of them share an assumption that they would be expected to pay for this nework, including deployment into adjacent low-income neighborhoods. That's a pre-conception that could significantly bias this survey. While I support the concept of internet access becoming a public utility (a necessity), there are many payment options that need to be publicly explored. Until we have some ideas for how the network should be designed (address based, mobile, combination), there can be no real understanding of upfront or maintenance cost except in comparison to current charges through Time Warner or one of the other telecomms.

Until we have a real plan for how to move forward, including information on different levels of service and payment options, ie product proposals, I do not believe a survey is the best first step. We need a needs assessment that begins with open-ended data collection methodologies, such as interviews, focus groups, etc. to determine the interests (need) and concerns of each stakeholder group. With that broad data in hand, then we could construct survey(s) that will provide us with more reliable information on how to structure services/products options. That is the data business owners, elected officials, and other stakeholders will need to make an informed decision on whether or not a municipal network is worth undertaking.

Wireless, Community Development & Sustainability

Evolution of the Network Idea
Two years ago the Chapel Hill Information Technology Committee began discussing a town network. At that time, we were focussed on laying conduit for future fiber that would support municipal services such as traffic signals, police and emergency services, transit and the town's Internet access. The intent was to reduce the town's costs for telecommunications while improving operational services.

Community Development
The IT Committee met with Council in October 2004 to discuss e-democracy. One of the concerns Council expressed about e-democracy was the digital divide. Will Raymond introduced the network issue to Council at that time by assuring them that we have the technical capability to provide Northside and Pine Knolls residents with free Internet access as an outgrowth of a network in downtown. Since that meeting, we have promoted the community development benefits of a town-wide network and for better or worse, it has superseded the previously promoted improvement of town services & reduction in fees paid to Time Warner. It appears that we've confounded community development (the social justice issue) and economic development (bringing new businesses & cost efficiencies into town). The community appears to be split on their willingness to fund the network as a community development project.

Sustainability
According to the Wikipedia, sustainability is a systemic concept, relating to the continuity of economic, social, and environmental aspects of human society. The Carrboro model (also known as StarBucks or free love model) of free roaming wifi service with bandwidth contributed by one or more business entities has become the only approach Chapel Hillians understand and/or are willing to discuss. It's the highly visible, local model so it makes sense from a cognitive perspective, but it's also frustrating. The possibilities are getting lost in complaints that coffee drinkers and poor people don't need broadband. Community development is economic development. School aged children need Internet access to do their school work. It's virtually impossible to apply for a job without Internet access. The high cost of rents in downtown could be offset through more affordable telecommunications. Town services could be greatly improved (and some automated). But instead, we debate whether or not poor people need broadband.

Current Status
As of yesterday, the Downtown Partnership is taking the lead on determining the viability of setting up a Chapel Hill Downtown wireless network. I have no details other than they will not be including service to Northside or Pine Knolls or improved town services in their investigation. I hope that decision is reconsidered. If not, the investigation will basically be determining whether the Carrboro approach will work for Chapel Hill. Some will be happy, but for how long?

Mobile Media
In Athens GA, the University and the Town partnered to create a wireless network called WAGz. Although it works in coffee shops, it isn't free and it was developed to serve as a research testbed for the development of new mobile media applications.

The Wireless Athens Georgia Zone (WAGz) lights the public areas of downtown Athens with WiFi (802.11b) connectivity. Anyone with a WiFi-enabled device can access information about Athens and web-based projects designed by NMI students. In the WAGz, people can send and receive a variety of text, audio, and video information.

But the WAGz really isn’t about wireless technology. The WAGz is a mobile media sandbox in which we want to discover the compelling applications for wireless. The WAGz provides us with a real-world research test-bed where we can explore the types of mobile media content that will drive the wireless industry.

Open Letter to Donna Brazile

Dear Ms. Brazile,

I appreciated your Washington Post Op-Ed on the rebuilding of your New Orleans home. Watching your home being devastated and your neighbors being sacrificed must have been a heartbreaking experience and you and the residents of New Orleans have my most heartfelt sympathy. I am proud that my state of North Carolina has been so generous in rushing to send aid and comfort.

However, before you fully embrace the President's beginning of an outline of a plan, I hope you will also consider the poor and ignored citizens in other parts of this country upon whose backs this rebuilding will occur. Where will the money come from to undertake this massive reconstruction? Precedence says it will come from human services. Who will profit from the rebuilding efforts? Precedence says it will go to large, ridiculously wealthy corporations. Are you ready to rebuild your home on the backs of the poor here in North Carolina? Are you ready to sacrifice future generations to even more staggering debt?

I too want to see New Orleans rebuilt, but the conditions under which that occurs must not take away from the poor, the aged, the already underserved elsewhere. I urge you to use your powerful voice to seek equity and justice for everyone as the plans for rebuilding take shape.

Sincerely,

Terri Buckner
Carrboro, North Carolina

Failure of Compassion

This is an outstanding pictorial timeline of Hurricane Katrina and the federal response.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/3/201947/4345

Other timelines

Bush's Disastrous Response: A Timeline http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/4/111017/0402

Timeline of Reactions to Katrina News
http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2005/9/3/161145/0263

Washington Monthly: Kevin Drum
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_09/007023.php

From dKosopedia, the free political encyclopedia
http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Hurricane_Katrina_Chronology


Think Progress:
http://thinkprogress.org/katrina-timeline/

A society is measured by how it treats the weak and vulnerable
George W. Bush, State of the Union, Feb 2, 2005.

The Big Boot, The Wall and The Mirror

This is an essay from Elisabeth Gleckler, Assistant Professor, University of New Orleans, Health Promotion Program. She evacuated to Baton Rouge before Katrina hit.

The Big Boot, The Wall and The Mirror
It is early in the school year and I should be setting up my students with internships and arranging for my students in health classes for their field experiences in one of the New Orleans public schools. On Saturday afternoon, I was supposed to attend the wedding of one of my favorite undergraduate students. Instead I am writing from a coffee shop somewhere in Baton Rouge with everything I own in my car and homeless. How I ended up here in dirty clothes and needing a shower instead of grading class assignments is story worth telling. This essay, my first reaction to Katrina, takes the form of a warning to the rest of the nation. As an educator I have a tendency to use mnemonics to help people retain lessons. So, here is my Katrina mnemonic: the big boot, the wall and the mirror.

First, the Big Boot
I take this lesson directly from anti-racism training by The People’s Institute in New Orleans. We live in a worldwide economic system of oppression. Deliberately, I do not use “United States” because with the way that modern economies and governments are constructed; this goes beyond national geographic borders. There is enormous wealth and power concentrated in the hands of few. The way to gain more money and power is by exploiting the powerlessness and poverty of the many. It used to be that we believed the American dream that anyone could succeed and, occasionally there is a freak of nature and a few people do rise to a level of control. By in large, if you are born in poverty you will stay there.

Even beyond the lack of access to opportunity, people are robbed of their vision of personal agency because of the predominate belief that the poor are in that state because they did something to deserve it; circumstances of the destitution be damned. I do believe in personal responsibility, but I also believe in the power of the environment and context. In a twisted way, a certain amount of poverty is good for business. Poor people means there is cheap labor. It has become irrelevant if those cheap workers are in the US or in Indonesia. Exploiting their destitution offers profound economic benefits to the powerful. The Big Boot is the economic structure hovering over the masses of us who do not have power – which is most of us, whether we recognize it or not.

In a disaster there is an additional boot - charity. How dare the people who are taking our charity ever have their own perception of our magnanimity! There are very clear behaviors that need to be acted out when charity is handed out and if you are receiving charity, those relationships had better not be violated. Never mind that the role of a civilized government is to step in to protect the individual when they are powerless. Ideally, people should expect that without having to beg or grovel.

New Orleans’ particular piece of the boot is an abandoned population who at minimum wage, truly and metaphorically, changed the linens of the people who came to New Orleans to gorge on food and drink until they threw up on Bourbon Street and made it to a street where residents didn’t even visit. There is a pattern of exploitation and the people left behind in Katrina had plenty of reason to act out, not that I approve of shooting or attacking anyone. The destruction of New Orleans is based on a long, complex and profound history of betrayal of public trust.

The lesson we need to learn from watching Katrina is that we need to wake up to the system and deliberately examine it without the fantasy of the American Dream or without thinking that this country is a functioning democracy that can operate without active oversight by the public. Labor unions are a good thing. Local politics closely observed by citizens is a good thing. Investigations into the motivations of public officials are good things. Investigations into the financial dealings of corporations are a very good thing. Not buying from corporations that take advantage of people is a good thing. Demanding a piece of the profits of industry to be returned to support the community in which they operate is more than a good thing. It is necessary.

The second point is our distance from the wall
Once, my brother tried to explain advance mathematics and chaos theory to me. Always the patient educator, he said it was like standing next to a wall. When you look at the view in front of it, all you see is disordered marks. When you step back a little you see that what is in your view is actually lines of something bigger. A little further back finds that it is not disordered scratches on the wall but a picture. With enough distance, what is rendered on the wall becomes a picture. In the case of Katrina, please step far to the rear to see that the picture is a repeating pattern at the global level.

New Orleans and the gulf coast have been your canary in the coal mine. It is us in New Orleans now; it will be you a little later. The water off the coast was 91 degrees as Katrina passed over it. Put a storm system over that heat and you are just pouring fuel into the tank of the hurricane. The wetlands that could have helped protect from storm surge are decimated because no one wanted to flood the wetlands with silt-rich water from the Mississippi River to keep the ratio of nutrients and water supporting wetlands vegetation. Real estate developers had laid down miles of housing tracts in the land that needed to be periodically flooded. Canals and pipelines had been dug, for oil and chemical companies, into the marshes which changed the flow of water and brought new salinity into tracts of marsh. Chemical companies released effluents and warm water. They cooled their plants with water from the aquifer and dumped it back out. For decades oil companies have reaped enormous profits from sucking oil from below the earthen plate that is the Mississippi delta as the land began to sink and the coast line receded. The present White House is lead by two ex-oil industry executives who have turned over consumer and environmental protections to the control of industry influenced policy wonks. This is about looting citizen control of government and letting business interests dominate over health and welfare of the public. And where is the leadership for the common man that we say is part of the American system of government? It is in the hallways of Halliburton.

And finally, they way we see ourselves, The Mirror
I watched the media coverage of Katrina in the houses of my friends. Until September 1, several days into the disaster, the only talking head who put a moment of deep reality into their commentary was Winton Marsalis, a man who is always astute about race and poverty. He talked about the desperation of people in New Orleans, indirectly saying, “What do you expect?” when the TV interviewer asked him about the rioting in the streets when social control collapsed. It took several more days for people to begin to think past the inflammatory images, to reflect upon the status of people left behind – figuratively and literally. Of course a rapper had to yell at the president on a telethon and a congresswoman had to threaten him with bodily harm before a little better analysis began.

The opposite of the stepping back from the wall is modern commercial television reporting. By dint of the technology, cameras only catch a tiny picture of the horizon and not smell, feeling, and only some filtered sound. The view is interpreted by talking heads who gain a direct benefit of inflating frightening and shocking images and stories. Add to this a cadre of people who earn their money and power by being seen in front of a TV camera talking about New Orleans without knowing the city or commenting about the situation without being there; having no training in disasters or in interpreting human behavior. It becomes a nasty gumbo of near-reality and manipulation.

TV makes people think they are really there, experiencing the event. One sees the image and it triggers a belief that they have an understanding of the issue. It is a dangerous mix of confidence builder and a profoundly small frame that is made smaller because of the interpreters who stand between viewer and the images. The stories come at us so fast that they can’t be processed and only some stories make the screen. It is clearly not reality yet it provokes strong emotions as if it were.

Many people have commented about the racism of the images and the media coverage. Sure there is institutional racism and clear cases of overt racism in the coverage. The color of the skin is a proxy identifier for oppression, poverty, and powerlessness. There is nothing inherent about the nature of skin color except that it has been western civilization’s visual cue to dehumanize the person in that skin for some form of economic profit. So, what TV producers have done in capturing images based on deeply imbedded racism is a reflection of our civilization’s overall pattern of brutalization. That’s not to make an apology for the disgusting coverage. One would think if they get paid the big salaries to be commentators and reporters they should have enough wits to see this clearly and earn their keep by actually offering some meaningful text.

But, the people who are in the frame need to keep many people watching so that advertising time is sold. The whole system exists to increase consumption of a lot of stuff that none of us need. One example was that in the midst of the first days of the Katrina TV coverage, there was an ad for an SUV. How close to the wall are we standing for that not to provoke outrage?

TV does not encourage us to step back and process the sad irony of global warming and big, fat cars that waste precious oil and a city inundated with water in the midst of a weakened wetland. I see lots of SUVs proudly displaying George Bush bumper stickers. The reflective moment does not make good TV, so we get “fair and balanced” “headline” news on tickertapes across the screen masquerading as useful information.

So, the wall holds the mirror and we hope, as in other times in history that the boot is ready to kick it.
When we bring these little lessons behind the mnemonics together, there is a profound warning. The Mayans in Central America had a great civilization. They suddenly imploded and disappeared as a dominant social force before the Spanish came to the “New World.” Recent theories point to an ecological disaster that finished their cities and political systems. We are no better than the Mayans and their fate will be our fate.

We can’t wait for the President of the United States to decide to accept a theory of global warming until it becomes economically convenient for himself and his friends. If he is blinded, then we need to take off his blindfold. We should be demanding stronger federal tax breaks and outright funding for non-oil technologies. We need to invest in public transportation and quit dicking around and use it. Forget the “death tax.” Tax the rich, they are good at making money and they owe it to the system where they made it. All that garbage you see on TV, turn off the tube and don’t buy it. You don’t need the newest junk to be a well-rounded and personally rich human being. Buying packaged goods from China? Well, don’t be surprised if you end up getting laid off from your job. Are you buying from a mega-plex shopping box store? If you end up having no viable local businesses, then you only have yourself to blame. Ever wonder what happened to local farms? Then purchase your food from people closer to the producer instead of massive markets. Hate the corruption in government? Then oversee it and get involved. Run for office, get on a committee. You should have more time to assure that it protects the interests of you and your children if you stop watching re-runs on TV. We have to turn the American capitalism around to operate farther from the wall, put the boot down and look in the mirror.

I really loved and hated New Orleans. People are lying or they are tourists if they say that they loved it without hesitation. Great art and music came from the depths of its poverty. The corruption was colossal and evil. When you worked there you have to have a special touch to get things done because people thought about things differently than in other parts of the country. You had to stop, watch and suspend judgment to learn the lessons that the city had to offer. As a professor in a state university located in the city, I had a lot of respect for my college students. Many were the first one in their family to go to college, most worked low paying jobs and had spouses and children on top of class and assignments. My heart aches for New Orleans. I already miss people and relationships and it has only been a week since Katrina hit as I write this. The thing that New Orleans had that I have never found anywhere else was a kind of “old school” combination of strong community, wry insight into humanity, awareness of oppression and racism, mixed with social irreverence and understanding of what is truly valuable in life. The streets stank because life sticks but it did not stop people from their lives and loves. There was really was no other place like this city and the people living there. The rest of the country may not yet understand the loss, but this city provided something irreplaceable. I hope you all take the warning.

Liberty v Freedom

After reading through the Drudge Report this afternoon, I decided to tackle Instapundit to get the conservative take on the feds poor performance in New Orleans. Got sidetracked by a book review of Rick Santorum's It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good.

The review says:

In Santorum's view, freedom is not the same as liberty. Or, to put it differently, there are two kinds of freedom. One is "no-fault freedom," individual autonomy uncoupled from any larger purpose: "freedom to choose, irrespective of the choice." This, he says, is "the liberal definition of freedom," and it is the one that has taken over in the culture and been imposed on the country by the courts.

Quite different is "the conservative view of freedom," "the liberty our Founders understood." This is "freedom coupled with the responsibility to something bigger or higher than the self." True liberty is freedom in the service of virtue -- not "the freedom to be as selfish as I want to be," or "the freedom to be left alone," but "the freedom to attend to one's duties -- duties to God, to family, and to neighbors."

Funny, but Santorum, Mr. Ultra Conservative, is sounding very liberal to me. Appears that the good senator is rejecting Reagan's belief that government is the problem, not the solution to our problems. But rather than embracing the communitarian stance of Hilary's It Takes A Village, it seems Mr. Santorum wants us all to have the freedom that comes from good governance, but ONLY if we fit the right profile.

This kind of freedom depends upon and serves virtue, and virtue's indispensable incubator and transmitter is the family. Thus "selflessness in the family is the basis for the political liberty we cherish as Americans." If government is to defend liberty and promote the common welfare, then it must promote and defend the integrity of the traditional family. In doing so, it will foster virtue and rebuild the country's declining social and moral capital, thus fostering liberty and strengthening family. The liberal cycle of decline -- families weaken, disorder spreads, government steps in, families weaken still further -- will be reversed.

There you go...what Santorum wants to conserve is the traditional family. While he escapes the precious individualism of Reagan and Bush, he just can't quite embrace the concept of liberty for all. He has reversed the cause and effect of traditional conservatives (less government = more personal freedom) by claiming that "If you shore up the family, you will strengthen the social fabric and ultimately reduce dependence on government."

A list of the government interventions that Santorum endorses includes national service, promotion of prison ministries, "individual development accounts," publicly financed trust funds for children, community-investment incentives, strengthened obscenity enforcement, covenant marriage, assorted tax breaks, economic literacy programs in "every school in America" (his italics), and more.

While I am thrilled to hear that Mr. Santorum believes in national service and economic literacy, I am troubled that he has absconded with liberal applications of liberty by impliciting promoting the paternalistic vision of family. I think I am more comfortable with less government conservatives. I wonder what he thinks will happen to us non-traditionals in his perfect vision of the future.

Poverty and Education

David Berliner is an educational researcher after my own heart. In his 2005 speech at AERA's annual convention, he explores the relationship of poverty to school reform.

Those who blame poor children and their families, like Herrnstein and Murray, or those who blame the teachers and administrators who serve those kids and families in our public schools, like Rod Paige, Jeanne Allen, Checker Finn, William Bennett, and dozens of other well known school critics, are all refusing to acknowledge the root problem contended with by too many American schools, namely, that there is a 600 pound gorilla in the school house.

The gorilla is poverty.

As educators and scholars we continually talk about school reform as if it must take place inside the schools. We advocate, for the most part, for adequacy in funding, high quality teachers, professional development, greater subject matter preparation, cooperative learning, technologically enhanced instruction, community involvement, and lots of other ideas and methods I also promote. Some of the most lauded of our school reform programs in our most distressed schools do show some success, but success often means bringing the students who are at the 20th percentile in reading and mathematics skills up to the 30th percentile in those skills. Statistical significance and a respectable effect size for a school reform effort is certainly worthy of our admiration, but it just doesn’t get as much accomplished as needs to be done.....Schooling alone may be too weak an intervention for improving the lives of most children now living in poverty.

While the poverty rate in Orange County is 14.1%, one of the highest in the state, our childhood poverty rate is much lower than that of our neighbors.

Locality	Child Poverty	ChildPovRate
Alamance	4,063	13.3%
Chatham	1,358	12.7%
Durham	8,556	17.2%
Orange	2,127	9.0%
Wake	13,275	8.6%

Berliner asks "Why do we put so much of our attention and resources into trying to fix what goes on inside low performing schools when the causes of low performance may reside outside the school? Is it possible that we might be better off devoting more of our attention and resources than we now do toward helping the families in the communities that are served by those schools? That would certainly be a competitive strategy for solving the problem of low academic performance if it is simply poverty (along with its associated multitude of difficulties) that prevents most poor children from doing well."

Good questions. He identifies housing prices, real wages, job creation and tax revenues as the community factors affecting child poverty rates. What is the relationship between those factors and poverty in Orange County? I'm going to try and get data from the two school systems and from the county economic development commission to create a better profile of poverty in Orange before the November elections. We need a realistic understanding of the relationship between affordable housing, wages, community services (including education), and taxes (including the proposed district tax) may impact overall poverty and child poverty in order to make informed decisions in this upcoming election.

Black Friday 2005

Today the FCC unanimously agreed to treat the high-speed Internet service, known as digital subscriber line (DSL), as an “information service,” which insulates it from many traditional telephone rules, such as requirements to lease network access to independent ISPs, such as Earthlink, AOL, etc. The move supposedly eliminates any 'unfair competition' with cable broadband since they were designated as "information services" in 2002. As part of this new decision, 9 months from now, DSL providers will no longer have to contribute 10 percent of their revenue into the Universal Service fund, a program to subsidize phone service in rural areas and the e-rate program.

OK, so now all broadband services will be classified as information services rather than telecommunication services. How does that affect the Ensign-McCain Free Market Telecommunications Framework Act of 2005? According to McCain's aide, his intent in sponsoring this bill is to make broadband service more universally available and that he doesn't support the provision within this bill that outlaws municipal networks. Certainly the amendment to the Telecommunications Act of 1996 is a ringing endorsement of municipal networks/universal access. And now this..

Consumers Union (CU) and the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) warned that today’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order restricting access of competitors to digital subscriber lines (DSL) will force existing independent broadband providers out of the market and drive up the price of high-speed Internet for consumers. ...

The FCC’s action today underscores the need for a competitive broadband alternative that does not depend on cable or phone lines—wireless Internet," said Kimmelman. "As the FCC shuts off competitor access to DSL and cable lines, it should free up airwaves to foster affordable wireless Internet offered by independent companies." HearUsNow.org

No more dialup? The only positive aspect of this decision is that it might help Chapel Hill and Carrboro move forward on developing municipal networks, sooner rather than later.

Municipal Wireless

For the first time in my life, I want to move to New York City--just to vote for Andrew Rasiej. He's running for public advocate on a platform of wireless (Wi-Fi) and cellphone Internet access from every home, business and school in the city. Thomas Friedman, in today's NY Times, quotes him as saying: "we can't trust the telecom companies to make sure that everyone is connected because new technologies, like free Internet telephony, threaten their business models." But it gets better. He is advocating for "civic photo-blogging - having people use their cellphones to take pictures of potholes or crime, and then, using Google maps, e-mailing the pictures and precise locations to City Hall." This guy understands the concept of e-democracy, separate and apart from digital government. On his blog Rasiej says: "Every day, thousands of civic-minded individuals and organizations in hundreds of neighborhoods selflessly work to clean up our parks, improve our schools, care for neighbors, and strengthen our communities. Yet, too often, our voices and concerns are not heard and our collective power is never felt, because city government is stuck in an old paradigm: elect one person and supposedly they will solve our problems."

It's interesting that so many of our local candidates are emphasizing their willingness to "listen" and "collaborate." Do they think their predecessors were unwilling? Maybe the challenge of being a public official is changing and we need to rethink the role (beyond just paying them a full time salary). Andrew Raseij says: "The public official or candidate will no longer just be the one who talks to the many or tries to listen to the many. Rather, he or she will be a hub of connectivity for the many to work with the many - creating networks of public advocates to identify and solve problems and get behind politicians who get it." To accomplish that, we need better municipal infrastructure that 1) provides town-wide connectivity, 2) ensures all citizens have easy, 24-hour access to a computer hooked up to the network, and 3) ensures that all citizens have the skills and knowledge needed to take advantage of the network. We need technology access to be as much a part of town infrastructure as access to telephones or drinking water. Right now, Laurin Easthom in Chapel Hill is the only candidate addressing this issue. Will others join in? Anyone from Carrboro interested?

Starpoint Development: Wastewater/Stormwater issues

Today's Herald-Sun and Chapel Hill News have articles on the fight against the Starpoint development. Both articles are focussed exclusively on Walmart. Unfortunately, if this becomes a fight only about Walmart, we could find ourselves having to accept another big box retail on the site. To me the traffic and environmental problems of building a large new retail space on the site is the REAL problem–regardless of whether its Walmart or Target or Costco that moves in.

The size of the proposed development clearly extends beyond the 20 (out of ~69) acres zoned for business. And even if they scaled plans back some, the facility's wastewater treatment spray field would still have to be located in sensitive watershed.

Since Chatham County doesn't have a centralized wastewater treatment facility, every new development going in outside of Pittsboro is building their own (smaller developments are using septic fields). The technology for spray systems is relatively safe if the field is properly sited (soil/drainage). However, over time, the systems must be well managed by experienced managers who constantly monitor performance and ensure regular maintenance. Since the Division of Water Quality doesn't have adequate staff to constantly monitor all the new facilities supporting Chatham's rapid development, I can't imagine why they continue to approve their construction.

This particular site drains into the Upper New Hope Arm of the Jordan Lake where there is a proposed federal mandate to reduce nutrient loads by 35%. While this center will not be adding point source discharge (if their system is properly sited and maintained), they will undoubtedly be contributing to nonpoint source (stormwater) runoff. For a facility this large, the probability of error in the siting, sizing, and construction of retention ponds is significant and if such an error occured, it would be Chapel Hill that has to deal with it (Morgan Creek).

Carolina Lily!

My Carolina Lily (Lilium michauxxi) is blooming! I didn't notice it when it walked through the garden early this morning. The downward bloom and it's small size doesn't make it stand out from the background. Thank goodness for the Japanese beetles. If I hadn't gone back out to pick them off the roses, I might have missed this bloom altogether.

According to Plant Delights, "From West Virginia south to Florida and west to Texas, Lilium michauxii can be found growing in dry open woodlands and occasionally in bogs. The 4' tall stalks are adorned with fleshy green whorls of leaves. In early summer, the stalks are topped with large orange flowers. Each downward-facing recurved flower is orange toward the tips changing to cream near the center. The petals are also heavily spotted orange-brown. When the bulbs first flower, each stalk will only produce one or two flowers, but as the bulbs enlarge, it is possible to have as many as six flowers per stalk. Lilium michauxii makes a nice colony thanks to underground rhizomes."

I was worried that the dry weather this summer would prevent a first year bloom, but true to it's native breeding, it survived. The pictures I've seen don't really do justice to this incredible bloom. No wonder it's such a popular traditional quilt pattern.

Blogging Teach-In

The Blogging Teach-In today was incredibly informative. How generous of these guys (Anton, Jackson, and Corey) to give so freely of their time and expertise. Anton started the workshop with a brief introduction to blogging terminology and features followed by a demo of the different blogging softwares. He did a great job of simplifying the technical terms for the small, but eager audience of non-techies. He should definitely consider teaching at some point. After Anton's intro, the group broke into small groups. Jackson helped me set up an RSS feed (actually, I found out I already done set it up, but didn't know how to make it visible or how to reference it) which was my initial purpose in coming to the workshop. Then he helped me set up the Smith Level Road documentary link through my navigation column. Thank you Jackson!

On my way out, I stopped and chatted with Ouida, an instructional technologist from DPI. She showed me some new instructional technologies that they are working with. The one I liked the best is geocaching, webquests using GPS.

I tried to show her the Smith Level Road documentary link and found it wasn'linking to Flickr so I went back over to Jackson who was helping Will Raymond with something. We fixed up my problem and in the meantime, Corey came over to show Will how he is using Google to create a graphic map of the home locations of candidates running in the fall election. Unfortunately, I can't find that link, but did enjoy playing around the with GIS map my neighborhood. This map shows just how close the proposed Walmart is to Heritage Hills. The Lee-Moore Oil Co land runs between Smith Level Road and Woodbridge on the east side of 15-501.

TV Dinners

Gerry Thomas, inventor of the frozen (TV) dinner, died in Phoenix AZ on July 18, 2005. In 1954, Swanson and Sons found themselves with 260 tons of unsold turkey after Thanksgiving. As the company searched for ways to make use of the turkeys, Mr. Thomas, a company sales rep from 1948-1970, was visiting the Pan American Airlines food kitchens where they were experimenting with a single-compartment aluminum foil tray as a way of serving hot meals inflight.

By 1954, television had moved from the black and white, limited programming for the wealthy to live, color broadcasts found in the average home. Although Gerry Thomas didn't own a television himself, he knew that more and more families were eating their dinners in front of televisions. Mr. Thomas, like Tess McGill in Working Girl, made an outside-the-box connection between the turkeys and television and changed our society forever.

"He convinced the Swanson brothers to make up, as an experiment, 5,000 frozen turkey dinners, complemented by corn bread dressing, bright green peas and sweet potatoes. This was a big gamble for Swanson at the time. Swanson employed a few dozen women armed with ice cream scoops to fill the trays. The women worked through the night. Thomas also designed a clever package that resembled a TV screen complete with volume and channel knobs printed on its front. The dinner cost 98 cents. It was bold thinking for a person who did not even own a TV set at the time.

"He reasoned that the dinners would sell as convenience items to housewives who were entranced by post-War, time-saving appliances. They could sell the frozen dinners to families accustomed to gathering around the new television sets to watch popular programs like I Love Lucy. The dinners could be cooked in 25 minutes at 425 degrees. Being fast and convenient, they fit nicely on a TV tray in the living room so diners didn’t have to drag themselves away from their favorite television shows.

"Just as the Swanson’s had greatly overestimated the number of turkeys for Thanksgiving of 1954, they now had greatly underestimated the demand for the new type of frozen dinner.

"In 1955, Swanson sold ten million of the frozen dinners. Of note, most people didn’t even own freezers so the dinners were bought and prepared the same day. Later in 1955, Swanson added fried chicken, Salisbury Steak and meatloaf to its line. Throughout the 1950s Swanson dinners were touted by public figures ranging from President Eisenhower to Howdy Doody." John Fraim www.symbolism.org

Jeff Einstein adds this commentary:

"Some social scientists might interpret the introduction of the TV Dinner as an unintentional precursor to the later emancipation of American women, at least from the kitchen. Perhaps. But I see something more: I interpret it as the beginning of our addiction to television, what happened the moment we began to ritualize our obsession with it.

The dinner table – an essential ritual of family life – all but disappeared for millions of American families over the next few generations. The original evening news – what was going on within our families and our neighborhoods – was suddenly replaced with a commercial network TV version that didn't care a lick about us, our families, or our neighborhoods. The fragmentation of the American family accelerated as the number of TVs per household increased; soon everyone was eating in front of their own televisions in their own rooms.

As our addiction to TV escalated, so did our appetites. What started as an innocent snack in front of the TV evolved into an all-you-can-eat buffet, and dinnertime soon extended straight through primetime to bedtime, nonstop for decades. We grew fat not only because we couldn't stop eating in front of the TV, but because we couldn't turn off the TV in the first place.

The demise of the dinner table, the subsequent fragmentation of family and community, and the ascent of obesity as a primary American health risk are just a few of the many unintended consequences that ensued once we ritualized our obsession with television. But addiction is all about unintended consequences, if for no other reason than the simple fact that no one ever aspires to become an addict."

NC Builders Lobby

According to the Statesville Record and Landmark the NC Home Builders Association lobbyists are once again working against the best interests of citizens.

House Bill 648 and Senate Bill 508 - dubbed the Exempt Builders’ Inventory - would exempt developers from paying property tax increases on the value of any improvements made in developing their land for up to five years.

The result could be a loss of more than $1.38 million in tax revenue for the county, local municipalities and fire departments.

The average citizen “will be paying higher taxes,” said Iredell County Tax Administrator Bill Doolittle.

Can our elected officials really believe statements like this from Paul Wilms, director of government affairs for the N.C. Home Builders Association, "the bill will ultimately benefit counties by making homes more affordable to first-time homebuyers. It will cost local governments in the short term, but that is insignificant compared to the contributions,” he said."

No wonder our local governments are in such financial straits.

Tazz and Lucky Girl

I'm taking care of a friend's pets for a few days, an adolescent cat named Tazz and an elderly parakeet named Lucky Girl (she appeared at the house one day a few years ago). Tazz is totally pissed off at having lost her nearly constant attention. So when I am there, she demands my full attention. Yesterday I needed to change the paper in the bird cage and knocked down a hanging toy in the process. When I reached into the cage to rehang the toy, Lucky Girl flew out. Tazz started jumping up in the air, Lucky was flying wildly around the house, and I was having visions of telling the boys that Tazz ate Lucky through my error. Finally trapped Tazz and shut her up in the bathroom and eventually caught Lucky (to much very loud yowling in the background). I won't have to admit my ineptitude to the boys now and Tazz came in to observe while I cleaned her little box. She likes to observe from the sink!

CAFTA

I was undecided about CAFTA until today's State of Things (my first call in!). Mike Munger, chair of the political science department at Duke University (an economist), claims that textile workers who currently make $40,000 will have to take lower salaries ($28,000 in his example) in the retail sector in order to save consumers money on a pair of jeans. My call-in question was whether anyone had done any studies to determine the cost to the COMMUNITY for the loss of the mill. In other words, what happens to the cost of services when those workers have less disposable income (reduced sales tax) and when migration away from the community reduces overall property tax revenues. Dr. Munger's response was that those types of studies need to be conducted but only AFTER CAFTA is ratified. I didn't get to hear the entire discussion so I'm not going to make any assumptions about the validity of Munger's argument. But I was finally able to decide that I don't support CAFTA and have written to David Price to say so. As much as I believe that American's should be helping Central and South America, Africa, and all the other third world countries, I cannot accept that we have to do so at the expense of our own people. I'm looking for references on enlightened foreign policy!

Economic Self-Interest & Wal-Mart

For years I have been talking to anyone who would listen about economic literacy. After reading an essay at Inequality.org though, I've decided I need a new term. Economic self-interest is what I've chosen. Between all the Wal-Mart and economic development reports I've been reading lately, I think its a term that applies to our local situation. I first heard 'economic self-interest' after the 2004 presidential election when the country's poor voted en masse for GW Bush. Then the term was used to question why people who fall into the lowest income brackets would vote for someone whose sole economic policy is tax cuts for the rich. Did their 'values' take precedence over their long-term economic solvency? Or is economics such an obscure discipline for the average individual that they make decisions without clear understanding?

Shopping at Wal-Mart or any other large (big box) chain store is an extension of the principle. On the surface you meet your needs for low prices, but when Wal-Mart's sheer size and low prices drive other stores out of business and your property tax rockets upward, are low prices worth it? When local retail shopping options decline, property taxes go up. If the Walmart is out of county, your property taxes go up due to loss sales tax receipts. Since Wal-Marts doesn't provide comprehensive health insurance (and none for older workers), its county tax payers who shoulder the burden through the county's medicaid bill. Then there's the environmental costs (stormwater) of all that impervious surface.

"It’s Wal-Mart in the role of Adam Smith’s invisible hand. And the Milwaukee employees of Master Lock who shopped at Wal-Mart to save money helped that hand shove their own jobs right to Nogales. Not consciously, not directly, but inevitably. “Do we as consumers appreciate what we’re doing?” Larrimore asks. “I don’t think so. But even if we do, I think we say, Here’s a Master Lock for $9, here’s another lock for $6–let the other guy pay $9.” (The Walmart You Don't Know)

Invasion of the leaf eaters

Japanese beetles have invaded my garden. This is the first year I've had them so I didn't start controlling them early enough. They are all over the hydrangeas and the cone flowers. Had to cut the rose mallow down it had been so badly chewed up. The wild rose was also in bad shape; I didn't cut it down completely but it got a pretty severe trimming. Unfortunately, I planted a rose of sharon tree a couple of years ago. I didn't realize it was an invasive at the time. It appears to be the biggest attractor. I'm seriously considering going back out and chopping it down but I'm afraid I'll disturb the roots of the adjacent peonies (transplants from my father's garden who got them from his father).

Open Meetings: questions and answers from the Attorney General's Office

Question 1. I've gone through as much as I can find on open meetings in North Carolina and do not find anything addressing the use of communication technologies other than conference calls and broadcast (video). Is there any current explanation on the use of email and/or listservs, blogs, etc. are used in conjunction with the open meetings law?

RESPONSE: Currently, there are no statutes that explicity uses the term listserv, blogs, etc as it relates to the open meetings law, however it does mention electronic means so that would cover that form of media.

Before getting into more detailed answer, let me review how a "public body" is defined under the open meetings law found in G.S. 143-318.9 et seq. In general a public body is any authority, board, commission, council or other body of state or local government that meets two conditions:

1. It must have at least 2 members, and
2. It must be authorized to exercise at least one of the following five functions: legislative, policy-making, quasi-judicial, administrative or advisory.

The law is triggered when there is an "official meeting" of a public body. An official meeting occurs whenever a majority of the members of a group meet - in person or by some electronic means, such as: conference call video conference, etc. in order to do any of the following: conduct a hearing, deliberate, take action or otherwise transact public business.

Deliberate, as I mentioned to you in our call, is to examine, weigh, and reflect upon the reasons for or against a possible decision, if a board receives a briefing regarding an item that amounts to deliberating as well because it connotes not only a collective discussion but also a collective acquiring of information on the basis of which it will later act.

As I mentioned to you during our phone call, the use of the blog or listserv for "meeting" to transact the bodies business in my opinion falls under the open meetings law and as such requires that prior to having these meetings you should comply with the notice requirements under the open meetings law.

Question 2. My expectation would have been that the listserv should be made available to anyone who wants to subscribe as means of compliance rather than shutting it down. To me that is more conducive with the concept of open government. The listserv is set to to archive all messages and post them to a publicly available website. Does that change anything?

RESPONSE: As I mentioned to you this morning, the open meetings law allows for people to attend the meeting, but it does not give them the right to address the public body or participate in its deliberations. The ability to subscribe as means to attend the public body's meetings via the listserv.

Question 3. The Manager did differentiate between using the listserv for distribution of materials and 'substantive' discussion. Is there an official definition of what constitutes 'substantive'?

RESPONSE: It is ok to use the listserv to send materials. For example sharing a news article or materials that will be used during the official meeting. If the materials that are being sent are in the form of a briefing, that is if it going to be used a part of the "deliberative" or "substantive" discussion, then the body should convene an official meeting to receive that briefing.

Question 4. If small groups of committee members have email discussions, are those email messages subject to the public records law?

RESPONSE: Yes. In the pre e-mail days these would have been treated as memorandum and placing it in a members mailbox.

END RESPONSES FROM AG office.

While the town has an email policy and a records retention policy on email for staff, the town council operational procedures do not address email or public records. According to David Lawrence, staff policies do not apply to elected or appointed officials. A little earlier today, I was accused of focusing too much time on bureaucracy and rulemaking. And yet, these are the types of rules and practices that undergird open government.