This sounds familiar.
Here in "da Gump", Fun-gomery, AL, there's a minor ruckus over downtown.
The Retirement Systems of Alabama (creators of the R.Trent Jones Golf Trail!) want to build a nice new tower, where there was a derelict old judicial building. Let 'em, I say -- what, someone was using that space...? You were planning to build some livable lofts or condos there, maybe...?
We have wifi near the center of downtown. If only the homeless people at the bus stop had need for wifi.
I really enjoy reading your blog, it always has great insight. But I am very frustrated with the media’s lack of questions to the presidential candidates about global warming. Now that it is down to just a few candidates I would think that this would be a bigger issue.
Live Earth just picked up this topic and put out an article ( http://www.liveearth.org/news.php ) asking why the presidential candidates are not being solicited for their stance on the issue of the climate change. I just saw an article describing each candidate’s stance on global warming and climate change on earthlab.com http://www.earthlab.com/
articles...Candidates.aspx . So obviously they care about it. Is it the Medias fault for not asking the right questions or is it the candidates’ fault for not highlighting the right platforms? Does anyone know of other websites or articles that touch on this subject and candidates’ views? This is the biggest problem of the century and for generations to come…you would think the next president of the United States would be more vocal about it.
I'm not from B'more and don't want to sound like an ignorant fool here, but I am a big fan of greenspace because, unfortunately, where I live there is none to enjoy. This is the first time however I have heard of such an ambitious idea. I assume it would be financed through a general fund as opposed to property taxes, and administration would be through whatever B'more calls its Parks and Rec division. As for actual security...I imagine it would be a combination of (unarmed) park security and city police?
Have you heard of the Budgeting For Outcomes approach? Its a strategy that was first used by the state of washington and has since spread to other states and municipalities, including Los Angeles.
In a nutshell, BFO emphasizes building budgets around what residents value as long term outcomes for their community. This is a radical departure from traditional budgeting and "performance" based budgeting, and one which, in theory, I support. If the city used such an approach, I would think they would have to incorporate the opinions of everyday city residents in order to determine if the one park idea truly is something that residents would support and be willing to finance, as opposed to just being another fluffy idea by some liberal-elitist dandies. (OK that last sentence was a bit catty...)
Does anyone know of other websites or articles that touch on this subject and candidates’ views?
I am also frustrated. Most illuminating to me are the endless droning about corn-based ethanol (which is horrible in my opinion). There was an article in the wapo a few weeks back about the candidates' stances on nuclear, which is in my opinion the 900 pound gorilla.
i love the show The Wire, and i wonder how fictional it is, and how many real issues are in the scripts... when i think of baltimore i always think of mencken, john waters, and YOUR BLOG! 
The problem with public spaces being misused is generally a problem with lack of public spaces. I lived in South Scottsdale for some years. This is a heavily Hispanic neighborhood that, while not ghetto, is pretty darn close. We have a big-ass greenspace slicing right down the middle of the neighborhood, plus a gigantic thousand-acre park at the end of the greenspace. Guess what -- it was full of roller bladers, skateboarders, bicyclists, and thousands of Hispanic families spread out all over the place holding big rollicking family picnics, with none of the nonsense that you'd expect from a big urban park.
The deal is that there's just so friggin' *much* of the park that the thugs and gang bangers gathered around one small part (the basketball courts), and left the rest of it alone. Oh sure, we had the homeless bums taking up the occasional park bench, but they were for the most part harmless, and they didn't seem to be interested in shooting up in the park restrooms or anything harmful so (shrug). There was just so *much* of the damned park that the bad guys just couldn't fill it up.
That's how you deal with misuse of public space -- you make just so *much* public space that even if the bad guys wanted to, they couldn't occupy it all. You put a rollerblading and bicycling trail down the middle of it, you put facilities like basketball courts and skate parks and frisbee golf and soccer fields and such all around, and it just fuckin' *works*. I know it does, because I've seen it.
Now, granted, South Scottsdale/North Tempe, as rough as it can be, is no Baltimore, a city which has entire neighborhoods where the cops won't go short of platoon strength with AR-15's at ready. But then, South Scottsdale is a lot better than South Scottsdale used to be since they built the greenbelt, so maybe it's a field of dreams thingy where if you build it, the yuppies will come and gentrify... crap, that's why *I* was living there, for cryin' out loud. I had decided I wanted to live near one of those parks (Papago Park or the greenbelt), and made it happen.
Parks. They're a good thing. And the more, the better -- one vacant lot with swingsets in it *ain't* a park, that's just a place for the homeboys to stand around looking for trouble.
-Badtux the Parks Penguin
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