January 12, 2014

There were 3 posts published on January 12, 2014 (this is page 1 of 1).

Dogs in parks issue moved to committee

Last week, the Raleigh City Council moved the issue of restricting dogs from certain areas of parks to the Council’s Public Works committee. I was aware that might happen but don’t know what the committee might hit on that the parks board and its committees did not. We have carefully considered the issue, collected public feedback, and made sure all along to take our time to get it right.

Again, I feel the key to success here is to provide more dog-friendly areas, whether they be dog runs in existing parks or biting the fiscal bullet and ponying up for additional much-needed dog parks in our growing city. Part of the Parks board’s recommendation was to be tasked with studying where more dog-friendly resources could be added. I hope the Council will see fit to approve that.
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After loss of key doctors, WakeMed seeks to stabilize

I enjoyed John Murawski’s excellent health care story in today’s N&O. You should read it if you haven’t already.

One underlying theme I deduced from the story is summarized here:

“Hospitals have a possibility of providing you with a network of referring physicians, where you can sleep on a more comfortable cushion, knowing that you’re going to get a share of the market and referrals on a regular basis,” Lacin said.

Lacin also said working for Rex frees him and other doctors from money worries and lets them concentrate on practicing medicine.

This got me thinking. Could medical care simply not be a good fit for the so-called “free market?” Honestly? Doctors don’t want to hassle with the business side so they let someone else (i.e. hospital) deal with it and, before you know it, our medical costs are soaring.

What if we went to single-payer healthcare in America? It seems to me that the burden of business hassles could be taken on by the government just as easily as a hospital and the costs could be much less.

With its soaring costs, I think it’s fair to say the free market is failing the medical industry. One day Americans will wake up to this and join the civilized societies which value the mutual health of their citizens.

via After loss of key doctors, WakeMed seeks to stabilize | Health & Science | NewsObserver.com.

Century Drive Solar Farm

Century Drive Solar Farm (click to embiggen)

Century Drive Solar Farm (click to embiggen)

Now that the leaves are off the trees I’d been eyeing this solar farm near the Crabtree Boulevard exit of the Beltline. My daughter Hallie and I took a little time this afternoon to explore this installation.

According to the Raleigh Public Record story on it last year, the Century Drive Solar Farm was approved by the City Council in May 2013. At the time the property owners, J.T. Hobby and Son, stated that it could be 10 to 15 years before the land could support solar panels due to the land being a former landfill and in a floodplane to boot. Apparently they worked out some of the engineering issues because the panels have been present since the end of October, at least.

Raleigh Public Record says there are 4,000 panels here and the filing with the state public utilities commission [XLS] says the solar farm is 1 MW is size. Pretty cool to have a large solar installation in such a high-profile location!