Politics

Politics

There are 1,050 posts filed in Politics (this is page 38 of 105).

Bringing the jobs of yesterday to Raleigh

Mary_Ann-Jobs_of_Tomorrow-small

This made me laugh. I got this campaign postcard in the mail from my city councilor friend, Mary-Ann. It says she’s “bringing the jobs of tomorrow to Raleigh today.”

Well, not quite. While Mary-Ann has certainly worked hard to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in Raleigh, these jobs won’t be “computer programmer” jobs because that job title fell out of favor about two decades ago. Nowadays the wizards who do this work are called “software developers” or, even more commonly, “software engineers.” And good luck trying to find even these titles in a newspaper’s help wanted section, because no one puts job listings in newspapers anymore. Geeks go to LinkedIn, Monster.com, CareerBuilder, Indeed, or Craigslist to find jobs now.

Aside from these quibbles, though, I do applaud Mary-Ann for her work in helping increase the geek population in Raleigh. Geeks make everything better!

N&O endorsements

Today’s N&O listed its endorsements for city council. While I agree with most of them, I have to wonder how the N&O could fail to endorse incumbent councilor Randy Stagner.

Randy has worked very hard as a councilor. He may be the one most likely to show up at a meeting, whether it be a community meeting or otherwise. As the Parks board liaison for the past two years, Randy has showed up more frequently to Parks board meetings than any other city council liaison I can recall since I began serving. He takes his work very seriously.

One of his passions is transportation issues, passion for which we are in desperate need of here. He is a cyclist who frequents our greenways. He also spearheaded the creation of the Greenway Volunteers program, putting over 70 citizen volunteers to work monitoring our greenways. This program was his initiative, and it has helped Raleigh avoid the kind of crime that sometimes occurs on Durham’s American Tobacco Trail.

Randy also took up the issue of Sandy Forks Road, a District A street that’s long been in truly abysmal shape. Through his efforts, bond money is being secured to give this road the attention it has long needed.

Randy’s not beholden to special interests. He’s a retired Army colonel who has a lifetime of public service experience. Has he made a few rookie mistakes? Certainly, but overall he’s done a fine job and deserves another term.

On the other hand, Randy’s opponent is an attorney for real estate developers. He has a poor grasp of the issues, whether it be the city’s Unified Development Ordinance, how the parks system works, and other issues. His service on the council while working his day job would almost certainly be a conflict of interest. In short, he would be a train wreck. How the paper’s editorial board could give him the nod is beyond me. I worry that Colin Campbells’ less-than-stellar reporting has tainted their judgment.

Election? What election?

On my way to work this morning, I was startled to see election signs along Wade Avenue, signs urging passage of the transportation bond. There’s no reason I should’ve been startled, since Raleigh’s municipal election is less than two weeks away, not to mention our family went to a political fundraiser for the mayor last night. But I was startled, and it occurred to me that the reason I was startled is that I’ve seen precious few political signs this election cycle.

Is it voter apathy? Is it because so many incumbents are returning to city council? Is there no drama in this election? You can certainly find signs in the yards of all the true believer, hard-core followers of politics but the other 90% of people don’t seem to be flying the political flag this year. At least for the municipal elections.

I don’t think I can recall a city election that’s been this quiet in all the years I’ve lived in Raleigh. It’s odd.

Police: Man wanted in Raleigh museum break-in surrenders :: WRAL.com

Some dude broke into our favorite state museum early Sunday morning and made a mess. Fortunately for him, he turned himself in before I could find him. You do not mess with the Turners’ favorite museum.

One question I have about this incident is where was the State Capitol Police? Shouldn’t they be regularly patrolling this and other multi-million-dollar state resources? Would it be too much to ask that our cheapskate Republican legislature properly fund its state police resources so they can fulfill their obligations?

These are state resources. Why does it seem that Raleigh Police always has to bail out the state?

Raleigh, N.C. — A man caught on security video breaking into the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences early Sunday has turned himself in, State Capitol Police said.Police Chief Glen Allen said Joshua Matt Pace, 23, of Raleigh, turned himself late Sunday in after photographs from the security video were widely shown by the media.

via Police: Man wanted in Raleigh museum break-in surrenders :: WRAL.com.

NSA job rejection letter

My NSA job rejection letter

My NSA job rejection letter

I was reminded I had this scrap of paper today after reading week after week about the NSA. It’s a polite job rejection letter I got from the NSA in 2001, after I offered to dust off my security clearance and help catch some bad guys. I find it amusing now, now knowing just how far off the mission the NSA has wandered since then.

Hallie’s IMatterYouthNC video ad

Frank Eaton films Hallie

Frank Eaton films Hallie


Friday afternoon, we spent a few hours with Raleigh documentary filmmaker Frank Eaton at the N.C. State Arboretum. Frank volunteered to make an informational video for Hallie’s IMatter Youth NC climate-change march she’s organizing for Sept. 28th in Raleigh. Along with our friends the Maugers, we set up a shooting location among the greenery of the arboretum while Hallie recited her lines for the camera.

Frank is an expert videographer and a fun guy to be around. He really connected with the kids, too, making it a fun experience.

The video came out beautifully and Hallie’s climate change rally is quickly generating attention. We hope the momentum continues to build through 28th!

If you’d like to know more, check out the IMatter Youth NC website. And if you’d like to look good on camera, check out Frank’s Bully Documentary Company.

Dogs in parks

This month, the Raleigh Parks, Recreation, and Greenway Advisory Board (PRGAB) votes on a proposed ordinance prohibiting dogs from certain areas of parks. There are plenty of proponents and opponents for this new ordinance and it’s been difficult finding the right balance.

One of the PRGAB’s committees, the Greenways and Urban Trees Committee (GWUT), is recommending the ordinance be passed in its entirety. Dog owners have pleaded to continue being able to use athletic fields to exercise their dogs.

Everyone agrees that Raleigh has a shortage of dog parks. Until we can add more, I think it’s fair to make allowances for dog owners who have no other place to go. Therefore, rather than recommend restricting dogs from certain areas of all city parks, I will recommend the board allow for staff to allow dogs on fields where posted signs specifically allow it. As the city phases in more dog parks, we can move dogs to those parks and off athletic fields.

Incidentally, I had forgotten the extent of the role I played in bringing this about. A friend in the Oakwood neighborhood had a frightening encounter with an unleashed dog in Oakwood mini-park in April 2012 and it was I who brought it to the attention of Parks staff, who promptly added it to our work plan:
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N&O still miffed about closed sessions

I sure do wish the News and Observer would let the Raleigh City Council do its due diligence in hiring a city manager. Saturday’s front-page teaser about a closed session last week made me mad:

nando-front-page-council-blurb-2013-09-07

McFarlane holds closed City Council session

Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane presides over a non-public session that raises questions about compliance with the state’s open meetings law.

Um, no it doesn’t. It pertained to the city manager hiring process and the mayor was correct in calling for a closed session.

I’ll say it again: making job candidates public puts them in a precarious position with their current employers. Raleigh has had dozens of candidates respond to the city manager listing. Each of them might be fired from their current job if word got out that they were looking.

I’ll say another thing again: if the media expects city officials to respect the parts of Open Meetings that benefit them, they must also respect the parts of Open Meetings which allows city officials to conduct their personnel procedures in private.

Hiring a city manager is the most important decision a city council can make. The city manager is only one of two direct reports to the council. Why can’t the News and Observer leave the city council alone and let them pursue the best person for the job?

Top teachers hitting the road

I heard an alarming story last week. A teacher was discussing recent interviews she had conducted of potential new teachers. When asked “why would you like to teach at our school,” the job candidates could only muster lame responses such as “because it’s close to my house!” The teacher was dumbfounded that these people couldn’t even come up with a useful, halfway-convincing response.

What seems to be happening is that the good teachers are heading out the door after one or two years, discovering they can get paid twice a teacher’s salary in the private sector. Taking their place are often teachers who aren’t as bright or as capable. Where does that leave the education of our children?

If our governor and legislative leaders like to harp about running government like a business, they should remember the first rule of hiring: if you want top talent you have to pay for top talent. If our state leaders want North Carolina to be competitive, we should pay our teachers a competitive wage and not have our teacher salaries near the lowest in the nation.

The future prosperity of our state rests on the education we provide to our children. The mistakes we are making now will haunt us in the years to come.

War is so last decade

America & Not America. This sums it up.

America & Not America. This sums it up.

Congress and the President are having a tough time drumming up support for bombing Syria. Locally, an informal Triangle Business Journal poll had 79% opposing war to just 21% supporting it.

One of my Facebook friends noted this:

Interesting that adamant left- and right leaning friends are posting the SAME photos & links regarding Syrian intervention. Refreshing change to see harmony! Wonder what impetus is bringing us together – is it expense, not wanting to intervene in another country, more pressing issues at home, or…?

I think a decade of never-ending war in the Middle East kind of sapped Americans’ enjoyment of the thing. I think we as a country are starting to question the utility and effectiveness of bombing as a foreign policy. Seeing Americans from both sides of the political spectrum reach this conclusion gives me hope that maybe we have turned the corner on the all-war-all-the-time mentality that has gripped this country for the last 25 years.