Follow-Up

There are 521 posts filed in Follow-Up (this is page 33 of 53).

Raleigh raises fees for youth sports, park rentals

In addition to the Mordecai article, I was also quoted in a separate Midtown Raleigh News article on the new parks fees.

Many parks fees had not been raised for several years, parks board members noted. For example, the citywide youth sports registration fee has been $12 since 2004.

“This is an opportunity to make adjustments that have been needed for a while,” said board chairman Mark Turner. “I didn’t feel they were necessarily drastic … The variety of programs and offerings are still a very good deal for the public.”

via Raleigh raises fees for youth sports, park rentals – News – MidtownRaleighNews.com.

Why Did the Feds Target Megaupload? And Why Now?

Gizmodo points out the obvious: if the US DOJ can bust Megaupload in New Zealand, why does it need SOPA/PIPA?

The feds—those tasked as intellectual property sentinels in particular—want more power to kill sites like Megaupload. It looks like they’re not going to get their way through legislation, so setting a prominent target ablaze in a very public and dramatic manner is a great screw you to SOPA’s foes.

If that’s the case, the Department of Justice should be gagging on irony: their swift destruction of Megaupload sans SOPA proves how gratuitous the bill was in the first place. This week has been the week of copyright warfare, but the decision to nuke the king copyright violator so spectacularly only goes to show how little the feds need bigger bombs.

via Why Did the Feds Target Megaupload? And Why Now?.

More Glorious Church

Seems I was wrong when I said the church has removed from its Facebook page the inflammatory post from Dr. Cooper. It’s still there.

Also, a Facebook visitor named Adul Siler posted this as a comment on the church’s page:

“thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself! Has anyone thought about it being 10:30 at night that it is not acceptable to have loud noise blazing in a residential neighborhood. Christians are not to do of this world but yet churches have service when it is clubbing time and when the freaks come out. Then get upset when folks complain. Not even is St Aug down the street immune from having late night functions. They must get a permit to have any loud or sport events at night. Remember that St Aug had to make their football field smaller due to noise restrictions. So all those false comments being made about the cops and all is basically making all of us christian folks look bad. How would you like it if someone blasted rap or even hard rock during service on Sunday morning? You’d call the cops too to stop all the noise. Watch how you make accusations for most of the advertising out there is not for MLK on that day but for what you all and who were in the church advertised the event for. Ya’ll making yourselves look bad and everyonre else not involved. Also remember 10 or so years ago that area was drug, prostitute, and crime infested being mainly a black neighborhood. The city and private companies cleaned that area up when they began working on downtown. The only racist thing that happen was they moved many of us out of the area which was blighted, cleaned it up and gave the white folks tax incentives to move in the new or refurbished homes.Doubt ya’ll be having any kind of service late at night if it was like it use to be in that area all the way to Shaw. Admit someone made a mistake in church,everyone got carried away, and things got noisy like in the past. Don’t be surprised karma might come your way while your preaching on Sunday morning and you hear loud music outside. Sometimes its not the devil but just plain ignorance. God bless and be an example for the Lord………..”

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The Big Thirst

By Tom Sulcer

The moment City of Raleigh Public Utilities Director John Carmen mentioned the book The Big Thirst during a recent CAC meeting, I logged onto the library webpage and requested it. It arrived yesterday and surprisingly I can’t put it down.

Water is fascinating. We take it for granted, but as author Charles Fishman says, water is becoming more scarce and it will soon create conflicts.

I’m just cracking the book now and I’m sure to have more to say about it, but if you’ve ever wondered what goes into making water appear at your tap you should read this book!

New location proposed for Mordecai Interpretive Center

As I hinted in my post from earlier this week, today the Raleigh City Council approved moving forward with the purchase of a home that may one day become the Mordecai Historic Park Interpretive Center. The plans were announced during the council’s Budget and Economic Development real estate report.

The plan is for the city to renovate the home of the late Arthur Danielson, who lived at the corner of Wake Forest Road and Cedar Street up until his death in April of 2011. The home dates from 1913, provides almost 5,000 square feet, fronts Wake Forest Road, and is directly adjacent to the park.
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Taking a u-turn on the one-way street

City of Raleigh Transportation guru Eric Lamb shared this story of one successful conversion of a one-way street to two-way in St. Catharines, Ontario. It provides hope that East Raleigh may also enjoy a renaissance once it banishes its one-way streets.

Two years ago, city crews went to St. Paul Street — the one-way spine of downtown St. Catharines, Ont. — took down the “no entry” signs, painted new lines and opened up the street to two-way traffic. According to planners, it would slow cars down, make the downtown more pedestrian friendly and spur retail development.

People, especially businesspeople, didn’t like it. And then they did.

“A prominent local businessman came up to me the other day and said, ‘I didn’t support it from the start, but this is the best thing you’ve ever done.’ ”

via Taking a u-turn on the one-way street | News | National Post.

Rick Santorum’s foggy thinking

Politico is taking a look at Republican Presidential nominee Rick Santorum’s past push to restrict the National Weather Service’s ability to get its data to the public.

Weather doesn’t show up as a top issue on Santorum’s presidential campaign website, and AccuWeather doesn’t appear in his 2012 campaign donations. But some of his opponents, such as the liberal website Daily Kos, have tried to revive memories of the 2005 legislation this week — including with headlines claiming inaccurately that Santorum had tried to “abolish” the weather service.

In fact, Santorum’s failed legislation would have left the weather service intact, although with significantly reduced ability to distribute its information directly to the public.

Critics of the bill say the legislation reflects an outdated worldview — one that says government data should flow through profit-making middlemen, rather than being released freely to one and all.

I used to work at a commercial weather forecasting company, so I’m aware of the commercial value of weather data. That said, I thought in 2005 that it was stupid to make the public buy data that it’s already paid for through its taxes and I still feel that way today. Santorum’s bill was about as dumb as they come, and the fact that he didn’t see any harm in hobbling one of the most valuable government services speaks volumes about him and the type of leader he is.

via Rick Santorum’s campaign could be clouded by 7-year-old attack on National Weather Service – Bob King – POLITICO.com.

Could you pass a citizenship test?

Remember when I suggested that all citizens who wish to maintain their citizenship take a citizenship test? I was being facetious, of course, but now the Christian Science Monitor asks its readers if they could pass the test and provides a handy sample test online.

Give the test a try here.

(For the record, I got a perfect score.)

More ink in the N&O

An alert reader pointed me to today’s edition of the Midtown Raleigh News, where an abbreviated version of my RCAC press release ran in the Notables section on page 2M:

Turner to lead citizens council

Mark Turner, outgoing chairman of the East Citizens Advisory Council, has been elected to lead the Raleigh Citizens Advisory Council. The RCAC is made up of the chairmen and other leaders of each of the 18 geographically based Citizens Advisory Councils in Raleigh. It provides a forum for the leaders to discuss citywide issues.

Turner, who lives in the Bennett Woods neighborhood, became involved in the East Citizens Advisory Council after he attended the Raleigh Neighborhood College in 2008. The series of classes is sponsored by the Community Services Department to inform residents about the work of city government and how they can have a role.

Turner also serves as chairman of the City of Raleigh Parks, Recreation and Greenway Advisory Board.

I’m glad they mentioned Raleigh Neighborhood College, too. Hopefully other folks will be encouraged to step up and do great things for the city.