The shifting sands of food deserts

There was much hand-wringing among Southeast Raleigh residents when Kroger recently announced the imminent closing of two of its grocery stores in the area, citing disappointing sales. What many folks don’t know is that one of the stores that many now turn to for their groceries was also on the verge of closing just a few years ago.

The shopping center that the Raleigh Boulevard Food Lion occupies was once plagued with crime. Residents were getting mugged in the parking lot, sketchy individuals were hanging out, stores were struggling, and there was zero investment in the shopping center from its owner. Inside the grocery store, more food was walking out than money was going in. Something had to be done.
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Walking away from gas pumps

As I stopped by Costco’s gas station to fill up this afternoon, I noticed a woman in front of me put the pump nozzle in her car and then get back in her car. I can’t recall ever seeing a man do this. I suppose some women get chilled while they’re waiting for their tank to fill.

Getting back into the car can result in women getting warmer than they anticipated. There have been some reports of gas station fires apparently sparked by static electricity that built up when the driver rubbed against the car seat. Here’s video from one that happened in Oklahoma City this past January. Fortunately no one was hurt.

Publishing gun owner addresses

I’ll never understand why some gun owners get bent out of shape when someone posts the addresses of gun permit holders. It’s a public record, after all. Some gun owners defend their right to bear arms by saying their guns somehow “keep the government in check,” but the government already knows who has guns, so what’s the big deal?

And just what harm do gun owners think it will do to have their address listed? Do they think that it will somehow make them a target for burglary? Do you know of any crooks dumb enough to break into the home of someone that they know is packing heat? Isn’t that a bit suicidal?

There is already a ton of information out there on everyone. Everyone is in someone’s database, whether it be voter records, driver license records, criminal records, tax records, real estate records, credit records, medical records, travel records, credit card records, customer loyalty records, utility records, and on and on and on. Hell, some of us even give away more information by writing blogs.

Letting people know that you own a gun doesn’t make you any less safe, I probably makes you safer. Posting the info of those who point to already publicly-available information – doing everyone a favor by reminding us how documented our lives already are – only makes gun enthusiasts look petty and vindictive. That’s not the image gun owners should be trying to cultivate.

Giving the gift of music to Gates County


As I walked out of my son’s piano recital at Ruggero Piano last month, a colorfully-painted piano, decorated with pencils, caught my eye. A sheet on a nearby music stand carried an explanation:

My name is Arnav Subramanya. I am asking for your help in obtaining a new acoustic piano for a rural elementary school in Gates County, North Carolina.

Last year my brother performed with a group at several elementary schools in the eastern counties of our state. He came back with horror stories of elementary schools which thought that a 51 key casio with no pedals and no speakers was a piano. I doubt very much that the students sitting on the gym floor 15 rows back even heard the music being played!

I decided to do something about improving this situation. I can’t fix our country’s budget deficit; but with your help, I can change the musical lives of 1500 elementary school children in one district. To achieve this goal a fund has been set up at Ruggero Piano. 100% of all money donated is going towards the purchase of a studio piano, to include delivery, 2 years of tuning, and a “truck”/dolly for the piano to sit on.
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Scrooge and Santa (On the Martin Report)

Writing in Indy Week, Thad Williamson sums up my thoughts on the Martin Report.

If the idea of the Martin Report—at least this version of it—was to close the book on the UNC academic scandal, clearly it has failed. Internal campus critics such as history professor Jay Smith as well as the News & Observer editorialists have been quick to point out that the report simply doesn’t investigate in any detail the question of whether athletes benefitted primarily or disproportionately from the suspect courses in the African and Afro-American Studies departments. Because this iteration of the report (a folllow-up is promised for next month) didn’t dig into all the hard questions, it’s hard to see why we should accept former Gov. Martin’s conclusion that this is simply an academic scandal.

via Scrooge and Santa (On the Martin Report) | Triangle Offense.

Golden age of comics

During this past weekend’s joint family effort of cleaning our playroom, the kids discovered my book of Calvin & Hobbes comic strips. Before long there were peals of laughter ringing out around the home, followed by insistent requests that I find my “other” (nonexistent) Calvin & Hobbes books. Soon my collection of Bloom County comics joined C&H, along with a Dilbert book I own. To my delight and amusement, my kids got the humor instantly.

This was all such a happy scene that it was sad that I felt compelled to explain how the comics page of the newspaper used to be worth reading. I would say the 70s and the 80s were the high point for comic strips. We had Peanuts (fresh, not recycled), Ziggy, The Far Side, Bloom County, Doonesbury, Calvin & Hobbes, and Shoe. I was also a fan of the late North Carolina cartoonist Doug Marlette and his strip, Kudzu. As for Shoe, I believe I already told the story of how I once stalked cartoonist Jeff MacNelly as he shopped in the hardware store where I worked. He was a good sport, though, and humored me with an autograph that I treasured.

I know I’m old and frequently chase kids off my lawn, but I just don’t think today’s comics measure up. Still, I’m happy that my kids can enjoy the same comics that kept me entertained as a kid. That’s how you know something is a classic.

Downtown Raleigh at night

Downtown Raleigh at night (courtesy of NCDOT)


Earlier this year I actually found a photograph of downtown Raleigh that like better than my own. The NCDOT took this beautiful photo in December 2011 and tagged it with a Creative Commons license. This allows the photo to appear freely just about everywhere. If that wasn’t enough, its Flickr page also lists the exposure information used to take it. Thus, I can go out and take a photograph just like it, which I might do Friday or Saturday afternoon.

Trading parking fees for tolls?

This week a new section of the Triangle Expressway (TriEx) opened, leading to Holly Springs and Fuquay Varina. The tolls for a ride on the TriEx are a few bucks each way.

I got to wondering today if one of the attractions for a company locating in RTP is the abundant free parking. Companies might think that amounts to a better deal but then someone has to build bigger roads to serve RTP commuters and someone has to pay for those roads. Up until the TriEx, all of us taxpayers paid for roads. Now those who use the TriEx will pay for it, and those tolls add up.

It seems to me that it’s all around cheaper to locate in an urban setting, where the infrastructure is already equipped to handle things. Sure, no one likes to pay parking fees but what about the time wasted sitting in traffic, and the tolls that accumulate? Aren’t RTP commuters trading their parking fees for tolls and wasted time?

World didn’t end?

So it looks like the Mayan calendar is going to come up short and the world isn’t going to end today after all. I’m kinda glad.