Wednesday, October 19, 2005 

By The Time I Get To Arizona

I'm countin' down to the day deservin'
Fittin' for a king
I'm waitin' for the time when I can
Get to Arizona
'Cause my money's spent on
The goddamn rent
Neither party is mine not the
Jackass or the elephant

--Public Enemy


2 week sojourn out west to deal with family business. I'll miss the wrap up to the Mayoral campaign and probably will not have access to a computer for most of the trip, hence no posts. Not that anyone but the spam artists are reading this anyway.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005 

Quotable #1

I collect quotes from novels, non-fiction articles, song lyrics, poems etc. (Well, not so many poems, I'm a prose kind of guy.)

Anyway, I will periodically post some of my favorites.


"No! You're wrong. I'm not a troublemaker. I'm a hellraiser. And there is a very large difference between the two. Troublemakers grow up to be priests and politicians and social reformers. They are always meddling in other people's lives. Hellraisers don't meddle. They rage and roar, and they celebrate life and mourn its shortness. Hellraisers destroy only themselves, and they do it because they love life too much to fall asleep."

--Will Ferguson, Happiness

 

Reconciling Efficiency With Humanity

A very interesting New York Times article on the way Mayor Bloomberg approaches the business of government.

Some of the ideas are applicable to our little town, other parts are an "only in NYC" deal.

The idea of running a city like a business has been the cornerstone of many a new officeholder, even our Mayor Driscoll. I guess, its just a little different when the business you come from is a bar rather than the world's largest financial information firm.

Bloomberg, like Driscoll, put a lot of faith in statistical analysis as a way of running an efficient government. NYC in fact developed the concept of computerized databases coupled with strict accountability for meeting determined goals--under Guiliani's first police chief. Comstat has been the model for all that has followed, even our Syrastat.

This is, of course, the modern-day equivalent of the war between the good-government progressives and the ethnic Tammany Hall-type patronage machine. Bloomberg has the added ability to set the modern campaign structure on its ear. He doesn't have to curry favor with ANYONE in order to get contributions to keep the machine running. He finances all his campaigns out of his own pocket.

While the article mentions that this has led to a remarkably graft-free administration, it also creates a bit of a closed-loop atmosphere. Bloomberg doesn't need anyone's money, sometimes that also means he doesn't get a wide range of opinions either.

To me, that is the inherent tension in local government. The bloodless efficiency of statistically planned government is definitely appealing to the yuppie policy wonk in me. I'm right and here's why I'm right. Here's my ten-point action plan, complete with implementation guidelines and complete statistical documentation.

Too much of that and you become divorced from the people you are actually governing, most of whom have much less of a connection to the world of statistics and policy. The warp and woof of real life includes crazy characters, leaps of faith and intuition--things that do not appear on a spreadsheet.

The ethnic machines of the past may have been guilty of graft, but they also accomplished great things--building large cities and dragging millions of citizens into the mainstream of our culture. Politics was a participatory sport. You need a job, you pass petitions in your neighborhood during the election. The machines inspired great loyalty and pride--James Michael Curley in Boston won election from a jail cell. His motto was also "uplift the race" and became symbolic of Irish pride in a city that treated most of his compatriots as little more than serfs.

My desire has always been to combine the best of both worlds, to reconcile the efficiency with the humanity. You need both to govern effectively.

Monday, October 17, 2005 

I'm Schroeder? I Hate Beethoven!

According to this online quiz:

Schroeder
I'm Schroeder!


Which Peanuts Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Of course, everyone wants to be Snoopy and is afraid they'll be Charlie Brown. I guess Schroeder is an acceptable alternative. But, I'm not so quiet and artsy as the quiz makes me out to be.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005 

Forget Destiny, WiFi & Cheap Heat Will Bring Us Prosperity

William P. Barrett wrote a very interesting piece in Forbes magazine in 2000 called "Willis Carrier's Ghost." The article pointed out that while "much of America practices tax-driven renewal schemes . . . few places have woven the tactics more into their social and psychic fabric than Syracuse." It also clearly pointed out that this "addicting largesse" (over $2 BILLION in the five years before 2000) has not benefited our community.

Being a business magazine, Forbes of course talks about the punishing tax climate faced by businesses in Central N.Y. However, it is interesting to note that they do not ride the usual Rebublican hobbyhorse of tax/spend liberalism, but rather lay most of the blame on tax incentive programs.

The money quote:
"Contributing in no small measure to the high tax rate is the huge economic development program. A stunning 60% of all Syracuse real estate is tax-exempt, tax-abated or otherwise not pulling full weight, so the taxpayers who have not wangled a deal get hit hard."

It's time to flip the equation. We compete with other localities for businesses by handing out tax breaks by the millions, slashing our tax base and our ability to provide the public services that make a town liveable. Instead, Syracuse should invest in itself and make people want to locate here. The backlash against municipal services such as wireless internet shouldn't stop municipalities from investing in public services that will attract people to the city and make everyone's lives better.

Besides wireless internet, I see a real need to create a municipal power company, something that Solvay has done locally. Provide attractive services, create new jobs for municipal workers and entice businesses and homeowners with reduced costs. WIN, WIN, WIN.

For the naysayers and people ready to call me a communist--look at the job done by the Syracuse Water Department. It takes a basic need of the community, employs local folks to manage its distribution and takes advantage of a wonderful natural resource to provide a reasonably priced service of very high quality.

Monday, October 10, 2005 

Southside Story--The Same Pigs At The Trough

If this story weren't so sad, I'd be laughing myself sick. Pork barrel money from Sen. Hoffmann is returned because they can't find legitimate businesses to receive economic assistance. The same porkers are at the trough--Walt Dixie, Mike Atkins, the MDA even got a taste of this money. These people go out and get money for their own pet projects, for their own friends and business associates. Some of the businesses were so laughable, that even NY State wouldn't cough up the cash.

I work on the Southside and live on the eastside, about five minutes away. We have real needs and real businesses that could have benefitted from this assistance. But who knows how to apply, where to apply and what it takes to put together a real plan? The usual suspects feel that the Congels and Bragmans and the guy who tried to steal the whole Barge Canal can be crooked--where's our taste?

The Southside--fucked again!

Friday, October 07, 2005 

I Will Work For Access


I Will Work For Access
Originally uploaded by Phil At Sun.




If you see any of these mayoral candidates, remind them that they all promised to work for increased funding and construction of accessible housing for the disabled. Dig the hardhats. (taken at the Mayoral Forum on Disability Issues on October 6th)

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