Between having too much to comment on, and internet issues this morning, I decided to go for another round up . . . moving daze, city not always friendly to work with, tasers, open carry nutters, Edgewater, comment schizophrenia . . .
MOVING DAZE
So, I’ve done (one, two) three posts on Moving Daze, part four today. Alders in the downtown area are busy reminding people the trash will be picked up every day (except Saturday), including Sunday, so keep filling up the garbage bins. Bryon Eagon has a good post summing most of it up. Tenant Resource Center is open extra hours and sending out a press release a day and things are working like . . .well, not clockwork . . . but besides some frayed nerves and a large volume of calls, things are still going well. Come Saturday tho, who knows. Any problems, feel free to call (257-0006) or stop by (1202 Williamson St, Suite A Mon – Fri 9 – 6, Sat & Sun noon – 4)!
DUH? WHO APPROVED THIS
Some days, its good not to be the alder, cuz I don’t have to take the calls where someone yells at me for something stupid the city did. Here’s this year’s moving day stupid in my little neck of the woods:
Seriously, one-third of an entire block three blocks from the capital is blocked off on the day (August 14th) many have to be out of their apartments downtown. And its on a block where there are two of those high density, 60s/70s block brick buildings. In all, probably 100 units are impacted by this. I have no problem with yesterday and today, but don’t they think about how this impacts the neighborhood on the worst day of the year to live downtown? Couldn’t they have asked them to get it done a day early, or wait til next week?
I’m sure there’s a whole lot more stupid, it just isn’t my problem as an alder this year, just my problem as an Executive Director of the Tenant Resource Center.
HMMM . . . WORKING WITH THE CITY NOT ALWAYS EASY . . .
I was a little cranky the other day, because the Tenant Resource Center bends over backwards to work with various city departments despite the fact that we get very little support/constant threats of funding cuts from the city. We have good relations with the Fire and Building Inspection Departments, traditionally have had good relations with the City Attorney’s office and generally have good relations with the funders . . . its just that the Streets Division hasn’t been playing along lately. I was reminded, once again, on Monday, that attempts to make that different have failed, so I sent off this (admittedly cranky) little email to the streets division, the Mayor’s press guru, and the funders who handle our three contracts.
Now that I’m not an alder and using my position of influence, I’m going to say this . . .
Al & George – Just once, it would be nice if you mentioned the city-funded Tenant Resource Center in your moving day materials.
http://www.cityofmadison.com/streets/collectionmovingout.cfm
We always make sure to include you in ours. Here’s what we are sending out today (also below):
http://brendakonkel.blogspot.com/2009/08/its-that-time-of-year.htmlWe used to collaborate on our press releases way back when in the days of Roger Goodwin, we even did joint press conferences . . . now, it just seems like we are competing and that seems wrong.
And what response did I get.
a) “Thank you Brenda, yes, lets get together and see what we can do?”
b) “Its a busy time of the year, lets check in after the moving rush.”
c) “Sorry about that, we just overlooked it, will try harder.”
d) “Thanks, we’ve decided just to do our own thing, but we appreciate your communication”
e) Nothing.
You guessed it, no response at all. None, despite the fact that the email was sent to 7 different staff people. I wouldn’t even care if the answer was d) and they just acknowledged they have no interest. But no response in nearly 72 hours is just obnoxious. I understand the funding sources staff not responding, they can’t really control what the streets department does. Compare and contrast this to the fact that I asked the Fire Department what they were doing on the Smoke Alarm Ordinance, asked them if they wanted to collaborate or if we should just send out what we were planning to do. We worked it out and they were thrilled we were helping get their message out.
TASERS
WOW! Best piece of reporting I’ve seen in years!!! AWESOME!!! Gotta read it!!! (yes, all those exclamation marks are warranted . . . ) Dang, our police can be embarrassing . . .
GUN BLOG
Another good piece . . . well written and engaging as usual.
FEIGNING CONFUSION AS AN EXCUSE?
Kristin at the Cap Times asks some interesting questions about how complicated the lobbying ordinance is . . . and if its being used as an excuse not to report.
EDGEWATER INDIGNANT
The Sconz has some interesting observations about the Edgewater folks he met with . . . they really don’t like it when you mention their email instructing their minions.
COMMENT SCHIZOPHRENIA
You may have noticed, some days you can post anonymously, some days, you can’t. I’ve been experimenting with it. Some days it goes along just fine. Others, I get comments like this, which I delete:
Here’s a thought Brenda…spend your time on washing your hair, utilizing a trainer, and go away! You were voted out for a reason.
I deleted the post, removed the language above, then reposted the one sentence that was critical, but not rude. No one ever posts that kind of stuff when they have to sign in. And I just refuse to let my blog sink to the level of madison.com. Name call and be rude all you want, but not on my site.
I would just leave the comments off permanently, but, I’m frustrated that some people can’t comment because they have problems signing in due to the blogger software. So, if the anonymous trolls can behave themselves, I’ll keep the anonymous comments on, but when it seems like there’s a topic likely to bring the worst out in them, I’ll turn it off and delete the rude parts of their comments. Meanwhile, for those who have problems, keep trying and see what happens. Any words of advice on how to do this, let me know!
