It’s a little short, due to time, not material . . . I’m waaaay behind on several blog topics at the moment, too many meetings. Hopefully I’ll I have some work related posts later today.
WHO CARES ABOUT THE BUDGET?
Your alder does right? I sat through or watched 7.5 hours of budget amendments and department briefings on Monday and another 5 hours of 6.5 on Tuesday. While members of the Board of Estimates (Mayor, Bruer, Verveer, Rhode-Conway, Sanborn, Clausius, Clear) pretty much needed to be there, they were joined for large portions of time by Schumacher, Compton, Rummel, Schmidt, King, Cnare and Bidar-Sielaff. Most of them participated by asking questions of staff and making comments on amendments, even proposing some of the amendments. Palm was there for an hour or two. Maniaici showed up for her amendments and to support the Edgewater and watched the rest from home. But I didn’t see the following (remember I did miss 1.5 hours, so they may have been there for that portion of time and I missed them, but if they did, it was minimal): Palm, Eagon, Skidmore, Solomon, Kerr, Pham-Remmele. [EDIT: Palm was there for an hour or two the second night, I just missed him!]
WAIT FOR IT . . .
This seems a little odd. I don’t know if there is anything to it, but waiting for product seems like a major screw up if nothing else. A developer and/or their contract shouldn’t be waiting for weeks to continue construction on a larger project like this.
DONE WITH ALLIED
Apparently, the City is moving on. They have been coordinating a group of service providers that work in the Allied area for years. It’s called the Allied Stakeholders group. The latest meeting notice went out, with this little announcement: “The main discussion item will be to continue to talk about if and how the Allied Stakeholders group will continue after December when OCS staff will no longer be able to staff and lead the effort.”
NOT ENOUGH WATER?
TONIGHT 7:00 PM Thursday October 15 @ Glenn Stephens Elementary School, 120 S. Rosa Rd, Whitney Way-Mineral Point Road area
Public meeting: Do some parts of the near west side need additional water supply?
BRIEF REPORT ON E MIFFLIN BIKE BOULEVARDS
David Waugh reports:
There were about 25 people present and there was pretty much unanimous support for East Mifflin being designated a Bike Boulevard from Dickinson to the square. TE is not interested in doing diversions or changing any stop signs so to start with, it will be a Bike Boulevard in name only. There will be signage first, followed by sharrows, and then a link on the 100 block that will allow bikes to go the wrong way down that one way section just off the square. It is hoped and desired that some marketing will be done to attract more bikes to this stretch. TE hopes that with increased bike traffic, this will discourage autos.
HERE WE GO AGAIN
Denying alcohol sales to chronic problem people. I suspect there is more to it than this description:
To get on the list, a person would have to be either arrested and convicted of a crime while drunk or taken to treatment at least six times in the previous 180 days.
I expect there is more because if getting arrested while drunk is all it takes, it could be a very, very, very long list.
Also according to the article:
Madison must act because chronic alcoholics aggressively panhandle, intimidate, fight and cause other problems, usually Downtown, city officials said.
Ok, but how about really solving the problem, and opening up 40 beds in an alcohol treatment facility for immediate admission and hiring an outreach worker?
Sounds like it might be cheaper since, according to the article:
Chronic alcoholics cost millions of dollars each year on police, jail, mental health, detoxification, hospital and other services, officials said.
And, do you think we’ll be the ones to foot the bill for the court battle?
The American Civil Liberties Union protested the list, arguing that denying people legal goods changed their legal and social status. But Green Bay continued the policy, saying it is supported in state law, which bans alcohol distribution to “known habitual drunkards.”
The no-serve list has not been challenged in court, Plant said.
I’m not an expert in this area, but have had many conversations about this with a person who has done outreach on State Street and has said that when someone reaches the point they are ready to address their issues, it does no good to put them on a long waiting list. Seems we could be using our resources in a better way and not risk a court battle.
PLOURIDE IN OUR WATER?
I missed this on their agenda that was out late . . .
Tonight: Thursday October 15, 5:30 PM @ Water Utility 119 E Olin Avenue – Board of Health for Madison and Dane County
Review current city policy of fluoridating the public water supply
INTERESTING EXPERIMENT IN PERCEPTION
Richard Russell send this to a list serve I am on.
Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.
4 minutes later: The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.
6 minutes: A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.
10 minutes: A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.
45 minutes: The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.
1 hour: He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.
This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities.
The questions raised:
*In a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?
*Do we stop to appreciate it?
*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made …
… how many other things are we missing?
I was thinking something else . . . I was thinking that people just dismiss people who are perceived to be poor or not good enough to play somewhere else.
