CEDX

Time to get involved in local Town Politics

2009-10-24T18:29:03-04:00

I've often been tempted to get involved and active in local politics. One of the things that has always made me wonder is why there are no assigned areas that town council folks are responsible for. When the opportunity to push for council districts in Huntington arose, I signed on, especially because it was easy to do with Facebook. The organizers are social network savvy. I've also thought that Huntington itself was a pretty progressive town, and I am generally happy with the way that the town is run, but I think that some things aren't great, and they might get better through increasing accountability with districting.

The petitions were organized, signatures collected, and I fully expected the issue to be put to a vote. I didn't really expect that the Town Board would object, but I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. I believe it is time to change the status quo and introduce districting. I've quoted Mark X. Cronin's letter about what is happening with the petitions now that they've been submitted. Please read the below, and if you're in Huntington, and you care about fair representation, support the push for districts. Join our group on Facebook.

Same Old Politics Try to Deny the People the Right to Vote

Late this afternoon, Michael Kearns of Northport filed objections to the petition with the sole intent to deny the citizens of Huntington to right to vote on this issue. We do not know Mr. Kearns except to know that he is acting as a front for the Town Board. How do we know that the Town Board is behind this insider political ploy?

• To file an objection, a person would need to see a copy of the petitions. While anyone could request a copy from the Town Clerk, Mr. Kearns has not requested a copy of the petitions, so he must have had another source for a copy of the petitions. The only people with copies of the petitions are the Town Board members and the Town Attorney (the Town Attorney’s office has four copies of the petitions). The Town Board must have provided the information to file the General Objections.

• The general objections must be followed by specific objections; preparing specific objections would require having a copy of the petitions. Mr. Kearns did not request a copy of the petitions. Again, the only people with copies of the petition are the Town Board members and the Town Attorney so they must provide the information to Mr. Kearns.

We believe these facts demonstrate that the Town Board is now trying to stop a vote on the issue. We had asked the Town Board to put the issue of Council Districts on the ballot. Had they done so, the issue could have been on the ballot this November. They refused to do so. Now the Town Board is working to block the rights of the voters to have this issue placed on the ballot through the petition process.

We want to know:

• Why is the Town Board hiding behind Mr. Kearns?

• Who is working with Mr. Kearns to block the right of the people to decide?

• Who provided the petitions to Mr. Kearns so he could file an objection?

• Was an attorney working for the Town or doing business with the Town involved in preparing these objections?

We support Town Council Districts because they lead to better representation, more accountability and more openness in government. In their action to block the petitions, the Town Board is proving our point. They are denying the voters the opportunity to decide on representation. They are denying accountability by working through Mr. Kearns instead of filing the petition in their own name. And they are opposing openness in Town government. Shame on them!

Ernie reports on a local Healthcare Town Hall

2009-10-12T23:35:31-04:00

LIMBA's Chairman, Ernie Fazio, recently attended one of the local Healthcare meetings, and wrote this report. I enjoy Ernie's take on things, and I particularly like his description of the roving mob's techniques and their past precedents. Turnabout is fair play on these things, seriously. Take it away Ernie...

Recently congressman Steve Israel convened a town hall meeting on healthcare reform. I had seen these meetings on television and was not surprised to see a large group of opponents wielding signs.

Prior to entering the hall I engaged several of them in conversation, and found a man who was really interested in civil discourse, the others were clearly there to create trouble. Once inside the theater the security officers did not allow the signs except for the back row. The slogans and yelling from the audience was orchestrated. The opponents were not all grouped together, but they often signaled to each other to stand up and yell as various things were said.

Mr. Israel, to his credit, had thought this meeting out. The rules for asking questions were
Only constituent’s questions would be answered and those questions had to be submitted in writing on a form with the questioners name and address. This was done to prevent the "floating mob" that go from one meeting to the next to totally disrupt the proceedings.

I was seated in the third row so that most of the people in the hall were behind me. Therefore I could not see them unless I turned toward the back of the auditorium. This turned out to be an advantage to me. Here is what I sensed.

Whenever the congressman or one of the other speakers (there were three others beside Steve Israel) spoke verbal hoots and hollering began to obscure the answer to a question, they would jump out of their seats and motion to members of their contingent that they needed more noise. This boisterous yelling out, and standing up can be very disconcerting to a speaker unless he has seen this “scary movie” before. The congressman appeared totally at ease and unimpressed with this phony display. In fact he was smiling most of the time and resisted any impromptu responses to what was being yelled out to him.

On the other hand when the congressman or one of the other speakers made an important point, the supporters would applaud. The applause was very rich and, robust, and indicated that most of the people in the hall were with the congressman.

Here is what else I observed; only one of the protesters had posed a question, indicating that most of them were not in Mr. Israel's district.

This negative and disruptive contingent was only about 25% of the audience, but they were able to look more formidable than they actually were.
It was apparent that this was a floating mob, and none of this was spontaneous. Instead this was a well-orchestrated attempt to subvert any dialogue between the people and the congressman. It didn't work!

When I was 22 years old I was hospitalized for 14 days. During that time I read a couple of books on the rise of the Nazis. The "Brown Shirts" would go to the political gathering places and disrupt the meetings by the use of the same tactics we have been witnessing at these so called town hall meetings. Most of the intelligentsia of Germany considered these Brown Shirts buffoons, but they systematically built political power based on fear caused by the lies they spawned.

It is always dangerous to make these historical comparisons, and these people are not the Brown Shirts, but the tactics are amazingly similar.

This editorial is not about healthcare reform, or whether you are for it or against it. It is about process. There are many legitimate questions that must be asked and answered before we make this dramatic change, but these disruptive people are not going to get us there.

Democracy makes this kind of mischief possible, so it is incumbent on all of us to be wary and watchful. There is a terrible price to be paid if we are not.

Ernie Fazio

LIMBA - Carol Ash, NYS Commissioner of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation

2009-09-25T13:41:08-04:00

Members and Friends,

We had the pleasure of hearing from the NYS Commissioner of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, Carol Ash. Pro Image Studios recorded the video of her talk and the Q&A, which can be found here: Ms. Ash is a long time champion of downstate parks and the environment. Her most recent past position was Executive Director of the Palisades Interstate Parks Commission, and her full biography can be found on the NYS Parks website. Commissioner Ash, a tireless advocate for the parks system and it’s constituency, gave us a rundown of what is happening with the state park system, that was both sobering and optimistic. The 28 parks and one state historic site ( Walt Whitman’s home ) on Long Island are some of the jewels in the system. Mentioning Ken Burns’ newest epic on the formation of the National Parks System, she let us know that the model for the NPS was the Adirondack State Park, created by then Governor Teddy Roosevelt, and that New York state has always been a pioneer in the development of parks and historic preservation.

One of the misconceptions that Ms. Ash came to dispel is that the expense of Parks is a drag on the economy, and that investment in them performs poorly. Citing a University of Massachusetts study, she posited that parks are linchpins of local economies, that produce a 5-1 return on dollars invested in park improvements. On Long Island, that translates to a $410MM boost to the local economy, supporting about 4000 private sector jobs. The Long Island region has the highest parks attendance of the state. 40% of park revenue is generated by tourists, the US Opens in 2002 and 2009 brought in over $10MM to Long Island’s economy, in spite of the dismally rainy conditions in ’09.

With that, she began her pitch for continued investments in park infrastructure to keep those tourists coming. Times are tough, money is tight, but upgrades need to be done. There is an estimated $650MM backlog of deferred work overdue in the parks to keep them in shape. This year, the legislature has allocated $200MM towards that. Later today, she will attend a ribbon cutting at Brentwood State Park, where part of that $200MM will go to create state of the art professional quality soccer, baseball , and lacrosse fields, in an economically disadvantaged community. Disappointingly, the NYS parks system is not eligible for Federal Stimulus Funds, but in a creative partnership with the Department of Labor, the Parks department was able to obtain $3.3MM to start a Civilian Conservation Corps in the Long Island and Niagara regions. The first phase was to put 90 kids through a training program where they did basic maintenance projects throughout the regional parks. The second phase will take the stars of that phase, and move them into a more skilled trade learning program, having them work on more sophisticated tasks.

Despite these tough times, the Parks department was able to hold the line on the $8.00 per car entry fee for the parks, and the $56.00 Empire Passport is still a good bargain. In this time of staycations, park usage is going up.

The Q&A portion of the program was lively, with some advocates from the Kings Park community and allies of the Trump at Jones Beach project in attendance. One of the great things about LIMBA is the ability for local folks to talk to people of influence and hear their opinions and concerns, and in turn be heard.

Ms. Ash couldn’t say much about the Trump project due to the ongoing litigation, and it was clear from the audience questions that they were much in favor of the project.

A question about which parks paid their ways, was met with the response that the Golf Courses and Campgrounds are the revenue stars, supporting the rest of the system.

The discussion around Kings Park was summarized by her stance of embracing the local advocates and taking a long look at the issues, and finding the real costs of remediating the site. The first phase of the study is done, the second is due to complete in about 18 months.

On the question of raising revenue, the department is trying to find sponsorships for the Empire State Games, working with the “I love NY” people to market the parks more, and looking at creating public-private partnerships similar to the California Parks Foundation, and the Central Park Conservancy.

Yet another productive Friday morning at LIMBA, where regular folks get to meet movers and shakers that directly affect our lives.

LIPA's LIMBA update on Smart Grids - Bruce Germano

2009-09-19T09:25:48-04:00

As always, I find LIMBA meetings an excellent place to meet people that have a great deal of influence over the Long Island region. The value that I have gotten from these over the years is incalculable, in both learning how things work, and meeting new friends. Some topics are political, some technical, and lots are both. An overview of Smart Grids was given by a long time member of LIPA and its predecessors, Bruce Germano, the man responsible for LIPA's retail operations.

Bruce opened his talk this morning by recounting his experiences with Smart Grid technology dating back to 2002. Back then, we were thinking Smart Grids, but there wasn’t a name for them. With time, new definitions emerged, of a power network that has intelligence built into it, with the ability to control pushed further out to the edge of the network. Currently, there are limitations in the power system that prevent that control being extended.

According to Bruce, a smart grid is a communications network overlaid on to the power network, giving customers the ability to decide the best time to use power based on price signaling. A Smart Grid helps bring down peak load demand. It enables a customer and a utility to understand and control demand on a real-time basis. In 2002 this was just a dream, but advances in technology are making it possible. Utilities are looking for ways to provide customer choice and one of these ways is to introduce a Smart Grid.

To facilitate that LIPA, in concert with Stony Brook University and SUNY-Farmingdale, is seeking stimulus funding to implement a Smart Grid technology pilot project. There are a lot of technology gaps to be filled, but if a go, the project has the following three goals:

· Smart Grid Demonstration – Show that the technology to connect customer s to markets in real time is feasible, and allow them to control their demand according to price signals they receive.

· Green Job Creation – The deployment Smart Grid technology will require specialized skills and custom assembly of hardware and software to build the sensor networks required and the software backend to communicate the information gathered and control signals sent.

· Green Skill Training – To move beyond a pilot phase, the original lessons of the project have to be translated into repeatable steps. Developing the work force to implement Smart Grid technology on a wide scale will require educating a large number of subject matter experts that can grow the grid commercially.

The vehicle to achieve these goals is the building of a smart energy corridor along Route 110 from the Long Island Expressway, down to the southern border of Republic Airport. This area brings together a lot of partners and ties together many existing efforts. A diverse mix of customer types exists along the corridor, with commercial, industrial, residential, and municipal located there. SBU is looking into two areas, load modeling systems, and the communications security risks associated with remote control. SUNY-Farmingdale is bringing their exiting energy research labs, plus their investigations into sensor technology.

The technology gaps are being filled, but it is an evolutionary process and all the pieces are not in place yet. Many big players like IBM, GE and Hitron are aiming to compete in this space. Appliances are integrating communications and control into consumer devices, allowing the owner to program the timer for the cheapest time to use electricity. The opportunity to evolve electric meters to support this exists, but there are no standards for Smart Grids and their devices.

The Department of Energy published 15 characteristics of a Smart Grid, and the National Institute of Standards is developing those specifications for devices and systems to interoperate. Stability of the system is paramount, as we don’t want the repeat of another 2003 blackout, which was caused by a cascading system failure of the grid’s control structures.

Bruce wrapped up by letting us know that the stimulus application was filed about two weeks ago, along with thousands of other applications, and is waiting for the federal government to get through the review process.

Opening the floor to questions, Ernie opened the session by asking if Smart Grid technology will eliminate the need for new power plants, and would Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles help our situation. Bruce responded by reminding us of Long Island’s insatiable need for electricity, and noting that although PHEV’s may help smooth out demand peaks, they increase total demand on the grid because they are getting their stored energy from the grid rather than burning fuel.

John Howell asked if every building by default be able to participate in the smart grid. Bruce projected that the meter connecting the business would be smart and able to participate, but it would be up to the building owner to install the controls necessary to implement variable price consumption strategies.

Pat Halpin of the Suffolk County Water Authority asked if there will be incentives for customers to interrupt their power and use off peak power. A discussion of the various ways pricing regimes could be constructed followed, with the net result being, we’ll see when we get there.

The ensuing discussion concluded yet another well spent Friday morning at LIMBA, where you get to meet a diverse set of leaders from across Long Island industries and organizations, and learn something valuable in an hour as you start the last day of the work week.

A great attitude towards mobile computing

2009-09-12T20:20:22-04:00

This quote from Hans of NYC resistor sums up my feelings about wireless network security: "Instead of trying to create a safe network, instead we need to think of our computers and devices as an island in rough seas." Read the full post here.

Any network where you don't have physical control of the end to end connection should be treated as an untrusted network, and if you really care about security, you should use an encryption scheme to secure the communications that you care about before they leave the device that you're using.

LIMBA June 5, 2009 Robert Yaro of the Regional Plan Association

2009-06-06T19:06:42-04:00

Members and friends, we had the pleasure of welcoming to our June 5^th meeting, Robert Yaro, head of the Regional Plan Association. Robert gave a talk and engaged in Q & A about the important role that Long Island plays in the tri-state region, and the RPA’s goals for the region in general. Introducing the RPA to the meeting, he described its mission as a mix of about 80% NYC regional, and 20% national issues, where the RPA is promulgating the notion of Mega-Regions, linked together by metropolises, such as the Northeast Corridor from Boston to Washington, connected by efficient transportation and telecommunication systems.

Rail, both commuter and high-speed intercity, is an important component of the RPA’s planning toolset. Founded in 1922 with the goals of improving mobility within the NYC region, it has expanded its view to meeting global and regional environmental goals around the transformation of urban and suburban centers. The RPA’s first plan, published in 1929, envisioned the George Washington and Verrazano Narrows bridges, JFK Airport, the Merritt Parkway, and the Long Island and Palisades Parks and Parkway systems.

The next plan, of 1968, called for the restoration of mass transit systems, through the creation of the MTA, put forth ideas for open space preservation, and the revitalization of urban areas through the focus on a network of centers, both urban and suburban.

The third plan of 1996, called for seamless mass transit and a greensward network through the region. It contained concepts for the JFK and Newark AirTrains, East Side Access to Grand Central Terminal for the LIRR, and the completion of the 2^nd Avenue subway.

In talking about Long Island, it is important to remember that it is tied to NYC, physically, economically, and geo-politically. The last 50 years of its development has been car-centered, and it needs to refocus on mass transit. The RPA’s past work for Long Island has involved the Parks and Parkway system, the original concept of a Nassau Hub, LIRR electrification to Ronkonkoma, and the promotion of East Side Access. The current work includes continual support for the completion of ESA, the Pine Barrens commission and management plan, along with the newly created Long Island Sound Stewardship Act.

Mr. Yaro described some of Long Island’s assets as an excellent quality of life, safe communities, and a superior education system from elementary through graduate institutions. A highly skilled workforce, extraordinary natural beauty, the nation’s largest commuter rail network and membership in the NY metro economy that is larger than the GDP of many large developed countries round out the lineup.

The long island paradox, is that there is a brain drain of this skill, and 901 units of government at all levels, one for every 3,000 residents. He posited that it is the last remaining medieval English system of governance left in the Western Hemisphere. Long Island is also out of developable land, suffering from job losses, at the mercy of climate change, hamstrung by housing expense, choked by traffic, and is one of the most segregated areas of the United States.

As a non-profit regional think tank, the RPA promotes long-term, regionally centered planning among elected officials, and planning development agencies. To that end, they have developed Long Island 2035, a vision for Long Island based on the successes of Salt Lake City and Portland, Oregon. It is a plan to help deal with the expected 460,000 new residents and 250,000 additional jobs. It is promoting this plan by working with many regional players, such as NYMTC and the Long Island Regional Planning Commission. Long Island must acknowledge the need for higher density development and get its politicians to develop a regional focus, rather than hold to the traditional parochial ways. The Empire State Transportation Alliance is an important vehicle to move the plan forward, components of which include the LIRR’s third track program, East Side Access, and regionalizing the balkanized bus systems existing.

Closing with a description of the Nissequogue Action Plan as a blue print for protecting other environmentally significant areas, it contains a set of 110 concrete goals and actions for implementing groups, geared toward incrementally improving the area, which can be replicated across the region.

As usual, the Q&A was pointed, leading off with questioning whether ESA was in jeopardy of not being finished. Robert’s response was that there’s a paradox, if you don’t finish it, then billions in Federal funds already spent towards its construction must be returned to Washington. What the real issue is here is the lack of a complete 5 year capital plan.

The RPA’s opinion of the Lighthouse project was asked. The answer was in general it is a good concept, but incomplete without transit connections.

Once again, another well spent Friday morning with an engaging speaker that is influential on our daily lives and in the directing of our region.

The Usual Suspects

2009-01-23T12:35:15-05:00

Dollars to doughnuts, these guys are talking the business of hockey.

2009-01-05T19:43:33-05:00

Wally and Jen

good night sweet prince

Posted via Pixelpipe.

Guest Commentary on MuniWireless

2008-08-25T21:02:03-04:00

That tireless promoter of wide access to broadband, the globetrotting Esme Vos, extended a gracious invitation for me to write about the prospects for the Long Island Wi-Fi project, and I used up many bits in responding to her invite. I tried to put the project in contrast with the work that we have been doing on Fire Island, and in the context of the competitive environment that it faces. You can try to glean some nuggets from my brain dump at this link, or read the whole thing after the jump:

Lessons Learned from Long and Fire Islands

As our Fire Island Wireless network is closing out its 5^th and most successful season, I would like to share a few things I’ve learned as they apply to the Long Island Wi-Fi project. Even though the plug has not been pulled officially, the writing is on the wall for the Long Island Wi-Fi project, and its an obituary. Cablevision is launching its Optimum Wi-Fi network, offering complimentary access to 2 million wired subscribers over the tri-state area, not just Long Island, and that pretty much dries up any potential paying customers that e-path might have had.

As the death of Metro-Fi has shown us, free, advertising supported, standalone Wi-Fi providers are an unsustainable business. Tom Evslin so rightly points out in his Fractals of Change blog that advertisers need millions of page impressions provided by you for them offer any significant income. When you have a single destination content source, such as a website / blog, there’s a chance to reach this level, but to try to reach that level by building out a huge network to catch those millions of page views by interrupting a user or inserting them into browsing streams a few at a time collected over tens of thousands of locations, the capital expense equation doesn’t work. With $50/pole/year rental from LIPA, the operational expense e-path faced was a non-starter also.

There needs to be a market

Having dispensed with advertising as the sole means of support for an internet distribution network, we are left with subscriptions to generate revenue, either at the retail level, or in the form of anchor tenancy by large organizations. A pure-play outdoor provider in a market already well penetrated by wired ones sees no demand for its subscriptions. It can’t compete on a price or performance basis. We thrive on Fire Island because the market is not served well by the incumbent DSL service provider, cable is absent, and the demand for bandwidth is driven by affluent vacationers used to having and paying for broadband service at their primary residence. e-path would have had to cobble together a customer base from people at the lower end of the revenue scale, and offer a free tier as well.

There needs to be a sustainable business model

The ISP business is all about aggregation of cash flows, subscriber growth, and network management, keeping provisioning and operational costs low, and using those cash flows to expand the network to more users, greater footprints, and performance improvements. Once a critical mass of users is achieved, the operation can be self-funding, with new generations of equipment being deployed to bring higher tiers of service, (with higher cash flows) to existing customers and new territories. It’s an annuity business; it works better as it gets bigger.

On Fire Island, we don’t require service contracts, but we do require customers to buy and have CPE installed, getting them put skin in the game, and it lowers our deployment costs. When the customer has anted up just to get service, they will stick with you for a while, until they feel like they’ve gotten full use out of their investment. Unfortunately, the Long Island Wi-Fi RFP was not setup to even begin to support a sustainable business model for e-path. The free access and 95% build out requirements guaranteed stillbirth.

This is a u-til-it-y business, full stop.

When you start an ISP, you’re starting a utility, just like a water, sewer, or electricity distribution system, and you’d better be prepared to make it reliable, because excessive outages are just not tolerated. To make a Wi-Fi system reliable in the face of growth, you need to have sufficient capacity, and also the ability to educate customers, as most folks translate the experience that they have in their homes to their expectation of how an outdoor Wi-Fi network should work. Customer service and education are paramount, once your customer base gets beyond the early adopters who will jump through a few hoops to stay connected. Average people don’t read the documentation; they pick up the phone and complain when they can’t get a signal inside their house. If you are an entrepreneur thinking of starting a WISP, think hard about the 24x7 nature of the business, and the customer service requirements. And if you do compete with a wireline provider, think about how your business will be sustainable when the wireline provider starts to cut prices to win back customers.

On Fire Island, we’ve been able to succeed because we offer broadband services beyond the reach of DSL, and where we compete with DSL, we offer higher upstream performance, price parity, and a better customer service experience than the incumbent. This is the niche where fixed wireless distribution of broadband has a chance to succeed. Using wireless, whether Wi-Fi, WiMAX, or some other radio technology to compete against entrenched cable and fiber wireline providers is suicidal for a retail play. Towerstream has been successful because they have found a business niche. The density necessary for a buildout to provide performance equivalent to wireline without using CPE is cost prohibitive. Infill and Greenfield deployments are where it’s at for a pure-play WISP, and WiFi should be used by existing wireline providers to extend their customers’ access outside the home, delivering more value to their customers and keeping the cellular data carriers at bay.

LIRR Penn Station Hotspot Update - Service Call Logged

2008-08-24T13:18:10-04:00

Managed service fans, hear this. After a night of consulting in Gotham, I was heading back out to the wilds of Long Island, and decided to see if the hotspot in the LIRR waiting room had been brought back to life. This time, I couldn't even associate to the network. The rather grumpy, short-tempered, sharp-tongued, silver-haired customer service fellow didn't believe me when I said there was a wireless network in the waiting room, even when I pointed out the sign.
On the off chance I would have more luck, I went to the customer service office where I had a pleasant conversation with the younger fellow on duty, who indeed knew about the network, and was unaware of anybody having issues. He was under the impression that few people used it. ( managed services could either confirm or disabuse him of that notion ) However, he did treat my news seriously and logged a service call with the railroad's IT helpdesk. I won't be back in town this week, I think so if somebody wants to leave a status report in the comments to see if the IT department followed up on the service call, please be so kind.