Silk City Independent

Keep The Leaf Collection Program

2010-03-08T19:47:00.001-05:00

Now On Facebook

2009-11-16T21:35:00.005-05:00

Time has become a precious commodity in my life. I wish I had more of it for all of my passions, this blog being one of many. This is by no means a complaint. I am truly happy to say that my cup runneth over. I am enjoying time with my family, I have managed to climb up another rung on the corporate ladder, and I have enjoyed the company of many a friend (new and old) during cook-outs, dinners and game nights over the past six months.

So what is a person to do who is still passionate about the voice of the common man? In the near term, I am moving to a world of soundbites, and hopefully build some new friendships with those who share a passion for civics in our city of village charm, regardless of party affiliation. So with that, I'm am moving to facebook. I would be honored if you became a "fan" of the Silk City Independent on facebook. You don't have to agree with me to be a fan :-)

Plese note: as a Facebook "page," editors cannot see the profiles of those who become fans of a specific page. It essentially allows you to see the new posts to the Silk City Independent on the "wall" of your home page.

"Knocking Down Doors"

2009-09-12T10:20:00.003-04:00

We are now in the home stretch of the local election races. On the Manchester, CT Message Board, Steven "Moose" Edwards, a member of the Manchester Board of Education, posted his rules of thumb for knocking on the doors of potential voters. Mr. Edwards' remarks were very informative. With his permission, I wanted to re-print them for the readers of the Silk City Independent.

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Actually, there are rules (of thumb) about who's door to knock on... I'll give you the lowdown of how I did it, and it is largely the conventional wisdom of "knocking down doors" as the [politicians] call it in the inside circles...

The "walking lists" are generated from voter registration information. There is a lot of information there, including your name, address, birth date, phone number, and most importantly, your voting history. [Editor's note: the voting history only tracks when you voted. The registrar has no way of knowing who you voted for.]

The voting history is largely what drives the decision. Information is available for EVERY election and primary since the late 90's. If you voted, the registrar knows it and it comes with the data you get from them.

So, suppose you are walking down a street, and you've got a well sorted list (I've made dozens of these at this point - I was the geek who did it for the [Manchester Republicans] for the last 10 years or so)

[The list] will tell you for any given address, how many registered voters live there. In addition, you can see the party affiliation of every voter, along with their voting history. I would typically condense this information into the number of times [the person] voted in local, state, and federal elections. Again, primary [voting] information is there, but it isn't really necessary to figure out whether or not you want to knock on the door.

You'll see patterns emerge quickly as you walk down the street. For instance, there is the Presidential voter - this person will have voted in the last few Presidential elections, but never in a state or local election. If all the voters at the house fit this profile, it probably isn't worth your time knocking on that door. Why? Well, if they haven't voted in anything except a Presidential election, you probably aren't going to convince them otherwise. Especially in a local election year, where there are few/none national/state offices up for grabs... It's a bit egotistical to think that your charisma will change their minds.

To a lesser degree, you'll see the State/Presidential voter... they vote in even numbered years. They never vote in odd years, when local elections are held. It MIGHT be worth knocking their door down, and I will say that I've done that. It's still a crap shoot... they probably won't be going out to vote at all... so probably not worth your time.

Then there is the "Never Votes" voter. This is a little more complicated. If they are young, then this is understandable. I'll knock on that door. Also, you may find that the person isn't young, but still hasn't voted. For that you may want to look at the registration date on their registration... if it's recent, then they may have just moved in from out of state. (If they moved in-state, their records move with them) Again, worth knocking. However, if they are older, registered years ago, and haven't voted... well, they don't vote. This puts them into the category of the Presidential voter - probably not worth your time.

(Aside: I've talked to people who say that they vote in every election, swear by it in fact. I can see that they are lying in some cases. Very funny)

The pot o' gold is the voter that votes in EVERY election. You knock on that door regardless of party. It's ALWAYS worth your time to talk to a likely voter... If they are not in your party, say you're a Republican and they are a Democrat... if you can get them to vote for you, you've swung 2 votes - the one for you and the one the Democrats didn't get. Same holds true of the other way around.

So if your house has one or more people who ALWAYS vote, you knock on that door, no matter what. And it is interesting. When running as an Republican, I've met Democrat's who wouldn't think of voting for the Democrats. I've met Democrats who ran me off their property and told me I should be ashamed of myself for being an Republican. It runs the gambit. Same with Republicans... I've had them tell me I have their vote... and I've had them tell me they would NEVER vote for a Republican again... For those that haven't done it, knocking on doors is almost always fun in that something new will happen every year. I've met crazy people, people who want to know my views on abortion when I'm running for the [Board of Education], people who want me to privatize the whole thing... and the stories are incredible some times. Anyway, unless you've done it, you can't really appreciate how odd the whole experience can be. But mostly you meet nice people. And the largest subgroup I've met are folks who say something like, "Well, you knocked on my door, so I'll vote for you." One on one works.

You should also know that it matters WHERE you live. Do you live in a relatively flat neighborhood with lots of other voters where the houses are relatively close together? Your door will get knocked on if you vote. Do you live in billy goat country where the big houses grow? Don't count on me knocking on your door. I might call you instead. Do you live in a district that is predominantly my party? I'm more likely to knock. Do you live in a neighborhood that is flat and the houses are close, but nobody votes? You probably won't see me.

Knocking doors is both art and science... hopefully this gives you some idea of why someone knocks or they don't...

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The Silk City Independent would like to thank Mr. Edwards for giving the citizens of Manchester a peek in to one of the processes of running for a municipal office.

See-Click-Fix

2009-09-08T12:57:00.003-04:00

I heard about a website on NPR a few days ago called SeeClickFix. The premise of the website is to have us (you and me) be able to document infrastructure issues, and then have them fixed by our local government. What a fabulous idea! Here is the very first sentence on their "about us" page:

"SeeClickFix encourages residents to become citizens by participating in taking care of and improving their neighborhoods."

With this being all about advanced citizenship, how can I not get behind this?

I'm going to give it a shot by documenting and submitting a deteriorating seam between two streets near me. As the saying goes... the squeaky wheel gets the grease. I will let you know how it turns out.

Per Chance To Understand

2009-09-04T14:13:00.005-04:00

Every year that I get to experience this life, I gain a deeper understanding of the cliché, "The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know." This does not stop me from trying to, at the very least, understand what is going on. So I read. I read anything and everything that I can get my hands on. On some nights I wish I didn't need eight hours of sleep so that I had more time to read.

Lately I am trying to understand two things, at least at a basic level: the current recession and the health care system debate. I think if people read more, and tried to understand more, there would be a great deal less shouting at town hall meetings across the land. I could be wrong. It may very well cause more.

These items gave me some greater understanding today:

On the recession:
How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?
Paul Krugman, NY Times

On Health Care:
How American Health Care Killed My Father
David Goldhill, The Atlantic

Bending the Curve: Effective Steps to Address Long-Term Health Care Spending Growth
The Brookings Institution

I must give a nod to yesterday's David Brooks column for pointing me in the direction of the two items on health care.

Celebs Dogs Slept Better Than Most Last Night

2009-08-19T07:06:00.000-04:00

Normally, I avoid any news about celebrities. In my opinion it is a contributing factor to the dumbing down of America. One of my guilty pleasure is a website that posts daily funny and absurd photos from the web's zeitgeist. Well, "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." Anyhow, this morning I just happened upon some photos of a very nice house. A house that a celebrity paid $250,000 to build... for her dogs! I followed the link for the photos to the original blog that posted them. The blogger said it best, "Paris Hilton’s dogs sleep in a better place than me."

Yes folks, the world is definitely out of whack when a spoiled brat can build her dogs a better house than most of us have. It makes me chuckle and a little sad at the same time. I'm sweating these past few days in a New England heatwave, but Paris's dogs have AC. The irony... that high school history classes taught us that the French and Russian revolutions were started in part due to the disparities between the upper class and.... not the poor, but the "working class." (In my opinion the "middle class" is a modern American euphemism.)

Are we headed in the same direction? I think that if Paris were told about the plight of everyday American's, she just might say, "let them eat cake."

Generation M

2009-08-15T11:10:00.004-04:00

I stumble upon something most every day that makes me stop and think. This next link was today's lightning bolt. It is called the "Generation M Manifesto," by Mr. Umair Haque. It is a very quick read, and I highly recommend it. It succinctly captures a great deal of how I have been feeling since before the slide into our current recession.

I hope you have been enjoying your summer. I have seen a great deal in the papers lately about each party picking their slate for November, the Manchester Redevelopment Agency's plan for Broad street, the proposed $8 Million bond referendum, and pots calling kettles black. I haven't been snoozing, just enjoying as much of our short New England summer as possible. "Doing meaningful stuff that matters the most."

A New Game

2009-07-09T20:30:00.011-04:00

My household has a new game: "Can we fill it to the lid in two weeks?"

In the words of Bob The Builder (and now Barack Obama)
"YES WE CAN!"

I love... LOVE our new recycling receptacle. My family is going around the house looking for things to put in it every day. It has gone way beyond the standard milk jugs, food cans, paper and cardboard. We are super recyclers now! Toilet paper and paper towel tubes, aluminum foil (no major food sticking to it of course), shaving cream cans, junk mail, all loose paper, and checking every bit of plastic for a #1 or #2. I even noticed that the plastic on the Q-Tip container was #2. Ripped the plastic away from the cardboard... dumped 'em both in. Score!

Taking the garbage down to the street tonight... how easy is it to wheel two carts down the driveway in one trip? A lot easier than making the two trips for the recycle containers (we had one for papers and cardboard, and one for bottles & cans), and then wheeling the garbage container to the street. Oh... and I noticed that our garbage can was the lightest it has ever been.

So once again... a big THANK YOU to Mark Carlino and the Manchester Sanitation Department for bringing this idea to fruition. We love our new blue bin! I think the garbage bins are green with envy.

"In Search of Dignity"

2009-07-07T13:05:00.003-04:00

"The old dignity code has not survived modern life. The costs of its demise are there for all to see. Every week there are new scandals featuring people who simply do not know how to act."

In Search of Dignity - David Brooks, NY Times

If more people in the public eye had a sense of dignity, what would our scandal-mongering press have to cover? There are so many things going on in the world today... but what is going to get the coverage? Michael Jackson's funeral.

I'm Very Thankful...

2009-06-23T13:13:00.003-04:00

...To live in a country where I can post my thoughts on this blog, and not fear retribution from our government. I am thankful that the worst of my problems with local, state or federal government mainly deals with taxes or partisan bickering.

Please read this article from the NY Times: Stark Images, Uploaded to the World

"Responsible Capitalism" Gaining Traction

2009-06-01T06:46:00.002-04:00

I'm seeing the glimmer of a positive shift in business news. It is nice to see that people are realizing once again that we are all in this together.

A Promise to Be Ethical in an Era of Immorality - NYTimes.com

Summer "Break"

2009-05-24T12:27:00.005-04:00

I have come to enjoy the cycle that the seasons in New England bring. It allows for different activities during the different seasons, while forcing me to take breaks from other activities. With the days getting longer and warmer, I do not want to be spending them in my home office opining about town politics while there are outdoor projects to be done, a lawn to be mowed, Connecticut "Staycations" to be had, a boat to re-finish, fishing to be done, golf to be played, super-soaker wars to fight, Bar-B-Q's with friends to be enjoyed, among many other things.

I will be taking a "break" from the Silk City Independent for the summer, insofar as my posts will be even more infrequent than usual. I will be back in plenty of time for this year's election season. I wouldn't miss the 2009 Manchester elections for all the cheese burgers at Shady Glen. I am sure the partisans in town are already gearing up to make a wonderful spectacle of our local democratic process. In the meantime, I will be keeping an eye on the blogs, boards and headlines, paying attention for the final BOE budget, and checking in from time to time. If you don't want to miss a single post, be sure to add the Silk City Independent to you favorite RSS reader by clicking the link on the top left.

For the meantime, I hope to see you at the Dutch Fogarty fireworks or Cruisin' On Main. Life is too short. Don't take it too seriously and have fun as much as you can get away with.

DIY stimulus: CEO gives workers $1000 each from his own pocket

2009-05-03T21:19:00.001-04:00

DIY stimulus: CEO gives workers $1000 each from his own pocket

Now, if more businesses in the insurance, real estate and banking sector CEOs were like this, maybe we wouldn't be in this huge mess.

Creative Thinking In Education

2009-04-19T20:10:00.006-04:00

Another website that I enjoy frequenting is TED. It is part of that wealth of knowledge available to us on the web. I view TED as being able to attend a lecture series of some of the most creative and brilliant minds of our time - and it is free. (As all knowledge should be.)

With all the current debate on education in Manchester, specifically education spending, this recent lecture that I watched struck a chord. I ask you to spend twenty minutes and watch this:

I'm not implying that we need to scrap our entire education system in Manchester, nor that we should build a bunch of Montessori or charter schools. The fact is that most of our public education system is set at the state and federal levels, and this can be frustrating when dealing at the local level with the cards our children are dealt. Maybe we do need to think differently about the challenges that seem to recur year after year around budget discussions.

The chord that this lecture struck for me is that I am concerned that the very programs that our children will need to creatively compete with this quickly changing world will be moved to the bottom tiers of educational spending. We have some serious challenges facing us in both the near and long term. Now is the time for some creative thinking.

Thank you MFRE Union

2009-04-16T11:43:00.004-04:00

You continued sacrifice shows your commitment to our town. Thank you for pitching your hats into the ring. It is appreciated.

Thank You MPD Union

2009-04-09T23:31:00.008-04:00

On top of doing your job each and every day, thank you for making an extra sacrifice this year. Your decision shows integrity, compassion and fairness.

JI: Manchester police, staff agree to wage freeze

2009 Hockanum River Race

2009-04-05T19:06:00.001-04:00

Thank You For Meeting Me Half-Way

2009-04-01T12:25:00.006-04:00

Four unions have stepped up to the plate so far, and I want to say thank you to them.

JI: Manchester town workers offer to skip raises, saving $350,000
HC: Manchester Town Workers Agree to Forego Wage Hikes

I hope to see the other unions follow the example set by these four. (Ahem... BOE unions, Police, Fire). We are all in this together.

Based on the majority of the opinions I was listening to all night at the budget hearing, most taxpayers are willing to accept a modest tax increase to keep town services at current levels. It appears that the town employees and unions are coming on board to share in our sacrifice. Now it is up to the BOD and BOE to do their part. Do not use these concessions to further reduce my tax increase for this year. Keep services at current levels.

To be absolutely clear on my opinion, I am not endorsing carte blanche any inefficiencies in the system. I always expect to get the best bang for my buck. These are times that bring much needed citizen focus on the "business" of town government.

"The purse of the people is the real seat of sensibility. Let it be drawn upon largely, and they will then listen to truths which could not excite them through any other organ."
~Thomas Jefferson

"I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization."
~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

"Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society."
~Franklin D. Roosevelt

Unsolicited Plug

2009-03-27T16:19:00.004-04:00

First, I would like to say thank you to Mr. Jim Farrel of the Hartford Courant for mentioning the Silk City Independent in the Hartford Courant iTowns blog. Check it out and subscribe to the feed. His focus has narrowed to Manchester and East Hartford. I have added a link under the Blogg Roll on the left column. I wish him all the best.

Thank You For The Memories

2009-03-23T12:32:00.004-04:00

Enjoy your retirement. Next stop: Cooperstown, New York.

Are We Preparing Our Kids For Tomorrow?

2009-03-21T09:04:00.009-04:00

What does it all mean? That depends on you.

What this means to me: how can we even think about cutting any technology education? Especially at the sixth grade level.

From The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman:

So if the flattening of the world is largely (but not entirely)unstoppable, and holds out the potential to be as beneficial to American society as a whole as past market evolutions have been, how does an individual get the best out of it? What do we tell our kids?
There is only one message: You have to constantly upgrade your skills. There will be plenty of good jobs out there in the flat world for people with the knowledge and ideas to seize them.
I am not suggesting this will be simple. It will not be. There will be a lot of other people out there also trying to get smarter. It was never good to be mediocre in your job, but in a world of walls, mediocrity could still earn you a decent wage. In a flatter world, you really do not want to be mediocre. You don't want to find yourself in the shoes of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, when his son Biff dispels his idea that the Loman family is special by declaring, "Pop! I'm a dime a dozen, and so are you!" An angry Willy retorts, "I am not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman, and you are Biff Loman!"
I don't care to have that conversation with my girls, so my advice to them in this flat world is very brief and very blunt: "Girls, when I was growing up, my parents used to say to me, "Tom, finish your dinner --- people in China and India are starving." My advice to you is: Girls, finish your homework --- people in China and India are starving for your jobs."

This is the world I work and compete in everyday. We can't throw money at this problem either. It's time to put aside petty differences. Our education system in Manchester has to become more efficient, and provide a better value. Not just a better value for our tax dollars, but more importantly a better value for our children's future. We have to help our children compete in tomorrow's world. It's hard enough to compete today.

On the Budget: An Open Letter To Fellow Manchester Citizens:

2009-03-15T09:42:00.013-04:00

It is time to keep our emotions in check. The political parties and some organizations in Manchester are counting on us to get emotionally "fired up." I believe it is so that we can be more easily manipulated to champion their ideas on this year's difficult budget process. I'm not saying that we should be heartless. On the contrary, now is the time to be empathetic and give consideration outside of the line items in the budget that would be either to one's benefit or detriment.

To keep my emotions in check, I try to walk a mile in General Manager Scott Shanley's shoes, and look at the entire recommended budget.

After that I open up a spreadsheet program (Microsoft Excel or Spreadsheet in Google Docs), create the formulas for figuring out my tax bill based on my property's assessed value, mill rates and then start plugging in numbers. I look at the mill rate calculation in the budget introduction, found on page 10 in this document. If the total town budget is increased or decrease by a certain amount, I can calculate what the new mill rate would be, and then determine what that change comes to in real dollars on my tax bill.

If you aren't computer savvy, then get out a pencil (you'll need the eraser, trust me), a pad of paper, and a calculator. If you can do your federal and state tax returns, you are smart enough and have all the skills needed to do this.

I promise you, if you do all that, you have just taken away the ability to be manipulated by someone who will be counting on you to be ignorant of this process. Now you will not be rattled by people throwing around large budgetary dollar amounts, percentages, or phrases like "actual tax levy increase." By doing the basic math, you have put the power where it belongs: in your hands.

I have included a Google Docs Spreadsheet here for you to view. It can be exported to Excel so you can input your own values. Just go to File > Export > .xls

Here is the budget process schedule. The town has made a budget comment web page available and it can be found here. There is also e-mail available. Look up the Boards of Directors here and the Board of Education here. There are plenty of opportunities to have our voices heard. Decisions are made by those who show up. We need to go to them with solutions, not problems and generalities.

"Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes."
Maggie Kuhn

Lastly, please remember that we as citizens have a new mechanism available to us this year in the town budget process. If enough people disagree with the outcome of the BOD vote in April, a petition for a budget referendum can be made. How to do that can be found here.

It is an austere year, but we are all in this together.

Open Letter to the BOD, BOE and Manchester Party Leadership:

2009-03-14T10:17:00.006-04:00

Now is the time for cooler heads to prevail. It is certainly not the time for partisan vendettas. Here is what this voter and taxpayer is looking for in this budget cycle that I will carry through to my vote in November:

Pragmatism
Transparency
Vigorous yet respectful political debate to flush out all ideas and possibilities
Sincerity in deliberation and discussion
Willingness to break rank, or cross political divides to do what is best for all of us, not for a party's position come November
Open-mindedness and willingness to consider options that may not be the first or ideal choice

There is no doubt in my mind that this year's budget process will be difficult for all of us. This current economic environment has already been difficult enough. Disagreements are to be expected, and I'm not looking for everyone to sit around boardroom tables singing kumbaya. I do expect everyone to to act professional, respectful, and give the benefit of the doubt that we are all in this together.

It's A Little Ironic...

2009-03-10T07:55:00.004-04:00

I was surprised to be watching the the Today Show this morning and hear about "a proposed bill that would take power from Catholic priests and bishops and turn it over to parishioners" in Connecticut. The article in the Hartford Courant can be found here: Catholic Church, State In Power Struggle

This was my first thought: for thousands of years church officials and religious leaders have been telling people how to live their lives and putting their noses into governmental affairs. Now that the tables have been turned they want to cry separation of church and state? I can't decide if it's hypocrisy or irony... maybe it's a little of both.

I'm completely for separation of church and state. Maybe this will help both sides remember why people sought freedom in the new world. The church should keep its nose out of our life, and we should keep our noses out of the church business.

Great Job Sanitation Division and Thank You BOD!

2009-02-06T13:04:00.007-05:00

Single Source Recycling has to be one of the single best decisions that I have seen the current Board of Directors make together to date. I'm sure that everyone, or at least those that are keeping score, has their own top 10 list out there for what our local government is doing since November 2007, but this one goes right to the top for me. It is nice to see what this board can accomplish when it works together. Not only is this going to save the town money after the initial ROI, but it is better for all of us environmentally. Kudos to Mark Carlino and his department for putting this together.

I know that my family recycles everything that we can. EVERYTHING that is on the town's recycling list goes into our containers every week. We even make sure that we recycle the cardboard tubes that toilet-paper comes on. This is going to make our life so much easier, and we are doing right by the environment and our limited resources, AND we are helping the town save money. Looks like a win-win-win to me. (That's probably why this was so easy for everyone to agree on.)

It is things like this that make me think of two of my favorite quotes when it comes to teamwork:

"It is far more important to be able to hit the target than it is to haggle over who makes a weapon or who pulls a trigger." -Dwight D. Eisenhower

“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” -Harry S. Truman

I can only hope that the BOD could cooperate this well as we go into the budget silly season. I also hope that I don't see either town political committee fall all over themselves to take credit for this. It's good for our entire town regardless of political affiliation. End of story.