The Rube Goldberg North End public relations machine

It's now obvious that the developer and the town planner are waging a public relations war to get the citizens of Middletown on board with the Liberty Square development, before it comes before the Planning and Zoning Commission.

The public relations is a bit clumsy when we have our town planner saying: "We needed to have an open and well-lit parking lot because of the perception and reality of crime in the area."

Again, I'm totally in favor of commercial/retail on that site. And the proposed plan is good, but as many people have said, it isn't perfect. And from my perspective, it's got some real problems that could easily be corrected.

I'm not looking for perfect, I'm just looking for the city to ask the developer to make some relatively small alterations to make it safe for pedestrians, and the best for Middletown's Main Street streetscape.

Here's what I think needs to be done:

1. Delete the entrance and exit driveway which will cross Main Street. Our town planner says correctly that the new driveway (curb cut), will be a single driveway replacing three currently on the property. What he doesn't say is that two of the three on the property now are rarely used, and that in consolidating three down to one, it will actually increase traffic in the one driveway. In addition, a retail store and business offices will further increase the traffic. All of which will cross Main Street, which already has regular foot traffic, and where we hope to encourage more. It's a formula for a car vs. pedestrian accident.

Solution: Make exit and entrances over the less-pedestrian traveled Liberty Street. The affected area of Liberty Street could be widened to make it a two-way street for entrance and exit from the new parking area.

2. Do not place surface parking adjacent to the Main Street sidewalk. Almost universally, progressive urban planners, especially those who value pedestrian traffic on main downtown thoroughfares, indicate that surface parking adjacent to sidewalks is extremely detrimental to luring foot traffic. Such surface parking also interrupts the kind of streetscape where buildings line a steet to draw pedestrians from store front to store front. A 100ft gap will be created on Main Street, and decorative walls and buffer plantings do not solve the problem.

Solution: A simple re-design of the building from a square to a rectangle will solve the problem.

3. Do not replace a historically-significant building with 10 blacktop spaces in a surface parking lot. The building at 9 Liberty is the former Methodist Chapel. It's 150 years old and is fully-inventoried in the National Register of Historic places. The town plans to move the building to Rapallo Avenue to create new residential space. Fine, if the building were not to be replaced with blacktop.

Solution: Leave the building where it is, and rehab it for residence at the location.

If you can't beat 'em, then beat 'em

Cindy Sheehan may not be the most politic of public figures, but she may become the most public of political figures.

Why waste your time trying to get blood from a turnip, when blood from a bleeding heart is far more available.

You cannot lead where you will not go

I was on my way to Paul Higgins funeral, and god help me, I had Jim Vicevich on the radio talking to Republican lobbyist Ron Kaufman about the recent defection of Republican congressmen from the Bush Iraq policy.

Let's set aside all the inaccuracies, all the bellicose posturings, all the peculiar innuendo and all the lies that were being spewed, and focus on Vicevich's mock horror.

"How could they do this?" Vicevich howled in dismay. "Is this courage?" He was distraught because the troops would not be "allowed" to finish the job they were sent to do. He went on to say that he would never enlist to fight in a war that he wasn't given the opportunity to finish.

Truth is, he never enlisted at all, ever, even when he had the opportunity to do so. Vicevich is a chickenhawk of the purebread variety. Ready to send young men and women to fight for his "philosophy" as long as they are not related to him. (His own grown children are not in the military either). He stands behind his "friends" the soldiers, whom he exploits to get ratings on his pitiful methane-fest of a radio show.

Imagine the temerity of such a chickenhawk to question someone else's courage. Remind you of a certain commander-in-chief?

When I got to the funeral, I looked up at a banner which read: "You cannot lead where you will not go," and all I could think of was Vicevich and Bush (okay, Creepy Joe Lieberman came to mind too). It's ironically very similar to a campaign speech Bush gave during the last election campaign (read in its entirety it is ironical to the core), but the point was completely different.

These guys are the kind of leaders who stand at the rear lines and yell, "Charge!"

With this, and a piece of the true cross, you'll earn a plenary indulgence

Some people don't really get the concept of preservation.

Much of the ornamentation, including stained-glass windows, was saved from the trash heap by the church in an effort to recycle building materials and preserve the history of the church.

Huh?


I thought that Catholics (and I was raised one) were good at holding onto things that had a historical significance but no practical value, but I guess not.

The convent is disappearing slowly, along with Middletown's architectural heritage.

By the way, the new building will reportedly be a "Butler Building" (pre-fab, industrial-type, two-storey) gymnasium. Awe inspiring.

Wolf bitten by Sicko

You've got to see this. Michael Moore takes Wolf Blitzer to task for his failures as a journalist in reporting the war on Iraq, and for trashing Sicko.

Gotta love him. Moore, that is.

This land is your land

Last night Middletown's Economic Development Committee voted on, and passed, an important new ordinance. If passed by the Common Council, the city will now be required to open to public bidding, the sale of all land owned by the city, and being offered for sale. This should prevent the kind of sweetheart deals which many of us in town have been fighting against for the past two years. It will be essential to examine the wording of the ordinance as it is considered by the Common Council. I needed to leave the meeting early because of the wake of a family friend. I'll post an update after talking with Catherine Johnson who attended and participated. Thanks to committee members and the town planner for putting together this important ordinance.

Another George, another Dick

Executive privilege is kind of like frequent flier miles. Yes, you have the right to use them, but ultimately the airline will decide if you fly. In the case of executive privilege, it's the Court and Congress who may make the ultimate decision.

While the Constitution does not clearly define a right of Presidential executive privilege, many of our leaders, from George Washington on, have cited the separation of powers, as implying a right to keep confidences.

So, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, all were forced to show their hand when ordered by the court. Dwight Eisenhower managed to defy Congress, but his call for executive privilege was designed to short-circuit Joe McCarthy's witch hunts.

So, when George Bush claimed executive privilege today, to exlude Harriet Miers and Sara Taylor from testifying, he may be within his rights. Still he certainly raises the question "what's he hiding," and he stands the chance that his privilege will not be upheld by the courts.

Mistah Kurtz, he dead

Now that all evidence indicates that the surge did not make any gains in Iraq, the White House is "marshaling alternative evidence of progress," according to the Washington Post.

Meanwhile, a White House administrator expressed a concern that the President is the "heart of darkness."

The horror. The horror.

A man of his word

Who knew that language mangler George Bush was actually is such control of his words.

At the beginning of the Valerie Plame scandal, he promised this:
"If the person has violated the law, the person will be taken care of."

Damned, if he wasn't telling the truth about folks like Scooter Libby.

The ineffectual, hampered by the intractable, and spurred on by the infuriated.

An infuriated public is demanding an end to the war in Iraq, and, now, only now, as Congressional elections loom, does it appear that the ineffectual majority in the House and Senate, albeit hampared by the intractable Creepy Joe Liebemerman, will reach between their legs and find they have the power of a co-equal branch of government to rein in an autocratic executive branch.

They buckled once before. And their poll numbers tell them what the rest of us think of them as a result.

Once in a while, when some much is at stake, you've got to play, "I'll bet my job on it."

Harry Reid represents Las Vegas. One would guess he knows more about gambling than he has demonstrated.