September 2012

There were 103 posts published in September 2012 (this is page 4 of 11).

The future of driving: Seeing the back of the car | The Economist

Here’s a good look at “peak car,” the point where growth in automobiles … uh, stalls.

Looks like research confirms my hunch that the Internet is to blame.

A University of Michigan survey of 15 countries found that in areas where a lot of young people use the internet, fewer than normal have driving licences. A global survey of teen attitudes by TNS, a consultancy, found that young people increasingly view cars as appliances not aspirations, and say that social media give them the access to their world that would once have been associated with cars. KCR, a research firm, has found that in America far more 18- to 34-year-olds than any other age group say socialising online is a substitute for some car trips.

via The future of driving: Seeing the back of the car | The Economist.

Col. Bob Ley

Col. Bob Ley, US Army retired


I just mentioned my former boss Bob Ley in my last post, so I want Google searching for him. I turned up this obituary of Col. Ley from last year. I’m sad to hear of his passing.

I worked part-time for Col. Ley in the hardware department of Hechinger store in Sterling, VA. His influence on me went far beyond what the part-time nature of my job suggested.

He was an outstanding mentor and I’m undoubtedly a better person because of him.

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Time for Gen. Tata to fall on his sword

Some friends and I were recently discussing the Wake school bus fiasco. Some thought that through his resignation, Don Haydon, Wake’s long-time operations and facilities manager, might be accepting responsibility for the debacle. And he is. It has been his job for 12 years to get the buses where they need to go. I wondered, though: how could a seasoned administrator with over a decade of experience foul things up so badly?

Then I recalled the military bureaucracy I once served in and got an idea of what most likely happened. Haydon was almost certainly given an impossible task to move more kids with fewer buses. I can imagine that his boss wasn’t too keen to hear that a train wreck was imminent and Haydon had no choice but to step down.
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Senate Republicans kill veterans jobs bill

Sometimes its easy for me to forget that Sen. Richard Burr is a Republican. He isn’t flashy, his office does well with constituent services, and he has shown support for veterans, an important constituency in military-friendly North Carolina. Oh sure, there’s been an occasional bank run, but Burr hasn’t drawn my outrage like other Republicans.

Until now, that is. Burr was one of the Senate Republicans who voted against a jobs bill designed to get veterans back to work. The bill was bipartisan. It was fully funded at its modest $1 billion over five years. It would’ve put some of America’s heroes – the men and women who wear our uniform – back to work. Nonetheless, Burr and his buddies scuttled it at the last minute because Obama lauded it in his convention speech.

There is simply no excuse for not passing this bill. It’s pathetic. As blogger Jim Wright profanely points out, Congress was all too eager to send our armed forces off to war, but when it is time to welcome these troops home to America Congress gives them the finger?

Burr and his pals want people to believe this is all over a billion dollars. A billion dollars over five years! Shit, the Department of Defense spent more than a billion dollars on air conditioning in Iraq – every month! And yet Congress can’t afford to cough up a quarter-bil each year to help get jobs for the brave men and women who served their country? After all these citizens have sacrificed?

I mean, damn. If there’s one issue that really shows what’s wrong with our current Congress, this is it. I hope veterans everywhere are paying attention.

Bye bye, Mordecai Historic Park Advisory Board

Mordecai House


On Tuesday, Raleigh City Council officially dissolved the Mordecai Historic Park Advisory Board and created a new board called the Historic Resources and Museum Advisory Board. I served on the Mordecai board (MHPAB) as the Parks board liaison for over three years, or half of the Mordecai board’s existence. The last year I served as vice-chair.

The abrupt dissolution of the board hits a little hard. The Mordecai house has stood longer that any other home in Raleigh. It has seen people come and go. Still, the boardmembers with which I served were all extraordinarily passionate about the Mordecai house and to promoting its mission. I will miss that cozy association.
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Raleigh Union Station

Raleigh’s Union Station, circa 1940s. Photo by John F. Gilbert.


This morning, federal, state, and local officials gathered in the Dillon Supply Viaduct building to announce that Raleigh’s proposed new Union Station is now fully-funded. The chance of Raleigh getting a new train station anytime this decade looked remote until Raleigh won a $21 million federal grant. The Feds are kicking in $15 million of stimulus money and the state is kicking in an additional $6 million. Raleigh is funding $3 million from its earlier transportation bond and Triangle Transit is contributing the $1.3 million property.

Above is a circa 1940s photo of Raleigh’s former Union Station, which still stands at the corner of Dawson and Martin streets facing Nash Square. Raleigh’s station was an “end-station” with stub-end tracks, meaning trains stopping at Raleigh had to back either in or out of the station.

Backing up trains takes a lot of time, so when the Seaboard station and Southern station (both through-stations) opened up it spelled the doom of Union Station. Now the building houses offices. I believe the station’s tracks are still embedded beneath the surrounding roads.

Donors predict Romney loss – POLITICO.com

Remarkable. When a campaign’s lost its money men it’s already spiraling down the drain.

DONORS PREDICT ROMNEY LOSS – “The campaign is moving fast to calm nerves, especially among donors. To get a flavor of the challenge before them, a top donor said that after Romney spoke at a fundraising breakfast at the Hilton New York on Friday, a will-Mitt-win poll was taken at one table of 10 men, each of whom had paid at least $2,500 to attend, and some of whom had raised as much as $50,000 for the campaign. Not a single man said yes.”

via First look: Bachus rips CFPB – Donors predict Romney loss – Top story: Monetary easing goes global – Big idea: Dems better for stocks – POLITICO Morning Money – POLITICO.com.

RCAC unplugged

After my post last night, I thought of one other highlight of the evening. After the meeting adjourned later than scheduled, I looked around the room and no one was leaving! The CAC chairs were all happily chatting with each other well after the meeting was over. Ten minutes later I think only 10% of members had left (and we had over 21 there).

I marveled for a moment at the sight of these interactions. I seldom saw this kind of cooperation and collaboration when I first became chair. It tells that I was right about the value of the RCAC, that the chance to work together is what its all about.

I see the RCAC as kind of a support group for CAC chairs. It’s proving to be a good call.

Twitter Updates for 2012-09-20

  • Me jolly pirate crewe Mama's Boyz and I bid ye a fine #TalkLikeAPirateDay Yarrrr! #
  • @kriselie Shiver me timbers! I'll set a course for me Krispy Kreme before nightfall! in reply to kriselie #
  • Dear reporters: if you want people to send you tips and scoops, quit making it so damn hard for them to do so. #
  • Really getting excited about the potential of a Capital Boulevard Park. Let's make it happen! #raleighparks #
  • A joke in here somewhere. RT @wired Madame Tussauds in Hong Kong will unveil its wax sculpture of Steve Jobs next week http://t.co/kw9Inp46 #
  • A breathtakingly beautiful crescent moon is hanging in the sky now. #ncwx #

RCAC recognition

We were having what seemed like a typical RCAC meeting tonight, with a few long-winded discussions about neighborhood events and Raleigh’s UDO. We were already running past our usual adjournment time when Dwayne Patterson of Community Services made a wonderful comment.
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