Make a point to catch the repeat sked and be sure to tune in earlier than usual. For the first time, there was something akin to a teleconference, and the topic was Big Ideas. As in a long-term master plan for future Enid growth and infrastructure.
Yes, I took my camera there tonight like I have been to every City study session of late, and yes, I have footage of the whole thing, but up until this point, there's never been a study session on City camera before. Ever.
Some of this stuff included a few things I was already campaigning on (like the City doing a better job of including the colleges in stuff) and stuff I was going to make an issue of (potholes vs shiny-object grand projects like the hiking trail, the bike trail, the failed parks overhaul, additional dog parks...anything requiring matching funds for which the Streets and Alleys Fund was always raided to provide for) just got a whole lot bigger. Vast plans with vast Big Ideas footnoted by an "education program" to "educate" the public as to how good these vast plans are gonna be when we all embark on the journey to the sky-resident pie.
Everything I thought I was gonna say at the Friday luncheon at the Y just got tossed out the window.
Well, almost. We're gonna be in for a wild, wild ride. Then again, I wouldn't be me if I wasn't just chock full of surprises from having to think on my feet, now, would I. Never say never. When situations warrant change, so changes the charted navigation.
Oh. I have to add that there is one thing the City did that was smart. Hiring Jerald Gilbert as City Manager. Nobody's better in that position, especially after the last two products of a Manager Farm we got in a row just prior. There's hope.
Here's the first 15-ish minutes of that study session...sorry, but better quality is not possible on Blogger, currently...
Higher res version is now up on YouTube.
Seriously, people--somebody needs to be elected to the City Commission who will pull a Tom Coburn on many of these #vast-plans #half-vast-plans just like the voters did with the City's half-vast mega-plan for our parks.
The second 15-ish minutes are now available with a warning about my strange sense of humor, which explains some of the odd focus shots I take from time to time, and I acknowledge up front that they're cringe-worthy. XD
Third 15-ish minute segment on YouTube
Fourth segment on YouTube
Fifth and last segment
Wednesday UPDATE: I hope good Enid citizens caught these articles in today's paper:
That second article admits that this big government overreach was Benson's Big Idea. Trouble is that he had big government overreach Commissioners who also thought this was a good vast idea...which would explain the half-vast execution. While we were moaning and groaning about the big government overreaches in Washington, look at the big government overreaching coyotes we let into city government to raid the hen house in our own back yard.
How about this Big Idea? Give the job of promoting Enid back to the Chamber of Commerce, whose job it always was. Government doesn't need to be spending big bucks going into the broadcasting business in competition with our commercial entities and we don't need to be paying a PR guy to run interference between the public and their publicly elected Commissioners. Let's be commercial City of Enid instead Government-Is-Here-To-Help City of Moscow.
Yeah, I know--I should post something about how Je Suis Charlie and a cartoon to show my own support of the First Amendment in this country and Liberte Expression abroad, but I'm a person who knows the history of this oft-cited French tradition of lampooning. It's actually against the law in this country. Take a wild guess where the term "libel" originates. Libel, my friends, is the time honored French tradition referred to, and France is where the U.S. legal system got that term from.
History of libel publications
Paris Digest
Le Monde blog entry, in English
France 24, in English
Paris Match, en francais
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| Nous sommes tous Charlie |
Thursday miniUPDATE: Sorry you didn't win the Pillar of the Plains award, Frank Baker--I was pullin' for ya. I'm still a big fan of "It's Mostly News".
A most worthy gentleman won, though, and I can't imagine the anguish the judges have to go through to pick the winner. Congrats, Mr. Allen!
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