JonLowder.com

Transparency When No One's Looking

Last night we had a public meeting for the Lewisville Planning Board so that we could explain the access management ordinance that we've been working on for the town the last couple of months.  One person from the public showed up and since she represents a coalition of realtors and developers she was essentially paid to be there.  Now I know this stuff can be dull as dirt, but this is where the rubber hits the road.

Let's put it this way.  If you plan on building in Lewisville in the future and you want to know where you can access a road from your property, i.e. build a driveway, and you want to know what kind of driveway you can build, how far away it has to be from your neighbors' driveways and other details then you might want to take a look at what we're doing.  Or if you want to redevelop your land, you might want to know how the new ordinance will affect you.  Whatever, this is the kind of stuff that directly affects people but even when we advertise the meetings, as we did this one, people generally don't show up in droves.

Access management is just one of the things we're working on right now.  Because our Town Council declared a six month moratorium on development until we can get some new ordinances in place we're meeting every week to work on an access management ordinance, a stormater/watershed ordinance and a multi-family housing ordinance.  All of these will affect propert owners in one way or another so I would recommend that people check in on our meetings to see what's going on. 

Now, we're by no means the final word on these ordinances.  We'll eventually send our recommendations to Town Council and they'll make the final decisions, but most citizens don't realize that by the time it gets to the Council a ton of work has already been done and they've missed some golden opportunities to influence the ordinance before it even gets to the powers that be.  Every one of our public meetings has a public comment segment and we really do welcome any feedback we can get.  In fact we've already incorporated changes to our early drafts of the ordinances thanks to the feedback we've gotten from people who attended earlier sessions.

If you're a resident of Lewisville or are a business owner in Lewisville you really should check out what we're doing so you can be part of the process.  Don't wait until everything's 99% done and you have to fight the inertia of a downhill train.  It's not too late.  We continued our deliberations until our next public meeting which is May 13 at 7:30 at the community center next door to the library.  Hopefully we'll see you there.  If you'd like to catch up on what we've been doing you can check out our minutes here.

Talking About Driveways

Last night we had a public meeting of the Lewisville Planning Board to show the public an early draft of the access management ordinance we're working on for the Lewisville business district.  In a nutshell we're trying to plan for what we think will be some pretty significant growth through the 2035-ish timeframe and trying to make sure our Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) is up to the task of managing that growth.  A big part of the future plans are to build a parallel road to Shallowford Road (the main drag through town), turn make both roads one way with two lanes, to build some connector roads between the two and to put in a couple of new traffic circles at entry points on either end of town.  That's the big picture, but as with most things in life the real work is in the details. 

Until we started this process I didn't understand the impact of driveways on traffic design.  Simply put you have to make sure that driveways, or road cuts, are spaced far enough apart and far enough from intersections so that they don't create a hazard by having people exiting and entering the roadway in close proximity to each other.  It sounds mundane, but if you've ever tried to enter a busy roadway from a parking lot that happens to be too near an intersection with cars turning into your path then you'll know why we're spending so much time on this.

As you might expect we ended up with quite a few comments from the 20+ members of the public who attended the meeting.  There was some understandable concern about the increased traffic through town, about motorists speeding even more than they do if we go to two lanes in each direction and about the impact on commercial property.  All were valid concerns and I think Marty Myers, our town planner, did a good job answering them.  Since we're only at the draft stage of the process we'll be able to incorporate any changes that might need to be made based on the feedback we get, but based on last night's meeting I think we've made some really good progress. 

If It's Good Enough for the White House...

The big news in the world of online geeks is that WhiteHouse.gov has gone the way of blogs. I'm sure much of the excitement stems from bloggers feeling vindicated after years of being denigrated and belittled by everyone from their siblings to the main stream media.  After all, if it's good enough for the office of the President then it's gotta be good enough for them, right?

Who knows if the White House blog will end up doing anything meaningful, but I'm a firm believer that public officials can do a much better job of communicating with their constituents if they utilize every means available and blogs are very effective tools to consistently get information out directly to constituents.  Heck, I feel so strongly about this that four years ago I offered to host a blog for any Winston-Salem or Forsyth County official who wanted to start a blog.  The only person that contacted me was Vernon Robinson, and he posted one or two items but then it kind of died off.  Still, I'm prepared to help any public official who feels the need to follow the White House's lead.  So I'll re-submit the offer: any public official in Winston-Salem or Forsyth County who wants a blog just give me a shout. I'll be happy to help.

Yes! Weekly's Barber Asks 'Who cares about homeless and hungry?'

Yes! Weekly's Keith Barber asks if it's wise for the city of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County to spend public funds on the new baseball stadium considering that our social services are stretched to the max.  From his piece:

The official unveiling of the Winston- Salem minor league baseball team’s new name at the Millennium Center on Dec. 4 seemed a world away from the harsh realities facing many of Forsyth County’s residents. The general gaiety of the event enjoyed by an estimated 700 people felt like a scene out of the Roaring ’20s, like the day before the stock market crash of 1929...

At the end of October, the NC Employment Security Commission reported Forsyth’s unemployment rate at 6.3 percent. The number of unemployed individuals in Forsyth has risen 35.4 percent since the same period in 2007. Since Jan. 1, 2008, nine Forsyth employers have reported layoffs and 30 area businesses have shuttered their doors, putting more than 1,000 people out of work. And those are just the ones that have been reported.

Despite the hard times in Forsyth, the show went on at last week’s ceremony to announce the new name of the team formerly known as the Warthogs. Baseball Downtown and Mandalay Baseball, the managing entity of the minor league franchise, spared no expense at the event called “Baseball New Year.” When the team’s multi-millionaire owner, Billy Prim, and Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines unveiled the team’s new name — the Dash — the crowd roared its approval. All of this left me to wonder: Why would the city and the county agree to loan a multimillionaire upwards of $24 million to build a downtown ballpark when those funds could be more wisely spent on the needs of the homeless, the jobless and the hungry in Forsyth County? The Winston-Salem City Council agreed to put up $12 million toward the construction of the downtown ballpark in November 2007. In March of last year, the Forsyth County Commissioners approved a resolution allowing Prim’s company, Sports Menagerie LLC, and Brookstown Development Partners to receive economic development incentives up to $12.5 million to be paid in annual installments over a 25-year period. At that time, the economic outlook in Forsyth wasn’t as bleak as it currently is, but the picture wasn’t rosy by any stretch. In fact, Joines and the city council are four years into a 10-year plan to fight chronic homelessness. Andrea Kurtz of the United Way of Forsyth County is tasked with implementing the plan. Kurtz said the recession has pushed the resources of Forsyth’s social service agencies to their breaking point.

I've never liked the idea of public funding for ball parks that benefit private companies or individuals and my thinking on the Winston-Salem ball park has focused mainly on my disagreement with the philosophy of the use of public funds in this way.  Until now I hadn't thought of the opportunity costs associated with the city's decision to fund the stadium, but when you do think about it they are substantial.  Yes the city is due to get its money back eventually, but as Barber points out in the mean time the money could have been used to bolster social services now that it's really needed but it's tied up in the stadium project.

Since we've come this far I truly hope that the project is a success and that we see a revitalized downtown come out of this, but as a community we need to have a serious discussion about how tax dollars are used for private enterprise.  What happens the next time an entrepreneur comes calling with an idea for a new theater, entertainment complex or indoor stadium that will be used as a cornerstone for some new revitalization effort in some other part of town?  Do we whip out the checkbook or do we say "Good luck" and then provide as much help as we can to make it a reality  by expediting permits, assigning someone to help them work through the red tape, etc.?  As you might guess my vote would be for the latter.

So I Went to Church and Voted

This is my third election since moving to North Carolina and I still find it weird that my polling place is a church, and coincidentally it's my church.  Obviously it doesn't bother me in the least; I'm quite comfortable there, but I wonder how it feels for anyone in my voting district who may be Atheist, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, Agnostic or some other -ish/-ist/-ic?  I'm not sure how I'd feel if the polling place was in a pagan temple, but I'm pretty sure I'd rather be in a school or library.

Anyhow, there was literally no line when Celeste and I entered the church, nor when we left.  I was the 907th voter tallied by the voting machine some time after 2:00 this afternoon.  Back in '04 I stood in line for 45 minutes to register/sign in and another 45 minutes to actually cast my vote.  You may remember that was a slightly contentious election too.  Me thinks the heavy early voting really helped keep the crowds down.  I didn't blog my '06 voting experience, but I remember it going smoothly, which is no surprise since it was one of those 'tweener elections that get about 20% turnout.

BTW, I split the ticket as always.  Some Democrats, some Republicans and one Libertarian.  It felt good to spread the wealth.

Live from the Courthouse

I have jury duty today and it's just a bucket of laughs.  Interesting thing, though, is that the Winston-Salem Journal's local columnist Scott Sexton is in the same jury pool with me.  There are two cases today and a bunch of us got called into the courtroom for a drug trafficking case.  Luckily my name wasn't one of the 18-ish that were called to fill the 12 spots on the jury.  Sexton's was, though, and it offered a little comic relief when the assistant DA asked everyone questions like, "Do you know anyone in law enforcement?" or "Do you know anyone in the District Attorney's office."  FYI, the DA accepted Sexton but the defense attorney dismissed him.  What a surprise, huh?

Now I'm back in the jury waiting room.  We won't be excused until either the second case has it's jury selected or 5:00, whichever comes first.  At least they have free wi-fi here.

While walking back from lunch I ran into an older gentleman who was looking for the early voting location.  It's a couple of blocks from the courthouse, but I couldn't really help him because I still don't know downtown Winston-Salem like a native.  We ended up asking a street vendor and he pointed the gentleman in the right direction, but during our stroll the gentleman and I figured out that we both spent the majority of our lives in the metropolitan DC area. He'd mentioned that even though he'd grown up in Winston everything had changed during the 50+ years he'd lived in DC. We compared notes about our neighborhoods (he lived in NW DC, and I lived in Northern Virginia) and agreed that it had changed for the worse. 

I thought it was kind of cool that two people with a common background (if you negate the 30 years difference in age) met each other in the course of fulfilling their various civic duties.  It really made my day.

Voter Info from Google

Want to know if you're registered to vote?  Want to know what Congressional district you're in?  Google has mashed up voter data with Google Maps so that all you have to do is enter your address and it will provide you with links to sites that can provide you with all the info you need.  Here's the Google Maps site.  I plugged in my address and here's what came back:

Registration Info

State: North Carolina

Days left to register by mail: 5

Registration must be postmarked by:
Friday, October 10

Get information about voting in your state:

• Are you registered to vote?
• How to register in North Carolina
• Absentee ballot and early voting information
• North Carolina election website

North Carolina voter hotline: 1-866-522-4723

Coming soon! Voting location information will be available by mid-October. Until then, please check with your state or local election officials to verify your voting location.

Pretty cool.

Notes from My Afternoon as a Non-Reporter at a Public Meeting

As I wrote last week I spent about 5-6 hours listening to people speak at the public forum regarding the proposals by WFU Baptist Medical Center to build a hospital in Advance and Novant to build one just four miles from Advance in Clemmons.  According to the Winston-Salem Journal about 700 people were there, which I think is as accurate a count as any.  Following are some notes and observations from the afternoon:

• When I first got there I stood in the atrium outside the meeting room and watched the proceedings on a television for a few minutes.  I was holding a steno pad since I wanted to take notes and I also wanted to be prepared if I got an important business-related call.  I guess I looked like a reporter because a tall, snow-haired gentleman in a suit that probably costs more than my annual salary approached me and nodded hello while giving me the stink-eye.  I nodded back and waited for him to introduce himself.  When he didn't I put out my hand and said, "Hi, I'm Jon Lowder."  He shook my hand and said, "Yes."  That's when my prick-o-meter alarm started clanging.  Then he said, "You look like you might be a reporter" to which I replied, "No, I just carry this in case I get an important call."  He didn't seem to be buying it and he just walked off and joined his colleagues from WFU.
  
  Just after that a nice young lady from Novant approached and asked me if I was there to speak.  I said that yes I was and she gave me a green sticker that all the Novant supporters were wearing on their chests.  I put it on my shirt, but since I hadn't taken off my jacket you couldn't really see it.  I went inside and found my cousin, a Novant employee, and made my way to the side of the room where she was sitting.  I decided to lean against the wall and wait until the speaker was done before disturbing anyone to sit next to my cousin and that's when I realized that I was standing next to a reporter (I could tell by her steno notebook and the fact that she seemed to know shorthand) and when I looked up the snow-haired prick gentleman was watching me.  That's when I decided to whip out my notebook and pretend to write furiously for a few minutes while glancing at him intermittently.  A guys got to have a little fun in life.  After he left I went ahead and sat down.
  
• Listening to 150 people say essentially the same thing is very boring.  The reporter was smart and bugged out after number 20.  I was in for the long haul.
  
• If I ever want to be a reporter, or even dream of being a faux-reporter, I need to learn some form of shorthand. If not I'll be the king of paraphrasers.
  
• Two paraphrases leap to mind.  First, when the folks from WFU were given their 10 minutes to respond to some of the citizen comments their VP said that they were shocked when they heard the outgoing mayor of Clemmons say that his citizens welcomed the Novant-proposed hospital and maybe his saying that is an indication of why he got his butt kicked in the election a couple of weeks back. 
  
  The second was from the Davie county manager who was invited by WFU to use some of their response time to share a personal story to help explain what all this is about.  He said that after they'd publicly announced the deal with WFU he was approached by Novant representatives and he asked them how they could have the gall to approach him after what they did to another local hospital (Stokes County).  He said their reply was that it was all about market share.  He then said he told them that it wasn't about market share it was about the people of Davie County.  If this had been a Q&A I would have asked the guy if he thought WFU didn't care about market share as much as Novant, because if they didn't they would be building the new hospital in Mocksville or another central location in the county and not on the eastern edge that happens to be home to the county's wealthiest component and just a stone's throw from the western Forsyth population centers of Clemmons and Lewisville.
  
• Yes I was there to back Novant, but I was also there to say that I would like to see both hospitals built and preferably for Baptist to build theirs in Mocksville near the current Davie County Hospital.  I wasn't the only one of that opinion.
  
• The guy running the PR campaign for Novant was Mike Horn of Horn & Stronach.  He's a former mayor of Lewisville and a current town council member.  It's probably not a coincidence that several representatives from the town council testified in favor of Novant, but they should anyway since it would be the better option for Lewisville residents (in my opinion).
  
• It's interesting seeing people who's public lives become entwined in their private and professional lives.  Winston-Salem's mayor gets questioned every once in a while about his dual roles as mayor and president of the Winston-Salem Alliance, and seeing a town council member like Mike Horn wearing his other hat as PR pro was also interesting.  He didn't speak himself on behalf of Novant, but since many of the speakers had been recruited by either side (WFU or Novant) it wouldn't be a stretch to conclude that he probably asked his fellow leaders in Lewisville and Clemmons to appear.  Again, I'm not saying anything untoward was going on, it's just always interesting to me to see how people who serve in public office balance their duties with their private lives.
  
• The people from Novant and Baptist were all well-behaved. No catcalls, no booing, only intermittent boosterism.
  
• A few of the public speakers mentioned the astronomical costs of healthcare in their comments, but no one from Baptist or Novant addressed that in their responses at the end of the day.  We need a public hearing about that.
  
• One's butt tends to go numb after four hours of sitting.  And if that's the kind of thing that's representative of what reporters do day-in and day-out then they can have it.
  
• Finally, I've determined that I'll carry a steno pad where ever I go.  It scares people and it's a lot easier to lug around than a Fancycam.

What's My Responsibility? What's My Role?

There's an ongoing issue at Lewisville Elementary that I've written about a couple of times (most recent here).  I could be wrong but I think the comments on those posts are the only real ongoing public dialog about the situation, and the evolution of those comments have caused me to question my role or, more accurately, the role of my blog in the community.  Let me explain. 

So far I think the commenters on the posts have been polite, and the comments not particularly confrontational.  I honestly think that the commenters have the best intentions and even if they may come from different sides of the issue they also want the same things: better communication from the school and the conclusion of the investigation of the teacher who has been suspended.  That said, here are my concerns:

• This blog is a personal endeavor of mine, something I do for fun and to feed my writing jones.  Normally most of the stuff I write about is inconsequential and goofy, but when issues like this arise I feel compelled to write about it.  Is that something better left to "mainstream media"? 
• So far I think the comments on the posts have been good and in some ways helpful in revealing the viewpoints of some folks within the Lewisville School community.  But I worry that the comments could turn cruel or vindictive and that I'd be facilitating more harm being done.  Do I have that right?   I would certainly delete any bad comments as soon as I saw them, but the cat would be out of the bag for the few people who might see them before I do so.  I could also change my blog's setup so that I moderate all comments before they're published, but somehow that just doesn't feel right.  I've never had cause to worry about it before, so this is new territory for me.  And here's the key question: if someone does write something really negative am I responsible, are they responsible or is it a shared responsibility?  I'm not talking in the legal sense, but in the moral sense.
• As a member of the community I've heard lots of rumors and different sides of the story.  All of this information comes from sources I trust and in a private conversation I'd feel fine in sharing it, but I wouldn't feel right sharing here.  Am I being overly cautious or is this the right approach?
• I've been thanked on more than one occasion for providing this outlet for people to write about the issue.  I'm glad some see it that way, but I worry that others might think I'm doing a disservice to those involved in the issue.  The last thing I want is to add fuel to the fire and I hope that's not what I'm doing, rather I hope that by having a forum to look at this situation we are illuminating it.

The funny thing to me is that when I started this blog I figured maybe some friends and family would read it occasionally. I never dreamed it would be read by others or that it would be used in this way.  On the one hand I'm glad that it is, but on the other hand I'm humbled by the prospects.

Job Offer!!

Somehow the email I'm copying below made it through my spam filter.  I share it because it openly, one could say even enthusiastically, invites me and the million other people it targeted to join them in being an international scumbag.  It also purports to be from the chairman of a major investment firm in Singapore.  Actually it looks like an investment firm tied directly to the government in Singapore.  Really in terms of spam it's a nice change of pace from all the stuff that's supposed to put hair back on my head and give me a renewed sexual vigor.  Here it is:

From: notice01@optonline.net
Subject: JOB OFFER!!

From The Desk Of
Mr Lim Siong Guan Chairman,
EDB (Chairman of the Board)
250 North Bridge Road
#28-00 Raffles City Tower
Singapore 179101.
Date; 9th /Feb/ 2007

EDB CO LTD SEEKING YOUR ASSISTANCE IN OPENING OF NEW OUTLETS IN YOUR LOCALITY.
Dear Friend,

This email comes to you from the desk of Mr Lim Siong Guan chairman EDB SEMICONDUCTOR COMPANY LIMITED based in Singapore.EDB is a Global manufactural of Gray market goods,and this are items manufactured abroad and imported into the US without the consent of the trademark holder. Examples of such goods are REFRIGERATORS of all kinds,Electronics and Home Appliances.

We import this products into the World Trade Market at large and due to the high demands of our products , we have been able to acquire outlets all over Europe,Asia and America where our products can be bought. And as at today, there are 10 EDB companies in Singapore, including its Asia-Pacific headquarters and eight manufacturing companies in various sectors, ranging from refrigerator compressors to consumer electronics to advanced displays and semiconductors.

Due to the high rate of sucess in the last fiscal year of trading in the United States and Canada,we have deceided to embark on major expansion plan in these Countries even as the global economy is showing optimistic signs of pick-up.We intend doing this by wanting to open new outlets where our products can be bought from.

This idea of more outlets is making us to contact you today to know if you would be able to perform the following task for us which are listed below
1 Helping in the sales of our products to willing customers that are wanting to buy.
2 Receiving payments from customers by all means of payment method that is available, and one that suits their convinent at that point in time. We want to bring to your notice that this position does not require any relevant experience and it is best suited for all{ graduates, professionals and non graduates}.

If you deem you are fit enough for this job,we would want you to supply or furnish us with the following information via email
1 Your Full Name As It Would Appear On Your Letter Of Appointment
2 Your Contact Address
3 Telephone Number { Both Home And Mobile} / Fax
4 Your Present Occupation
5 Lastly,we would want to know if you have any form of dis-ability

Note that if we eventually deem you fit for this position,you would be placed on a 10% commision for each sales and any amount you help receive from customers.

Thank you so very much for having the patient and time to read this email.We look forward to hearing from you.

Wishing you a Blissful day,
Mr.Lim Siong Guan,
Chairman,
EDB SEMICONDUCTOR.
officeoflimguan@yahoo.com

Really it's a thing of beauty don't you think?