Losing the Book

Charles McGrath, in his recent article in the New York Times, points to something that not even the Kindle can overcome:

One of the odder sensations of reading on the Kindle, though, is a sensation of eternal presentness. Your books are all there, perfectly preserved. The device even remembers exactly what page you were on last. On the other hand, as you read along, there are very few cues to how near you are to the beginning, how far from the end. You’re always in the middle."

Personally speaking, I feel a great sense of accomplishment when I finish a book - having never used a Kindle, I wonder if finishing a book is a less exciting affair?

Moreover, we have not begun to address the issue that technology has yet to address: the loss of the physical library. People have devoted rooms in their houses, and rightfully so, to display their book libraries, as well as their music libraries. About a year ago, I gave up buying CDs, opting to purchase only online. It was a hard decision. I love my iPod and I think that device has changed the way I listen to music — it’s made me appreciate music more. But you lose the liner notes, the _physicality_ of owning an album in its product form. You lose the art, and you lose the library.

About a month ago, I came around — opting to buy CDs once again, but only at independently-owned record stores, thus finding a happy medium between the convenience, the sound environmentalism of digital downloads (no packaging, no shipping), and the old-fashioned CD, replete with all the things we love about holding our music in our hands.

I have yet to read a book on a Kindle, but this one seems a bit more unlikely to go mainstream - at least in the short-term.

Gas Dump In Highland Park

So yesterday, I went to the Raceway at 60 Raritan Avenue to dispose of some very old gasoline. After having no idea what to do, the station attendInt brought out a big metal bucket to pour the gas into. When that bucket wasn't enough to hold the roughly five gallons I had, he invited me to pour out the remainder of the gas into a nearby landscaped area -- right into the dirt.

When I told him that I wouldn't do that, he brought out several containers to package the rest of the gas. This was clearly not the proper way to dispose of gas, and I should have gone to a service garage where they routinely do this, but that said, this is unacceptable.

I called the DEP hotline this morning and spoke to a live operator to file a formal complaint.

Just FYI

Big Win For Change Democrats in Middlesex

The Honorable Judge James P. Hurley upheld the rights of 20 candidates to compete for Democratic Committee seats in the upcoming Primary election on June 2nd. The challengers are members of Democrats for Change (DC), a coalition of long-term residents, renters and students from every district in New Brunswick running for 50 committee seats in the upcoming primary.

Charlie Kratovil, a campaign manager for the group, reacted to the ruling saying, “democracy had its day in court and democracy won.” The ruling delivered on Friday May 1st struck down the one year residency requirement which was the basis for Democratic Party Chairman T. K. Shamy's disqualification of the 20 DC members. Curiously only Rutgers Students or those under 30 with some University affiliation were targeted for disqualification.

The ruling is a tremendous victory for the residents of the city, who will see a competitive party election for the first time in decades for at least 50 out of 56 committee seats. Sean Monahan (Ward 5, District 2), one of the candidates Mr. Shamy attempted to disqualify, said, “This is a great day for New Brunswick residents because it allows us to bring all the different neighborhoods and communities together to bring change to our city just as we brought change to our country in this past November's presidential election.“

The argument came down to two NJ elections laws (NJSA 40A and Title 19) and which statute has jurisdiction over local party committee elections. The Hon. Judge Hurley's ruling was in agreement with the reasoning of Democrats for Change, namely that NJSA 40A pertains to elections for governmental offices but does not apply to political party positions. Deciding that Title 19, which makes no mention of a residency duration requirement, applies.

Deputy Attorney General Thu Lam, representing both the Secretary of State of NJ as well as the state Attorney General, weighed in agreeing that no residency duration requirement exists for party positions in the state of New Jersey.

Thomas Peoples, a Democrats for Change candidate in Ward 4, District 5, said, “I am thrilled by this decision. After reading the documents, it was clear to me that the one year requirement does not apply. The main thing now is that we run a strong campaign and get leaders who have a strong connection to their neighborhoods and clear understanding of what residents need.

Patricia Bombelyn, attorney for Democrats for Change, admitted that if the one year requirement was upheld, eight of the DC candidates would be struck down, but even under those circumstances, twelve candidates were wrongly disqualified. She cited the Mercer case from 1972 which upheld the right of persons 18 years or older to register to vote where they are living at college, arguing that the right to vote and the right to run for office cannot be divorced from one another.

The DC campaign was initiated by members of Empower Our Neighborhoods, spanning all walks of life in New Brunswick. What the DC candidates all have in common is the shared experience of working last November to make Obama's Presidency a reality and to bring meaningful change to the nation. Now DC members are looking to change their home city, to make government more accountable, and municipal decisions more democratic.

NJT Alert

Who feels me? The constant delays on the country's most heavily used commuter transit system are disconcerting to say the least. The tracks are owned by Amtrak; federal funding, while slated for huge improvements under President Obama, are still insufficient.

Northeast Corridor service is subject to 20-30 minute delays in both directions due to overhead wire problem near Metuchen Station.

Need I say more?

H1N1 Virus (Swine Flu)

In the name of public health, here are some helpful Web sites you can go to in order to find out unfiltered information on this flu:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Swine Flu - Includes definition, news, recommended preventative actions, ongoing investigations, and more. See also the CDC home page and CDC in Spanish/en Español - "Influenza porcina (gripe porcina)"

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS): Swine Flu - The U.S. Government's national health website

PandemicFlu.gov - News and information on Swine and Bird Influenzas and other forms of the flu virus

The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services

Going Mainstream With the Obama Vegetable Garden

I’m a cynic when it comes to The New York Times and its reporting on culture, trends, dining, and style. Though I’m a fan of what is now seemingly one of the few print newspapers left in the world, normally, by the time it reports on, for example, a breakthrough “underground” album, that album is no longer breakthrough and it’s certainly no longer underground. The inescapable truth of the mainstream media is that it reports on and is viewed by, well, the mainstream—and not the underground.

So when I read in The Times that group of fifth graders from a DC elementary school will help Michelle Obama dig up the soil for a planned 1,100-square-foot vegetable garden, my cynicism goes out the window and all I can think is “How cool is this?” If The Times is reporting on this, perhaps community gardening is becoming mainstream!

It’s sad that that’s still my reaction, particularly since, for years, I’ve reported on, and been involved in local food initiatives. There is still a Gee Whiz quality to the Slow Food movement that is foreign to some, as well as somewhat of an “I-drive-a-hybrid” righteousness, which only turns people on the outside off.

So to see the Obamas, who are, if anything, gifted in their groundedness, doing some good ol’ hippie gardening, maybe more people in the cities and ‘burbiest of ‘burbs with a big backyard will do the same, and it won’t be perceived as weird or “earthy.”

Organic gardening and community gardens are nothing new, but they are anything but mainstream in a world of Costco, Sam’s Club, and in an age when everything is in season—always, because it’s shipped in from who-knows-where. You know the workman’s adage that “it’s five o’ clock somewhere”? Same applies with seasons in the food industry.

Our, at least my, previous generalized notion of the White House and its occupants is so standard, buttoned-up, inside-the-Beltway Box, that thinking of Mrs. Obama, the president, their kids, and a group of nearby public schoolers getting their hands dirty as they plant cilantro, chard, and berries, is just wonderful. There’s really no other way to describe it.

Aside from community gardens that have served as glue for neighborhoods, providing much of the same sense of community as a place of worship does, around the country, countless public school districts are engaging their own community gardening projects, not only to instill a sense of agrarian savvy into youths who would otherwise never be exposed to that, but to also underscore the importance of knowing the source of your food.

There are too many programs to name in one Rooflines post, but what are some projects in your area? Let’s hear about them.

This piece originally ran March 20, 2009 on my blog at Rooflines, the blog of the National Housing Institute.

Just Because His Sleeves Are Rolled Up, It Doesn’t Mean He Means Business

I’m a little late weighing on on this, but this retrial of Jon Stewart v. Tucker Carlson is not sitting well with me.

Countless investors have lost life savings, IRAs, and more “skin” in any game that I’ve ever seen in this economic downturn, and for months, we seemed to accept the fact that while some institutions and individuals were more at fault than others, it was really the fault of many and subsequently everyone’s mess.

That is until last week. That’s when we found Jim Cramer of CNBC’s “Mad Money” to be a less-than-formidable scapegoat, a poster child, if you will, of CNBC’s and the overall business media’s knowledge of “the game” of Wall Street and how they at best, haven’t done their job in properly guiding people through the financial crisis, and, at worst, offered outright misinformation, resulting in massive reductions of personal wealth.

As a journalist, I always welcome heavy media analysis, not only because it gives us the opportunity to better provide useful information, but because it also promotes sustainable communities, inasmuch as an informed public can better make decisions for itself. I am also immediately skeptical when people start blaming the media for things.

But in the case with Jim Cramer, I find I don’t need to engage in that auto-analytic mode. Anyone who has even watched three minutes of Mad Money knows that Cramer, a former hedge fund manager, is a TV personality first. “Useful Information Provider” falls way, way, way down on the list.

CNBC has an average viewership of 300,000 (Bloomberg TV’s average is 10,000, and CNN’s is roughly 700,000), and you can find people tuned in to it in newsrooms and financial advisor offices around the country. People are watching the stock ticker, Market Watch, or even Squawk Box, but when Mad Money (I almost wrote “Mad TV”) comes on, I can’t imagine those 300,000 view Cramer like E.F. Hutton, particularly when he begins throwing around set props, pushing big buttons—things from which little kids might get visual amusement, but sophisticated traders and investors? I might be wrong, but I just don’t see it.

So, when Jim Cramer sat there, with his sleeves rolled up, as is his trademark look, looking like he was ready for a fight, and ate the porridge spoon fed from Jon Stewart, it could be viewed in a number of ways: an admission of guilt, steering watchers to buy stocks of Bear Stearns only days before it went under, an acknowledgment of sub-par financial analysis, a tacit recognition that he was playing “the Game” even when he knew better, or simply as a feeble entertainer unfamiliar with the lashings of a quick-tongued comedian, or, most likely, all of the above.

But none of that matters, I think. Good for Jon Stewart for calling this guy out, but at the end of the day, I think it makes for just another inter-Cable foe; more Premium Package Enmity, like Olbermann v. O’Reilly. While Jon Stewart and the Daily Show provide an invaluable service when it comes to not only entertainment, but also to information dissemination, this battle is another time-waster. Cramer is an entertainer, and frankly, a bizarre target for Stewart. I recall the more useful conflict between Stewart and Tucker Carlson, then of CNN’s Crossfire, when Stewart, using colorful language, criticized the program’s “either/or” delivery of the news. THAT’S the type of programming we need to rally against—the stuff that doesn’t report the news, but takes news, tears it in half, and has it fight itself in a TV studio.

Don’t waste your time blaming the Jim Cramers of the world for the financial crisis, there are much, much, larger fish to fry, both within the media and on Wall Street.