Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Who Will Lead Highland Park?
It's always bittersweet when you have a rising star within your own elected local government. On the one hand, it's good that you've got someone on your side who is motivated to make a name for him or herself, while elevating the profile of your town. If all goes well, that person's best interests are interwoven with the best interests of the community.
But when the town becomes too small for that person's aspirations, they move on.
For a long time, this was the case with Highland Park, NJ Mayor Meryl Frank, who, after more than nine years as mayor of this tiny Middlesex County borough of 14,000 whose identity, in addition to tree-lined streets, diverse housing stock, good public schools, and tight-knit community, is defined by its bedroom community status for large nearby institutions like Johnson & Johnson and Rutgers University.
Mayor Frank last week was sworn in as the United States representative to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. It's not clear how this will affect her mayoral incumbency, but her resignation is likely as she says she will stay on temporarily to ensure a smooth transition to a new administration.
Throughout the 2008 presidential election, Frank, a Democrat, was an ardent supporter of Hillary Clinton, and, subsequently, Barack Obama, and raised a lot of money in the process. Her appointment is the product of higher aspirations, and her legacy in Highland Park will be noted. In 2004, she created the Task Force on Ethics and Good Government, which is instituting wide-ranging rules and guidelines to assure clean government in Highland Park. Working with Borough council, she helped to develop Highland Park 2020, a long-term vision for the Borough, that focuses on creating a community that is economically, environmentally and socially sustainable. The plan highlights affordability, conservation and strong community relations, according to the Highland Park Web site.
Her term has also been marked with the ongoing redevelopment effort of Raritan Avenue, Highland Park's main street corridor.
Now Highland Park faces a change in leadership. The process to replace Frank, who is in the middle of her third term, is controlled by the local Democratic Municipal Committee. They will provide three candidates for Council consideration, and Council will then vote on who will carry out her term. This process should be public -- the local Dems should invite the community to participate in the process, as well as encourage Party outsiders to seek the spot -- those less qualified will be weeded out in the process.
But when the town becomes too small for that person's aspirations, they move on.
For a long time, this was the case with Highland Park, NJ Mayor Meryl Frank, who, after more than nine years as mayor of this tiny Middlesex County borough of 14,000 whose identity, in addition to tree-lined streets, diverse housing stock, good public schools, and tight-knit community, is defined by its bedroom community status for large nearby institutions like Johnson & Johnson and Rutgers University.
Mayor Frank last week was sworn in as the United States representative to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. It's not clear how this will affect her mayoral incumbency, but her resignation is likely as she says she will stay on temporarily to ensure a smooth transition to a new administration.
Throughout the 2008 presidential election, Frank, a Democrat, was an ardent supporter of Hillary Clinton, and, subsequently, Barack Obama, and raised a lot of money in the process. Her appointment is the product of higher aspirations, and her legacy in Highland Park will be noted. In 2004, she created the Task Force on Ethics and Good Government, which is instituting wide-ranging rules and guidelines to assure clean government in Highland Park. Working with Borough council, she helped to develop Highland Park 2020, a long-term vision for the Borough, that focuses on creating a community that is economically, environmentally and socially sustainable. The plan highlights affordability, conservation and strong community relations, according to the Highland Park Web site.
Her term has also been marked with the ongoing redevelopment effort of Raritan Avenue, Highland Park's main street corridor.
Now Highland Park faces a change in leadership. The process to replace Frank, who is in the middle of her third term, is controlled by the local Democratic Municipal Committee. They will provide three candidates for Council consideration, and Council will then vote on who will carry out her term. This process should be public -- the local Dems should invite the community to participate in the process, as well as encourage Party outsiders to seek the spot -- those less qualified will be weeded out in the process.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Let's Get Serious Here
Here we go again.
To use a catchy Obama phrase during his run for the high office, it seems like these days, it's _always_ silly season in politics, and the news today of Tom Daschle withdrawing his name as Obama's nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services only continues this pattern.
Now we all must suffer through yet another week-long news cycle as the cable networks unearth every partisan hack for commentary, culminating with Sunday morning's All Star lineup of hacks, pundits, gasbags, and blowhards, reveling in Barack Obama's missteps in his first two weeks in office.
What's worse: it's post-Super Bowl, the quietest time of year for sports, so there's _really_ nothing else on. Tune in, everyone! Let's get ready to talk about really non-substantive stuff. It's not like there's anything else going on: more and more people are unemployed these days, so television viewership's got to be way up.
Let me say this first: Secy. Geithner's and Tom Daschle's apparent inability to manage a personal ledger is truly reprehensible and there's really no excuse. While there is an argument to be made for the expeditious installation of a Treasury secretary in Geithner, despite his tax problems, Daschle should have been dismissed the moment he acknowledged his problems in unpaid taxes.
Why? Because we can't get caught up in the forever silly season of politics right now. Even though Tom Daschle is an ardent supporter of President Obama who was tapped to push through his health care policy -- an area where other leaders, Obama said in December, have failed:
Well, if this part of the Obama agenda is not derailed, it's certainly delayed -- and things are supposed to be urgent.
Here's a very incomplete list of what we need to be doing:
* Passing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and working out fundamental differences in how to stimulate an economy in continued decline
* Working to improve the housing crisis
* Closing the military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay
* Withdrawing troops from Iraq and dealing, finally, with Afghanistan
* Dealing with Israel-Palestinian relations
* Fixing HUD
* Implementing sound urban policy
* Implementing sound transportation policy
And the beat goes on and on and on. This list is about the same length as silly season, which is, apparently, forever. I'm only watching Lehrer and will hold my nose through Sunday: say no to Morning Joe, swim through the Olbermann and Maddow snarky sludge, wade through Will, march past Mitchell, gallop over Gregory, take cover from Cokie, and shy away from Schieffer.
In fact, just keep walking sirs and ma'ams. There's nothing to see here this week.
To use a catchy Obama phrase during his run for the high office, it seems like these days, it's _always_ silly season in politics, and the news today of Tom Daschle withdrawing his name as Obama's nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services only continues this pattern.
Now we all must suffer through yet another week-long news cycle as the cable networks unearth every partisan hack for commentary, culminating with Sunday morning's All Star lineup of hacks, pundits, gasbags, and blowhards, reveling in Barack Obama's missteps in his first two weeks in office.
What's worse: it's post-Super Bowl, the quietest time of year for sports, so there's _really_ nothing else on. Tune in, everyone! Let's get ready to talk about really non-substantive stuff. It's not like there's anything else going on: more and more people are unemployed these days, so television viewership's got to be way up.
Let me say this first: Secy. Geithner's and Tom Daschle's apparent inability to manage a personal ledger is truly reprehensible and there's really no excuse. While there is an argument to be made for the expeditious installation of a Treasury secretary in Geithner, despite his tax problems, Daschle should have been dismissed the moment he acknowledged his problems in unpaid taxes.
Why? Because we can't get caught up in the forever silly season of politics right now. Even though Tom Daschle is an ardent supporter of President Obama who was tapped to push through his health care policy -- an area where other leaders, Obama said in December, have failed:
"Our leaders offer up detailed health care plans with great fanfare and promise, only to see them fail, derailed by Washington politics and influence peddling."
Well, if this part of the Obama agenda is not derailed, it's certainly delayed -- and things are supposed to be urgent.
Here's a very incomplete list of what we need to be doing:
* Passing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and working out fundamental differences in how to stimulate an economy in continued decline
* Working to improve the housing crisis
* Closing the military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay
* Withdrawing troops from Iraq and dealing, finally, with Afghanistan
* Dealing with Israel-Palestinian relations
* Fixing HUD
* Implementing sound urban policy
* Implementing sound transportation policy
And the beat goes on and on and on. This list is about the same length as silly season, which is, apparently, forever. I'm only watching Lehrer and will hold my nose through Sunday: say no to Morning Joe, swim through the Olbermann and Maddow snarky sludge, wade through Will, march past Mitchell, gallop over Gregory, take cover from Cokie, and shy away from Schieffer.
In fact, just keep walking sirs and ma'ams. There's nothing to see here this week.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Shovel Your Walk?
Here's a legal scenario: one of the kids who shoveled my walk (for $3) actually slipped and fell down my stoop steps after her was "hired" as a day laborer. He was fine, thankfully, but if he were hurt on the job, how am I, the property owner and employer, responsible?
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Raiding the Family Jewels
It's not like I need to chime on the Bernie Madoff scandall: everyone else has already, and I consider myself lucky that I'm poor enough to not have been hurt by this Ponzi scheme, but I am strangely fascinated with the media coverage of it all.
My day job requires me to read the Wall Street Journal everyday to follow the markets, particularly the housing markets, and this has been big news for Murdoch & Co, for obvious reasons, but I'm most amused by a recent headline from Crain's New York:
My day job requires me to read the Wall Street Journal everyday to follow the markets, particularly the housing markets, and this has been big news for Murdoch & Co, for obvious reasons, but I'm most amused by a recent headline from Crain's New York:
Prosecutor: Madoff raided family jewelsAin't that the truth?
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Those Damn Penny Pinchers
The headline just below the fold in today's Wall Street Journal could have just as easily been a clip from The Onion:
The lede is features an Idaho couple that has recently reduced their credit card debt, opened a savings account, and cut back on taking their children out for dinner. They've even created something of a co-op with other families in purchasing bulk goods at what is presumably a nearby big box store.
For the economy, it's death by thrift.
And while we're not going to see a return to that type of behavior any time soon, and while the no-money-downers will still suck in willing consumers who just don't have the longview to keep from spending beyond their means, the Idaho couple, the Capps, will likely represent a shift in American families. After all, with gas prices at their lowest point in years after hitting peak in Summer 2008, the auto companies are signalling their worst sales in decades, with Toyota showing a sales decline for the first time in its 70-year history.
Maybe, just maybe, Americans are getting the point, and this type of long-term, pragmatic spending will result in a lasting, sustainable economy -- one that is not based on debt.
Hard-Hit Families Finally Start Saving, Aggravating Nation's Economic Woes
The lede is features an Idaho couple that has recently reduced their credit card debt, opened a savings account, and cut back on taking their children out for dinner. They've even created something of a co-op with other families in purchasing bulk goods at what is presumably a nearby big box store.
For the economy, it's death by thrift.
But this same thriftiness, embraced by families across the U.S., is also a major reason the downturn may not soon end. Americans, fresh off a deacadeslong buying spress, are finally saving more, and spending less--just as the economy needs their dollars most.Americans are not known for their frugality, at least not the last few generations following those who came of age in the Depression Era. I can tell stories of my grandfather, a Russian immigrant, who monitored the amount of toilet paper his children used and made them walk on the outer rim of the carpet so as not to wear out the main part. Serious stuff.
And while we're not going to see a return to that type of behavior any time soon, and while the no-money-downers will still suck in willing consumers who just don't have the longview to keep from spending beyond their means, the Idaho couple, the Capps, will likely represent a shift in American families. After all, with gas prices at their lowest point in years after hitting peak in Summer 2008, the auto companies are signalling their worst sales in decades, with Toyota showing a sales decline for the first time in its 70-year history.
Maybe, just maybe, Americans are getting the point, and this type of long-term, pragmatic spending will result in a lasting, sustainable economy -- one that is not based on debt.
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