Sometimes These Things Write Themselves

Falwell was a uniter and a divider

Falwell, who had a history of heart trouble, was found without a pulse in his office at Liberty University at midday Tuesday and pronounced dead at Lynchburg General Hospital an hour later. His doctor, Carl Moore, said he presumably died of a heart rhythm abnormality. He was 73.

Cross posted to the Gamut.

My First Editorial Cartoon

Lottery to take over gamblers hot line

MORGANTOWN — The Lottery Commission plans to bypass state public health officials and take control of West Virginia’s nationally recognized program for compulsive gamblers, a move that is alarming addiction counselors and church groups.

Under the little-known plan, the Department of Health and Human Resources would stop administering the $1.5 million Problem Gamblers Help Network on July 1, when the current contract with First Choice Health Care expires. The Lottery would then begin paying providers directly.

Years ago, I was editorial cartoonist for the Pitt News, the University of Pittsburgh student newspaper. Afterward, I would periodically try my hand at editorial cartoons for my own enjoyment. I think for now I will periodically do one up just to see how it goes. Feel free to let me know what you think of my work in comments.

Cross posted to the Gamut.

At Least We Tried

By a vote of 109 to 65, the final vote tally in the democratic race for Toronto's third ward seat was won last night by Jason Fogle. Congratulations, Jason, on a fair victory.

To those who supported me and those who voted for me, I want to say thank you, and to remind you that we did very well considering that we were running against incumbency.

I would also like to let Mr. Fogle know that I will not be pulling a Joe Lieberman. I have no intention of trying to run as an Independent and courting Republican voters trying for an upset in November. I ran as a democrat because I am a democrat.

At this time I would also like to announce that I plan to continue to maintain this site. I'll use it to editorialize on all forms of local government as I see fit. I may even run the occassional original editorial cartoon.

That's wonderful, however, I need a majority. -- Adlai Stevenson in response to being told that the intellectuals of America supported him.

Primary Finale

The election is now just one week away. This will be my final posting before the primary, hence the oxy-moronic headline for this post. Again, I wish to thank everyone for their support. Watch tomorrow's Toronto Scene section of the Herald Star for this ad which I am running.



I managed to stay well under the spending limit for this run, and I filed the necessary waiver, therefore I am not legally required to file a disclosure of my expenses. None-the-less, I intend to disclose all of my expenses relating to this campaign on this web-site. You will find it posted shortly before the election on the sidebar.

As I have added new posts to this site, old posts have dropped off the front page into the archives. The entire archive is still available and can be accessed on the sidebar as well. However, for the benefit of anyone who might like to read the posts through in order, I will end this installment with a link index in chronological order.

Introduction

My Issues

A More Interactive Council

Transparency in Government

Responsible Budgeting for ALL of Our Seniors

Preventing Urban Blight

Vision For The Future

Build It and They Will Come

Championing the Future

Notes on the Campaign

Don't forget to vote on Tuesday, May 8. May the best man win.

Notes on the Campaign

The primary election is now less than two weeks away, so I wanted to take a few moments to comment on the campaign thus far.

First, I would like to thank my opponent for joining with me in keeping the campaign free of mud. Second, I would like to thank Julie Stenger of the Steubenville Herald Star for writing a balanced and fair profile of Mr. Fogle and myself. If you missed it, it ran in this weekend's Saturday edition of the paper and it has been re-published in today's Toronto Scene. I have linked to the article in the sidebar on this site.

Third, I want to thank all of the people I have spoken with about the campaign for their support and kind words. It's hard to know if your message is getting across when you are running this kind of local campaign. It's not like I can rely on polling or media reports. All I can do is rely on word of mouth and then trust the fates.

This week I began distributing pamphlets door-to-door to the registered Democrats in my ward. If I miss you, I'm sorry. And it doesn't mean that I'm not interested in the Independents or Republicans in the ward. Your opinion matters to me as well. It's just that the materials are costly, and I am on a limited budget. This being a primary election, I have to concentrate my efforts on those who are legally qualified to vote for me.

But while we are on this topic, if you are a registered Republican or if you have no party affiliation and would like to help, election laws in Ohio work like this; to vote for a candidate who is running on a party ticket in a primary election you have to declare for that party in the primary at the polling place on election day. If you are not currently registered with either party, you simply request a Democratic ballot, and you will be considered a Democrat until the following primary at which time you can choose to change again. If you are registered as a Republican, you can make the same change, but you will be requested to sign a form called a "challenge." So if you are currently noted as an Independent or as a Republican, and if you would like to vote for me, you may do so in this primary. There are no Republicans running in this primary for you to vote for anyway, and you can re-register however you wish to next year. On the other hand, if you are currently listed as a Republican or Independent and if you do not choose to take a Democratic ballot, you will be given an "issues only" ballot, and you will be unable to vote for any candidates in this primary election.

On election day, I will not be campaigning. In stead, I will be working at a polling place in Steubenville as "presiding judge" for the Board of Elections.

You may have noticed my signs around the ward and on the ramps leading in and out of town. The weather has been hard on my signs, and I have had to replace several stakes. I have been working lately on new signs, larger ones made of heavy wood. Hopefully these will stay put until after the vote.

Tuesday, May 8. That's the date for the election. Please turn out and make your voice heard. There are also several issues on the ballot that need your support. These are all levy renewals and will not result in a single tax increase. Thank you in advance for your support of these issues as well.

Championing the Future

In my last installment, I suggested that a grassroots movement might be able to accomplish something truly great for this town by petitioning to have the idea for a park linking the gazebo commons with the WWI monument area placed on a ballot for the citizens to vote on in a coming election. Such a bold idea would of course face some opposition, but I believe that all of the arguments against the park could be easily met with reasonable counter-arguments.

Here I will list the arguments against the park I have heard along with the counter-points to those arguments.

The park would require the closing of a city intersection.
This is true, however, a traffic study was done on that particular intersection, and it was found that very few people actually use that particular section of road. In fact, so few do that a traffic light was removed since all it did was cause unnecessary delays for those traveling on the more heavily traveled cross street. Moreover, there are two other intersections to the south which suffice for traffic needing to turn to either the east or west.

Access to Newburg Landing will be more difficult for emergency vehicles and boats in tow.
According to both fire department and EMT personnel, their vehicles will have no difficulty making the turn from River Avenue onto the road to Newburg Landing. As for boats in tow, the road leading to the landing has two other sharp turns. If a boat can't make the turn from River Avenue, then it won't make these other turns either.

The park would impact the neighborhood.
True again, but the biggest impact would be most likely a probable increase in property values.

There are gas and water lines and probably power cables running under that section of ground which must be accessible.
This would be accounted for by the engineers designing the park. In fact, these could be the most easily accessible cables and lines in town by simply bundling them in a vault with a ground level access point.

Somebody has to pay for the park.
When the idea was last brought to the table, there was a local corporate sponsor. There are also grants as well as private contributions and fund-raisers which could help make the park a reality.

This park, if it were to come about, would be a major asset to the residents of the third ward. As a city councilman, I would promote this and any ideas for change which I felt would benefit not only my ward, but the entire Toronto community.

Build It and They Will Come

Imagine a Toronto where people travel by river and bus and RV to spend part of their vacations. A Toronto with a bustling downtown, an active water-front in the summer and which is known as a destination for all sorts of sportsmen and history buffs and romantics year round. This Toronto is a place where our children not only want to stay to raise their own families, but which also is attractive to "new blood."

What would it take to make this Toronto a reality? Better schools? Increased job opportunities? More choices in leisure activities? Well, I believe all of this is possible with a simple adjustment in some outdated attitudes.

Toronto has been playing it safe for years, and where has it gotten us? We are losing job opportunities, losing population, and losing time to turn things around. If we don't change things quickly, we will have to consolidate school systems soon, and possibly lose our status as a bonefide city. According to the most recent census, Toronto barely qualifies as a city as it is. By 2010, at the current rate of attrition, we will be downgraded to a village after the next head-count.

So how do we fix this? Obviously no single step is going to turn things around. It will be a complicated process, and it will require the involvement and cooperation of government, businesses, civic groups and the population in general. But it does have to start somewhere, and I think the best place is with a grass-roots movement to create a larger and more user-friendly downtown commons area.

Twice now an effort has been initiated to build a park unifying the gazebo commons with the WWI Soldiers and Sailors monument. The proposed park would close-off a little-used segment of Market Street, and would make the commons area more accessible to foot traffic. Both times this idea was suggested in the past, it was given no serious consideration by the powers-that-be in the city building, and it died unceremoniously. I think it is time to try a different approach.

I believe that a petition should be circulated demanding that the park idea be placed on the ballot for the public to decide. Then a media blitz demonstrating public support and corporate sponsorship should be launched to create interest in the project. This is how they built the Milsop, and there is no reason we can't do it here in Toronto as well.

Once the park is built, cross-promotion of the historic landmarks of our town, our strategic location for fishermen, water sports and hunters, our beautiful downtown and our wonderful eating establishments could quickly increase tourist traffic, and begin the revitalization of Toronto for ourselves and our posterity.

In my next installment, I'll explain how the objections to the park can be overcome with simple logic and quiet reasoning.