About living under a looking glass:"As a member of the Orange family you must remain close to yourself. When there is such a continuous attention on you there is the danger of drowning."About anniversaries. Party time?"We will surely have a party. Although this 40 years milestone doesn't anything special to me. We will just give a "lekker" (= cool) dance party. Life passes quickly, one should celebrate the moments when things go well."Amsterdam?"I feel relaxed in Amsterdam, whevever I am. At school there is a mix of [children of] people both with a moderate income as well as millionaires. But one cannot see the difference! They all come on their bikes bringing their kids. And nowhere you can a drink on an outdoor terrace or have a dinner out like here. And there is only one Albert Cuyp." [daily market]
Barack Obama has this to say about impeachment [emphasis added]:The Vermont Democratic primary on Town Meeting day last month was a blowout for Obama. At town meetings in March '07, 31 towns in the state voted for impeachment of Bush and Cheney. Such is the craziness of 'progressive' Vermont politics that I daresay most of the impeachment, anti-war crowd from last year ended up backing Obama this year. And they'll probably give Peter Welch and Patrick Leahy a nod in September's state primary, too. Ya think?"I often get questions about impeachment at town hall meetings and I've said that is not something I think would be fruitful to pursue because I think that impeachment is something that should be reserved for exceptional circumstances."Nothing "exceptional" going on here, not to worry. Just the wholesale shredding of the Constitution, and the wholesale destruction of people's lives around the world.
Sure we know what they mean, but this was found at the Keukenhof, the world’s largest flower garden, surely beautiful yet pricy and often overrun with tourists. In other words, you would expect them to write proper English and have pride in doing so.
Oh oh. The website has its problems as well, never mind that you can be welcomed in many different languages.
One highlight:
“Keukenhof offers you the opportunity to see millions of bulbs in flower”
Should be “in bloom”.
We could also make ‘walk the dog, walk the grass’ jokes. But the tulips are pretty.
The warnings about soaring global food prices are just flooding in. From the IMF riot to the food riot. Aside from causing starvation among large swathes of consumers, fluctuations in global commodity prices typically wreak the most havoc for small producers. Multinationals and agricommerce don't have this problem, because they are diversified and have the resources to wait out slumps or spirals. While the chaos resulting from the subordination of basic human requirements to global markets can cause social collapse, an erosion of the moral geography, and intensified social conflict of the kind that has afflicted Sudan and pre-genocide Rwanda, the people who are meant to make money from it keep making money from it. Currently, the emphasis on biofuels and the shift of investors away from bad bets in subprime to staple goods have conspired to drive the prices up. So, although there is more than enough rice to meet every individual's dietary requirements, we are told there is a 'scarcity'. That's capitalism for you: even where's plenty, there ain't enough.Answers here.
In light of all this, I have some questions. To wit: what is that shit you're eating? Why are you so fat, yet malnourished? Why is it that for the first time the number of obese people (1 billion) exceeds the number of starving people (850 million)? And how are those two facts related?
War turns Republics into dictatorships. The logic is actually quite simple. The Constitution says that the Congress is responsible for declaring war. But in 2002 Congress turned that responsibility over to Bush, gutting the constitution and allowing the American Right to start referring to him not as president but as 'commander in chief' (that is a function of the civilian presidency, not a title.)
Now Bush has now turned over the decision-making about the course of the Iraq War to Gen. David Petraeus.
So Congress abdicated to Bush. Bush has abdicated to the generals in the field.
That is not a Republic. That is a military dictatorship achieved not by coup but by moral laziness.
I don't really want to pay too much attention to his silly little film, because it is nothing but the usual warmed over Islamophobic cliches. You know the drill: the Islam is threatening your freedom, it wants to subjugate the entire world and kill all the unbelievers, it leads to terrorism (cue images of the September 11 attacks) and so on. Bo-oring.Here's a short film produced by Radio Netherlands Worldwide about Fitma and Wilders -- and his effect on the multi-cultural Netherlands --
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An appeals court Thursday upheld Mumia Abu-Jamal's conviction for murdering a police officer 27 years ago but rejected prosecutors' request to reinstate the death penalty for the former Black Panther.I've been following Mumia's appeals on his case for a while. Here is the Free Mumia website.
A three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that because the jury that sentenced Abu-Jamal to die was given flawed instructions in the penalty phase, he must either get a new sentencing hearing or be sentenced to life in prison.
Mumia's supporters are unhappy and planning protests:They said rallies were being planned for as early as tomorrow outside federal courthouses in Philadelphia, New York and San Francisco.What's next?Either side could ask the panel to reconsider the decision, ask the entire Third Circuit to consider the case, or eventually ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you all tonight.The City Council resolution passed unanimously, with some amendments. During the back-and-forth discussion before the actual vote, one of the Councilors rather condescendingly and in a needlessly defensive manner singled out my comments, calling attention to my reference to back room politics; he clearly did not listen to what I was saying. The public perception is that a lot Burlington's governmental processes are done in an almost-stealth manner (e.g. Westlake); decisions are made before the public has had an opportunity to chime in; oversight commissions appointed by City Council need to make sure the public is involved every step of the way. Now that this resolution has been approved, next steps include a public forum asking citizens what their concerns are about open government and transparency and what they want this committee to address.
I would like to speak in support of the proposed ad-hoc committee designed to address government openness and transparency.
Many citizens’ recent experiences have led them to believe that decisions in Burlington can be made in proverbial “smoke-filled rooms” behind “closed doors.” In the 8 years since my return to Vermont, I have a keen appreciation for the way good government operates, as opposed to my experiences of “good ol’ boy” shenanigans when I lived in Texas. Although we know that in a literal sense our Mayor and City Council members are not meeting somewhere smoking cigars and shaking hands after hours, the perception of an opaque rather than a transparent system has left the public questioning the entire process we are supposed to trust in our great democracy. Many people feel like they cannot trust the process, because when they do, projects like Westlake are allowed to occur. The public is left feeling outraged, cynical, and isolated.
This ad-hoc committee addresses these negative perceptions in our community, and begins to rebuild the trust that has apparently been lost. As a member of Vermont Interfaith Action, a coalition of seven congregations in Burlington representing 2,000 families, I have heard a lot about the isolation and frustration people feel about many processes in Burlington.
VIA hosted a public meeting last February where 300 members of our congregations and the public came, along with our Mayor, CEDO director, City Attorney, and many City Council members. Although the meeting’s agenda specifically addressed the Westlake development and its development flaws, that project serves as an example of how the system in general can fail the public. We asked the Mayor and other City officials to join VIA in a partnership to address some of the issues we identified in our six months of research regarding the Westlake development, including issues about the lack of transparency involved in the process itself.
VIA believes the proposed committee you are considering tonight addresses the concerns of many of our congregations’ members, and is a step toward rebuilding the relationship between government and the people. I ask you to approve formation of this committee. I will even go further to ask you to consider me for appointment to this committee, not only as an engaged and informed Burlington resident, but also as a member of Vermont Interfaith Action.
Thank you again for the council’s commitment and willingness to address and rectify the perception of closed and broken government.
The Judaeo-Christian tradition has been famously blamed for much of the current environmental crisis, particularly for our misreading of Genesis 1:28 as a charge to "fill the earth and subdue it." Our forebears were so eager to distinguish their faith from the surrounding Canaanite religion and its concern for fertility that some of them worked overtime to separate us from an awareness of "the hand of God in the world about us," especially in a reverence for creation. How can we love God if we do not love what God has made?You may read the full text here.
We base much of our approach to loving God and our neighbors in this world on our baptismal covenant. Yet our latest prayer book was written just a bit too early to include caring for creation among those explicit baptismal promises. I would invite you to explore those promises a bit more deeply -- where and how do they imply caring for the rest of creation?
We are beginning to be aware of the ways in which our lack of concern for the rest of creation results in death and destruction for our neighbors. We cannot love our neighbors unless we care for the creation that supports all our earthly lives. We are not respecting the dignity of our fellow creatures if our sewage or garbage fouls their living space. When atmospheric warming, due in part to the methane output of the millions of cows we raise each year to produce hamburger, begins to slowly drown the island homes of our neighbors in the South Pacific, are we truly sharing good news?
“We shook off the chains of Dutch colonialism in the 1970s, but our consciousness remains colonized by the Dutch language,” said Paul Middellijn, 58, a writer who composes poetry in Sranan Tongo.
Nevertheless, Mr. Middellijn said English should be declared Suriname’s national language, a position shared by many Surinamese who want stronger links to the Caribbean and North America. “Sranan will survive because nothing can replace it as the language of the street,” he said.
“It is a form of communication perfect not just for poets but for the Chinese groceryman or Brazilian miner who arrived a few months ago,” he continued. “Are they going to go through the trouble of learning Dutch? No way.”
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“I do not speak Sranan,” said Suprijanto Muhadi, the ambassador from Indonesia, the former Dutch colony that sent Javanese laborers here until the eve of World War II. “But a manservant I brought from Indonesia a year ago picked it up much easier than Dutch.”
The use of Sranan became associated with nationalist politics after Desi Bouterse, a former dictator, began using Sranan in his speeches in the 1980s. The slogan of his National Democratic Party, the biggest in Suriname, remains “Let a faya baka!” Sranan for “Turn the lights back on!” or, figuratively, get things working again.
---But also understand that Hillary Clinton doesn't have much to offer, either. Both are cut from the same arrogant centrist Democratic Party cloth.
So it may not seem hopelessly weird for me to admit that when I see Obama my first image is not that of a black man, but of a Harvard Law School graduate. If I had to choose one stereotype that would be it, which is to say an intelligent, analytical, somewhat self-possessed and arrogant fellow of innate caution and limited imagination. The sort of person you'd want around to handle your divorce or complete your merger, but far from the prophet whose role he has been assigned.
If you examine his politics even slightly, you would be hard to find one example of Obama saying or doing anything much out of the ordinary. You will, however, find many things with which progressives would have cause to disagree: his lousy healthcare plan, his support of the Iraq war after 2002, his approval of Bill Clinton's assault on social welfare, his uninspiring record on environmental issues, his support of the war on drugs, Real ID, the PATRIOT ACT, the death penalty and No Child Left Behind.
Does this matter, and it is cause for something less than applause? I think so.
Then there are his words. The embarrassing truth is that Obama bores me. I find him platitudinous, single toned, , sometime pompous and often guilty of that classic Washington sin described once as confusing somberness with seriousness. To be sure, I don't like listening to most politicians these days, but there is something so predictable and annoyingly didactic about Obama, as though he was trying to bring a bunch of freshman students up to speed, that I tend to turn him off and read the text instead.
I have a suspicion that my reaction may be one reason why Obama has a hard time reaching less than elite whites. It's not that he can't reach across the ethnic divide; it's the class divide that keeps him apart. He talks like someone who considers himself better than his audience.
The world faces a future of "water wars", unless action is taken to prevent international water shortages and sanitation issues escalating into conflicts, according to Gareth Thomas, the International Development minister.Locally, Vermonters for a Clean Environment: On Water
The minister's warning came as a coalition of 27 international charities marked World Water Day, by writing to Gordon Brown demanding action to give fresh water to 1.1 billion people with poor supplies. "If we do not act, the reality is that water supplies may become the subject of international conflict in the years ahead," said Mr Thomas. "We need to invest now to prevent us having to pay that price in the future."
His department warned that two-thirds of the world's population will live in water-stressed countries by 2025. The stark prediction comes after the Prime Minister said in his national security strategy that pressure on water was one of the factors that could help countries "tip into instability, state failure or conflict".
The coalition of charities has appealed for a global effort to bring running water to the developing world and supply sanitation to a further 2.6 billion people. It said international action was needed to prevent competition for water destabilising communities and escalating into conflicts.
In their letter, the campaigners say: "Tackling the water and sanitation crisis is essential if the 'Millennium Development Goal Call to Action' is to be a success, otherwise progress on health, education and environmental sustainability will be undermined. Each year 443 million school days are lost globally to diarrhoea and 1.8 million children die unnecessarily from these diseases.
"Investing in sanitation and water brings the greatest public health gains of any single development intervention and delivers huge economic returns. The G8 would do well to heed the development history of east Asian countries that put tackling these issues at the forefront of their national development efforts."
Ministers agree the world needs to take urgent action to avoid missing Millennium Development Goals to halve the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015. That target should be met, although progress has been limited in sub-Saharan Africa.
Mr Brown's security strategy said "rising temperatures together with extreme weather will increase pressures on water supplies". It went on: "A growing and increasingly urbanised global population will increase demand for food and water, at the same time as climate change and other trends put greater pressure on their supply.
"Already well over 1 billion people suffer from water shortages and 30 countries get more than a third of their water from outside their borders. With climate change, those figures are likely to grow, increasing the possibility of disputes."
Charlie Kronick, senior climate adviser at Greenpeace, said the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, most of south Asia and western South America were at risk of water shortages if global warming continues.
"There is no doubt that climate change is going to be potentially the biggest source of water stress," he said. "If average global temperatures go more than two degrees above pre-industrial levels you are looking at 2 to 3 billion people potentially suffering water shortages. It's a pretty serious business."
What made Princess Juliana so special was her warm heart. People do not remember her as the queen in the state portraits they saw in public buildings. The image that left the deepest impression on them was the one of her standing in the mud in her rubber boots in Zeeland during the 1953 floods, with wind-swept hair and fluttering headscarf. The expression on her face was one of deepest sympathy and powerlessness. At that moment, she was perhaps at her most royal, in the truest sense of the word: genuinely at one with her people in their hour of need and in their grief.
Why didn't most theatregoers think of Paul Scofield in the way they thought of Olivier, Gielgud and Richardson? After all, he had pretty well all the qualities, from Olivier's danger through Gielgud's grace to Richardson's soul, that we admired in the 20th century's most renowned triumvirate.
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There were two main reasons for his relative neglect, the first of which is a terrible comment on our honours system. He refused a knighthood, later telling me that "if you want a title what's wrong with Mr?". Sadly, this meant that when people talked of our pre-eminent actors, he tended to get forgotten or relegated below Derek Jacobi and Ben Kingsley.
The other reason is that he didn't want to be a household name, let alone a celeb. He seldom gave interviews and never appeared on chat shows, but lived quietly and modestly in Sussex, taking the local train to London when work demanded and invariably returning the same night. It was the art, not the fame, that mattered to him. He was an extraordinary actor content to be an ordinary man.
As the lack of coverage of the Winter Soldier hearings has proved, the corporate media is not open to the full extent of anti-war feeling, so this blogswarm is one aspect of new media filling the gaps left by institutions who (despite some mea culpas over their cheerleading of the rush to war 5 years ago) still feel most comfortable reflecting elite opinion. I am put in mind of two oft quoted phrases: "Be the change you want to see in the world"-(Mahatma Gandhi) & Be The Media! Combined we are doing that, we are being the media but a different media, we are enacting a change, not beholden to corporate interests or imperial objectives. A grassroots, human movement of global reach and consciousness.
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar’s value is dropping so fast against the euro that small currency outlets in Amsterdam are turning away tourists seeking to sell their dollars for local money while on vacation in the Netherlands.
“Our dollar is worth maybe zero over here,” said Mary Kelly, an American tourist from Indianapolis, Indiana, in front of the Anne Frank house. “It’s hard to find a place to exchange. We have to go downtown, to the central station or post office.”
That’s because the smaller currency exchanges — despite buy/sell spreads that make it easier for them to make money by exchanging small amounts of currency — don’t want to be caught holding dollars that could be worth less by the time they can sell them.
The dollar hovered near record lows on Monday, with one euro worth around $1.58 versus $1.47 a month ago.
They post frequently during the day in response to events, and the comments are absolutely phenomenal, with some more radical than what you would encounter on political blogs, because some of the posters understand the relationship between the methods of crony capitalism and political power. It is, despite its absence of any overt ideological perspective, one of the most left blog sites around because the events that it examines are essential for any leftist to understand when contemplating the future of neoliberal capitalism and the American Empire.
Bores do not all live in the public eye. Full many a stiff was born to bore unseen and waste his dullness on the desert air. But bores on the airwaves are special cases, because they grate on the spirit as well as fatigue the ear and brain. Among the current ranks of soi-disant celebrities are many colossal drones...A lovely list, indeed. It gives another meaning to the term "show stoppers." I adore the acid tone piercing through John Walsh's commentary. You might need to have a smattering of knowledge about contemporary or recent past British movers and shakers, but here are my favourites on the list, which will be familiar to the hip, celebrity-watching American readers of BI.
Nobody knows exactly how, with little talent for singing, dancing, acting or anything else, Vicky Adams came from nowhere to world stardom, via the millions-spinning Spice Girls and marriage to a god-like footballer, but her number should surely be up by now. She's become a pose without any suggestion of a real person behind it, a walking retail-opportunity, a painfully skinny-legged, black-leather-clad, damson-bosomed freakshow. Whether attempting to "conquer" America by showing that British girls can go shopping just as frantically as Paris Hilton, or flying to G8 summits for the paparazzi attention, she's become globally ubiquitous. Can you really stand to see that pout and those shades one more time?The Duke of York
Many of the royals are terrible bores – it goes with the genetic disposition – but Andrew is a special case. While other princes display a passion for their hobbies and interests (Charles for organic farming, Edward for showbiz, Harry for cocktails, chicks and guns), Andrew seems content just to visit agreeable golf courses in sunny lands. His flighty wife, Sarah, divorced him for wanting to spend every night in, watching TV. His pronouncements are, without exception, leaden. Visiting the US last month, as our special representative for international trade, when asked if he thought the situation in Iraq was getting better, he said, "That's almost a university PhD question." There is no such thing, Andrew, as a PhD question.The Archbishop of Canterbury
A real hoo-hah engulfed the nation last month when the Archbishop appeared to suggest that sharia should be used in the British legal system. Bishops queued to denounce the idea. Politicians from left and right swooned with horror at "British values" being stretched to take in stoning to death and chopping hands off thieves. The press went ballistic. Even British Muslims were appalled. Then the truth emerged: Dr Williams had merely tried to "tease out" the idea, in a 7,000-word speech. All that fuss, because listeners were so bored by the prolix intellectual's words, that they seized on the one concrete suggestion in a howling gale of academic persiflage.Delia Smith
It had all been going so well. She was Saint Delia, patron saint of not-very-good cooks everywhere. Devoutly Catholic, she offered succour, Virgin Mary-style, to kitchen-bound women and men who could hardly boil an egg. Celebrity chefs came and went, but her faithful stayed faithful. Delia was a mousy church-committee little woman, but by God she could lay out ingredients in little plates and make you understand how a boeuf bourgignon worked. Then, after an eight-year layoff, she returned last month with a reprinted book telling you How to Cheat at Cooking and recommending factory-farmed chicken. Abruptly, the scales fell from millions of eyes. She'd been a plain, suburban, Sainsbury's-loving fake all along!Paul Burrell
Well on the way to becoming one of the nation's most disliked figures, Burrell has forged a career out of telling people very small things about his life as Princess Diana's butler. A career of standing behind famous people uttering discreet coughs has left him flogging his tiny expertise to ever-less-interested audiences. Most recently he was seen in Memphis, Tennessee, trying to interest an audience of elderly ladies in his own range of furniture. It's not the opportunism that makes him such a bore, though – it's that bumptiously oily delivery. "I tell it as it is," he told the Sun. "I tell it straight – that's who I am, I can't change who I am. I tell it as it is, and some people don't like that, but I am telling the truth." Oh do go away.Bob Geldof
Permanently belligerent, hectoring pricker of British consciences and wearer of Ruritanian decorations.And lastly,
Veteran actress of Medea-like gravitas with leadenly boring, outspoken political views.Posh Spice seems to be winning the poll of on-line Independent readers.
I have to believe that our city officials were energized and empowered by the knowledge that there were 300 people in seven congregations who cared enough about affordable housing to give up a Sunday afternoon to fight for it. Surely that level of support helped them complete the negotiations so successfully.
I still have two questions. Will the city adopt the "open and transparent development process" that VIA has asked for so that we can avoid a recurrence of what happened at Westlake? I am confident that VIA will continue to hold their feet to the fire.
My second question is this: Why did a well-advertised meeting that was deemed important enough for the mayor, the new director of the Community and Economic Development Office, five city councilors, the city attorney and 300 citizens to attend fail to warrant any coverage in The Burlington Free Press?
Please, can anyone out there other than the fawning Vermont media think anything other than “loser” when the name Anthony Pollina is mentioned? I can’t. And for good reason, too. He’s a loser. He loses elections (many of them). He loses in his issue efforts (many of them). And he even loses in court when – oddly – he challenged his rare victory with campaign finance reform. I guess it must have felt weird for him to actually win something so he went to court to fight it. Good for you, Tony. Keep that record clean.
We all know about Pollina’s electoral losing. He’s something like 0-for-5. But Pollina seems to get energized by losing the way most politicians are energized by winning. The average politician, for example, begins with a lower office, wins, aims higher, wins and so forth. Not Pollina. He aims high, starting with a run for Congress, loses, and then just keeps aiming high for jobs like governor (a couple of times) and keeps losing. What’s worse is that each time he loses – and loses big – Pollina acts like he won. “Wow, I’m up to over 20% of the vote! Wait’ll next time!”
It’s a not-so-veiled attempt to “prove” that Pollina is getting gobs of support from mainstream Dems in his Prog bid for the governorship. The group is officially launching a “write-in” campaign for Pollina in the Democratic primary in September. Since Pollina will be on the Prog’s primary ballot, he can’t be on the Dems’.
A quick look at some of the names on the list certainly makes the whole thing look rather suspect. I noticed, for example, that Grace Gershuny is listed as a “Dem for Pollina.” But Gershuny is also listed as the Groton town chair for the Progressive Party at the party’s website. Oops.
Obviously the best place to get information is the grocery store.So, questions persist about the use of Diebold optical scanners. There have been duly noted formidable problems with them (in New Hampshire, for example, also in a city councll race). And can someone tell me why our city councilors are being asked to do the recount? Would they be disinterested and neutral? Aren't the JPs in our city supposed to do that? Or should all the Burlington ward election officials be called to do this recount? After all, they are sworn to be neutral and fair.
Per Kurt Wright today in the coffee aisle- When the voting ended at Hunt School in Ward 7 Tuesday, Incumbent first term councilor Paul Decelles (R) had apparently beaten Democratic challenger Steve McIntyre 971-958- a mere 13 votes
... But... according to veteran poll worker Leo Grennen there were 50 ballots that our beloved Diebold optical scan counting machines had kicked out as unreadable. Leo, along with Linda Deliduka and one other lady whose name I can't remember counted them- and told Kurt that Paul had picked up 36 votes as a result, making the new totals 1007 for Decelles, 972 for McIntyre
... But...Kurt says, nobody phoned the new result to channel 17 or John Briggs at the Burlington Free Press. Briggs reported the same results I did on election night (possibly because he gets his copy straight off BurlingtonPol) and when Kurt asked whoever it is who's filling in for Jo LaMarche now about the extra ballots, the person didn't know anything about it. Regardless, McIntyre has asked for a recount which the city council will perform Monday. All city councilors should plan on attending the meeting to help count. It sounds like the spread after the recount will be closer to 30 votes than 13.
Do we all remember the planning and meetings that went on and on concerning the YMCA moving to the Moran Plant?
Do we all remember the public vote where the overwhelming majority said to tear it down and create open green space?
In the paper the other day was a flyer describing the proposal. Look carefully at the overview/map; it appears as though not one inch of green space has been created. However, there is a lake front parking lot with scenic pavement and probably beautiful painted lines. Actually there's a song about all that...
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
and a swinging hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
In the very recent past the voters resoundingly spoke. Burlington shouldn't be about parking lots. Granted no one is planning a "....Pink Hotel, a boutique and a swinging hot spot...." but we are planning on "...North America's first indoor ice climbing facility, a health & fitness center, cafe, bar & restaurant." I wonder whether the bar & restaurant will be pink next to the parking lot.
Once it is gone and converted into cafes, bars, restaurants, and assorted shabbiness the ability to have a park enjoyed by everyone will be lost. It seems to me that every one of the parts of the proposal are catering to visitors - how about us?
Please remember - we have voted on this already. Ask the obvious question - why aren't our city officials remembering that?
Have our city officials become so obsessed with the almighty dollar that they've lost all common sense? Can they not see the waterfront for what it is, one of our most precious natural resources? Do they not have the vision to see that the Moran plant has been and will continue to be blight on our waterfront, renovated or not? That what has always brought tourists to Vermont is its natural beauty and our waterfront offers a view that is priceless? That what makes a city really livable is preserving open, natural areas where citizens of all classes can mingle and enjoy something beautiful?
Surely, some of them have been to other cities that have homogenized, built-up waterfronts with the requisite rectangles of mowed lawn for green space. Nothing special there!
Mayor Kiss makes a big deal about the fact that other cities are renovating old industrial buildings. I can't help but wonder how many of them are situated on the most beautiful site in town?
I remember when the pavement and lawn on our waterfront were a wildflower field attracting migrating monarch butterflies and birds. What is so wrong about diligently searching for funds to destroy the Moran eyesore, building an attractive sailing center and perhaps farm market pavilion that do not block the view and are in harmony with the waterfront, and having a nature preserve tended lovingly by citizen volunteers?
No matter how energy-efficient the Ice Factor is, this use will increase traffic, carbon monoxide and wanton energy consumption. We're very fortunate to live in one of the most beautiful spots on the planet. We should do everything in our power to restore and preserve it for the future.
LUANNE SBERNA
Burlington
My Turn: Moran plant not best use of money
By Maurice Mahoney
February 29, 2008
As the Free Press pointed out ("Moran plant deserves discussion," Feb. 6), Burlington voters will get a clear choice on the Moran plant on March 4.
The new Community and Economic Development Office proposal backed by Mayor Kiss calls for a $21 million expenditure with a very fuzzy financial plan. The ballot item to remove the Moran plant was never considered by City Hall, even though CEDO's own voter survey showed that 86 percent favored a waterfront park and 55 percent favored removal of Moran. The ballot item for Smart Demolition had to be petitioned by dedicated volunteers who wanted the public to have a choice.
It seems like only yesterday that about two-thirds of Burlington voters said "No" to the YMCA/Moran proposal. CEDO and the mayor must have missed that message. Now we have another, much more expensive plan and softer sell propaganda, which is deliberately meager on the financial package. Voters will be bombarded with colorful, cute and expensive advertising to get you to vote yes. You will not get the important details that you need.
The ballot item does not even mention the $21 million cost. Did City Hall think that people wouldn't care about the cost? How many people know that the "tax benefits" that have been touted are not going to increase available funds for fire equipment or sidewalks the rest of the city, but the money goes into a Tax Incremental Finance District for the project? The revenue from Moran goes back into Moran. How many people know that the tenants get a five-year deferral of rent? How many people know that a two-level parking garage is part of the plan? The pictures on the ads won't show that structure. How much money has CEDO already spent in staff hours and hard dollars on this latest scheme?
At this point, there is no fallback plan for city taxpayers. If the Ice Factor could not meet its financial obligation and had to leave, Burlington would be left with the empty Ice Factor space. That is a gamble we cannot afford.
The Sailing Center is a wonderful organization that provides great activities and needs to be on the waterfront. They could utilize a much more modest building shared with Parks and Recreation which would have summer and winter activities.
The children's museum is an attractive idea. In the early 1990s, when I was on the City Council Waterfront Committee, we worked hard to try to get a children's museum in the Moran plant, but the funding fell through. Since then we are fortunate to have the ECHO Center, which has increasingly had to rent space for special events to help its revenues. Another children's museum on the waterfront seems like a duplication of functions very close to each other.
Many parents are wondering why a new children's play space couldn't be closer to downtown or the Old North End so more Burlington residents could enjoy it with easy access. Indeed, all of the money and attention and energy given to the Moran plant could be redirected toward our children's library and our wonderful school programs, especially after school activities. The same attention could be given to the Armory Project in the New North End, which is facing a large private fundraising effort to reach completion.
We don't need a $21 million super project to fix the bike path near Moran. That should not have been allowed to deteriorate, but money is tight.
We are facing huge infrastructure needs like improved stormwater separation, basic maintenance of public buildings, and of course, the crisis in our Employee Retirement Fund. Please find out as much as you can on this project. I think that your conclusion will be to vote no on the $21 million Moran plan.
Maurice Mahoney of Burlington is a member of Citizens for Waterfront Park.
My Turn: Prevent a mistake by the lake
Published: Thursday, February 28, 2008 Burlington Free Press
By Hal Cochran
Three years ago, Burlington voters told our politicians we didn't want the YMCA housed in the Moran plant. Two years ago, we told them to tear it down. Eighty-six percent of the voters wanted a park on the site.
The politicians evidently don't care what we think. This time around, they want to spend $7.4 million of our money -- just for starters -- to turn the Moran Monstrosity into an amusement park for tourists, with yet another restaurant, yet another parking garage, more and wider roads, and traffic jams. What do we get out of this, besides the bill? Some low-wage service jobs, most of which will be filled by college students? If an entrepreneur wants to put an ice-climbing wall and a restaurant and a parking garage anywhere else in Burlington, fine, but please, not on the shore of Lake Champlain.
Burlington's lakefront is fundamentally different from all other property in the city. It is our most beautiful, desirable, and valuable asset. By law, the parcel the Moran plant sits on is held in trust for the benefit of the public, not for the benefit of tourists, hotels, restaurants, retail shops, or Scottish corporations. Until a higher and better public use is found for it, the land should be returned to and preserved in its natural state.
The Moran plant is irredeemably ugly and should be razed to the ground. The site should not be developed but undeveloped to create a four-season public park with unobstructed lake views. There could be lawns, gardens, trees, picnic tables, a playground, paths that would serve as cross-country ski trails in winter, and a children's wading pool that would convert to an outdoor ice skating rink. A year-round, city-owned concession stand could serve users of both the park and the adjacent bike path. There would be no roads, vehicle traffic, or parking lots, since the free College Street shuttle could turn around at the park entrance. We could call it People's Park. In the name of progress and economic development, the politicians want to "pave paradise and put up a parking lot."
Thanks to the people who petitioned Issue 2 onto the March 4 ballot, we have the opportunity to send the mayor and council a clear and unambiguous message. Please vote no on Issue 1 and yes on Issue 2.
Hal Cochran lives in Burlington.
Last year, the Red Cross and the American Association of Blood Banks called on the FDA to reverse the lifetime ban, citing the fact that in most parts of the country, blood supplies are running critically low. Most of the donated blood we use here in the bay area comes from the midwest – it is, therefore, very expensive. All the donated blood, regardless of its source, undergoes thorough testing for everything from anemia to HIV but the FDA’s rules are still being applied to blood bank operations across the country.Link
AABB, ABC and ARC believe that the current lifetime deferral for men who have had sex with other men is medically and scientifically unwarranted and recommend that deferral criteria be modified and made comparable with criteria for other groups at increased risk for sexual transmission of transfusion-transmitted infections. Presenting blood donors judged to be at risk of exposure via heterosexual routes are deferred for one year while men who have had sex with another man even once since 1977 are permanently deferred.I was deferred permanently due to Hepatitis B core antibody blood screening back in the late 1980's - one pint short of becoming a two gallon blood donor. If that were not the case, I'd still be permanently deferred because of my "behaviour." What do you all think of our local board of health introducing a (albeit symbolic) recommendation to the Burlington City Council in solidarity with the Santa Clara board? I know there have been concerns expressed on the UVM campus regarding these donor deferrals. I try to keep up on blood donor news and issues; I was not aware of the AABB/ARC recommendations a few years ago.
