Had Enough Robocalls Yet?

I've had it with the candidate robocalls this election season.  I must get six calls a day.  Do the candidates really think that a robocall is going to make me vote for them?  They must have a pretty low opinion of us if they think a few dozen robocalls will change our minds.

"Gee, what a nice guy, I'll be sure to vote for that candidate."

So I've decided to fight back.  Click here for the robocall that I'm sending out to every candidate this season.  I'm fighting robocalls with my own robocalls.  This link goes to an mp3 file located here.

You want to join what?

I'm sure every parent feels the same way when their child decides to grow up and make their own decisions.  A year ago, my youngest child decided he wanted to join the the few and the proud.

I didn't know what to say. He seemed too young, too immature, not ready for this challenge.  I wanted him to wait.  But I knew that it was his decision.

PFC Steven Wilson, USMC, graduated from boot camp at Parris Island, SC in early March.  He then completed combat training at Camp Lejune, NC and he is now attending technical school at Pensacola Naval Air Station, FL.

The corps took away my immature teenager and sent back a confident and capable young man.

I'm pretty sure he now knows at least a dozen ways to knock me out.  But I'll never let him forget that he can't beat his old man.

Rebuilding Main Street With a New Library

Should a new library be built downtown?  I believe it should.  A new library near Main Street will bring more people to Main Street, providing a solid anchor for increasing retail sales in our shopping district.  I also believe that a new library would become the foundation to revitalize downtown while enhancing recreational and cultural opportunities along Riverfront Park.

Building a new library near Main Street will also require unusual cooperation and collaboration from both our county and city governments.  Before I explain, let me summarize the situation.

• Prince George's County wants to rebuild the Laurel Library at its current location at Seventh and Talbot.
• However, the current location has challenges.  The property is not large enough to support a new building along with all the necessary parking spaces.
• The county would need to acquire additional land from the city to support the new building project.
• The need for a larger parcel opens up the opportunity to consider other building locations.  
• The City of Laurel has the old Police Station property at 350 Municipal Square.  It's one block off  Main Street and right along the river. The city would like to sell this 1.8 acre property and 19,000 square foot building for 2.5 million dollars.

"Bring Our Library Downtown," or BOLD, is a grassroots group advocating for building the new library downtown at the old Police Station location.  They have a slide show highlighting many of the benefits of moving the library downtown.

I agree with BOLD but I would like to go a bit further and suggest that the city simply give, not sell, the old Police Station property to the county for the new library.  The city has the most to gain from moving the library downtown.  While 2.5 million dollars is a lot of money that could be used for many other city projects, I believe that this is a small price to pay to help revitalize Main Street. 

This 2.5 million dollar gift should come with three conditions.  First, that the city and county would jointly appoint a dedicated planning commission to design the building and grounds of the new library.  Second, the city would get final approval of the county's site and building plan.  Third, the county would agree to buy the property on the northwest corner that sits between the old Police Station and the river, highlighted in red below.

By removing all of the existing buildings on the site, we will have a large parcel that opens north to the river.  With an open lot, we can build a large, innovative library and learning center that fully incorporates both the river and adjacent park land into its design.  This approach also opens options for increased parking for Main Street visitors.

This is obviously an aggressive plan.  It will cost both the city and county significant resources, not just money, but also time and attention.  The city has a long history of augmenting county services with city tax dollars.  For example, the city has contributed over $250,000 per year towards the county's fire and ambulance services.  I think it is entirely reasonable for the city to contribute funding that will lead directly to augmenting Main Street's revitalization.

This plan also requires that both county and city governments to work together on the project in good faith and for the benefit of all.  It will be difficult because governments rarely share the same priorities or have business and planning processes that are compatible.  But the enhanced library and learning center that could result from this cooperation will be so much better than what either government could possible accomplish alone.

Please see the sidebar to take our poll, "Should the Laurel Library Move Downtown?"

Good Morning Laurel

Wow, it has been quite awhile since I last posted on this far corner of the internets. There has been a lot going on and I really didn't have anything useful to say.  So I've been laying low and saving my rapidly diminishing brain cycles for other pursuits like counting campaign signs on Route 1.

Back at Easter time, a couple of doctors said that I needed to have a little heart plumbing done.  My advice to everyone is to try to avoid this kind of plumbing job.  It's messy, shockingly expensive and  personally disruptive for much longer than you might originally be led to believe. In these regards, I guess heart plumbing is like any other plumbing project.  You are happy to have had it done until you learn that now you must be even more careful about the bad stuff you can't throw down your new pipes.

I have a new diet and exercise regime.  Well actually, she-who-must-be-obeyed, put fresh batteries in her taser to motivate my daily exercise sessions.  She also uses that same taser to enforce her award-winning diet plan, "if it tastes good, spit it out."  I've become the "biggest loser" on so many levels ...

And since we've now entered the mass hypnosis period that we call our local political campaign season, I thought I would freshen the blog with a little redesign and jump back into the blogging fray.  We have so many interesting local issues to consider. 

Good Morning!

* The Laurel Lake sunrise picture above was taken on 27 June 2010 from Oxford Drive.  I took it quickly before Joanne could turn on her taser.

Bureaucracies are built one monkey at a time

I have lived for most of the previous 35 years within one huge bureaucracy or another.  Living in a big institution changes a man.  It takes away his ability to see the world as a normal person would. 

As Morgan Freeman explained so well in the film, Shawshank Redemption, 

"These walls are funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That's institutionalized."

Last week I heard a great story about how bureaucratic institutions create such strong and usually intractable cultures.   Institutions where the inmates seem to do the same things over and over, in spite of logic or changing environments.  I'm not sure if the story is true, but it's too good not to share.

A psychologist set up an experiment with five monkeys in a large cage.   Inside the cage, he hung a banana on a string and placed a set of stairs under it. 

Before long, one of the monkeys would go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touched the stairs, the psychologist would spray all of the other monkeys with very cold water.   Monkeys hate cold water and they would howl.

After a while, another monkey would brave an attempt, but would likewise meet with the same result - that all of the other monkeys would be sprayed with cold water. 

Monkeys are smart and they soon figured out that if any monkey went for a banana ... they would get a cold shower.  Therefore, when any monkey tried to climb the stairs, the other monkeys would beat the hell of him to prevent him from getting them all sprayed.

Then the psychologist put away the cold water and removed one monkey from the cage.  He replaced the original monkey with a brand new one.   

Of course, the new monkey saw the banana and started to climb the stairs. However, to his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attacked him.  After another attempt and attack, he quickly learned that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted by the others. 

Next, the psychologist removed another from the original set of five monkeys and replaced it with a new, unconditioned monkey. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is immediately attacked. 

The amazing thing is that even the previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, the psychologist replaced a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked by the existing monkeys.

Now we have a situation where the monkeys that are beating the newcomer have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey. 

After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been done around here. 

And that's how bureaucratic institutions are forged ... one beaten monkey at a time.