Mike
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On the article Council Plans Closed Session to Talk Downtown Fawcett Property
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On the article Annapolis Lands $1.5M Federal Grant for City Dock
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On the article Sale of Fawcett Building Would Pave Way for New View Downtown
Mike
10:53 am on Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Reply"'In terms of the administration, all of my staff knows this is a priority, so we're going to work together to make it happen,' Cohen said."
And we know they can do it right, just look at the Market House.
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On the article Executive Rejecting Stormwater Bill, Asks for Reduced Fees
Mike
11:34 am on Friday, April 26, 2013
Yes, and it's worse than that. The various preventative and reactive services for managing runoff ALREADY EXIST and are ALREADY part of the taxes that are currently collected. This tax would ONLY be worth consideration if it came with a resulting REDUCTION in the existing taxes.
Imagine a bill for a new "police uniform tax." When people object, the pushers say "you expect the police to go without uniforms?!" No, of course not. But the police HAVE uniforms and the taxes we pay include, among so many things, the purchase of new police uniforms until the end of time. The proposed new tax, therefore, has NOTHING to do with police uniforms and is simply a tax increase.
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On the article Help Name the Chesapeake Bay Trust's Heron
Mike
12:25 pm on Thursday, April 25, 2013
ReplyRE: "The Annapolis-based trust, launched in 1985, is primarily funded by sales of Chesapeake Bay plates, along with private contributions."
No it isn't. This is INCREDIBLY misleading. Read their financial statements:
http://www.cbtrust.org/site/c.miJPKXPCJnH/b.5454981/k.5C75/Financial_Information.htm
A BIG component of this is tax money folks. Further, the biggest component by far is the money from the Bay license plates. That's not private donation. If anyone thinks it is, then why can't the trust raise it themselves without the license plate revenue stream?
There is opportunity cost with the special plates. The special license plate is a gravy train that could be directed lots of places. In this case, it's been directed to a particular one. And it comes with a ton of free advertising that could likewise be spent elsewhere.
BTW, for the truly shallow, note that none of what I have said addresses how the money is being spent, good or bad. What I am addressing is the UTTERLY FALSEE impression that the CBT tries to give: that it is essentially privately funded. It is CHOCK FULL of tax money, and when that money is given over to the trust, the taxpayer loses control over how his money is spent.
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On the article Coast Guard Conducting 'Operation Mayday' at Maryland Marinas
Mike
9:47 am on Thursday, April 25, 2013
ReplyWhile I agree that placing false distress calls is a very bad thing, can we get an idea of the scope of the problem? How many false distress calls are there on the middle Chesapeake each year?
This story would benefit greatly from getting an answer to a few such obvious questions. Including a breakdown of any stats of "false distress calls" into actual deliberate attempts to mislead the Coast Guard and good-samaritans versus situations like boneheads who've broken down and just want a tow. After all, if someone is NOT in real jeopardy and can place the distress call, the communication is two-way at that point. If they just want a tow or some other non-emergency aid that doesn't merit the Coat Guard, it only takes a few seconds on VHF or the phone to tell them so. Not a huge drain on resources, that. It DOESN'T place a burden on either the USCG or other boaters. The only potential issue would be clogging the bandwidth on the emergency channels and it doesn't appear that's a big problem.
BTW, if resources are such an issue, it seems like paying on-site visits to 170 marinas is a HUGELY inefficient alternative to simply picking up a phone. This whole campaign could be done for pennies on the dollar with some email and phone calls.
So, how about upping Patch's game, calling the Coast Guard to ask some questions, and doing some research on the REAL scope of the problem (or perhaps, non-problem)? If you do, it will be important to filter geography in the data.
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On the article Boston Bombings Raise Tension in Annapolis
Mike
10:46 am on Thursday, April 18, 2013
ReplyFrank, thanks for digging up the story explaining the very loud boom on Monday night. Good to know what it was. (http://annapolis.patch.com/articles/bomb-squad-deems-suspicious-bag-safe-after-inspection)
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On the article Marathon Explosions: 8 Runners from Annapolis On Race List
Mike
8:08 am on Tuesday, April 16, 2013
ReplyGood to know these particular people were not harmed. The bombings in Boston were horrific.
Patch, just a friendly suggestion that you might want to cover the story of the bomb scare(s) in downtown Annapolis last night. The Capital reported an hour-long bomb scare on MD avenue that turned out to be an empty suitcase.
Further, there was a VERY loud boom (that I can personally attest sounded like an explosion) reported by many near the Navy Stadium last night. It was stated on Facebook that the police bomb squad detonated a suspicious bag on the College Creek bridge.
This stuff seems newsworthy.
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On the article Edgewater Man Guilty of Illegally Removing Trees to Improve Homeowner View
Mike
9:46 am on Monday, April 15, 2013
Whether the rules exist or not, shouldn't property rights be property rights?
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On the article Blue Angels Cancel Remaining Air Shows in 2013
Mike
10:56 am on Wednesday, April 10, 2013
ReplyWell said, S C. It's so patently obvious, the government has already been caught many times in the sequester battle doing all it can to maximize taxpayer annoyance and pain, just for the political leverage. While that is no surprise (government frequently does the exact opposite of what it should to in order to achieve its own ends) people should make their outrage more obvious.
Ultimately, most of this government only really cares about paychecks coming in. They'd happily cut anything if they could maintain the payroll and power without any blowback from the taxpayer. So we need to provide that blowback, folks.
Mike
11:02 am on Sunday, May 12, 2013
Utterly despicable. Remember what these crooks did when we have the chance to vote them out.