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May 30, 2005
Know the name of this work?
This is the public art at the Mills Station Light Rail Station along Folsom Blvd. I believe the name and artist is located on the first block now that I've looked at the picture. I'll have to look tomorrow and see. If you know, email me or click the pic and leave a comment on flickr.
Posted by cystdog at 05:28 PM | TrackBack
A non-positive image of trash in Rancho
A non-positive image of trash in Rancho Cordova, on Dolcetto Way, next to the "Rancho Creek" since May 20th, 2005. This image violates RC Thought Police Edict 4-2005 which clearly states non-positive information will not be discussed, illustrated or photgraphed. Penalty will be Croetto-ization of your neighborhood.
Posted by cystdog at 10:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 27, 2005
Leadership:Some cities get it, and some just get staff (Rancho)
News - Another city seeks own policing - sacbee.com
Another city seeks own policing
Citrus Heights votes 4-1 to create a department
By David Richie -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Friday, May 27, 2005
After considering potential recruiting problems, the expense of 911 systems and dire budget projections, Citrus Heights has decided forming its own police force is worth the risk.With a 4-1 council vote late Wednesday, the city became the second in Sacramento County to opt out of its contract for policing services with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department. Elk Grove already is in the market for police officers, after deciding to sever its contract last month.
Posted by cystdog at 05:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 25, 2005
Manufacturing a sense of community?
The Manchurian Main Street | Metropolis Magazine
The Manchurian Main Street
Are shopping districts inspired by New Urbanism a form of cultural brainwashing?
By Karrie Jacobs
Posted May 16, 2005
Metropolis Magazine
Victoria Gardens, a new mall in Rancho Cucamonga, California, is laid out like a traditional town, with narrow streets and metered parking. All I knew about Mashpee Commons, a shopping center on the western end of Cape Cod, was that it had a funny name. And one evening last August the only screening of The Manchurian Candidate I could reasonably catch was playing at the multiplex there. I drove as fast as I could, grabbed a parking space, found the theater, and didn't bother to check out my surroundings until after the show.read on @ Metropolis MagazineThe movie was Jonathan Demme's 2004 remake of John Frankenheimer's 1962 classic. It involves a rising political star whose wartime heroism turns out to be a fabrication--a carefully crafted faux history implanted in his brain and those of his colleagues by evil conspirators. The film was two hours of sustained paranoia, so as I walked out of the theater I was already feeling uneasy--then I noticed that I was not in a normal mall. Rather I was in a fake downtown, an overtly cheerful place with individual brick and clapboard storefronts lined up along something a lot like actual streets. I was in a fabrication--a carefully crafted faux history implanted in the suburban landscape.
I didn't consciously draw the parallel between the movie and the mall at that moment, but taken together the two things unnerved me. I was hungry but couldn't bring myself to eat at any of Mashpee Commons' friendly sidewalk cafés. Not that there was anything bad about them. There was, rationally speaking, nothing wrong at all. But I felt as if I was still in the grip of the movie's dark conspiracy and had to get out.
This was yet another episode in my ambivalent relationship with New Urbanism. Honestly the New Urbanists--the Duanys, the Plater-Zyberks, the Calthorpes--make good places. I can't fault their planning skills, but there is something about their need to use the past as a sort of architectural tranquilizer that gives me the willies. I see it as a form of cultural brainwashing, a strategy that doesn't solve the problems we've created so much as teaches us to forget them.
Posted by cystdog at 07:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 20, 2005
What all these contract law enforcement talks have me reading
EXECUTIVE SUMMARYGeographic information systems (GIS) are increasingly recognized within the law enforcement community as an effective new tool for the analysis of crime patterns, for the allocation of enforcement resources, and for support of strategic planning by sheriffs or chiefs of police and their staffs. In a recent survey (Mamalian, LaVigne, et al.), the vast majority of police departments stated that crime mapping was a valuable tool, but only 13% had implemented it, mostly in larger jurisdictions. Actual use of GIS has proven illusive for the majority of small and even medium sized law enforcement jurisdictions because of problems associated with software and hardware resources, technical expertise, database management, and other challenges which may be met more easily by large jurisdictions with ample, specialized staffs and resources. The current study, based on extensive interviews with crime mapping staff, supervisors, and end-users both within and outside North Carolina, outlines obstacles, opportunities, and action steps relevant to the implementation of geographic information systems in law enforcement agencies of small to medium size jurisdictions.
The potential of GIS is twofold. First, it is probably the best automation tool to assimilate ever increasing volumes of information. Second, if applied correctly, GIS allows the beat officer to work ahead of the crime and criminal cycle. It is a tool for true prevention. However, neither of these two potentialities will be reached unless GIS is integrated into as many jurisdictions as possible. It is the broader purpose of these strategies and effective practices to assist law enforcement managers in the intelligent and practical proliferation of GIS. The focus is on critical managerial considerations in establishing and implementing GIS rather than on specific technical hardware and software specifications, which will vary by jurisdiction.
FERAL CITIES
Dr. Richard J. Norton, Naval War College Review, Autumn 2003, Vol. LVI, No. 4
Excerpt:
Imagine a great metropolis covering hundreds of square miles. Once a vital component in a national economy, this sprawling urban environment is now a vast collection of blighted buildings, an immense petri dish of both ancient and new diseases, a territory where the rule of law has long been replaced by near anarchy in which the only security available is that which is attained through brute power.1 Such cities have been routinely imagined in apocalyptic movies and in certain science-fiction genres, where they are often portrayed as gigantic versions of T. S. Eliot’s Rat’s Alley.2 Yet this city would still be globally connected. It would possess at least a modicum of commercial linkages, and some of its inhabitants would have access to the world’s most modern communication and computing technologies. It would, in effect, be a feral city.
Admittedly, the very term “feral city” is both provocative and controversial. Yet this description has been chosen advisedly. The feral city may be a phenomenon that never takes place, yet its emergence should not be dismissed as impossible. The phrase also suggests, at least faintly, the nature of what may become one of the more difficult security challenges of the new century.
Over the past decade or so a great deal of scholarly attention has been paid to the phenomenon of failing states.3 Nor has this pursuit been undertaken solely by the academic community. Government leaders and military commanders as well as directors of nongovernmental organizations and intergovernmental bodies have attempted to deal with faltering, failing, and failed states. Involvement by the United States in such matters has run the gamut from expressions of concern to cautious humanitarian assistance to full-fledged military intervention. In contrast, however, there has been a significant lack of concern for the potential emergence of failed cities. This is somewhat surprising, as the feral city may prove as common a feature of the global landscape of the first decade of the twenty-first century as the faltering, failing, or failed state was in the last decade of the twentieth. While it may be premature to suggest that a truly feral city—with the possible exception of Mogadishu—can be found anywhere on the globe today, indicators point to a day, not so distant, when such examples will be easily found.
This article first seeks to define a feral city. It then describes such a city’s attributes and suggests why the issue is worth international attention. A possible methodology to identify cities that have the potential to become feral will then be presented. Finally, the potential impact of feral cities on the U.S. military, and the U.S. Navy specifically, will be discussed.
Posted by cystdog at 10:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sorry Mr. Davey: Arden Arcade area would be viable as a city
Study: Arden Arcade area would be viable as a city - 2005-05-19 - Sacramento Business Journal
Sacramento Business Journal - 10:07 AM PDT Thursday
Study: Arden Arcade area would be viable as a city
A feasibility study concludes that Sacramento County's Arden Arcade area has an adequate tax base to support itself as a city.A Cityhood Study Team was formed 14 months ago to determine whether the 16-square-mile area would be viable as a city.
The Initial Feasibility Study, prepared by Economic and Planning Systems of Berkeley, found that Arden Arcade generates roughly $32.9 million dollars in revenue from sales taxes, property taxes, utility users taxes, hotel taxes, franchise fees and business license taxes. Sacramento County returns about $19.6 million of the tax revenue to the community in the form of municipal services, such as sheriff's services, road maintenance and land-use planning, according to the study. This leaves $13.3 million to be spent elsewhere by the Board of Supervisors.
Arden Arcade is bound by the American River on the south; Capital City Freeway, Auburn Boulevard and Winding Way on the north; Mission Avenue on the east, and the city of Sacramento on the west.
More details about the study and the next steps in the incorporation process will be discussed at a news conference scheduled for Friday at 9:30 a.m. near the entrance to Country Club Centre at El Camino Avenue and Yorktown.
Posted by cystdog at 06:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 14, 2005
DID YOU GET THIS MEMO MR DAVEY?
Posted by cystdog at 08:11 AM | TrackBack
May 12, 2005
Gornzilla has returned.........
to Sacramento...............
Will a Peepoff ensue?
Drunken Monkey Motorcycle:
Geek round the world
The Peeps await their orders..........
Posted by cystdog at 08:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
C'Mon, think Positive, or else we'll turn your neighborhood into a ghetto
Lynn M. Stuter:"About Consensus and Facilitation."
Posted by cystdog at 08:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Davey-math:Can't keep a (bleep) man down
News - Fair Oaks weighs bid to be a city - sacbee.com
Oh, here we go again. County CFO Geoff Davey crying about how newly incorporated cities cherry picked their geographic boundaries and are ripping off the county taxpayers.......
"Elk Grove and Rancho Cordova kind of cherry-picked from the county," said Geoff Davey, the county's chief financial operations officer.
And then this....bullshit....
The county had planned to reap benefits from future developments in both areas, including a project to build more than 30,000 homes in the Sunrise Douglas area of Rancho Cordova. Now county residents will miss out on the tax revenue because of a "political fence," Davey said.
What is REVENUE NEUTRALITY???????
Lets take a look at the actual LAFCO resolution (bottom of page, item q), Mr.Davey....
Posted by cystdog at 06:52 AM
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As to being an alternative to /., I'm still on the fence, since I see a lot of cross pollenation from /. onto digg, as well as from del.icio.us, originally from /., to digg. Still a great example of folksonomy, and of course, another brick in the yellow brick road towards the semantic web.
Posted by cystdog at 06:28 AM
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News - Rick Rodriguez: Griego Erwin resigns amid internal inquiry into her columns - sacbee.com
I finally got "dug" on Digg
I've been submitting links to tech articles and resources on digg, a reported alternative to slashdot crossed with del.icio.us, and finally got "noticed" by the gods of digg and got "dug" on a science link on string theory, so much so I made it to their front page.Who grieves for Griego?
Diana Griego Erwin, whose column has appeared in this space three days a week, resigned Wednesday amid an internal inquiry into whether some people mentioned in several recent columns actually existed.
During our inquiry we found we could not authenticate the existence of several people even though they were identified by name, age and sometimes by the neighborhoods in which they were reported to have lived. We used extensive online database searches as well as old-fashioned shoe-leather work in our investigation over the past 2 1/2 weeks.Wow! I almost danced a jig about this. Unbelievable. Guess some of those anti-war letters might have been conjured up on "the Griegz" laptop at home.
I love these quotes from a Poytner interview/verbal tonguebath:
"My columns are like variety shows."
"I’m just as comfortable going to some hoity toity community as I am hanging out in a barrio apartment without a working toilet."
And even better....The Bee, not infallable......
Makes you wonder, with Ombudsman Tony Marcano's departure in November last year, what other surprises await us with this new news product, the Sacramento Bee soap opera. Perhaps the long anticipated outing of R.E Graswich? Or maybe the big kahuna......Hanoi Heaply herself resigning? I love it when fake libs crash and burn. Fuhrer Farve, we need you!
Posted by cystdog at 06:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 07, 2005
Sign of a different time
Posted by cystdog at 06:25 PM | TrackBack
A ghost from the past
Posted by cystdog at 06:23 PM | TrackBack
Seems like old times
Posted by cystdog at 06:19 PM | TrackBack
Welcome home BUFF
Posted by cystdog at 06:17 PM | TrackBack
May 06, 2005
Movie Reviewers suck
So I'm looking up reviews about this new swords and sand movie, Kingdom of Heaven, fearing it's a jihadi's wet dream, and I come across a movie review in the Washington Times that drones on about this and that, and kisses Sir Ridley Scott's bum ad nauseum, and then I read this scrumptious little tidbit of moronic dribble:
Fair enough, but the movie's imbalance extends beyond the schoolyard-scuffle question of who started it. (I say this as a fan of Mr. Scott, who conveyed obvious admiration for American Marines in "Black Hawk Down" and, during our talk, expressed sympathy for the Bush administration's quandary about how best to respond to September 11.)Huh? Marines? In Black Hawk Down, the film? In reality? Why not just say "Those big mean guys with guns". There were no Marines in the "Battle of Mogadishu". There were US Army Rangers and Delta Force. Task Force Ranger was ARMY, Mr. Scott Galupo. Even if you know nothing about what went on in Somalia, if you saw the movie, you'd know they were Army. And as a movie reviewer, you'd think the guy would have at least remembered the difference between Army and Marines in a movie he's reviewed.
If Mr. Galupo is interested, he should learn more about what really happended:
FRONTLINE'S "Ambush in Mogadishu"
Somalia/Operation GOTHIC SERPENT - nightstalkers.com
Blackhawk Down Series - Philadelphia Inquirer
Operation Restore Hope - GlobalSecurity.org
US Army 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment (Airborne)
DELTA - GlobalSecurity.org
US Army 75th Ranger Regiment - GlobalSecurity.org
160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) - GlobalSecurity.org
10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry)- GlobalSecurity.org
