ssachs's blog

DFA Meeting at Democratic State Convention Saturday

Thu, 17 May 2007 14:46:47 -0700

If you're going to the Democratic state convention on Saturday, you might want to check this out:

DFA members "meetup" - A few DFA leaders across the state thought that
it might be nice to get together informally at the Convention on
Saturday. Representative Jamie Eldridge has invited us to get together
at his "Meet and Greet" on Saturday from 3:45 to 5:00 PM at the Cape Cod
Lounge in the Student Union Building. Jamie is running for Congress and
has been unanimously endorsed by the local DFA group, as well as the
Brandeis DFA group. He has generously allowed us to share his space so
that we can have an opportunity to touch base with each other at an
informal gathering. We'll be able to brainstorm about plans for a
statewide grassroots summit. Burlington would like to get together with
us this summer.

... via an email from Kate Donaghue.

Peace Rocks

Wed, 16 May 2007 10:42:36 -0700

When I was in college, I volunteered for an innovative educational program called PeaceGames. PeaceGames teaches grade and middle school children about the principles of nonviolence, and practical lessons in getting along peacefully. In addition to the lessons on nonviolence, PeaceGames includes a mentorship/tutoring component. When I was a volunteer, I wore two hats: one as an assistant volunteer teacher on nonviolence, and another as a tutor to third graders who needed help reading. It was a great, rewarding way to help out the Boston public schools.

In about a week, the group will host an exciting event called PeaceRocks Boston: May 22, 2007 at the Roxy in Boston. The event will have some great music - James Montgomery, Bill Paxton, Rashida Jones, and Donal Logue, among others - and a silent auction.

It should be a great event - check it out!

I'm now serving on an advisory board for an upcoming PeaceGames technology initiative, although only in a volunteer capacity for the time being.

Project Lightbulb: a creative way to help the environment

Thu, 10 May 2007 09:44:35 -0700

PDC-DFA member Quinton Zondervan and I recently chatted over email about an interesting project he started recently, called Project Lightbulb. The website is very basic, but the idea is powerful (so to speak): Quinton is teaming up with other volunteers to buy energy efficient lightbulbs and to distribute them in public venues, to encourage home energy conservation. Piece of cake!

If you'd like to join in, head on over to the Google group and sign up! Or, just print out this brochure, buy some lightbulbs, pick a street corner, and start distributing.

* Full disclosure: Quinton and I are also working together on a business project, which is unrelated to Project Lightbulb.

Wainwright and the Blogosphere

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 06:25:09 -0700

Recently I was invited, along with a number of other progressive bloggers, to a meeting with Wainwright Bank president Robert Glassman, to discuss how the bank could engage the progressive blogosphere. As an avid customer since around 2000 or so, I was excited to attend. The meeting was yesterday afternoon, and I think it was fascinating and, I hope, the beginning of a wonderful relationship.

One idea which was tossed out (and accepted, it seems) early on was the concept of Wainwright advertising on local progressive blogs. This seems like a no-brainer to me - why not advertise to a receptive audience? - and I said as much. It sounds like the bank will start that up relatively soon.

Most of the meeting focused on how Wainwright could establish its own blog, and what the ramifications of that would be. Because banking is a heavily regulated industry, the bank apparently must be very careful in its public positions, and that was a recurring theme throughout the meeting. I'm not sure what the regulatory restrictions are, but I imagine there are some which are obvious (for example, the bank may not give out account numbers and social security numbers), others less obvious (the bank probably has some information on stock trading and things like that which it can't reveal), and others which I have no idea whatsoever about.

Nevertheless, I think the group came up with some good ideas for the kinds of content which could appear on the blog. In no particular order:

Financial and money management tips
Highlights of the bank's services or its practices in supporting progressive causes
Guest posts from non-profit clients of the bank or from bank employees and customers
Commentary on news in the financial sector, or news which relies on a lot of banking jargon (e.g. the sub-prime lending scandal, the bankruptcy reform bill)
Commentary on political issues generally, like the war in Iraq or environmental issues (it sounded to me like a lot of people thought this might backfire, and I agree)
The "inside scoop" on the bank, including things like the bank's history and how it got to the place it is today, and brief views into a small part of the bank's board meetings.
Discussion of recent customer complaints, and what is being done to address them.

There are probably some other ideas I'm missing, but those were the highlights.

There was a bit of discussion on whether the blog would have comments. I certainly hope so; a blog is all about conversation, and without comments, you have no conversation. It's almost not worth the trouble. Of course, there's a danger that the comments could get ugly. But I think that danger can easily be mitigated in several ways:

Avoid posting on things which aren't really related to the bank, e.g. posts on political issues which are not financial in nature, or which are not guest posts from non-profit clients.
Treat commenters with respect. If someone has a beef with the bank, don't delete the comment or denigrate the commenter. Treat the commenter the same way you would a customer who is standing at a teller station.

And really, that's about it. The big bad blogosphere really isn't so bad, and in practice it's usually quite easy to satisfy fellow bloggers and commenters.

There was also a discussion of who should write the blog. I think many people assumed that Mr. Glassman would write it himself, but I disagree. I think it should be edited chiefly by a paid staffer, with Mr. Glassman and others guest posting from time to time. I know that would seem perhaps more condescending to some in the blogosphere, but it wouldn't seem that way to me personally. I don't have much time for blogging, and all I do is run a very small web development shop. I can't imagine I'd have much more time if I was president of the seven-hundredth-largest-bank in the country (or president of the 8000th largest bank, for that matter.) Not only that, but a chief blogger is going to have a lot more time to be able to really understand the blogosphere and have a proper conversation with them. Finally and perhaps most importantly, a chief blogger would probably not receive the same degree of scrutiny from regulators that a bank president would.

I certainly hope Wainwright will eventually establish its own blog, as I think that'll be an exciting development in the world of our local progressive blogosphere. It's exciting to have a bona fide institution as a partner, and there are a lot of interesting things you can do with such a relationship.

Along these lines, I mentioned briefly an idea I had about how the bank could really work together with the progressive blogosphere. The idea is to have the bank offer a turnkey business-creation package for progressive bloggers. Using this service, a blogger could have a legal entity created, proper paperwork filed with the state and federal government, and a business account (established at Wainwright, of course), all in a matter of a few hours, just by walking into a branch, filling out some simple paperwork, and maybe paying a small fee. I'd imagine not all bloggers would want to use such a service, but it could be really useful for those who really want to try and make some money from their blogs.

For those who have heard me go on and on about my pie-in-the-sky ideas for my business, this idea will sound familiar. I'd one day love to create an incubator for progressive businesses; if Wainwright were to offer such a service, it would be a great first step in that direction!

Also, I should mention that there's been some hesitation from other bloggers in attending the meeting, because they felt that they were just helping Wainwright figure out their marketing strategy for free, and/or are being asked to provide free advertising. I had some worries about that before the meeting, but they are pretty well allayed by now. As liberals, we are all very suspicious of being manipulated by corporations, and corporations with a progressive image are sometimes the worst offenders. That skepticism is healthy, but it should not be so strong as to wall us off from bona fide allies. If we are going to build a lasting movement for real progressive change, then we are going to have to build (or work with) institutions to keep the momentum going. Just as the union movement in the 1930's needed newspapers, union halls, solidarity committees, and all sorts of other supporting institutions, so will we need think tanks, media outlets, and yes, banks, to aggregate political and financial capital to support our causes. We should not hesitate to establish those institutions when we need to, but we certainly shouldn't re-invent the wheel when we have a perfectly solid ally, as we do with Wainwright.

I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

CCTV wins citizen journalist grant

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 06:18:34 -0700

Cambridge Community Television has just won an amazing grant from the Institute for Interactive Journalism.

According to CCTV's press release, the group "is a winner of a 2007 New Voices grant. CCTV's project, Neighbor to Neighbor, will embed citizen journalists in the city's neighborhoods to create media. N2N will provide residents the information they need to fully participate in civic life and will foster individual and collective action to improve the quality of life in Cambridge."

This should be a great way to encourage members of our community to become aware of what is going on in their neighborhood and to share the news with others in the city. It should also be a great way for cross-neighborhood communication, which is too rare around these parts.

Congratulations, CCTV!

Full disclosure: my wife is a member of CCTV.

NorthPoint

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 08:53:56 -0700

There's a great discussion going on about the development of NorthPoint on the PDC-DFA email list today. Check it out, and if you're so inclined, chime in!

I'm not too familiar with the issue, so please forgive me if this summary is oversimplified.

On the one hand you have a state law which stipulates that development is not allowed on landlocked tidelands (which the NorthPoint development would sit on, apparently.)

The state Department of Environmental Protection wanted to create an exemption from this law which would allow the development to go forward. The Association of Cambridge Neighborhoods recently won a case against the department before the Supreme Judicial Court; the department, as it turns out, doesn't have the authority to grant such exemptions.

Now it's up to the state legislature to decide whether or not to allow the department to grant such exemptions.

I don't have a particular pony in this case, although I tend to agree that development shouldn't occur on tidelands, since that leads to massive flooding like we had in Peabody last year. But, maybe it's the case that the NorthPoint development somehow would not have too great an environmental impact; I don't know enough details about the case.

Regardless, please feel free to join our email list and participate in the discussion.

Take action to help the environment this week!

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 05:44:28 -0700

Lately there appear to be a gaggle of things you can do to help the environment. Join in the fun!

- Make a donation to bring alternative energy to Cambridge. Thanks to an initiative by City Councillor Henrietta Davis, the New England Wind Fund has agreed to install a 2kW solar installation for a Cambridge school or municipal building if 150 Cambridge households make a donation to the fund. Go to http://www.newenglandwind.org/Cambridge to find out more and donate!

- Join the Climate Walk this weekend. The Interfaith Walk for Climate Rescue, which began in Northampton on Friday, March 16, will arrive in Cambridge Friday, March 23. Go to http://www.climatewalk.org/ to join up with your fellow environmentalists!

- Join the Step it Up Rally to demonstrate against global warming. The Step it Up Campaign is coordinating actions across the country, including a big rally on April 14 on Boston Commmon. Go to http://www.stepitupboston.com/ for more information or to sign up for the rally.

H/T to Sam Seidel.

Ted and the escalation

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 09:52:52 -0800

So I haven't written much here in a long time. Sorry about that.

And I usually stick to local issues on this blog. And I'm about to turn right around on that, at least for this post.

Our Senator done us proud, yet again, today, by filing a bill to prevent the aweful idea of sending yet more troops to Iraq:

Today I am introducing legislation to reclaim the rightful role of Congress and the people's right to a full voice in the President's plan to send more troops to Iraq. My bill will say that no additional troops can be sent and no additional dollars can be spent on such an escalation, unless and until Congress approves the President's plan.

My proposal will not diminish our support for the forces we already have in Iraq. We will continue to do everything we can to make sure they have all the support they truly need. Even more important, we will continue to do all we can to bring them safely home. The best immediate way to support our troops is by refusing to inject more and more of them into the cauldron of a civil war that can be resolved only by the people and government of Iraq.

My, it is nice knowing that Sen. Kennedy's bill has a chance of being passed. Signed by Bush? Never. But at least there's a chance we'll see an up or down vote on this thing.

Tonight at City Council: Everything's on the table

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 11:48:17 -0800

The following summary of tonight's action-packed city council meeting comes to us from Sam Seidel, via councillor Craig Kelley. Hat tips and cheers all around.

If you are a comment-nik then today's meeting should be something like a trip to Willy Wonka's factory for a chocoholic. Crime, education, housing... it's all on the table. Yes, you can even comment on the way comments are taken. Gotta love it. Let 'em hear it!

Folks:

No matter what your interest, you can find a reason to speak about it at this Monday's Council hearing (18 December). The Government Operations and Rules Committee is sending on to the entire Council the results of our various goal setting sessions, and the council will vote whether to accept them or not. So if you think we should have a different approach to fighting crime, a goal of zero drop in public school system
enrollments, a more energetic traffic enforcement program or whatever, this is a chance to come and let the Council know what you think about what our goals should be for the next two years.

If you think, as I do, that our goals are too vague and you worry that there is no quantifiable way of figuring out how good a job we're doing at meeting those goals, you might want to say that as well. Or if you think setting our goals in such a manner is a good idea, feel free to share that thought too.

As with all Committee reports, it is unlikely the Council won't vote to accept them, but people can still come and comment on them.

The Committee report is available via the City's website at www.Cambridgema.gov. Go to City Council under the list at the top of the screen, click on Agenda in the upper right of the Council's page and then click on Committee Reports on the lower left.

[ed - or just click here]

You might also find it interesting to click on the City Manager's agenda to see what he is asking the Council to accept, as well as Council Policy Orders and Resolutions.

And the rest of the City's website is pretty interesting (we just got an award for it), so you might want to play around with what DPW has up or the assessor's office or whoever most interests you.

To speak at City Council meetings, you can either show up at the Council chambers at City Hall between 5:30 and 6:00 PM Monday evening and sign up in person or you may call 349-4280 between 9:00 AM and 3:00 PM on Monday and sign up over the phone. If you call in, you'll be among the first to be called to speak when the meeting starts (sometime after 5:30, depending on how prompt we are), but if you are not there when your name is called you'll get your chance at the end.

You need to state the issue about which you wish to speak, which in this case could be Committee Report #1.

Public comment is restricted to items that the City Council could vote on, such as items on the City Manager's agenda, Council Policy Orders, etc. You cannot speak on items awaiting report or public communications unless the Council suspends the rules to allow you to do so. Also, you are limited to three minutes of testimony total, regardless of how many topics you wish to cover or how many people you are speaking for. There is no communal banking of speaking time.

Citizens can also get public testimony into the Council's agenda by getting documents to the City Clerk by 5:00 PM on the Thursday before a Council meeting. The Clerk's email is MDrury (at) Cambridgema (dot) gov.

The entire Council may be emailed at Council (at) Cambridgema (dot) gov and the City
Manager may be emailed at RHealy (at) Cambridgema (dot) gov. If you have any questions or comments, please let me know.

Thanks.

Craig
617-349-4280 (Council)

[ed - home number removed, emails spam-proofed as usual]

Hurray for cambridgema.gov

Sat, 09 Dec 2006 12:54:51 -0800

Via Blue Mass Group, it looks like the City of Cambridge website has received some accolades: we're in a massive 20-way tie for second place in the National Policy Research Council's ranking of websites for cities with population in the 50,000-250,000 range. No other city in MA can make that claim, and big cities in MA, unfortunately, did not make the list of top websites in the 250,000+ range.

I do think cambridgema.gov is a pretty good website. I've often noticed that it's quite easy to look up ordinances, city council agendas, and the like online. That's a big plus. On the other hand, my interaction with the city is relatively light. I don't own real estate or a car, meaning I generally don't have to worry about things like parking permits, tax appraisals, and all that jazz; so I don't have much to say on how easy or difficult it is to get access to information about that stuff online.

I have noticed that election results are not very well archived or displayed, and that's a big minus in my book.

But by and large, it looks like we're doing a good job online. Congrats, cambridgema.gov!

Help the city pick a new police chief

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 10:12:36 -0800

The city is looking for a new police commissioner. The Cambridge Chronicle reports that over 50 hopefuls have submitted resumes to city manager Robert Healy. Now is the time to take part in choosing the new top dog.

To get involved on the citizens' advisory committee, email Healy at: citymanager (at) CambridgeMA (dot) GOV

What are the big issues facing the next police chief? I expect they'll include at least the following items, many of which are closely related:

Community policing - putting more cops on foot patrol and building ties to community groups
Preventing gangs from taking root in Cambridge
Preventing another rash of violent crime that's likely to break out when the weather gets warmer

Drop Robert Healy a line today, and get involved in picking our next commissioner!

Continuing grassroots effort and Cambridge event on Deval Patrick Administration

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 07:33:36 -0800

An important email from Lary Field, the tireless coordinator of Cambridge Deval Patrick volunteer opportunities:

Happy Holidays to everyone.

As you have probably heard, the Deval Patrick grassroots organization will be continuing statewide in some form. (See, for example, a Boston Globe story today, on page B1.) We hope that you want to continue your involvement, which was so critical to Deval's stunning success. We expect to report more on this later this month or in January.

In the meanwhile, we want to invite you to an exciting event in Cambridge about the incoming Deval Patrick administration: a public forum on December 12, at 7 pm, that will combine a panel discussion and questions/comments from the audience on the incoming Deval Patrick administration. A press release with all the details is below.

We understand that the campaign has emailed you a schedule of the community meetings being held by the various transition working groups over the next ten days. If you have not seen the schedule of events in the Boston area--unfortunately none in Cambridge--we can email you the list.

Thanks,

Larry Field
Brian Murphy
Trellis Stepter
Alice Wolf

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: December 1, 2006
The Cambridge Democratic City Committee Presents
"The Deval Patrick Administration: Where Do We Go From Here?"
Public Forum, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 7 p.m., Masonic Hall, 1950 Massachusetts
Avenue

CAMBRIDGE -- The Cambridge Democratic City Committee will hold a public
forum entitled "The Deval Patrick Administration: Where Do We Go From Here?"
on Tuesday, December 12. Featuring a panel of experts with diverse
perspectives, the discussion will include possible policy implications and
the role of continuing citizen involvement after the election.

Moderated by George Bachrach, a 1994 gubernatorial candidate, the panel and
public will discuss such topics as: How Gov. Patrick will deal with high
expectations; how he will work with the Legislature; how he will implement
policies, and how he will continue to use the citizen energy and grass roots
support his campaign aroused. .

Mr. Bachrach is a political strategist and a lecturer in Journalism and
Communication at Boston University. He served as a State Senator
representing parts of Cambridge and Watertown before seeking the Democratic
nomination for Governor in 1994, and ran for Congress in 1998. Other
panelists include:

* Tripp Jones, Senior vice president and chief administrative officer of the
MENTOR Network, which provides residential and support services nationwide
for people with developmental disabilities, brain injuries, and childhood
emotional and behavioral challenges. Mr. Jones is also the co-founder and
former executive director of the Massachusetts Institute for a New
Commonwealth (MassInc), and helped lead the fight to pass the Education
Reform Act of 1993, and has worked on national and state political
campaigns.

* Michael Weekes, President and CEO of the Massachusetts Council of Human
Service Providers, the largest association of community human service
providers in the state. He is also past chair (and currently board member)
of the National Council of Nonprofit Associations, and Deputy Commissioner
of the Massachusetts Department of Social Services from 1993 to 1998.

* Kate Donaghue, Founder of the Democratic Dispatch and co-chair of the
Field Services Subcommittee of the Democratic State Committee, and active
and early organizer of the grass roots coalitions formed for the Deval
Patrick campaign.

This event will be held at 7:00 at the Masonic Hall, located at 1950
Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge and two blocks from the Porter Square T
stop. The event is free and open to the public.

Dean's Scream, Kerry's Joke

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 07:52:13 -0800

The Boston Globe today discusses Kerry's re-evaluation of his career in light of The Joke:

"That was a slip-up of one word," he said Thursday on CNN's "The Situation Room." "I really think people have made much too much out of it."

The fact that he's even still discussing it should be an indication that he's in trouble.

I like Kerry as a Senator, rather more than I'd like to admit. He is a tough and effective advocate, and I think he is slowly but surely "getting" the netroots. That's why he contributed money to the DSCC's fund in early October, and that's why he went out of his way to help out Ned Lamont. He appreciates that we are a bona fide community. He has lapses in judgement, but my gosh he deserves to be our Senator more than almost anyone else I can think of.

The problem is not just that he has a classic case of foot-in-mouth disease; it's much deeper. It's that his national character has been effectively defined as an aloof patrician who sticks his finger in the wind. I don't agree with that characterization, but that's why The Joke hurt him so badly. Like Howard Dean's scream, it reaffirmed a (mis)characterization that many people already had. In Dean's case The Scream solidified his image as a loon (though he is anything but), in Kerry's case The Joke solidified his image as an elite snob.

There is something else, too: Kerry is totally unable to recover from a slip-up in today's media world, something that is increasingly important in the post-YouTube world. What was the line we saw most frequently in the week or so after the incident? It was a "botched joke", Kerry explained, maybe a thousand times. You cannot overestimate how horrible an explanation that is. The words "Kerry" and "botched" appeared in countless headlines together. That created the perception that Kerry botches things up.

Well now, if he botches a simple joke, how on earth is he supposed to run the damn country? This is a classic case of a horrible, horrible frame, and Kerry should have found some other explanation for the incident.

A good part of the blame for this goes to Our Beloved Media, whose insipid focus on these kinds of dumb things and whose patently obvious conservative bias made this stupid incident into a feeding frenzy. But taking back OBM is a long-term project, and we can't hope to have this vital instituion back any time soon. Managing an insipid and conservative mass media is now one of the criteria for waging a successful presidential campaign, and Kerry simply can't do it.

I don't think Kerry should run for President. As good of an advocate as he is for Massachusetts, he needs to understand his own limits. It's a fundamental aspect of leadership. Kerry will not be able to win the presidential in 2008, and he should spend his numerous talents and formidable energy on more useful goals.

Get down, get down

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 09:36:19 -0800

The Chronicle today has a piece about the city council's prioritization of more bars and nightclubs in Cambridge as a development goal.

I have to sympathize with Craig Kelley's protest against re-creating, in Cambridge, a strip like Boston's Lansdowne St. or the mess that is Allston's Harvard & Brihgton. Ugh and double-ugh.

But I think there's something to be said for bringing back a Man Ray or two. Man Ray was a fun, off-beat, alternative place to get your groove on, and I for one could definitely stand to see it return. In fact, I'd say there aren't enough such places, and that even Man Ray was insufficient. After all, it served a very particular niche - something like the intersection of the goth and LGBT communities. No doubt, there are plenty of other good niches waiting to be served, besides the hyper-commercialized junk on Lansdowne and the Irish Bar Wonderland in Allston.

I wonder if it'd be possible for the License Commission to create a kind of affirmative action program, where bars and nightclubs which can demonstrate that they will cater to an underserved niche get preferential treatment. Would that even be legal?

I hope so! It would be oh-so-Cambridge.

Harvard Square vignettes

Sun, 26 Nov 2006 09:32:23 -0800

Via Universal Hub, derspatchel on Live Journal today posts some quick portraits of life in Harvard Square. Very entertaining reading.