Step Trek -- Volunteer in my absence -- but do it for yourself

We missed the South Side Slopes StepTrek -- but we hit some other steps in the hopes of generating some good karma with those back home.

Erik's taking a trek.

This year's South Side Slopes Steptrek, Steptrek.org, occurs soon -- while we are in Hong Kong. We'll walk Victoria's Peek and make other treks on the other side of the world -- and we'll be thinking of you on the South Side Slopes. Does that mean that when I'm over there walking up a pathway, it would be like walking downward over here? However, check out this opportunity to participate with a last call from Bev, one of the great community organizers. Good group of people, nice cause, splendid views.

StepTrek Volunteer Meeting! We will need upwards of 50 volunteers this Sunday and we have ~ half that amount. Please help us out!

There will be a meeting, at which you will receive a free Trek tee shirt, on this Thursday, September 29th at 7:00 pm at my (BEV's) house 126 Pius Street. It will be a quick meeting. We will go over the event and where volunteers are needed.

There are many jobs. We need a driver, people to walk the route and put up direction signs, we need a couple of people along the route to direct walkers. We have 6 artist venues with 3 water stations where people need to be. We need people to help park cars, put up tents, take down tents, set up tables & chairs, register people, sell pedometers, cut fruit, you name it & there is a job for that!

Please email me here if you want to volunteer & can't make it Thursday. We also need pick up trucks to deliver to the water stations. Volunteers times go from 8:00 am to - 4:30 pm. On hour, or as many as you can give!

Volunteers Saturday, October 1st! We will quickly walk the routes one last time this Saturday. The majority of the litter was picked up last Saturday, but we want one last check of the route. Also, I will be at the Triangle Garden 18th & Josephine. Lamar is supposed to fix it by Friday - I am not holding my breath. For those who missed it an overzealous subcontractor weed-whacked it - 3 weeks ago. Anyway it looks like crap. It will need some sprucing. The Greeley Garden also needs some TLC. We will meet at 21st & Josephine Streets at 9 am.

StepTrek October 2, 2005! Here it comes, our 5th Trek! We would like you to come & be a part of it. The website is full of details. Our Honorary Chairperson is Adelaide LaFond, she has graciously allowed us to use one of her designs on the tee shirt front. It is beautiful! The event formally runs from noon to 4 pm. Trek it out!

Thanks, all! We need you! Bev :)

The Sprout Fund opens some murals in the near future

The Sprout FundCentral North Side Thu Sept 29 @ 6:30pm 1300 Federal St
Downtown Fri Sept 30th @ 5:30pm Smithfield St & Strawberry Way
Homewood Brushton Sat Oct 1 @ 3pm Meadows Bowling Alley at 7340 Frankstown Ave
South Side Tue Oct 4 at 5:30pm Don's Green Front Inn at 2341 E Carson St
Hazelwood Wed Oct 5 @ 5pm 2nd Ave & Elizabeth St

N-TEN : Global ICT Conference in DC about global crisis response

N-TEN: Global ICT Conference Answering the call: Katrina, the Tsunami, Darfur, Afghanistan -- lessons learned from the Global ICT responses

Well done in the state capital

The protest was a success. And, it looks like some of those pigs are cooked.
Nice photo of Mr. Shiller ran on the front page of the PG site.

Protesters urge state legislators to roll back pay raises ... Brothers Frank and Gerald Schiller, who live in Wilkins and own property in Downtown Pittsburgh, held signs reading 'The Costas cost too much,' referring to their legislators, Sen. Jay Costa Jr., D-Forest Hills, and his brother, Rep. Paul Costa, D-Wilkins, who both voted for the raise.

The Schillers said they supported the Costas for election in the past but no more. Jay Costa later declined comment...

The large inflatable pink 'anti-pay raise pig,'' which got statewide attention in newspapers last week, was back for another appearance at the rally.

The protest rally was organized by Harrisburg activists Gene Stilp, who has filed a state lawsuit seeking to overturn the raise, and Eric Epstein, who has led protests over the Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Harrisburg.

They joined a dozen groups including Common Cause, Pennsylvania Clean Sweep, the Commonwealth Foundation, Democracy Rising PA and others that have kept alive the protest against the raise."

Firefighters union backs Republican for mayor

I don't expect to get a thank-you note from Joe Weinroth, but I'll chalk up some self-absorbed high-fives on this news. As an estimate, I bet I called and poked and visited and dropped in on the firefighters' brass -- in one way or another -- more than 100 times in the past five years. Some of those brushes with perspective paved the way for this news.

Think beach-head.

Firefighters union backs Republican for mayor The union representing Pittsburgh firefighters has endorsed Republican Joe Weinroth's bid for mayor in a surprise break from labor's usual preference.

International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1 President Joe King said the decision made Friday by the union's political committee was unanimous. 'It's probably the first time, that I remember, that the fire union has backed a Republican candidate for mayor,' said King.

However, you know what they say about playing with fire. But then again, there are times when you need to set a fire to stop a firestorm. The puns can flame away all day and night in the comments.
Way to go Joe. I'm glad to see the union putting some wind in your sails.

Roosevelt holds chat

Tuesday log of the chat is available. Search the PG site for Roosevelt and chat. What was raised for the new Superintendent of Pgh Public Schools, Mark Roosevelt.

Online chats could present many excellent opportunities for the community and the school's parents to raise questions -- but this is hardly the case with the Post-Gazette's style.

I was part of a PG chat when the Bassmasters Classic was in town. The chat is so -- 1983. There is no real-time interaction. It is all moderated.

If the Post-Gazette wants to get serious about online interaction, we'd have a lot to look forward to.

In the case of Pittsburgh Public Schools, it would be wonderful to have online chats so that questions can be raised in a faceless way. Teachers, principals, volunteers, and even bus drivers could go to the chat and put something into the mind of the boss and have little fear of a backlash on the whistleblower.

Are you aware of such and such at this school on that date? What's going to be done?

Furthermore, the Pgh Public Schools might be able to make an online chat work without the Post Gazette's help and restrictions. Why can't weekly chats happen just among the resources within PPS?

Mark_Roosevelt: Thanks to everyone who participated. Sorry that there was not enough time to answer all of the questions. Maybe we should do this again.

Carnegie Urban Hike on Saturday

My kids play violin at the Pittsburgh Music Academy, in Carnegie, often on Saturdays. So, I'm hopeful I'll stop by -- if we are not swimming from 9 to 11 am.

Carnegie has been through a lot in the past year, and now they have to deal with us! Urban Hike is in Carnegie this Saturday to look at how one community is working to come back from last September’s floods. We’ll visit the home of a Pirates legend and check out Carnegie’s thriving arts scene. Meet us outside a rather artsy café called Eccentricities, 222 Third Avenue, 10 am, October 1st. There should be plenty of street parking. The hike will take about three hours. As always, comfortable shoes, sunscreen and water are excellent ideas. We’re glad you thought of them!

Click comments for directions.

The South Side Sabres play against Chartiers Valley this weekend too.

Techyvent/Pittsburgh: e-Learning Comes of Age

Techyvent/Pittsburgh: e-Learning Comes of Age: "e-Learning Comes of Age -- Access to Broadband, New Technology Dramatically Cuts Costs by Sheldon Murphy

A free, on-site consoltation comes to the subscribers of this newsletter. That might be worth the price of admission.

More power to you -- comes in handy from time to time.

Summertime strength was needed recently by one of the youngsters. See comments for the full (edited) version.

Photo showed Coach Jason and some of the charges on the lawn at the Green Tree Swim Pool before a swim practice this summer.

Hot Rod Ludwig

Les Ludwig and his new wheels that have been decorated for his campaign.

At least he didn't get drunk at the Steeler game this weekend.

At least he isn't driving around town in a city-owned car.

At least he had lived in Hong Kong.

At least he was a business man.

At least he has a never-give-up attitude.

What else can you say?

Patriot -- and the guy with the arrow in the back

My son, 10, didn't wear either of his Patriots jersey's to school on Friday, black and gold day. But he is wearing #12, Drew's jersey, today. Ouch.

He just loves the Patriots. What are you going to do?

And, the love goes out to the Red Sox too.

At least he has great taste.

There is a family connection to Boston and New England.

Fifth and Forbes, Steigerwald's opinion: Give the free market a chance

Fifth and Forbes & the highest bidder - PittsburghLIVE.com It's time to give the free market a chance to fix Fifth and Forbes.
Government has proven it can't redevelop the two once-proud downtown Pittsburgh shopping streets; it can only strangle and kill them.
Thanks to decades of City Hall's ineptitude and serial abuse of its powers, the Fifth-and-Forbes corridor today is a shabby, undervalued and embarrassing wasteland.

Then he calls for an ebay sell off of the entire URA.

I too have called for the liquidation of the URA. It is an office that should be downsized to nothing.

The URA is holding a lot of property. Those properties number more than 5,000 lots. Those properties are not even on an inventory listing. For starters, let's see a map of the city with the URA Properties clearly marked. The URA can't provide that.

The URA properties don't generate tax incomes. So, those of us that own properties ourselves have to pay more in taxes to support the URA holdings.

However, there are a few problems with the total sell-off of the URA's properties. First, if the URA dumps 5,000 properties onto the marketplace at one time, all the other properties in the city and county are going to nose dive. The supply and demand formula is going to get shaken to its core. In due time, the prices and the marketplace tumbles will self correct. So, perhaps we take a big hit now and ride it out. In the long run, we'll all be much better. In the long run, our properties will then grow in value as our city rebounds in other services too.

Another problem with the total sell-off of the URA assets is the fact that the buyers would be entering Allegheny County. Our population growth is flat. Our economic outlook is questionable. Process problems about taxes linger. And, our leadership is about to change from one one grey-haired, white Democrat to another of same age who can hug and kiss a bit better than than other, more abrasive one. A bulk of the leaders in the past and present are cut from the same cloth that allows corporate welfare and hates to trust the free market and the people of the region.

So, a sell off of the URA property with eBay would help, no doubt. But, the sales needs to be staged. Furthermore, the liquidation of all authorties need to begin. And, system-wide reform is necessary as well.

If we had a splendid landscape of reforming attitudes and systems, then the sell off of the URA properties would cause a windfall for the city and generate a buzz throughout the nation.

I've ranted in the past that we should sell off the side-lots to homeowners who are within a 200-yard distance to the vacant land right away. Then extend the distances each season.

In the early months of 2006, the city needs to get serious about enforcement. If you have over-grown side lots breeding rats, cracked sidewalks, garbage without closed dumpsters and such -- warnings and tickets need to be issued. We need to get the city to do its job with rodent control, and that can occur in two blinks. Then we need everyone's expectations to change.

We need a rebirth in terms of respect for the city. Where you park your car; how you handle your trash; and when you scream your head off (i.e., not in the wee hours) matters. City-life needs cooperation among its citizens. Police and inspectors need to give attention to these basic jobs as well.

Considering eBay and auctions: Pitt's throwback uniforms are for sale now.

Part of my heart is in Harrisburg today -- but my wife is on about DePaul

Best of luck and highest hopes to all who are in Harrisburg today to send a message of scorn and revenge to the state capital bandits. Rock on!

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the radio dial, my wife, Catherine Palmer, Ph.D., is on with Chilly Billy as they do a remote broadcast from DePaul School. Catherine is on the board there. I think she's on the air from 1 to 2 or 2 to 3 pm.

In non-P.C. terms, DePaul is a school for the deaf. Today, however, many of the kids are not "deaf" -- as they have had a surgery and implants help to restore hearing -- stimulating the inner ear. They have a wonderful school environment. The facility moved from the South Hills to Shadyside just a few years ago.

Abbot to compete in 28th Great Race

Tom Murphy didn't compete in the race the year he called off The Great Race. There were two alternatives. One was the Great Disgrace Race.

Abbot to compete in 28th Great Race - PittsburghLIVE.com: "Today, Abbott will join a select group of 26 others, including Pittsburgh mayor Tom Murphy, who have competed in every Great Race. Abbott has memories of the first race.

Furthermore, our mayor is a marathon runner and Pittsburgh doesn't have a marathon any more -- thanks to Tom Murphy's leadership. Akron has two.

Why? Because it is still our money and the idea stinks!

Why do people still gripe about extending light-rail service to the North Shore when there is no cost to the city, only a 3 1/3 percent cost to Allegheny County and a 30-to-1 return on local tax dollars? The state and federal governments have earmarked $380 million for the Port Authority's project. Use it or lose it.

The money can come from your wallet or your purse. It is still your money. Right.

The money that comes from the local sources and the federal sources is still our money. Just because the feds pay for some of the project does not make it "free." We pay for federal projects too.

Furthermore, the project does not merit the spending. The project stinks.

Finally, spending this type of money on this one dumb project is going to take our regional credit downward so that other, better projects are not going to be done.

Close schools to save on gas. And,

Pgh Public Schools are closed on Tuesday. Georgia is closing all schools on Monday and Tuesday. Guess they don't have 'snow days' to look forward to as often as we do in the north.

Bloomberg.com: U.S. Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Georgia will close all public schools on Monday and Tuesday to conserve fuel in light of disruptions caused by two hurricanes in the past month, Governor Sonny Perdue said.
The closures will save about 500,000 gallons of diesel, Perdue, a Republican, said at a press conference in Atlanta that was broadcast over the Internet. The governor also urged people to avoid unnecessary trips to save gasoline.
``We don't know what will happen, but it is probable that we will again see temporary disruptions of our fuel supply,'' Perdue said. ``We don't want a repeat of the wasteful and unnecessary gas panic we saw right after Katrina.''
On Sept. 2, Perdue signed an executive order that waived the state's 7.5-cents-a-gallon excise tax and a 4 percent sales tax on gasoline through the end of September. About 24 percent of U.S. refining capacity has been shut in Texas this week with Rita's approach, while 5 percent remains closed because of Katrina, which hit Louisiana and Mississippi.

Did our Gov ever act in lowering the gas tax? He thought it was a good idea, then changed his mind. But either way -- I am not certain that he is capable of acting in a deliberate and decisive way.

If schools had a one day school week, rather than five -- think of all the money that would be saved.

The aim is NOT to save money. The aim is to educate kids without waste. Our kids are getting beat by much of the rest of the world. We need to teach, educate and allow kids and families and communities options that insure we all can thrive. I don't want to only survive. I don't want to put a lid on excellence.

Big, Fat, Targets

These incumbents need viable opponents in 2006 as they each scored D or F in the Liberty Index and voted for the pay raise!

Rep - District
Costa - 34
Dermody - 33
Frankel - 23
Markosek - 25
Petrone - 27
Pistella - 21
Preston - 24
Ruffing - 38
Walko - 20
Wheatley - 19

Senate - District
Costa - 43

Anyone instered in running, sound off.

Evacuees from Katrina line up in search of new job, new life

I've been doing a bit of work with fellow netizens (citizens of the internet) in a people finder project / effort. A new sense of purpose is starting to show itself -- job references.

When I was younger in my career, I had the great fortune of working for three brilliant mentors who taught me many great lessons. I was an assistant coach for Dan Sullivan at Greater Pittsburgh Swim Club and Fletcher Gilders at Ohio University. The third was Jerry O'Neil, the club / YMCA coach at Plum when I was the head coach for the high school varsity teams. All three of these fine friends and mentors died soon after I moved onto other steps in my life. Each are greatly missed in a personal sense -- now, still. Furthermore, in a professional way, I miss them as references.

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Metro -- Evacuees from Katrina line up in search of new job, new life Former cook and kitchen manager Austin Diven, 27, of New Orleans, has been turned away from eight restaurants so far because no one can reach his references.

I can't imagine what others from the gulf are dealing with as they try to patch their lives together and embark on new opportunities -- but can't easily lean upon the past and their roots.

Networking can be critical in many instances in life. Now that is nearly impossible.

Pittsburgh is going to open a casino. Other casinos are going to open around the state as well, perhaps even at Seven Springs or some other regional resort location. If we had proactive leaders, they'd be working on the network with interviews and head hunters so as to get a handle on the workers and operators who have been put out of work in Mississippi.

These operators are going to drop $50-million for the license. It would be prudent to do some human capital investments now, while the opportunities are critical for others. And if the network that is built is portable, it could be sold to the eventual winner of the license(s). Human resource managers, take note or give me a call and I'll consult for you on some creative ways to make progress in these areas.

It would make great sense to open the Pittsburgh casino on the day after the Major League All-Star Game in July 2006. That should be our goal. I don't want the casino -- but it is going to come. Let's get it jump started in earnest soon.

Meanwhile, if I'm an employer, I'm saying these words. "Let's see how you do. Come to work for us for three weeks (at this pay and in this position) and then we'll build our own, new references. In the meantime, we'll keep looking for your cerifications and/or background documents. Here is a copy of our employee manual. Let's begin to write a new chapter on lowering risk with creative hiring practices in the wake of a crisis.

Pondering the wiki: Platform.For-Pgh.org

An insightful evaluation of the wiki, Platform.For-Pgh.org, flowed from Adam. His thoughts are on the mark and worthy for others to read and comment upon as well. I'll get my answers to each of his specific remarks in short order.

I'm motivated to spend a few weeks on the wiki to ramp up for the next election cycle. So, I'd love to invest some time there in the second half of October and November, 2005. Positive help and reviews are needed.

One problem with local issues and more technical politics is getting up to speed with the basic facts. Another dimension of the wiki could be for general education and information. Pointers to articles elsewhere could assist others in doing their homework. Covering trends and documenting facts help to build confidence. However, the general journalistic coverage within the wiki is crushing to the efforts for the refinement of a specific campaign platform. Both voters and candidates don't want to wade through, yet alone create, multiple term-papers before blurting out specific platform planks on certain issues. So, my question now is "how."

Additional tech tools also exist that have yet to be deployed with gusto. Podcasting, concept maps, deliberative democracy and multi-media CDs are still on the back burner. Each can serve in the campaign as tools to win supporters and lead the charge for reforming Pittsburgh's landscape. However, the roll-out for each tool is yet to be determined.

Time will tell how this can all come together, or not. If you'd like to make an impact -- join our efforts and become a positive, thoughtful contributor.

For the platform wiki, I think that the front page is really the most important page. A person should come to the front page, understand what he is looking at and how it can be useful to him. Anything on the front page that does not contribute to this is just a distraction.

So, who do we want to use the wiki?

1. Voters

2. Activists

1. Party activists
2. Issue activists

3. Candidates

4. Policy-makers

Others?

We may want to have introductory pages specifically targeted at each audience group. There already seems to be pages targeted at party activists and candidates, but not much focused on the other groups.

Another way to think of the wiki's user-base is in terms of "readers" and "editors." Readers need to find the information that they are interested in, while editors need to also know what sort of material to add. For readers, we need a link-structure that they can navigate intuitively. Right now, some of the page names aren't informative (such as "beyond the platform" and "mind food")--those titles could include just about anything. We need editors who will arrange the content in an easy-to-navigate manner with informative page titles--so the immediate issue is: what do the editors need?

Editors need guidelines--it isn't clear how to go about producing a collaborative political platform. Right now, I don't see any pages that describe the vision/mission for the wiki, and I don't see any guidelines for editors. As the main force behind this wiki, you need to provide the vision for it. There's one big question that needs to be answered for the editors:

Is the platform your platform, or is it a "meta platform".

1. Is it about your ideas and your goals as a candidate, with the allowance that others may reuse the content, or

2. Is it a collection of all possible items that could be in a platform, with a special emphasis on items that you could incorporate into your own platform?

Based on the front page right now, it seems that the answer is that this platform is for you and your political allies. This places considerable constraints on the editors, and these need to be spelled out clearly so that editors know that they aren't wasting their time.

1. What values form the basis of your campaign. This needs to be stated so that editors can contribute content that is consistent with those values, and won't just get thrown away.

2. What reforms do you expect to push? Listing these reforms allows knowledgeable activists to provide you with detailed information about these policies.

3. What issues do you think are important, but you don't have an opinion on? This allows activists to argue for their own position on those issues.

The other option is that the wiki is supposed to incorporate any idea that could be placed on a platform (a "meta-platform"). This places less constraints on the editors, as each of them is using the platform for their own purposes, but it means that we need a stricter system for distinguishing between items that you endorse and that you are interested in, and items that have been placed on the wiki by others, and possibly by opposing candidates.

Finally, we can consider how the wiki will develop, and what phase it is in right now. In my view, we have three major phases

1. Infrastructure deployment: this includes the wiki itself, a basic link-structure, and guidelines for editors

2. Initial content expansion: recruiting editors (activists), and fleshing out a number of policy positions/proposals

3. Use and maintenance: draw in the general public, continue to expand content with feedback

How we approach each of these phases ultimately depends on whether this is your platform or a meta-platform. We'll have to provide (and "enforce") general usage guidelines, which I think should mimic Wikipedia. We can address that later.

So, those are my thoughts on the wiki.

Field Trip Frenzy

I got to spend much of the Friday school day with my son and some of his classmates on a field trip. We walked to the IBEW on the South Side for a fitness event that was tied to Highmark and The Great Race Expo. (more later)

Next week there is no school on Tuesday. Then I've got field trips on Thursday (zoo trip for gifted center) and Friday (Voyager boat for science).

Then the next two weeks, staring on October 2, we go to Hong Kong with three other students (beyond my boys) so Catherine can teach a course at Hong Kong University.

Fun. Field Trips.

I don't think we had many of those when I was in school, other than the annual trip to Turners' Dairy to see how the farm worked and get the little hats made of white paper that they use in the dairy.