The Dayton Police Department is in a world of hurt. In the next 2 years they are going to lose a lot of their senior staff to the DROP program- and they still haven’t come up with a way to hire new officers.
The department, because they insist on running their own academy (a practice that should be examined for either elimination or growth- if it can start generating revenue) has it’s hands tied thanks to the self-inflicted Department of Justice lawsuit.
Chief Biehl presented a plan to reorganize the department to the city commission last night- shrinking the 5 districts into 3, central plus East and West. How the officers will actually be deployed is not covered in the presentation. I’ve taken the Powerpoint and turned it into a PDF for those that are interested: DPD Org Chart (as of 8-30-10)

With the shrinking force, and shrinking budget- the department is going to have a really hard time staffing for extra enforcement or dealing with illness and vacation times. While the department of old still required sworn officers in many administrative positions (at one point a veteran Sergeant was in charge of the motor pool) those days should be over soon.

Manpower won’t be able to be cut anymore- so if the department is to cut dollars from their budget it’s going to have to be by operating more efficiently. I still believe moving some officers over to 200cc scooters with their 80 mpg fuel efficiency and easy approachability factor is an option for the department to safe some money and improve visibility as well as social interaction in the community.

Yesterday I heard it three times- “I’m boycotting the Dayton Daily News” – I don’t want to read their site, I don’t want to support their advertisers, I don’t want to talk to them- especially the editorial board.

This wasn’t in a crowd of my usual suspects- it was at the Dayton Regional Summit, hosted by Wright State University President David Hopkins. His annual meeting of the movers and shakers in the region (“Raider Country” as he calls it). The presidents of WSU, Miami, UC and Central State were there, State Reps and Senators were there, as were congressional representatives. It was primo face time. (afterthought- here is the very good video by Kenny Mosher that they showed- he also did the Downtown plan video and the google fiber video and the Blue Sky video…. he’s been busy.)

WSU Regional Summit Video from Kenny Mosher on Vimeo.

Dayton Business Journal publisher Neil Arthur was there- as were many local leaders. But, there were no people from the DDN, Montgomery County, City of Dayton (although someone said they saw Mayor Gary Leitzell in the parking lot). My post about the need for comment moderation on the DDN site was brought up quite often.

But, it’s even worse than just boycotting the DDN- they were also considering the same of sister Cox enterprise WHIO TV channel 7. It seems that people have had enough of the fear and loathing of Dayton from these media outlets. If I was Cox corporate in Atlanta I’d start worrying- and if I was hired as a PR firm to try to turn the tide of public opinion about these operations- I’d think twice about taking the account. It may be time for the Dayton Daily News to do a total rebrand and reconstitution of its internal leadership- before they get run out of town on a rail.

When community leaders no longer care to even argue with the powers that be- it’s a bad sign. With the ease of delivering a message via social media- who really needs the DDN anymore to publish a press release?

I remember when visiting Portland, Oregon, over 15 years ago- that reading “The Oregonian” gave me a totally different vibe than what I got from the Dayton Daily. I even wrote Max Jennings a note about it- suggesting they adopt one of the nice Oregonian touches- the page jumps said “Please see story X on pg 12″- just that little please was a hint that the paper had a good relationship with its readers and respected them. The DDN actually implemented the suggestion- before they decided we were too stupid to read stories like that jump and dumbed down the paper even more.

The collective self-loathing in Dayton comes from somewhere- and it wasn’t the people in the room yesterday.

With the DDN now hawking the price of $10 a month for a subscription- half of what it was, it’s become obvious that the value of the paper is dropping like a rock. Their offer of the “e-dition” which looks just like the paper and has “all the stories” is yet another too-little, too-late move.

When the newspaper hates the community that it covers- it’s not that hard for the community to hate it back. The only question that remains is how long can they continue to publish if every single person they call for an interview declines, and has nothing to say to them? Will it bring change?

Considering some of the people who said they no longer feel it appropriate to talk to the Dayton Daily News- we may soon find out.

Dayton has a highly paid professional who is supposed to lead the city. His name is Tim Riordan. In fact, he’s not paid enough to manage the types of responsibilities he’s tasked with- he makes half of what Jim Leftwich at the Dayton Development Coalition makes, but that’s another story.

Mayor Leitzell is one vote of five, on the Dayton City Commission- the “Board of Directors” for Riordan, the city manager. The mayor’s job is to represent the city at events, to preside over the meetings, and he can perform marriages, he’s a figurehead who has mythical power, but very little real power if the system is working the way it’s supposed to.

Unfortunately for Dayton, the system started breaking with our “rock ’n’ roll” mayor- Paul Leonard- which is right around the time I came to Dayton. Leonard fancied himself as powerful- even though the job paid half of what it does now- and he had the most capable city manager we’ve had since- Rick Helwig. Rick was a class act- in fact, Riordan was one of his protogés. Since then, we’ve had one stumble after another in both offices. Mayors who thought they would be kings and city managers who thought they were politicians. The system breaks when one starts thinking like the other.

Leitzell has taken the low key approach to being the chairman of the board. He’s worked well with a Democratic commission despite his endorsement by the Republican Party (he still claims not to be anything but an independent). He’s worked well with the city manager, and he’s spent time with the priority board chairs and neighborhood groups, business leaders, developers- he just hasn’t made it a circus, with him as ringmaster. When talking with him, he’s thinking about who will run for commission next year to challenge Commissioners Joseph and Lovelace- he’s not even sure if he’ll run again in 3.5 years- that’s not on his radar right now- fixing problems is.

Seth Godin drops pearls of wisdom on his blog daily- and one that hit just before Dayton Daily News editorial board hack, Marting Gottlieb, posted his latest smear job attempt on Leitzell may just be what this city needs to do- vis-a-vis the Dayton Daily Downer:

Critics and fans, passersby and the media crave a battle, a scandal and heroic stories of winning and losing.Want to get written up on a tech blog? Just post a really angry rant about your competition.Want to sell tickets to the hockey game? Just put a few brawlers on the team.The media demands that a politician “get angry” in the face of a conflict or problem that anger won’t have any effect on–but it will make a good story. Your customers demand that you stop doing what’s always worked and race to follow a trend or launch a risky sideline…When you stumble or fall, they won’t say, “sorry, we were wrong.” They’ll say, “what were you thinking!” and talk about it even more. And then the cycle continues.

via Seth’s Blog: Drop everything, we need you to perform in our circus.

It was the comments section on an incendiary piece that attacked Leitzell for fixing his own roof and a letter to the editor attacking Leitzell for challenging the DDN to get their geography right  that were so vile- and so ignorant, that I demanded accountability from the DDN- and even threatened them with a libel suit. Soon after, the DDN blew away and closed all comments on these pieces. However, it seems that Leitzell is taking exactly the right tack by not joining the DDN circus, where if it bleeds, it leads- and if we can draw blood- we will.

This is the total opposite of the media whore we had running the city previously, who would go out of the way to get attention with outlandish hats, funky glasses and speeches at every opportunity. Of course, now that she’s sucking at the government teat for her health care- and working for Ted Strickland- the hats and glasses are gone. Welcome to the closing of the big top Dayton- you have Mayor Leitzell to thank.

One of the reasons South Park works as a neighborhood is that we know and trust our neighbors. When my mother wanted recommendations for a tree service to cut down the almost dead tree behind their house we asked our neighborhood webmaster, Robert, to send a request for referrals to our neighborhood mail list.

We got back 9 responses almost automatically- and Mom had about 6 of them out for quotes.

They ended up picking Dan Fugate on the recommendation of Michael Di Flora (who is one of the prime investors in the neighborhood).

This is what my Mother wrote back to the neighborhood:

David – please thank Bob for posting all the recommendations for help with the tree.  You were right – it was amazing. Shows how much we care about our trees in South Park.  We called several people and decided on Dan Fugate who owns D&F Tree Service, tel: 937-256-5178.  Michael Di Flora recommended him.

In addition to being a top-notch pro, Mr. Fugate gets points for personality and price.  He says that word of mouth is always helpful so anyone who would like to hear more about him should feel free to call us: (You can e-mail me- david at elect esrati dot com if you want to chat about this)

By the way, he spotted the empty cottage next door and expressed an interest.  Said he would like to come back and live in South Park. We’d love to have him as a neighbor.

A few things- people do business with people they like. My Mom went on about how my Dad liked him instantly. Another thing is that in this day of info overload- and especially marketing overload, nothing beats a personal recommendation or “word of mouth” as we call it in the business. You have to also understand that for a small business like D&F Tree Service, a community like South Park can be a great base to build on. All it takes is a level of confidence built up by consistent solid work and next thing you know- you don’t run out of work.

The same thing applies to our city. If everyone in the city talks confidently about our community, and says good things about it- we build.

When we constantly speak poorly of our community- we destroy. Dayton has been in self-destruct mode for a long time. No, waving a magic wand and singing “Kumbayah” all day won’t fix the problem- but, if only our citizens had some strong leadership that was singing our praises at the top of their lungs day in, day out, maybe we’d be coming out of our slump.

If there is anything about Mayor Leitzell I would criticize, it’s that he’s not been as visible as a cheer leader as he could be. However, it wouldn’t hurt if our true CEO of the city- City Manager Tim Riordan was using his voice a lot louder – after all- we could have picked anyone for his job- and we had only two choices for Mayor.

So, next time you sit and read the crapfest that goes on in the Dayton Daily News comments sections- consider posting as “It’s Great In Dayton” and say something super positive. We don’t have to take this lying down.

Those who don’t learn from history are bound to repeat it. While making cuts to essential safety services- our local government has time and money to hand out “Economic Development” money to hand-picked corporate entities to “encourage business growth and retention.” This just days after UltraCell, a prior recipient of these types of funds closed up shop and went home.

Here is the press release as reprinted in the Dayton Daily News:

DAYTON — The cities of Dayton, Vandalia, Riverside and Miami Twp. will share $575,000 in Opportunity Reserve Funds from the Montgomery County Economic Development/Government Equity Program to encourage business growth and retention.

The Montgomery County Commission, on Tuesday, Aug. 24, approved two grants for Vandalia totaling $175,000; Dayton got $50,000; Riverside $150,000; and Miami Twp., $200,000. Several of the businesses are looking at multiple locations. If a company locates outside of Montgomery County, it doesn’t get the award.

• The city of Vandalia got awards of $125,000 for Project Crossroads and $50,000 for Projects Unlimited. Project Crossroads is working with property owners to occupy a vacant building at 707 Crossroads Court. The property owner, Construction Managers of Ohio, proposes spending $775,357 to upgrade electric service and install a new transformer to increase electric power to accommodate equipment used by a potential tenant, auto parts manufacturer Inteva Products.

Projects Unlimited, 6300 Sand Lake Road, wants to establish a cable and harnessing division within the company’s aerospace business. The project includes additions to an existing building at a cost of $1.26 million.

• Dayton’s $50,000 award would go to home builder NVR Inc., 2094 Northwest Parkway. The company’s $3.5 million project involves development of a new truss factory in Dayton creating 60 jobs over three years with an annual payroll of $1.74 million.

• Riverside will get $150,000 to assist InfoCision Marketing Corporation. The building InfoCision leases at 101 Woodman Drive is under foreclosure and the company wants to purchase and renovate it at a cost of $3 million. InfoCision will retain a minimum of 250 jobs for the next three years with estimated annual payroll of $4 million.

• The largest award, $200,000, goes to Miami Twp. for VRI, 9111 Springboro Pike, Miamisburg. VRI’s corporate headquarters, call center and customer support center are in West Carrollton, but the company needs to move to a larger facility.

The company expects to increase its 100 employees to nearly 300 within five years. ED/GE funds will go toward design, building and leasehold improvements.

via Cities get money to stimulate business.

The first warning sign post on Esrati.com about UltraCell was on Dec. 12, 2008, look to a post within 2 years of one of these companies falling apart- or not delivering what was promised.

If our politicians would work on consolidating government, thereby reducing the tax overhead required, we would be able to attract a lot more business to the area. Ohio has too many taxing jurisdictions and one of the highest costs of government in the country. Let’s spend our money eliminating duplication of services- starting with unifying our police forces into one department with one well paid chief who is accountable for reducing crime and shortening response times.

There- that wasn’t too hard to re-direct tax dollars to their intended purpose.

Free speech is a wonderful thing- when you sign your name.

Up over 24 hours on the DDN site

When you don’t- and can hide behind a nom de plume and spew garbage it’s not free speech- it’s hate speech, and the Dayton Daily News is helping propagate it daily.

On the DDN site for over 24 hrs attacking the Mayor of Dayton

So- let’s explain it: Ellen Belcher is an inexpensive courtesan, and a bad dancer. The first part- calling someone a cheap whore, is slander if spoken or libel if printed, the second is a matter of opinion. Either, without the force of attaching my true name-is just a cheap shot at the Editorial page editor of the Dayton Daily News. Please note, this entire post is a matter of political satire- and protected under the First Amendment, or at least under the same rules that the Dayton Daily News must use to allow this garbage on their site.

Yet another comment- up over 12 hours

The denigration of Dayton has become sport for the paper- and as practiced by some commentators on the newspaper’s website- an art form. Even when you “report abuse” it’s often a long time before the comment comes down- if at all. These examples that will be used have been up for at least a day.

Why use your real name?

Mayor Leitzell called the paper out in a letter to the editor for using the region’s name in bad news stories, is- “Firm leaves Dayton” when in fact, they were leaving Harrison Township.

Responses to Mayor Leitzell's invitation to meet

The comments there have been relatively sanitized. Then, Oakwood resident, attorney and former Oakwood Council member, Jeff Ireland, castigates Leitzell for writing a letter to the editor.

I read Dayton Mayor Gary Leitzell’s letter chastising the Dayton Daily News for reporting — inaccurately and misleadingly, in his view — news about businesses leaving “Dayton” when they were actually located in Harrison Twp. and Springboro.

Leitzell criticizes the paper for “bashing” Dayton because it suggests to the public that businesses are leaving “Dayton.”

The DDN is reporting facts that are neither inaccurate nor misleading. The mayor’s reaction, however, is troubling. Dayton is the center of our region. To suggest that the newspaper should refer to Dayton only by its geographical boundaries is nonsense.

via Mayor’s parochial, short-sighted view of Dayton is troubling.

The comments on that letter, would make a solider blush- and did I mention that the Dayton Daily News has a National Socialist on their Editorial Board with a Hebraic name- and that Martin Gottlieb sexually molests infants?

even when the Mayor offers to meet...

The Dayton Daily News sells it’s website as an advertising platform- running ads that generate revenue with every “viewing”- so it is in their best interest to garner as many page loads as possible- leaving garbage like the comments on this letter seem to help generate more views- as the same losers keep returning to add to their pile of manure.

Other publications have dealt with these issues by requiring signing in under a verified profile- or allowing the community to vote comments up or down (as we do on Esrati.com). The Dayton Daily News has a “REPORT ABUSE” button that takes filling in 3 fields for every single instance of crap.

Don't try to reason with us.

The Huffington Post went as far as to buy a comment moderation company. Read more- in this piece on APR Marketplace:

Jeff Horwich: In Internet culture, the tendency of online comments to head for the gutter has a name: “The Greater Internet Jerkwad Theory.” OK, it’s not really “jerkwad” — but what do you think this is, the Internet?

Eva Galperin with the Electronic Frontier Foundation defines it:

Eva Galperin: The theory posits that the combination of a perfectly normal human being, total anonymity and an audience will result in a cesspit.

Read the original theory here

Online comments are a magnet for name-calling, political screeds — nastiness that turns off web surfers…
With 3.2 million comments in June, the Huffington Post didn’t hire a company to moderate. It bought one. This summer, the politics and news site acquired Adaptive Semantics, and its proprietary software called “JuLiA.”

Arianna Huffington is the site’s editor-in-chief.

Arianna Huffington: You can program JuLiA to look for whatever you don’t want on your site. For example, we don’t like people comparing either Democrats or Republicans to Nazis.

But JuLiA is way smarter than that. Its algorithms look for patterns that indicate anyone disruptive — veering off-topic, ranting like a zealot, using insulting language. Even mild terms like “moron” or “empty suit” can flag you for a look from a human moderator, who gets final say over whether to ban your comment.

Huffington is also trying to take on the bad seeds by deputizing the best commenters with digital “badges” — like “Level 2 Networker” or “Level 3 Superuser.”

via ‘Comment cops’ help manage websites | Marketplace From American Public Media.

Instead of dealing with the “jerkwads” the Dayton Daily has resorted to closing comments on many articles after initially allowing them (deleting all comments posted). This is often used on crime articles- or those concerning African Americans- as the comments come straight from the local chapter of the KKK. Their other technique- of late, has been to allow comments on Facebook- where identities must be verified (for the most part)- however, they are giving up viewers from their URL and handing the traffic to Facebook (that then gets to make money on the ads).

There have been pleas from readers to clean this mess up, however Kevin Riley, the editor of the paper has failed to respond- probably because he’s a soiled personal sanitary device and a convicted felon.

It would seem that the Dayton Daily News’ refusal to address the communities concerns about the drivel being posted needs an elevation in priority- maybe calling the education writer, Scott Elliot a pedophile online will make it a more immediate concern for those involved, however I doubt it.

The paper also seems to think retribution is OK as well. Right after they published Leitzell’s letter they wrote a tabloid style trash article about Leitzell taking time away from being a part-time Mayor to fix his roof, knowing full well that he is only required by charter to rule over one meeting a week. They made sure to glorify Paul Leonard and Rhine McLin for their dedication in making the position full time- but left out Clay Dixon who held a job with the Dayton Public Schools (that he was forced to resign from when it was finally disclosed that he had claimed sick time when traveling on City Business) and no mention of Mike Turner who was busy working as a corporate counsel for MTC during much of his term. You can read the Mayor’s response and story of his roof on his blog here.

It gives me no joy in writing this editorial- with these sick accusations published for all to see, but it seems that the Dayton Daily News has zero concern for the issue by allowing it to continue for years without an adequate response. Of course, they have been involved in character assassination of this writer  for years without a single acknowledgment of my right to run for office without personal denigration and embarrassment.

If you believe that the Dayton Daily News should be held responsible for the destruction of our communities collective soul through piecemeal attacks and wholesale negativity- please consider signing your name to a comment on this post in support. Please be aware that this site doesn’t allow ad hominem attacks, and is moderated fairly regularly by me- and that readers have the option to vote your comment off the visible comments. Also know, that if you try to impersonate any of the named people who work at the DDN- I will double check and hold those comments.

Thank you

Addition Aug 25, 2010 7:49 am I sent a note to the Editors asking them to address this issue in an editorial on a Sunday. I sent them a link to this post. They deleted all comments from Mr. Ireland’s letter- and then when the jerk showed back up- they deleted it quicker (under 12 hours).

However- they’ve allowed comments to move onto another thread- and they have been up since their post times until now:

Screen shot taken Aug 25 at 7:48 am

And- to make Bob happy- yes, this entire post was authored by David “knobhead” Esrati

I love garlic and “Armando” tomatoes from Mike Malone and Hungry Toad Farm- I see him every Saturday at the 2nd Street Market, outside near the main steps. Mike’s got the real deal farmer’s tan- and can tell you everything you need to know about growing vegetables organically.

This e-mail went out over the “liberal list” – and I’m posting it because I’m a big believer that organic, sustainable, local food is part of the answer for America- not just in cutting down on our foreign energy dependency, but as part of getting American’s health again- moving away from processed crap that we have come to call food. Those of you have known me- and noticed that I’m 20 pounds lighter- and have a new bounce in my step- have heard the story of how my significant other read an amazing book- “The 7 principles of  fat burning” by Dr. Berg. I’ve changed the way I eat- and it’s been amazing.

So- here is the e-mail from farmer Mike:

My main worker is off to the Army Reserves for 3 weeks, and my other full time worker has suddenly decided to cease farming work. It looks like the cheese stands alone, and I don’t think the cheese can do it all by himself – especially with a 40 member CSA. 689-5910

Farm Workers/Volunteers needed at Hungry Toad Farm

Hungry Toad Farm is an Organic farm in Washington Twp.

I need help harvesting and weeding and planting and preparing boxes for the CSA, and harvesting and preparing for two farmers markets.

Help for pay, or help for experience, or help in trade/part trade for housing in a 4 BR farmhouse.

The season lasts until early November. Continued housing through the winter and beyond is an option.

Write to me here and check out Hungry Toad Farm on facebook.

Michael Malone

We live in the “bread basket of America” (although after you read Dr. Berg’s book you won’t be eating much bread)- this is some of the most fertile growing land in the world. Instead of building more pop-up offices with parking lot seas on prime farm land (Austin Road) we should be looking to grow as much of our own food within a half-day’s drive or less.

With the latest egg recall- and other recent food scares, it’s reassuring to know where our food comes from- and who actually grew it. Farmer Mike isn’t a big agri-business, he’s a small guy in a tough business- with the best tomatoes and garlic you can buy.

This is good for all of us.

When Marvin Olinsky retired, his deputy- Charlie Shoemaker took over Five Rivers MetroParks. When Charlie Shoemaker retired, we’re hearing that the organization is doing a national search.

The Dayton Daily News weighs in with its typical “Let the community in” BS- of course, they don’t let the community sit in when they pick their endorsements for office (and get pissed when I publish a podcast of the actual interview)- and they talk about regionalism- but when push comes to shove- they endorse the same old BS.

Here is a snippet from Ellen Belcher’s editorial:

Mr. Shoemaker’s successor has to have thoughts on all these issues and more. And the park district’s three commissioners need to make sure that the public hears the applicants’ pitches. Specifically, the commissioners need to create a committee of stakeholders to help vet candidates. And there need to be opportunities for the public to put questions to the finalists.

via Vet Metro Parks’ new chief publicly | A Matter of Opinion.

Now, let’s see- the board is three people, Irv Bieser, Alan Pippenger and Karen Davis. All three were picked from the community- not from a “National Search.”

For the last four years- the Deputy Director Carrie Scarff has been working as the second in command. If she’s not prepared to step into Charlie’s shoes, why is she still the deputy director?

There are other superstars in this organization, including Nate Arnett- the director of Adventure Central. Surely- someone inside this large and diverse organization is capable of leadership? If not, we should be replacing the board first.

There are very few regional park systems as diverse in programming as Five Rivers Metroparks. Anyone stepping in from out of town would face a steep learning curve. Then there is also the local politics- remember what happened to Bill Estabrook- and how fast did Valerie Lemmie run out of town once her sugar daddy’s days were over? National searches bring opportunists and carpetbaggers- and a steep learning curve. One estimate from someone connected to the organization who is well respected said five years. Can we really afford that?

Five Rivers Metroparks has grown with locally grown talent, into one of the ONLY regional cooperation success stories. Listening to the Dayton Daily News editorial board- or wasting time and money on a national search would be a step backward as well as a slap in the face to the people who have worked hard to grow MetroParks into the success it is.

When can we, the community, vote on the qualifications of Ellen Belcher and the rest of the Editorial Board? Remember, these are the people who endorsed Rhine McLin and Joe Roberts. And, when they’ve hired people after a national search- what happened? Eddie Roth, Leigh Allan, hello? Hypocrites.

It’s bad enough that Ohio has a system of jurisdictions set up in the 1790s that makes so many tax districts and levying organizations that all require overhead- making Ohio an expensive place to live and work. Just look at how many “Mayors” the area known to the world as Dayton  has- and then how many police chiefs and sheriffs, fire chiefs and zoning administrators and councils, and street maintenance…. you get the picture. Taxpayers don’t care who shows up when you call a cop- as long as they do their job. On top of that- we have a playing field that is as unlevel as they come- hence all the “development” (or moving of businesses in the giant shell game) to places without an income tax- Beavercreek, Miami Township (Austin Road) etc. We’re really good at moving our problems around and causing new ones- because we can’t address the old ones.

Now, the titans of talk at the Dayton Development Coalition are suggesting that both the taxpayer and local “member businesses” contribute more money to them so they can hand out “incentives” to retain other businesses. Sure, I go to work everyday to make money to hand over to an overpaid, slick-talking suit so he can take a scrape and hand it over to his new best friend- the company claiming it is leaving.

THIS MAKES ZERO SENSE.

Here’s a bit of  the article from the Dayton Daily News- which moved its print facility out of the county and its offices outside the SID downtown:

The Dayton Development Coalition seeks to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in additional support from member businesses and local governments to try harder to make sure that the biggest local companies stay and expand here.

A memo drafted as a strategy document for leadership of the public-private coalition states that the region’s business leaders believe “there are gaps and inefficiencies” in current retention and expansion efforts aimed at companies already here, and that the coalition has been asked to take an expanded role.

“Specifically, the large anchor companies are not being addressed in the manner needed,” according to a two-page memo prepared for the coalition’s retention and expansion ad-hoc committee.

via Coalition wants new effort aimed at keeping big companies in region.

Of course, this makes perfect sense, since the head of the DDC makes over double what the City Manager for Dayton makes and at least a third more than the County Administrator (both of whom oversee budgets and organizations that dwarf the DDC in size and importance to the community- with some level of accountability to the public). This is how we make sure that crony capitalism or corporate welfare (depending on which term you prefer) continues to screw things up in Dayton. If you need reminding on the kind of track record these kind of “investments” by government work out- look at UltraCell (and boy do I have more coming on that mess).

Of course, the DDC will say that it is better than some poor civil servant slob who may only be able to make $100k a year and has his or her hands tied by stupid laws (that were put in place to prevent this kind of government meddling in business)- and whom government should thank for taking over these positions and saving the taxpayers money by removing the duplication of effort. It all sounds great- until you realize that their is no voter oversight on this organization- nor are they held accountable for their actions. How would you feel if you made widgets, were a paying member of the DDC, a good citizen- and then find out your “dues” are being handed over to your widget competitor across the street?

If any of this sounds like the way the Mafia works to you, it’s because it’s a similar business model based on fear. If we don’t play the game that all these other communities are doing across the country- our businesses will flee for the better deal as NCR did. However, the real secret to attracting and retaining business is to do the opposite- regionalize, simplify taxes and regulation, improve customer service, invest the money in PUBLIC amenities (that’s what public dollars are supposed to be for) and throw these mobsters in the river with some concrete boots. We don’t need to keep subsidizing more government and quasi-government, we need to deliver more bang for our buck to the businesses and taxpayers who are already here- and tell our story to the world.

“How Dayton decided to stick to the knitting- and get out of the “economic development” business- and created the greatest city to do business in….”

Imagine if you could wave a wand and travel back to the year 2000- and have $600 million of public money to invest- in the things public money was supposed to be used for? Or, even give it back to the taxpayers?

A Dayton Daily News investigation found more than $1.5 billion in public and private money since 2000 has been spent on development in and on the fringes of downtown.

Roughly 60 percent of that investment has come from the private sector.

via Dayton sees most downtown projects in nearly 50 years.

Suppose we had spent it on several large parking garages downtown- with subsidized parking for downtown office workers- no more than $40 a month per car, a huge recreation center on the Parkside homes location- open to all city residents and workers – including an Olympic pool, ice rinks, a velo-drome and indoor soccer and football fields.

How about if we offered subsidized, high quality day-care for Dayton workers- round the clock- so we could be filling up the inexpensive office spaces downtown with call centers?

What if we’d spent it on making public transit free- to make Dayton a low-cost, livable, walkable community? Added a bike share system? Opened up foreclosed properties headed for demolition to urban pioneers with squatters’ rights? Even providing a small scale micro-loan program for repairs?

Suppose we had gotten out of the corporate welfare business- and hadn’t spent millions moving Reynolds and Reynolds and their spin-offs around, subsidizing CareSource’s new office building, created Tech Town in some of the low-cost office space we already had- and not “invested” in UltraCell?

How about if we’d not wasted time fighting the residency rule, or maintained our rules about forcing all police and fire to go through our own training programs- and used standardized programs that are certified across the state- and allowed lateral hires from other departments?

Well- all of that might have happened had we not kept electing the same people who have brought us the corrupt “Monarchy of Montgomery County” and the Dayton Daily News crapfest that passes for “news” daily.

$600 million could have changed our community dramatically- instead, it was squandered on “me too” projects- that now, look like money pissed away, as our population continues to shrink and our tax base gets even smaller.

Progress?

Apple is sitting on about $54 billion in cash right now. iPad’s are still back ordered, and the company is looking at record earnings.

However, this isn’t generating jobs here- it’s generating jobs in China- where the workers can’t afford to buy the products:

Taiwanese contractor Foxconn said today it would hire 400,000 workers at new plants in China. The plants will be built closer to the new employees’ homes, as the company tries to increase worker happiness after a recent number of suicides. The company’s revenue has increased by 50 percent and will help afford the new workforce, which will number between 1.2 and 1.3 million.The new factories will be built at inland provinces Henan and Sichuan …This plant has about 900,000 workers, and over five years, this is expected to decrease by 170,000 with those workers moving to the new plants.

via Foxconn hiring 400,000 new workers, locating closer to home | Electronista.

And to think Apple used to make computers in Fremont, California- with former auto workers and a lot of automation. Just imagine the impact if Apple decided to start making products in America again- maybe even at the former GM Moraine Assembly plant?

If American companies want to have a U.S. market in the future- their best investment would be to start hiring Americans as fast as possible- before the dollar becomes worthless on international markets and our economy collapses.

The Roly Poly sandwich shop in the old Elder Beerman/Reynolds and Reynolds call center- now Area Agency on Aging – rolled out of their downtown location over the weekend.

The building which is owned and managed by CityWide Development (which means it’s your tax dollars) now only has two ground floor tenants- the CVS which moved from across the Street from CityWide’s main building at the corner of Main and Third (believe it or not- it’s a separate building from the PNC bank building) and the Boston Stoker.

Even the food vendor cart population is down from around 10 in previous years to two or three.

And while the Tea Party Exchange got busted for outsourcing its services, no one has questioned why the Downtown Dayton Partnership has to hire an outside firm to staff its “Ambassadors program”- yep, those people in green shirts aren’t hired by the Partnership directly- they outsource them from: Block By Block out of Louisville KY.

Is this an indication that we should outsource everything? Trash, police, fire, why not even hire a Mayor- it’s a part-time job, maybe we could get someone much better. Dayton Public Schools uses a PR Consultant out of Cleveland too.

If we didn’t have business owners paying a premium tax – the “Special Improvement District” tax- and the city actually provided the services it’s supposed to, maybe businesses could afford to stay in Downtown. Or maybe, they could at least spend their money with a local firm for their “ambassadors.”

The Dayton Business Journal reports today that UltraCell, which has had its hand out since it landed in Vandalia- is closing operations in Ohio.

Politicians make lousy venture capitalists- since the money they are playing with is our tax dollars. And don’t just consider the money that we put into this venture as a waste- the whole bureaucracy in the Ohio Department of Development, the “Economic Development Directors” of the region- and the Dayton Development Coalition- are all a colossal waste of our money and energy.

From the DBJ:

UltraCell Corp., which has received millions of dollars in Ohio funding, has shut down its Dayton-area operations.

The Livermore, Calif.-based company, which makes fuel cell systems, broke the news to suppliers in a letter last week saying operations here would end on Aug. 13.

Local and state officials expected a meteoric rise from UltraCell, but that never translated into local jobs.

In 2006, the company announced plans to open a production facility in the Dayton area and create 360 jobs by 2010. In December of 2009, the company only reported having 13 employees at its Vandalia plant.

Officials from UltraCell could not be reached for comment.

Ohio officials are reviewing state grants and loans to UltraCell to determine what the company will be required to pay back, according to a spokesperson from the Ohio Department of Development. The company has been awarded more than $3.4 million in Third Frontier grants over the years and has collected more than $2 million of those grants so far.

UltraCell may not have to pay all of the Third Frontier money, or other grants and loans, because the state did benefit from its partnership with other organizations, such as the University of Dayton Research Institute, the spokesperson said.

In May, 2009, UltraCell reported raising $3.8 million in venture funding to help expand operations at its facility in Dayton. At the time, UltraCell has raised $30 million total since it was started in 2002, according to the company.

via UltraCell closes Dayton operations – Dayton Business Journal.

Of course, Esrati.com said it was a mistake back in December,  2008- “responsible tax dollar management: end job creation grants”

Now, can we go back and take a look at which idiots pushed our tax dollars into this operation- and hold them accountable? How about eliminating them and decreasing the tax burden for the rest of us? Maybe if we didn’t carry all the overhead of people trying to create jobs, there would be some money left for the businesses still left in Ohio to actually hire people who make something other than bad deals and broken promises.

I can’t make this up- official internal memo:

From: “Cooper, Brian (CNI -Atlanta)” <Brian.Cooper@coxinc.com>

Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2010 12:10:19 -0400
To: All Cox Media Group Ohio <>
Conversation: Media Center Flea Update

Subject: Media Center Flea Update

We’re continuing work on the problem with fleas in the Media Center.

We’ve spoken with the exterminators, and we’ve decided to make a major effort tonight to eliminate the fleas. Many of you will be affected by this. Here are some details:

*       We will close our building from 8 p.m. Monday until 5 a.m. on Tuesday so that the entire building can be treated during that time. No employees will be permitted in the building during those hours.

*       We are working on a plan for the newspapers and web sites to be produced from other locations. If you normally work at night, talk to your manager about where you should work.

*       We’ve been assured by our exterminators that the process and materials used in our building are safe.

*       We’ve made cans of  insect repellant available throughout the building. Some of you have asked for that, especially when you leave the building.  Please use it in a well-ventilated area.

We will be obtaining more information and sharing it with you as we get it; you can expect another update later today. We appreciate your help and patience with this.

If you have any other questions, please talk to your manager.

Thanks, Brian

______________________________________

Brian G. Cooper
Senior VP – Operations, Cox Media Group Ohio
Work:  937-225-2321

Cell:  404-697-8xx3

Now- not even safe to line birdcages with.

Last night I watched “Street Fight”- a documentary that was nominated for an Academy Award in 2005. In some ways, it reminded me of Dayton politics when I ran for Mayor the first time (vs. Clay Dixon where Mike Turner won by 400 votes). My windows were shot out two nights in a row at the office, I was warned that my life was in danger, I was assaulted by the sitting mayor, and a union boss- and asking questions about where the money was coming from was considered bad form.

However, as backward as Dayton politics were in 1993, they were small town little league compared to Newark, N.J.:

Street Fight chronicles the bare-knuckles race for Mayor of Newark, N.J., between Cory Booker, a 32-year-old Rhodes Scholar/Yale Law School grad, and Sharpe James, the four-term incumbent and undisputed champion of New Jersey politics.

Fought in Newark’s neighborhoods and housing projects, the battle pits Booker against an old style political machine that uses any means necessary to crush its opponents: city workers who do not support the mayor are demoted; “disloyal” businesses are targeted by code enforcement; a campaigner is detained and accused of terrorism; and disks of voter data are burglarized in the night.

Even the filmmaker is dragged into the slugfest, and by election day, the climate becomes so heated that the Federal government is forced to send in observers to watch for cheating and violence.

via Street Fight – A film by Marshall Curry – About Street Fight.

Even though both candidates in the Newark election were African American, the race issue was part of the argument. The campaigns raised unholy amounts of money- for what is supposed to be a “non-partisan” race (just like Dayton)- there were charges of the challenger being a Republican, a tool of Jews, and other misguided mudslinging. The city was polarized, the election was highly charged- and for all the wrong reasons.

The system was showing how broken it was- with the filmmaker being manhandled repeatedly by Newark cops to stop him from taping the sitting mayor as he campaigned. This wasn’t the America I pledge allegiance to.

The challenger, Cory Booker, was a Stanford grad, Rhodes scholar, Yale Law grad, had the nerve at 33 to challenge a man who had been in office since 1970. Labeled a carpetbagger by the incumbent, Booker had come to Newark to help the less fortunate get a shot. He had the nerve to live in a public housing project called “Brick Towers” and as a sitting councilman, had been labeled “unconventional”- from Wikipedia:

In 1999, he went on a 10-day hunger strike, living in a tent in front of one of Newark’s public housing projects (Garden Spires), to protest open-air drug dealing and the associated violence. For five months in 2000 he lived in a contemporary motor home, parking on street corners where drug trafficking frequently occurred.[7]

He proposed a variety of Council initiatives that impacted housing, young people, law and order and the efficiency and transparency of City Hall, but was regularly rebuffed by a resistant Municipal Council and often outvoted 8–1. While on the Council, Booker became an outspoken advocate of education reform.

via Cory Booker – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

To me, Cory Booker is one of the few people who have managed to beat the system and stay true to their roots- an objective that has escaped me. And while Gary Leitzell has managed to do the unthinkable- by unseating one of the last vestiges of Dayton’s old political machine- I’ve seen little from him to show either passion for change, or leadership on the very real issues we’re facing.

Not to give away the movie- since it is a documentary, Booker loses the race in the movie, but does get elected the next time, when the incumbent doesn’t run again. The incumbent, who had managed to be mayor and a state senator at the same time, went on to eventually get busted for fraud and sentenced to prison for 27 months.

Booker campaigned for President Obama and:

was offered the chance to head the new White House Office of Urban Affairs Policy; Booker turned the offer down citing a commitment to Newark.[29]

via Cory Booker – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

He even gets social media-

Booker made news when on December 31, 2009, a constituent used Twitter to ask the mayor to send someone to her father’s house to shovel his driveway because her father, who was 65 years old, was going to attempt to do it himself. Booker responded by tweeting; “I will do it myself where does he live?” Other people volunteered, including one person who offered his help on Twitter and 20 minutes later the mayor and some volunteers showed up and shoveled the man’s driveway.

via Cory Booker – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

If you are looking for a future presidential candidate, you should be watching Cory Booker. As to Dayton politics, I want to find our version of Cory Booker- because what has passed for politicians in this city hasn’t cut it. I am going to begin in earnest to get the Dayton Process started for the next commission election cycle.

Would you please help- by identifying people who you believe might be willing to step up and serve?

Just remember- Cory Booker lost to the machine the first time- but that didn’t stop him. I’m not going to stop running until we elect some brilliant minds who will lead- instead of wiggle at the end of puppet strings.

And- btw, crime in Newark is at the lowest levels in over 50 years since Booker took office.

It’s time Dayton voters demanded more from those they elect, and if they can’t deliver- replace them. Newark did, and is better for it.

In my last two appearances before the Dayton Daily News Editorial Board, I attempted to make a case for this site being an important part of representing the people- of having an open discussion with constituents about the issues facing their representative. I was written off as “a blogger” – as if it was a mark of shame. (City Commission Endorsement, Congressional Endorsement)

However, the rookie member of the board actually complimented an elected official for maintaining a blog the other day- hath hell froze over?

As a state board member, Ms. Haverkos has diligently studied the issues and was a thoughtful voice in debates. She even launched a blog with another state board member (www. stateofohioeducation.com) that tracked state education issues, a great service for constituents.

via Editorial: Voters should be watching school race | A Matter of Opinion.

Of course, because “blogs are bad” this is the first we’ve heard about it in the DDN- and, it would seem that Susan Haverkos is no longer involved with the site.

There are very few representatives locally who are blogging. One exception is the Mayor, whom the Dayton Daily News didn’t endorse, Gary Leitzell. Although infrequent in posting, it still serves as a vehicle for hearing positions straight from the horse’s mouth. Of course, when Gary uses it to publish his letter to the DDN that they didn’t choose to publish, you start to understand why the DDN isn’t too happy about blogs- it’s a way around its self-assumed “power” over the region.

Congressman Mike Turner even has a blog- but it’s probably not written by him- nor are there any comments or discussion (in other words- it’s not really a blog). It’s his press releases- on which you may “leave a comment”- but nothing will come of it.

Social media have been used to run campaigns- but almost always seem to be forgotten once the prize has been won. It’s sad that when elected, most representatives stop communicating with the people they represent the moment they start “representing” them.

I almost believe it should be mandatory for all candidates to maintain an active online forum, before and after they get elected- if for no other reason than that we can no longer trust the media to get it right.

(If you know of other local  active blogging elected representatives- please leave a link to their site in the comments- thx)

It didn’t take long before I got an email suggesting NOT to shop at the following businesses because of their support of the Tea Party.

It’s this kind of partisan BS that is killing our country. However I can tell you that my company has lost business because I choose to take a political stand. From the DDN article (and the e-mail)

The local merchant then gives 5 percent of the sale revenue to the local Tea party chapter to help fund rallies.

Participating businesses:

• Anderson Mechanical Associates, LLC
• B & K Heating, Inc.
• Beef O’Brady’s Family Sports Pub
• Cool Solutions Heating & Air Conditioning
• D.A.R.E. Automotive Specialists,Inc.
• Essex & Associates, Inc.
• Essex HR & Associates
• Evans BMW, Volvo, Volkswagen
• Flash Quick Copy, Inc.
• G.L. Dart General Contracting/A-1 Roofing
• Gamber Family Dental
• Graphic Impact
• HouseMaster Home Inspections and Radon Testing
• Marketing Consultants
• McAfee Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc.
• O’Learys Pub & Grub
• Reiber Cleaners, Inc.
• Rich Roofing
• Right at Home-Dayton
• Ryan B. Walker CPA Inc.
• Safeguard Print & Promo
• Screen Works, Inc.
• Tea Party Payroll, LLC
• The Accounting & Business Coach
• The Bronze Salon Tanning

via List of businesses participating in Tea Party discounts.

As a marketing consultant I can tell you that almost all cause marketing can have unexpected consequences. Recently even Target, which has made a major effort to be “Gay friendly” got caught for a donation to an anti-gay marriage candidate in Minnesota.

The sad part of the email blast to me- is that all of these are small local business people. This is a drop in the bucket of our local political machine.

Never mind that the big companies, with their political action committees, do much more harm to the political system. NCR used to be a cash trough for a certain Congressman, and if you look at the “non-profit” hospital groups’ executive teams, you are looking at more political donation juice than all of these independent businesses will generate.

Boycotts are nice, but if we want real change, what we need is campaign finance reform- eliminate all political donations- and we might start to see the results we want.

And btw- the comments on the DDN seem to indicate that this isn’t such a hot idea either.

Yesterday, the question of corporate welfare was the subject of the Dayton Daily News- with Mayor Gary Leitzel seemingly being the only one to realize that the handouts are nothing more than handouts.

Since 2008, the city has given $400,000 in public funds to help law firms and nonprofits already downtown relocate — sometimes across the street. The city has also lured Logos@Work and Deloitte Consulting LLP from Kettering with a combined $200,000.

City officials said the money is an investment to retain the income tax revenue from the few hundred jobs, but Mayor Gary Leitzell said the process has become “a game” by downtown law firms and said that spending the money doesn’t help the city long-term.

“They come to us and line up and say our lease is up, what is the city going to do to keep us here,” he said. “Wouldn’t that (money) be better spent in programming to attract people to Dayton so they want to be here?

“Our mission is get people to want to come to Dayton, not pay them to stay,” Leitzell said.

via Paying firms to stay doesn’t help Dayton, mayor says.

Today, we find out that City Manager Tim Riordan can’t find a way to plug the holes in the budget- and thinks that raising the city income tax is going to help:

Dayton City Manager Tim Riordan could ask city leaders “within a couple weeks” to support an income tax increase to fix a deficit in the operating budget that could drop by $17 million next year.

via If city can’t meet budget, voters could face temporary tax hike.

Unfortunately, Mayor Leitzell seems to think a “temporary tax increase” is OK- never paying attention to the effect it will have on every business that now has to change its processes to collect the extra tax- and the impact it may have on those companies’ bottom line- or decision to stay in Dayton or to go.

Let’s see. Last year the city gave away $600,000 of the taxpayers’ money to a few select companies- instead of providing needed services with the money. What isn’t included in that sum is the huge amount of overhead it requires- all the “economic development people” who cost money as well. Just get rid of Shelly Dickstein’s position and you save another $100,000+ her support staff- probably another $500,000.

Wow, eliminating 5 people plus their handouts – just saved the city $1.5 million a year.

Now, lets go back to the illegal raises granted by former City Manager Rashad Young to city staffers- and himself. Revoke them. Go after Mr. Young and former Mayor McLin as criminals- and recover damages- because what they did was to break the public trust, and it’s the public’s trust that gives us the incentive to allow the City to take more money out of our income- to take care of our business.

Unfortunately- City Hall thinks it’s their business to take care of private businesses- not the taxpayers:

Who has received city funding since 2008?

• Flanagan, Lieberman, Hoffman & Swaim: $50,000 to relocate from 318 W. Fourth St. to 15 W. Fourth St.
• Area Agency on Aging: $200,000 to relocate from 6 S. Patterson Blvd. to 40 W. Second St.
• Logos@Work: $65,000 to relocate from Kettering to 937 S. Patterson Blvd.
• Vocalink Language Services: $40,000 to relocate from 40 S. Perry St. to 405 W. First St.
• Deloitte Consulting: $140,000 to relocate from 10 W. Second St. and Research Park in Kettering to 220 E. Monument Ave.
• Taft, Stettinius & Hollister: $100,000 to relocate from 110 N. Main St. to 40 N. Main St.

via Paying firms to stay doesn’t help Dayton, mayor says.

If the city wants more income tax coming in, the easiest way is to gain more residents- utilizing our abundance of cheap housing and abundant clean water (never mind a large pool of skilled labor). Yet, in their mad pursuit of supporting Nan Whaley’s biggest campaign donor- they chose to invest in decreasing our inventory in a never-ending retreat strategy:

The number of vacant structures in the city continues growing despite a demolition effort that has razed more than 1,000 housing units since 2007.

At the current pace, it will take more than a decade to right size the city’s building stock at an estimated cost of $50 million.

via Vacant buildings grow in number despite city demolition program.

Not only could $50 million go a long way to fixing up homes- it would bring taxpaying residents into the city. At some point we need a strategy that is different than the current one. Right now we are taking away what the poor have abandoned as they increasingly can’t afford to live in a dying city- with no hope of job growth with current “leadership” and handing our money over to title bureaus, demolition contractors, landfill operators and other vultures of society who are feasting on the shambles of our once great city.

Robbing from the poor, to give to the rich isn’t a viable strategy. It’s time to knuckle down, find our strengths and start building instead of throwing up our hands and asking for the last nail of a tax increase to seal our fate.

We as Americans are quick to point at other countries as corrupt- as having barriers to entry for foreigners, of having politicians who must be paid off to be able to do business. Yet, it’s tough to look in the mirror and realize that we too, have become as corrupt and politically immoral.

In a discussion at the dinner table with my father, a political science major,  I posited the theory that the huge expenses of television advertising have helped drive the politicians to graft. This was after reading a piece in the New York Times about corporate gifts to endowments named for politicians:

The donations from businesses to the endowments ranged from modest amounts to millions of dollars, federal records show. And the lawmakers, who include powerful committee chairmen or party leaders, often pushed legislation or special appropriations sought by the corporations.

via Current or Former Lawmakers Linked to Endowments Made by Corporations – NYTimes.com.

This country is paying to play on steroids. My father says it goes back to the days of Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall. I don’t disagree- but, the amounts at play and the openness are becoming more evident in my eyes- either because of the Internet and its flow of information, or just because the amounts required have turned it into a high-stakes game.

What we pass off as political dialogue these days is disappointing- and the art of debate is long lost. Even with our great orator president- the message was “Hope” instead of action.

Up until George W. Bush made his mark on history- Jimmy Carter had the rap of being a bad president because of tough financial times. “It’s the economy, stupid” was the rhetoric that sent him packing, yet- GWB got a hall pass by many for his backing of policies guaranteed to fail. I came across this clip on YouTube- and it made me think- which is what I try to do here with you- and so I’m sharing it: Hunter S. Thompson covering Jimmy Carter.

Now, for many, putting the words Hunter S. Thompson together with the word journalist is a stretch- just as putting my name together with the word electable, but the claims that his exposé on Carter was part of what helped Carter win over Ford make it at least worth consideration.

Watching that clip, and comparing what passes for political rhetoric today- should inspire all citizens of the United States to demand more than the 30-second spot and sound bite politics we’ve come to expect. That Carter was also the first and only president or candidate to interview with Playboy- also speaks to Carter’s willingness to step outside the lines of what a politician is supposed to be and say.

The reason I began writing this blog was to counter the persona painted of me by the Dayton Daily News Editorial board, who’ve done a masterful job of mangling every idea, or thought I’ve shared with them. I’ve often wondered how Rolling Stone was able to publish Thompson- since he didn’t fit the mold of journalist any better than I fit the political mold.

Being honest- and saying what one believes needs to be said- despite the audience, is something I strongly believe in, and have paid a price for doing for the last 20 years in this city. I’m watching with amusement as the Dayton Daily News still offers a link to Bill Pote’s Dayton Most Metro on their site as a local blog- as he starts to solicit advertising to compete with them. So far, despite scooping them numerous times, and running for office a few times (in comparison to scoops)- they have never once linked to this site. For the record- although my stats are on par with what DaytonMostMetro just announced, and have been for over a year- I’ve not monetized this site due to concerns about being attacked legally by the powers that be- preferring to keep this a personal opinion site and retaining protections. DaytonMostMetro- as a feel good, happy news site, with multiple- authors and the support  and endorsement of local non-profits doesn’t have to worry about the same issue.

It’s sad to say that political thought is now limited often by liability, but that comes with the times. It’s not enough to own a printing press anymore to publish- but, having the financial backing to be able to afford one is part of what decides how much risk you can afford to take as a publisher.

As a last thought- I wondered why we have so many quotes from Ben Franklin- and realized it was because, like me, he was a publisher. Considering the economics and costs of distribution in his day- I wonder what his readership was, and how it compares with mine (Wikipedia to the rescue: He sold about ten thousand copies per year (a circulation equivalent to nearly three million today via Benjamin Franklin – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.) So far this year, 202,000 visits by  86,225 unique visitors and about 111 gb of data transferred.

Political speech has changed, journalism has changed, the question in my mind is “when will we change?”

I’d take a Jimmy Carter story by Hunter S. Thompson over what passes for both political speech and journalism any day.

The UK just had its last conventional census, from now on they are going to do data mining to get their answers instead of the 210+ year old traditional door-knocking every ten years. Don’t expect the U.S. to follow suit anytime soon- we officially ditched the insane British measuring system back in 1975 but when was the last time you bought gas by the liter?

Someone told me last night that they were listed in the phone book- I almost had to laugh, we had been looking for their number as their old neighbors were coming back to town and the thought of looking in the white pages never entered anyone’s mind.

The first rule in computing is garbage in, garbage out. Yet so many of our metrics are based on census data as are much of our decisions by government. The data that we need is often there- but not readily available, or it’s overwhelming and the tools don’t exist to analyze it easily. The Internet has given us a treasure trove of data, but it’s not always in the right formats. The whole issue is very similar to the issues that “Esperanto” tried to conquer with the world’s many languages (which have much smaller data sets and should be easier to standardize)- and if you’ve heard of the “Semantic Web” and understand it at all- you know how complex this all is.

IBM, the company whose founder once thought there might be a market for a total of 5 computers worldwide, before going on to give us the PC jr and legitimize Microsoft’s MS-DOS OS, has been making major moves into the “smarter city” as they call it- (I wrote about it last Oct.). Smart political campaigns run on databases- which slice and dice voters for targeted Get Out The Vote and personalized issue tailoring. There is a whole industry of site-selection analytics that counts rooftops vs. retail- and still depends on data that’s up to 10 years old.

The number of databases that every one of us show up in is mind-boggling. From our utility and phone bills, to our health records, DMV, tax records, employment records, banking, and then what Google collects, you have ceased to be a human being- just a sum of all data points.

Credit rating agencies have been instrumental in the financial collapse of the global economy, yet their business is based on analyzing this imperfect data too. It’s amazing anyone survived before the invention of the binary counting device that now rules over us from birth to death and beyond. Look at what’s in front of you- you aren’t reading this on paper, delivered by a human to your doorstep.

One of the people I’ve met via this site is a semantic data consultant who shared an interesting Open Source project in development that could give us all a better way to analyze our data and develop new strategies of opportunity. We’ve already got some prime players in this field in Dayton with LexisNexis as one of the pioneers in data-gathering and mining, Teradata in storage in retrieval, even the much smaller Woolpert is a leader in GIS systems. Citizen Dan is in the pre-beta stage of pulling data from multiple data sources and making it available to us.

From their site:

Citizen Dan is a free, open source system available to any community and its citizens to measure and track indicators of local well being (see further about). It is available for use now, but is also undergoing active development with support from a number of innovative cities.

Citizen Dan is an exemplar instance of Structured Dynamic’s; open semantic framework (OSF), a generalized framework for deploying semantic platforms for any domain. By changing its guiding ontologies and source content and data, what appears for Citizen Dan can be adopted for virtually any subject area.

Go to the Concept ExplorerAs configured, the Citizen Dan OSF instance is a:

• Appliance for filtering and analyzing data specific to local community indicators
• Means to visualize local data over time or by neighborhood
• Meeting place for the public to upload and share local data and information
• Web data portal that can be individually tailored by any local community
• Potential node in a global network of communities across which to compare indicators of community well-being.

via Citizen Dan | A Community Instance of theOpen Semantic Framework.

And while the Dayton Development Coalition talks about being a leader in “Sensor Technology”- sensors just gather more data that fills databases which will later need data dissection.

With the latest census winding down, and the political redistricting battle seemingly in stasis, maybe it’s time to re-assess all we think we know from our data- and decide what we really gain from being omnipotent? The more data we gather, the more we know, for all its technological wow-factor- is it really improving our quality of life?

When the founding fathers talked about “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”- did they have metrics in mind to quantify what would make us happy? Was it enough to have representation when it came to taxation (the root issue of our first revolution)- have we better representation now with our arcane finance reporting laws and auctions that get passed off as elections? What is the “standard of living” and who should it apply to? Are all animals equal, but some more equal than others thanks to our imperfect data used as a foundation of governing? Or are we using the numbers for the right reasons?

The Luddite movement in England was a reaction to the mechanization of the textile industry. In calling someone a Luddite you are writing them off as an obsolete cog in society, yet, maybe, as it proves with many great thinkers- they were just ahead of their time? Maybe the metric we’ll discover when we have the grand unification database is that happiness is the direct opposite state of data overload- ignorance truly is bliss, and for all the wants of man to marshal over our humanity- the true indicators of a successful civilization are much more basic: food, shelter, safety, health- all without an abundance of government trying to solve our problems.