Festival Park, Center City Park, ballpark -- Greensboro's intellectual heavyweights take the facts off the rails

Joe Guarino recycles a few paragraphs from a Rhinoceros Times article in which Rhino editor John Hammer bemoans the removal of some trees from City-owned Festival Park downtown. The legitimacy of his complaints is undermined by his totally unsubstantiated remarks that the deed was done at the direction of city patron/bogeyman Jim Melvin.

In the comments, Ed Cone rightly notes how Hammer floats away from the facts with that accusation. But then Ed, followed by Sue Polinsky, does the same damn thing. Ed claims that Center City Park was donated and Sue calls it a "gift that keeps giving." Ed adds the ballpark too.

Center City Park has not been donated. It remains privately owned. Same thing for the ballpark, it was built on formerly public property, procured through a land swap, not a donation.

Why do we in Greensboro, even among our intellectual heavyweights, have such a hard time facing the facts? It is our bane that it's acceptable, even par for the course, in Greensboro to twist, distort, ignore -- whatever it takes to worm our way around facts that are inconvenient to our positions.

Greensboro deserves better.


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Blacks underrepresented in GPD? Yes. Discrimination? Doubtful.

In an unsigned editorial in this week's Yes!Weekly about alleged discrimination against black officers in the Greensboro Police Department, the anonymous author offers this:

"...African Americans and Latinos are still underrepresented in the department."

The implication is that is evidence of discrimination.

I emailed Yes!Weekly editor Brian Clarey and asked him what percentage of Greensboro police officers are minorities. He wrote back that, according to the City's Public Affairs Office, "of 615 sworn officers, 24 percent are minority — black, Asian, Latino combined."

With the white population of Greensboro at about 53% and the African-American population at about 40%, those percentages seem problematic. But not so fast.

I've lived in Greensboro long enough to know racism still exists here, and I am not going to attempt to prove a negative, but purely from a perspective of critical thinking, it is apparent these percentages do not, on their face, implicate the GPD of discrimination. Here is why:

One of the requirements of being a Greensboro police officer is graduation from high school or equivalent. According to the most recent Census Bureau's statistics I can find, 90% of white adults in Greensboro meet that requirement while only 45% of African-American adults in Greensboro do and 47% of Hispanics do.

So the percentages of minorities officers in the GPD actually accurately mirror the qualified minority populations in Greensboro. For Yes!Weekly to write that minorities are "underrepresented in the department," is accurate because minorities are underrepresented among high school graduates. Minorities are not, however, underrepresented in the GPD among those with the required high school diploma.

Forget Star Trek, Yes!Weekly creates local alternate reality

Yes!Weekly had an editorial this week opining on the claims of discrimination against the Greensboro Police Department. (It was unsigned, but I assume it was written by editor Brian Clarey -- why do newspaper editors hide this way any longer? It's so 90's).

The editorial is a convoluted, reality-denying piece of mumbo jumbo that managed to turn the facts on their head and condemn the Greensboro City Council's most ardent supporter of government transparency for a lack of transparency.

Although I agree that councilor Mike Barber was off track with his recent suggestion that the city pay the plaintiffs' legal fees if they drop their complaints of discrimination, for Brian, er Yes! to conclude that is an example "lack of transparency that has marked his tenure on council," is utterly ignorant or intentionally misleading. Contrary to Brian's, er Yes!'s imaginings, the record shows that Mike has been City Council's strongest advocate, through individual effort and by official votes, for transparency in local government. Brian, er Yes! needs to acquaint itself with the reality of the historical record.

Greensboro could use more public admonishment of elected officials who obfuscate and work against public disclosure by the local press. It would be helpful if Brian, er Yes! would direct its finger-wagging at those who deserve it.

[DISCLOSURE: Mike Barber is a customer of my website design and hosting services.]

Ryan Shell: Naive?

Ryan Shell announced his intention to run for Greensboro city council two weeks ago. Today, he announced that he will run in District 2. Minority majority district 2 has only had a black representative as long as I can remember. Is Shell, who is white, naive? When the first local blog comment from respected, long-time black community activist Nettie Coad appears on his campaign blog, one has to think maybe not.

Gruenrekorder

From raw field recordings of whistling tree frogs to soundscapes composed of a variety of environmental acoustics, it is Gruenrekorder. Be sure to click on the "listen" link and check out the artists' pages, especially founder Lasse-Marc Riek.

What information is Greensboro withholding from the Department of Justice?

According to communications obtained from the City of Greensboro, attornies with the U.S. Department of Justice are dissatisfied with the level of cooperation received from the City of Greensboro relating to the DOJ's investigation of discrimination claims.

Particularly, the DOJ wants to see the RMA Report and the city is only willing to show them the portions a judge ordered released, which is not much.

This damn hack-authored report has been thoroughly discredited by Jerry Bledsoe. It is a bane to Greensboro's race relations. It is not worth obstructing a DOJ investigation to protect its "secrecy." The City Council should vote to publicly release it -- or someone should email their copy to the DOJ.

Here are the correspondences between the City and the DOJ regarding the City's cooperation:

[NOTE OF GRATITUDE: Thank you to the City of Greensboro for a very speedy response to my request for these documents.]

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Publish at Scribd or explore others: Law & Government Business & Law police discrimination

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Green on hold. City suspends bio-diesel purchases

In February of 2008, green entrepreneurs Brian Talbert and Gabe Neeriemer started Patriot Bio-diesel on Chimney Rock Road in Greensboro. After months of testing and certification, they began selling bio-diesel fuel in January of this year. Their customers include Marathon gas stations and the city of Winston-Salem. They would like to sell their product to their hometown government, which boasts of having 809 bio-diesel powered vehicles. Brian and Gabe may have to wait a while.

Although the City of Greensboro began using bio-diesel in 2002 and even though the City Council passed a resolution in support of greenhouse gas reduction that specifically called for converting vehicles from diesel to bio-diesel, Greensboro has stopped purchasing bio-diesel.

According to Steve Simpson with Equipment Services for the City, Greensboro stopped purchasing B-20 bio-diesel (20% bio-diesel) in December of 2007 and stopped purchasing B-5 bio-diesel in September of 2008. Simpson says the decision was made because the fuel was causing equipment failure during cooler temperatures. "We have experienced engine shutdown and damage to the fuel systems resulting in extensive repairs," he wrote in an email.

Patriot Bio-diesel's Talbert says this could be caused by gelling, a problem that occurs in some kinds of bio-diesel fuels as they begin to solidify in colder temperatures. Talbert wasn't sure, but he thought the City might have been buying bio-diesel made from chicken fat, a product better suited for warmer climates.

Simpson wrote that the City might consider using B-5 in the summer, but adds, "We are very concerned about the lack of regulation to manufacture bio-diesel, additional maintenance cost and dependability of the public safety vehicles."

Talbert says his fuels are manufactured from vegetable oil and use a process called cold soak filtration that make his bio-diesel less prone to gelling. He also says his fuels conform to ASTM D 6751 standards -- required by the IRS for alternative fuel tax deductions. These new standards, updated last fall, certify a fuel as usable in unmodified diesel engines.

Another issue is that bio-diesel becomes more cost-competitive the more expensive regular diesel is. Bio-diesel starts to undercut the cost of diesel when diesel reaches $3/gallon and above. Currently, however, diesel is about $2.05/gallon and bio-diesel is around $2.75.

It would be great if Greensboro could find its way back to using bio-diesel. It would be even greater if it could do so by supporting a local green company. Obviously, that cannot happen at the expense of fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers. Perhaps Patriot Bio-diesel offers a fuel superior to that which was causing the City problems. It sounds to me like it's worth a look.

[Tip of the hat to Billy, who first let us know the City had stopped buying bio-diesel]

Pricey Harrison, Red Clay Citizen and "signing the jacket"

Last month, Joe Guarino referenced a blog post by Red Clay Citizen, bringing to our attention Greensboro's Pricey Harrison co-sponsoring a bill that would allow convicted criminals to attend community college tuition-free upon their release from prison.

Amid the debate on the merits of the bill confusion arose over whether or not Harrison was, in fact, a cosponsor. While Red Clay author Jeff Mixon reported that she was, the online version of the bill did not -- at least, not by the time it came to our attention.

Ed Cone talked to Harrison and reported in the comments at Joe's that she had "signed the jacket," what he described as something legislators can do on "bills they might sponsor."

I talked to the State Legislature's web master and the House Principal Clerk's office for clarification. Here's the scoop.

There is no "might" involved. House members may sign on as co-sponsors of a bill electronically or by signing the jacket containing the bill (there is no electronic option in the senate). Once signed, electronically or psychically, the legislator is a co-sponsor.

The bill, with its sponsors and cosponsors, is then published to the General Assembly web site. If a lawmaker subsequently changes her mind, she may request that her name be removed as a co-sponsor. Sometimes this results in a new version of the bill being posted online, with the older version still reflecting the previous co-sponsorship. Sometimes, the lawmaker's name is simply removed from the version posted online with no online record remaining that the lawmaker ever was a co-sponsor.

In the case of this bill. Harrison's signature is not legible on on the bill's jacket, but there is an illegible signature scratched out. It appears as if Harrison originally singed on to co-sponsor this bill, changed her mind and the bill on the website was updated only by removing her name, leaving no record of her original co-sponsorship online and only her conversation with Ed and the scratched out signature as indications of her original co-sponsorship.

This caused a lot of confusion and some unjustified insinuation by me towards Jeff Mixon, for which I apologize.

[NOTE OF GRATITUDE: Thank you to the very kind, open and helpful state staff who helped me to understand this process and the details surrounding this bill in particular.]

More Windbaggery

The News & Record's Doug Clark doesn't like the Department of Justice poking around the Greensboro Police Department.

He is on firm ground with his objections. For, when the News & Record was getting the facts wrong on issues of supposed racism in the GPD, then refusing to correct the record as new facts came to light, it was Doug who spoke up against the shoddy practices of his paper. It was he who insisted that the community know the truth and he who demanded that the News & Record's mission was to follow the facts, not an agenda. He had the foresight to anticipate the negative consequences of misinformation uncorrected and the fortitude to speak up against it.

Huh? What's that?

Doug did no such thing?

Oh. Never mind.

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Greensboro Windbags

The Greensboro Partnership's Pat Danahy, former Mayor Keith Holliday, City Councilor Goldie Wells.

What do these people have in common?

They are all full of hot air.

In 2006, when Greensboro Police Chief Tim Bellamy issued a press release that said people in the community were secretly recorded by a non-sworn police officer and that the reasons for them being recorded were unknown but under investigation, Holliday, Wells and Danahy, with his minions, all puffed up with righteous indignation and promised that we would get to the bottom of this.

More than three years later, only Ben Holder, with some sympathetic assistance from City Councilor Mike Barber, is following through. City Councilor T. Dianne Bellamy-Small is trying to sweep this under the rug, abetted by City Councilor Goldie Wells' selective memory while Holliday and Danahy are silent.

Shameful. Greensboro deserves better.

Barber looking mayoral?

[Disclaimer: Mike Barber is a customer of mine]

Mike Barber looking mayoral? Barber's willingness to openly and regularly step before the microphones, share his ideas and answer questions make him so according to Sam Hieb.

I agree.

Too bad indications are Mike is not going to run.

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On behalf of Greensboro, North Carolina, I apologize for bigot Charles Davenport

As a citizen of Greensboro, NC, I apologize for fellow resident and bigot Charles Davenport. In his column in the News & Record, Davenport explains why it is not practical for blacks and other minorities to be represented in police departments in numbers proportional to their population. It is, says the relic Davenport, because "Intellect and ability vary wildly across the population."

Davenport does not offer any explanation or evidence that the skills or intellect required to be a police officer are less prevalent among black people. He just asserts it, like the intellectual coward he has proven himself to be over and over again.

I will not suggest that the News & Record silence Davenport. It is better to know that racist, xenophobic, homophobic bigots live in Greensboro than to bury our heads in the sand. Just as important, let us recognize that Davenport, in his unwillingness to make an intellectually honest argument for his beliefs, in his unwillingness to engage in online discussions responding to his rantings or in his unwillingness to even answer a simple email inquiry is a coward, and if there is anything more despicable than a bigot, it is a cowardly bigot. On behalf of Greensboro, I apologize for him.

Greensboro: When we get around to it, y'all.

Ben Holder reminds us that City Council, the Mayor and City Attorney promised to review and release documents related to the Greensboro Police Department "surveillance" scandal -- saying they'd try to do so in two to three weeks. That was on February 4th, three months ago.

Politicization of criminal investigations

"The problem here isn’t the criminalization of policy differences, it’s the politicization of what ought to be a painstaking but straightforward criminal investigation."

Lex Alexander rebuts the excuses offered for ignoring the law.

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A fly on the wall

One of the drawbacks of audio on the web is that there is no good way to skim through it to see if anything catches your interest. About the best you can do is take someone's recommendation.

I recommend this clip for one of the things audio on the web can do well: It can give you a "fly on the wall" sense of where someone is coming from and what they are about, much more so than a written report of an interview.

I am no fan of the "achievements" of the state legislature's Democratic leadership, and the accusations against Rep. Cary Allred, an Alamance County Republican, sound, at first blush, political and petty, still it is illuminating to hear Mark Binker ask some tough questions, Allred's responses (especially the "Uhhhhhhh..." to "Had you been drinking?") and his insistence that he will eventually be "venerated."

(Click here if player doesn't load below.)

Ryan Shell throws his hat in the ring -- sort of

Local blogger and PR man for Truliant Federal Credit union Ryan Shell has announced he is running for Greensboro city council.

It would have been a surprise had Shell decide not to run. He has been doing all the "right" things in the past several months, serving on boards, attending the City Academy, adopting a street. Nothing wrong with a young person diving in with both feet, but Ryan's civic interest is very new: He says he has lived in Greensboro for nine years, but didn't register to vote until 2004 and then did not cast a ballot until November, 2007.

Ryan's greatest appeal in my mind is his youthful enthusiasm and good grasp of modern media and communications technology. His nice campaign web site is a good example. It is high time we had elected representatives who step into the modern age. If elected, Ryan would bring a huge advancement in constituent communications to local government. That would be a very good thing and earns Ryan some major respect right out of the gate.

On the down side, Ryan is seeking a decision-making role and seems to have a hard time making decisions. Example: Even though he is announcing his decision to run for office, he hasn't decided whether to run for his district seat (district 2) or at-large.

He seems reluctant to take a position. In a discussion at Joe Guarino's blog he equivocated on offering an opinion of Mitch Johnson's handling of the Wray affair and, when pressed, backed out of the conversation saying, "I don't want my comments to be taken wrong."

He also recently wrote that the problem with Time Warner Cable's planned internet access rate increase for Greensboro was a matter of poorly handled public relations. It was far more than that, but Ryan focused on the superficial while ignoring the specifics.

Perhaps it is to be expected that a PR guy would see contentious issues as matters of perception. His blog is replete with posts where he asks people what they think of an issue, but where he declines to offer his view. (Ryan recently asked at his blog "Does Public Perception of the Council Matter?") But there is something condescending about that attitude. It suggests that voters are children; that we only need to be properly manipulated to be placated; that real concerns are not things to be addressed through the hard work of advocacy or negotiation, but are merely to be corralled with a well managed public image.

Elected officials have to make tough choices. They have to exercise judgment. One cannot do that by thinking that it's all a matter of perception. Still, candidates can and do win local races running on slogans and style instead of substance. Ryan has six months to show us what he offers. He is in my "maybe" column as of now because of his willingness to communicate in public, he'll be hard to endorse if he doesn't grow a little backbone.

"Our city council believes faster broadband is an essential utility in this day and age."

"Our city council believes faster broadband is an essential utility in this day and age."

Greensboro?

Nope.

Wilson, NC.

The quote is from a blog comment made by that city's public affairs manager, Brian Bowman, commenting on Wilson's municipal internet service.

A city council recognizing broadband as essential infrastructure; a city taking its economic future into its own hands; a city's public relations person blogging. Ooooh, outrageous! Good thing Greensboro isn't so wacky crazy, we wouldn't want anyone to mistake us as forward-thinking. We'll just build a fabulous future on those 1,500, uh 750, uh 300, uh 200 $11.50/hour $9.50/hour jobs at the FedEx hub starting in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010.

Greensboro: If a duck stood still you could catch him by the bill.

The $400,000 question

On April 14th, I emailed the city of Greensboro's public relations director Pat Boswell with a request for the January, February and March monthly water quality reports. They were not posted online.

I got no reply.

On April 17th, I sent another request to Ms. Boswell.

I got no reply.

On April 22nd, I sent another request to Ms. Boswell and copied her bosses, Denise Turner and Bob Morgan.

I got no reply.

Today I see that the water quality reports are now online, but not one of the people whose combined salaries are about $400,000 could reply to an email.

Greensboro deserves better.

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Consumer report: Don's Small Engine Repair, recommended

Last fall, the Craftsman push lawn mower went kaput -- would idle, but stalled with any load. A few weeks ago, I took it to Don's Small Engine Repair. (Kudos to Web Builders who have Don's website at the top of a Google search for "Greensboro small engine repair.")

The good:

• The $85 repair cost was at the low end of the $80 to $100 estimate.
• Personal attention from the guy who is going to work on your engine.
• A little extra. I told Don I had attempted to sharpen the blade. It was still dinged up pretty bad (damn walnut tree). We didn't discuss it, but Don put a new blade on for me. An unrequested repair that puts a job over an estimate would piss me off, a professional judgment call to do something necessary without going over estimate is much appreciated.
• He delivered. The mower works great now.

The bad:

• Don didn't call in the week to ten days he said he would need to complete the job and he didn't return a message I left for him after two weeks. But I reached him the next day and the mower was ready.

The bottom line: Recommended.

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Good move for Guilford County Republicans

Keith at Triad Watch reports (scroll down past irrelevant embedded video) that the Guilford County Republic Party has appointed Tony Wilkins as their new executive director.

Development and new construction as the only way to build a world class city?

Because we want our leaders to think bigger and better, what Billy wrote bears repeating:

"While Greensboro’s 'city leaders' continue to see development and new construction as the only way to build a world class city, more grown up cities like San Diego, California are showing the way by providing residents with the ways and means to convert to alternative energy thereby reducing San Diego’s dependence of imported sources of energy and propelling California’s economy over that of North Carolina and the rest of the nation."

"It ain’t over, folks." (Or No time for the snooze button)

"It ain’t over, folks." So sayeth Sue Polinsky regarding Time Warner Cable's announcement that it is dropping its plan to experiment with tiered pricing and data caps for its Greensboro customers -- and Sue is right.

TWC hedges its announcement: "We will not proceed with implementation of additional tests until further consultation with our customers and other interested parties, ensuring that community needs are being met."

So we have some breathing room after a wake up call, but now is not the time to hit the snooze button. Greensboro's needs will be met when we have competition for broadband access in Greensboro. Mayor Yvonne Johnson should follow through with her intentions to try to recruit competition to Greensboro. And if any other elected officials would like to lend her a hand, that would be just dandy: give us geek types an issue to consider in this fall's elections.

Time Warner Cable Consumer Complaint

[UPDATE: It was printed and ready to mail, but Time Warner Cable has announced it is abandoning its pricing experiment. I'll keep this on file, just in case, but thank you, Time Warner Cable, for changing course.]

I am filing this with the Consumer Protection Division of the North Carolina Attorney General's office. (You can too.)
----------------

Time Warner Cable (TWC) recently announced(1) that it will be experimenting with tiered pricing for internet access in four markets in the United States. One of those, and the only one in North Carolina, is Greensboro. TWC is the de facto exclusive provider of high speed internet access in Greensboro. Its plans to begin charging customers based on the amount of data downloaded in a month is unfair to consumers and constitute unfair trade practices for the following reasons:

1. Greensboro will become the only city in North Carolina and one of only four in the nation where TWC charges for internet access based on usage. While claiming that demands on limited infrastructure require this new pricing scheme, the company has offered no information to justify why Greensboro, and Greensboro only in North Carolina, should be subjected to this pricing scheme.

2. Making Greensboro the exclusive North Carolina city subjected to this pricing scheme will put Greensboro at an economic disadvantage.

3. While claiming that the growing demands of internet service on its infrastructure require these price changes, TWC has provided no empirical data to substantiate this claim and, contrary to its unsubstantiated claim, has in fact:
a. Published information that indicates its broadband service is highly profitable.(2)
b. Published information that identifies internet streaming of video as a threat to its video programing offerings.(3)
c. Not proposed limits or tiers for other services that also place demands on the bandwidth of TWC infrastructure such as its digital television or its own digital phone service.

4. Customers of TWC's internet phone service will not have their phone service subject to tiers or limits while customers who subscribe to TWC's internet service and third party internet phone services (such as Vonage) will be subjected to tiers and data limits.

5. TWC has defended its pricing scheme by publicly claiming that only a small percentage of customers would see rate increases while company executives have elsewhere acknowledged that TWC expects a greater number of customers to move into the higher priced tiers over time.

TWC's plans are, in reality, an effort to thwart its Greensboro subscribers' access to streaming video programming on the internet. TWC has disguised this effort with unsubstantiated claims that the demands of internet access on its infrastructure require this rate scheme. Even if TWC's claims were true (which there is no reason to believe that they are and reason, in fact, to believe they are not true) there is no indication that Greensboro alone among North Carolina cities, has some distinction that justifies it being exclusively subjected to this pricing scheme. Furthermore, there is no justification for limits and pricing tiers exclusively for internet access when other bandwidth-consuming data services provided by TWC are exempt.

By singling out Greensboro, by singling out internet access among all bandwidth-consuming services, by discouraging access to competing video programming and by making third party internet phone service more expensive than its own, TWC is engaging in unfair trade practices.

Notes:
1. http://www.news-record.com/content/2009/04/02/article/time_warner_cable_will_track_charge_by_internet_usage
2. http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/04/time-warner-cab.html
3. http://ir.timewarner.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=950144-09-1481

Exercising the First

The always in disagreement and always polite Fred Gregory sent me this picture of him at yesterday's Tea Party in Greensboro. Fred said he went to exercise his First Amendment rights. That's good. Very good.

Nancy Vaughan to run for city council

Amanda Lehmert breaks it: Former Greensboro city council person Nancy Vaughan is going to run for Greensboro City Council at-large.

Gonna party like it's 1773

Guarino reminds us of the Tea Party planned for Greensboro tomorrow, April 15th, noon, Governmental Plaza (map). Other locations across North Carolina are listed here.

I find the purpose of these protests to be a little ill-defined and, where stated, ill-conceived (most of us are seeing our taxes go lower under Obama, not higher, and the "slide to socialism" is hyperbole), nonetheless, public demonstrations are very American and I generally admire efforts to make a public stand -- have fun and send me your pictures.

Time Warner action item #3: File a complaint with the State Attorney General

[Third in a series. Previously: #1, City Council; #2, Letters to the Editors]

Here is another step consumers can take to address Time Warner Cable's plan to make Greensboro one of only four markets in the United States in which they charge internet users for how much internet they use (background here and here.) File a complaint with the North Carolina State Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division. (You can print a form then complete it or complete it online then print it but, either way, you will ultimately have to print the form then mail it to the address indicated.)

Britt Whitmire's (WZTK) dilemma

If you are a morning talk radio personality on a show renowned for lively topical discussion, what do you do when one of the biggest local current issues puts one of your biggest advertisers in a negative light? If you are 101.1 WZTK's Britt Whitmire you demur to the advertiser and earn the ire of your listeners.

Greensboro practicing reverse hospitality?

Cara Michelle wonders why benches would be removed from a downtown park.

Tyranny has come to our shores

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Baracknophobia - Obey
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

Yikes!

In case you aren't panicked enough about Time Warner Cable's planned experiment for Greensboro:



(Hat tip: Erik Huey, where he also notes that a Congressman representing another Guinea Pig market, Rochester, NY, may try to stop this at the federal level.)

When do we get that logic Charles Davenport says should guide discussion of gay marriage?

Reflecting on Vermont's new law that allows gay people equal rights to civil marriages, The News & Record's Doug Clark says the next step is sisters being allowed to marry. He doesn't explain why defining marriage as only between a man and a woman hasn't opened the door to sisters marrying their brothers, however.

The News & Record's Charles Davenport said we shouldn't call people homophobes when they oppose equal civil marriage rights for gays, but should instead argue on logic and evidence. Sounds good to me. I also think that, absent logic and evidence, it is safe to use the word homophobe.

Mayor to take personal initiative to recruit local cable competition

Kudos to Greensboro's mayor Yvonne Johnson. She is understanding the problem with Time Warner Cable's plan to use Greensboro as an experiment for how it charges for internet access. As reported below by WFMY, Johnson says:

"I do know that there are providers of other services to us that could also provide cable service and internet service. So, personally, I am going to be talking to a couple of those businesses to see if they are in a place now to do it in this particular area (and) what it would take."

Time Warner action item #2: Write a letter to the editor

[Second in a series. Previously: #1, City Council.]

The News & Record's editorial page editor, Allen Johnson, has a post at his blog taking a look at "What the letters are saying." He notes that people are not writing letters to the editor about the Time Warner Cable internet access rate change. He notices they are "Burning up the blogs" -- but not writing letters.

There are still a lot of people who read letters to the editors and not blogs. Many of us read both, some only one or the other. Expanding the sphere of influence to those who only read letters in the papers is a good idea.

You can submit a letter to the editor of the News & Record here. A letter to the editor of the Rhinoceros Times here. A letter to the editor of Yes!Weekly here. The N&R has a 200-word limit.

Do's and Dont's:

Do
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• Remember that not everyone reading your letter will understand technical jargon and acronyms. Try to explain your opinion in a way your grandmother would understand.
• Remember that not everyone is going to sympathize with how TWC's plans will affect you personally. Your ability to download music and upload video are broadly interesting only to the extent that they illustrate how the modern information world works and the effects TWC's plans will have on Greensboro being a modern city. Explain why this matters to everybody.
• Offer your solutions. Do you think TWC should abandon its plans? Should City Council build public internet infrastructure? Should local economic developers recruit competition to break TWC's monopoly? Use your letter to put a little public pressure on those who you think can influence this situation for the better.

Don't
------

• Don't insert partisan politics. This issue touches on things like monopolies, profit motive and regulation/deregulation. But the fact is, the blame/responsibility for this situation can be assigned to a number of parties from a number of angles. There is no political ideology that perfectly aligns with solving this issue. Use your letter to make political hay by blaming your favorite adversary and you are guaranteed to alienate instead of motivate.

City Council starting to come around. Killian has the details

Greensboro City Councilors are starting to come around on the Time Warner Cable internet rate change. The News & Record's Joe Killian has the scoop.

Greensboro City Council, the Datsun B10 of local governments

I used to drive a Datsun B10. Towards the end of its life, the starter went. If you wanted to go somewhere you had to push it first, pop the clutch and hope that you had created enough momentum for it to start running on its own.

CORRECTION: I misremembered. It was not a Datsun B10 (although there was such a beast). The car I learned to drive in was a Datsun 510:

Time Warner Cable action item #1. (But first, some bad news)

At the request of fellow local blogger Gedeon, I am going to provide what information I can for actions consumers can take to address Time Warner Cable's (TWC) experiment with how it charges Greensboro customers for internet access. (Background).

Let's start with Greensboro City Council and some bad news. It used to be that, in North Carolina, cable systems were granted a franchise by cities and counties to provide service. Local governments were free to negotiate guidelines for levels of service, prices and other performance measures. No longer. Thanks to a law passed by the North Carolina General Assembly in 2006 that took effect January 1, 2007, all a company needs to do to procure a franchise now is file some paperwork with the N.C. Secretary of State. The ability for cities and counties to grant franchises has been revoked. (The only area state legislator to vote against the bill was Pricey Harrison.)

So, while TWC appears to be continuing to operate under its original franchise agreement with Greensboro from 1994, that agreement, when it expires this fall, will not be renewable. Indeed, the new state law allows Time Warner Cable to nullify the original franchise agreement at any time simply by applying for the state franchise.

Thus, for all practical purposes, the provisions of the City/TWC franchise agreement that may have allowed the city to exert some control over TWC's plans, no longer apply. Furthermore, the regulations previously found in municipal franchises have been eliminated. Nobody at the state level has the authority to evaluate the cable company's plans or service for compliance with any standards, guidelines or regulations (beyond general "consumer protections" -- more on that later).

That doesn't mean the City is completely impotent in standing up for its residents though. Below you will find contact information for the Greensboro City Council. The first action step is to contact them. Here are some recommendations:

Do's
----

• Do inform them that you consider affordable and plentiful broadband internet access necessary infrastructure, vital to the economic success of a modern city and that you consider TWC's new pricing scheme to be to Greensboro's detriment.
• Do suggest that the City Council formally adopt a resolution instructing the city manager to actively recruit, through all means available, new competition for the broadband internet access market in Greensboro.
• Do suggest that the City Council members individually take the initiative to contact the principals of local economic development organizations and ask them to begin an immediate and serious effort to recruit competition for the broadband internet access market in Greensboro.
• Do ask them to put in motion a process for seriously considering the options for creating a city-owned wireless internet access network (Municipal wi-fi).
• Do provide them with your contact information and invite them to contact you if they would like to know more.
• Do let them know if this will be a campaign issue for you. All council members are up for reelection this November.

Dont's
----

• Do not ask them to try to regulate TWC in some way -- they simply do not have the authority for the reasons cited above.

HOW TO CONTACT CITY COUNCIL
---------------------------

Contact by email:
You may use this form to send an email to all city council persons, or those of your choosing.

Contact by phone:
Mayor, Yvonne Johnson: (336) 373-2396
Mayor Pro Tem, Sandra Anderson Groat: (336) 273-9066
Mike Barber: (336) 852-0195
Robbie Perkins: (336) 358-3219
Zack Matheny: (336) 272-0523
Mary Rakestraw: (336) 852-8639
Trudy Wade: (336) 323-6480
Diane Bellamy-Small: (336) 373-2286
Goldie Wells: (336) 621-0634

I also encourage you to post this contact information on your blog.

Charles Davenport's recent windbaggery

Today's (Greensboro, NC) News & Record has an opinion column by Charles Davenport in which he wags a finger at "liberals" (he names two) who have the audacity to name hate and prejudice when they see it (not online). He writes:

"It is much easier, of course, to demonize one's opponents, to simply brand him as a racist or bigot, than it is to advance an argument based on logic and evidence."

In November of 2008, Davenport wrote a N&R column in which he celebrated California voters' rejection of gay marriage through the passage of Proposition 8. Similar to today's column, Davenport used his ink to insist that an objection to gay marriage is not hate and that popular sentiment should trump equal rights. But the column lacked any "argument based on logic and evidence" against gay marriage.

So I emailed Mr. Davenport:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Just curious
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:03:37 -0500
From: Roch Smith Jr
To: daisha99@msn.com


Hi Charles,

Just read your most recent column. I'm left with one question. Why do you oppose gay marriage?

Yours,
Roch

I got no reply.

You know what is easy, Mr. Davenport? Easy is skipping the logical arguments, pretending they've been made and jumping to attacking people who find bigotry in your views precisely because you assert them in the absence of logical reasons. Easy is saying we should listen to your arguments even as you remain silent when people ask what your arguments are.

The problem for Davenport is that the "arguments" against gay marriage don't stand up as logical.

- "I believe marriage should be between one man and one woman," doesn't offer logic or evidence. It is a statement of belief, one that doesn't justify the usual accompanying objection to civil unions, but it is, nonetheless, an opinion without logic or evidence and against which there really is no argument.

- "I think we should be defending traditional marriage." Sure, have at it. Make it harder for people to get divorced or harder to get married in the first place if that is truly your objective, but unless and until you can convince us that people will start getting married to people of the same sex instead of people of the opposite sex if gay marriage is allowed, this is just irrelevant nonsense.

- "Next thing you know, 'they' will want to marry children." Again, not a reasoned argument or evidence, but nonetheless: Unlike marriage between two consenting adults, this involves exploitation of a victim. The slippery slope fear ignores the all-too-evident fact that we, as a society, do not descend into anarchy simply because we extend rights equally to our adult population. Raising the speed limit to 65 did not result in people just going as fast as they please. Extending to gay people the same rights currently available to straight people is the only issue in question. The red herrings are fear mongering.

- "Marriage is for the procreation of children." We already reject that in allowing people beyond child-bearing age and people who cannot or will not have children, for whatever reason, get married.

- "Gay people can already procure the same rights as married people through various civil contracts." That is simply untrue. A monumental effort may allow a gay couple to mirror some of the rights and obligations marriage confers upon a couple, but not entirely and not without great expense and time -- not equal.

Hate is hard to know. It is one of those things that lives in the heart and mind, concealable if that is one's intention. Bigotry and prejudice however can be judged by external words and deeds. When people object to extending to gay people the equal rights and benefits that come with marriage and pretend that there are logical reasons when there are not, that is the kind of evidence that can properly justify words like bigot, prejudiced and homophobe.

Killian has more on Time Warner Cable, Cone misses the obvious

The (Greensboro, NC) News & Record's Joe Killian has a nice thorough* look at Time Warner Cable's planned rip-off rate change for its Greensboro internet customers. It is well worth a click and read.

I was disappointed that comments from Ed Cone served to justify TWC's intentions, especially since doing so relies on a suspension of Cone's trademark rigorous logic.

Saying, as Ed does, that the "last mile" of access, that portion of the infrastructure maintained by the cable companies, may indeed be under capacity pressure misses the point. Digital data for phone service, digital television and internet access all travels through the same pipe, yet it is only internet access that is being subjected to price increases and data limits by Time Warner Cable. Were it truly a capacity problem and not a competition problem, TWC would be putting caps in place for all data traversing its system. They are not.

Time Warner Cable customer Jennifer Sanders-Melvin sums it up in Joe's article:

“I can watch all the high definition television I want through the same cable service, order on-demand movies and watch all day, and they have no problem with that,” [snip] “But if I want to do the same thing on the Internet, through the same cable, they have to limit what I can use?”

Ed suggests that the reaction from customers is like people not liking speed limits. Well, no. TWC internet customers already deal with speed limits, what they haven't had to deal with is monthly limits on miles traveled. The proper driving analogy would be a system where people who drive red cars would be limited to 100 miles per month, while the drivers of other colored cars have no limits.

[* Nicely absent, from this article or any publicly available source, is commentary from our elected or economic "leaders."]

Greensboro to increase rates for hot water

Inspired by Time Warner Cable's innovative and customer friendly decision to change the way it charges for internet access in Greensboro, NC, Austin, TX, San Antonio, TX and Rochester, NY, Greensboro officials announced yesterday a change to the cost of hot water in Greensboro.

The city will begin monitoring households' hot water usage immediately and, after a three month "education" period, give consumers the option to subscribe to one of three hot water tiers:

TIER ONE, $29.95/month: 500 gallons of hot water per month, delivered at a rate of 0.33 gallons per minute. $1 per additional gallon over limit.

TIER TWO, $39.95/month: 750 gallons of hot water per month, delivered at a rate of 0.5 gallons per minute. $1 per additional gallon over limit.

TIER THREE, $49.95/month: 1,000 gallons of hot water per month, delivered at a rate of 1 gallon per minute. $1 per additional gallon over limit.

City officials acknowledge that, just as digital data (whether for internet, phone or TV) all similarly consume capacity over Time Warner Cable, water (whether cold or ultimately heated) also consumes similar capacity through city pipes.

However, mimicking the geniuses at Time Warner Cable, Greensboro quickly recognized an opportunity to exploit hot water's popularity. "Hot water is very popular," said City Water Manager Buddy Hydro, "People are using it for all sorts of new things, like cooking, cleaning, even bathing."

Local bloggers were swiftly up in arms over the changes, quick to see the negative effects of such a change. "How many people or businesses are going to want to come to Greensboro when it is the only city in North Carolina and one of only four in the country that charges for hot water like this?" asked Baldy Malone at his blog In My Craw.

Greensboro leadership was slower to respond, apparently trying to figure out the importance of hot water.

Zzzzzzzzzzzz. City councilors, when you wake up from your naps...

When Greensboro's city councilors wake up from their naps, maybe they'll read these recommendations for responding to Time Warner Cable's rate change and start to take some action like this Austin, TX city councilor and mayoral candidate.

“This approach, and Time Warner’s specific plan, should be of grave concern to Austin,” Leffingwell said in his statement. “Right now we need to be encouraging, rather than stifling, economic recovery and growth in Austin. This plan moves us in the wrong direction.”

WFMY Vomits a Press Release

After linking to the News & Record's and WGHP MyFox8's coverage of Time Warner Cable's plan to change the way it charges Greensboro subscribers for internet access, I thought I should see what WFMY had on the subject.

What I found was a story that regurgitates Time Warner Cable's talking points with no corroboration of the company's claims, no feedback from affected customers and no context of why this matters to the community.

It wasn't a complete waste of time however, as the unsigned author at least gives us a little chuckle with this nugget:

"The company plans to use metered billing as a way to regulate costumers who use excessive downloading space."

MyFox8 on Time Warner Cable's Internet Access Price Change

Greensboro blogger and WGHP video journalists Stewart Pittman (A.K.A. Lenslinger) reports on Time Warner Cable's plan to change Greensboro subscribers' internet access rates.

Killian's story on TWC's internet access rate changes

The (Greensboro, NC) News & Record's Joe Killian has a story on the subject of Time Warner Cable's planned rates changes for Greensboro's internet subscribers.

Greensboro creative and innovative? Not if Time Warner Cable has its way

Today I want to recommend that you watch this video about Greensboro's own Monkeywhale.

Today, you might very well click on it.

Today you might come to appreciate Greensboro's fermenting creative and innovative spirit.

Next month, when Time Warner Cable starts charging you for how much internet you use... maybe not.

Greensboro in the bottom three: A call to action for city council and economic developers

[Correction: This title of this post refers to three cities affected. The number is four: Greensboro, Rochester, Austin and San Antonio.]

Who says Greensboro isn't unique? Thanks to Time Warner Cable (TWC) we are about to have a distinction reserved for only three other U.S. cities: We will soon be a place where TWC charges you for how much internet you use.

Greensboro subscribers to Time Warner Cable's internet service currently, like other cities, pay a flat rate for broadband access, but thanks to TWC's new CEO, Glenn Britt, Greensboro will soon find itself saddled with a nearly one-of-a-kind competitive economic disadvantage. Under Britt's plan, Greensboro's TWC customers could spend "potentially $100 or more extra" (MyFox8) for monthly Internet access. Downloading a Netflix or Hulu movie "could cost $1 to $4 more".

According to Business Week, Greensboro will be the Guinea Pig for TWC's attempt to "upend a longstanding pricing strategy among Internet service providers." This is a serious affront to Greensboro's economic viability and demands all hands on deck.

If ever Greensboro was serious about inspiring innovation, attracting creative young people and fostering prosperity in industries of the future, it must recognize that impeding access to broadband internet in a way like only three other U.S. cities is a big, bold, speedy move to the bottom. It is the modern equivalent of being one of only a few cities where citizens must pay a fee for every mile they drive. Nobody would move to such a place. No business would expand to such a place. No energetic college student is going to stay in such a place after graduating.

This move demands swift and decisive action from Greensboro's leaders. This cannot be met with genteel, sleepy contemplation. Here is what Greensboro's leadership should begin doing today:

GREENSBORO CITY COUNCIL
-------------

1. Review Time Warner's Franchise Agreement: The first thing to determine is what happens if the original signatory to the agreement (Time Warner) transfers the service operations, as they have done, to another entity (the recently spun-off stand alone Time Warner Cable). Does the city have room to renegotiate the franchise agreement since it is no longer dealing with the original franchisee?

2. Determine if this change is justified and allowable According to generic franchise agreements (I have a request in to the City for a copy of the specific agreement), the cable franchisee must meet certain pricing and technological guidelines. According to a TWC spokesperson on a WGHP video segment last night (I cannot find it online), TWC says it needs to institute this new pricing to keep up with demands on its infrastructure. TWC should be made to come before City Council and demonstrate that that is true. Just as traffic engineers present to council empirical data that shows car traffic versus road capacity, the provisioning of broadband internet relies on technology that also utilizes empirical data to measure traffic and capacity. City Council should ask to see to their satisfaction that TWC's reasons for its actions are, in fact, legitimate.

3. Ask/Require That TWC Postpone Implementation: If allowed by the franchise agreement, City Council should direct the City Attorney to advise TWC not to go forward with this new pricing until the City has had ample time to make the above inquiries. If the City cannot make such a demand, it should request that TWC not go forward until the City has had a chance to explore the issue.

4. Get Serious About Municipal WiFi. (Municipal WiFi: "Turning an entire city into a Wireless Access Zone, with the ultimate goal of making wireless access to the Internet a universal service."). This has come up before. Some city council members have responded that they think this is the kind of thing that should be left to the private sector. We see what that has earned us.

In this day and age, broadband internet access is critical infrastructure. It is no different than roads. Recognizing opportunity in adversity, Greensboro should begin serious efforts to become a thoroughly modern city and, instead of being one of the bottom three for internet access, catapult itself into the top ten. This is not pie in the sky, it is a serious proposal ripe for a city serious about economic development. It is within our grasp; and it's not just for the big boys. It has come to fruition in cities like Corpus Christi, TX, Saint Cloud, FL and Tempe, AZ, where some of the networks biggest fans are police and firefighters who use it to better respond to crises. Even rural Greene County, NC has implemented remarkably successful public wifi.

The cost of such an endeavor appears, at first glance, for a city the size of Greensboro, to be about $10M to $30M. We are preparing to spend $26M on a walking trail around downtown. These two things are not mutually exclusive, but really, which is the smarter investment? It need not be all our money either. Tech experts are noting that federal stimulus money is ripe to support municipal wifi projects. Greensboro is also covered by North Carlina's Golden Leaf Foundation, possibly giving us access to additional outside funding. There may well be other funding sources too. City Council needs to adopt a can-do attitude, avoid looking for excuses and proactively try, with all its might, to make this happen.


ECONOMIC DEVLOPERS
-------------

1. Lobby Time Warner Cable. Put whatever resources you have at your disposal into convincing TWC that, while they have been a good corporate citizen, this action is an aggressive move on Greensboro's economic health. Convince them that not only is the macroeconomic climate unfavorable for this kind of experiment, but that Greensboro, still trying to recover from a decade of the death of old-world industry; Greensboro, with one of its big economic hopes trimmed and delayed and; Greensboro, with unemployment at 11% and climbing is not the place for TWC to try this experiment.

2. Lobby Verizon/Others With Better Technology. Aggressively lobby companies like Verizon to look at Greensboro as a market for their next generation Fiber Optic Internet Service (FOIS). It is faster than TWC's internet access and carries unlimited capacity for all practical purposes. It is already available in other markets. Greensboro would eat it up.