I remember reading Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery when I was ten or twelve years old. It’s a great story that cleverly foreshadows danger, building to the unexpected climax and conclusion: the “winner” of the lottery is stoned to death in a small town ritual to ensure a good harvest.

In Boston, we have our own annual ritual and rite of passage for 4-years olds: the Boston Public School Lottery. Starting one year before children are eligible to attend kindergarten, parents visit prospective schools and choose the “best” school for their kids. Parents submit ranked choices and then assignments are made with priority awarded to siblings and people in the “walk zone” with a random number lottery used to break ties.

There is no neighborhood school based on address. Instead, the city is divided into 3 geographic zones. Parents can choose any school in the zone. In our case, we are eligible for 21 different elementary schools. In addition to these 21 schools, we can also apply for a spot in a public charter school (in a separate lottery).

The process is confusing for Boston residents and incomprehensible for everyone else. First of all, Boston is unique in offering what they call “K-1″–kindergarten for 4-year olds. There are not enough spaces for every child, but if you do get in, you have the opportunity of a free public education for 2-years of kindergarten before starting first grade. It is great that the city can offer that–but because it’s not universal, a lottery is necessary to determine who gets a spot.

K-2 is universal in Boston…but you will find that if you are not already in a school and moving up from K-1, there may be many fewer openings at the school you want…

Let’s stop right there. The school assignment system process begins with a “showcase of schools” and continues thorough the Fall with “preview days” when parents can tour the two dozen schools they might choose from to determine what school is the right fit. It ironically reminds me of my first days at MIT when we went through Residence/Orientation and chose our dorms or pledged fraternities. The feature of choice was a powerful element of beginning to establish an identity and develop a personal connection to the community.

But in Boston, choice subverts community and undermines parental involvement by encouraging a system of year-to-year decisions and an artificial diaspora of children who are bussed from their neighborhoods to innumerable destinations across the city.

But there is good news on the horizon! In the annual State of the City address, Mayor Tom Menino said:

I’m committing tonight that one year from now Boston will have adopted a radically different student assignment plan – one that puts a priority on children attending schools closer to their homes.

Apparently, it’s been said before, but it’s about time we challenge some of the fundamental assumptions that keep this system alive. We should start from a new set of priorities that recognize ameliorating racial strife from the 1970s is no longer a valid reason to subject our children and their parents to a crazy game of chance. But neither is a quasi-free market system of competition and choice.

We are not making education better through this regime of false choice. We test kids who barely speak English and wonder why they don’t pass. We have schools full of special needs kids–and other schools with advanced work programs. We offer minorities the opportunity to be bussed out of Boston to suburban schools and we use taxpayer dollars to fund an increasing number of charter schools that are virtually impossible for existing students to enroll in. Then, we bus kids all over town to make this mess work.

And yet, in many cases, our local schools are doing just fine. I attended a talent show at my daughter’s school last year about a month after we moved to Boston and I was amazed at the enthusiasm and positivity of the students. I’ve gotten to know teachers and the principal and feel more connected to our school than I did when we were going to an elementary school in the suburbs that is one of the top schools in the state. But every year, there is a new lottery for the incoming kids.

I’ve been trying to write this blog post for a couple weeks now…and I keep running into the endless complexity of explaining the system, why I still believe in the school system that my kids are a part of, and yet why I think this approach needs to be radically-scrapped. Many others have complained. Some have been labeled racists for desiring a return to neighborhood schools. Some become so frustrated they feel they have to leave the city and move to the suburbs.

We moved to the city and I want to make things better. I think the challenges of diversity will enrich my kids and my own education as we navigate this system. I believe a classroom of kids from all ranges of background, interests, motivations, and family is more like the real world than a classroom where all are the same and success is scoring the highest grade. In life, credentials do not matter and no one makes your life fulfilling for you. We must constantly deal with a world that is not fair and does not care what our expectations are. We must learn to find the passion in life, find what is interesting, and motivate ourselves always to learn–not just to compete or win approval.

But we ask our kids to navigate this mess in a sea of instability. Schools do not serve the community because they are not of the community. We need to find a way to make our urban schools grounded in community before we can build them up to the standards we would like for all.

I have a suggestion for implementing the radical reform Menino promises. Eliminate choice.

Take away the fundamental assumption of the lottery process–that parents have a right to choose their kid’s schools–but replace it with a commitment to ensuring that kids are guaranteed the right to attend a school close to their homes. Allow exceptions for special cases, but limit those cases to justifiable situations.

How would this work? I would start by simplifying the registration process and moving it to later in the year. Instead of having a month-long period starting in January where parents submit preferences, there is a deadline in the Spring for parents to submit their intent to enroll and prove residency.

Then, in an initial assignment round, kids would be assigned to the nearest available elementary school until 90% of the seats in that school were full. Existing data could be used to model the impact of this on the most recent group of enrollees to determine what a neighborhood map would look like. Re-running the assignment at higher percentages would generate multiple possibilities for families.

This system would not result in a “boundary-based” school district plan, but a probability map. If you live half way between the Sumner and the Bates, then you would know that you have a probability of attending either school or the Conley (also nearby)–depending one whoever else is applying this year. You have zero probability of attending the Lyndon or the Trotter however.

In my example, I held out 10% of the seats in each school…that is to allow some degree of adjustment. Parents receive an initial assignment and may accept it or apply for discretionary transfer in the next round. So, we receive a notice that our son is assigned to the Sumner, but is also eligible for the Bates or Mozart. We can return the form asking to transfer to the Bates. When the next deadline arrives, all the parents who resubmitted are preferentially-reassigned and the enrollments are adjusted to 100% of available seats.

This modified lottery is not just an effort to preserve some choice, but recognizes the reality that enrollments are not stable. Apparently, in some schools in Boston, they do not know who will be in the classroom until a few weeks into September when kids actually show up. I think a modified, limited choice approach to assignments could help that uncertainty sort out without resort to waiting lists and the current system of cascading re-assignments.

Now there are a million other issues…what about the city charter schools? What about METCO? What about how we have advanced work classes at some schools which result in enrollment shifts from 3rd grade to 4th grade? What about the K-8 schools and the Roslindale K-8 “pathway” to the Irving Middle School? What about the fact that K-1 is not guaranteed? What about schools that are fully integrating special needs kids vs schools that are not? We can’t solve all the issues at once! We cannot scramble the current enrollments either. So this whole approach needs to be limited to one cohort of students to begin. As Mayor Menino promised, “one year from now Boston will have adopted a radically different student assignment plan – one that puts a priority on children attending schools closer to their homes.”–so let’s limit the solution to one year from now, not try to change everything at once.

I’m afraid the only solutions we’ll see are tweaks to the current model–increasing the walk-zone priority percentage or increasing the number of school assignment zones to limit, but not eliminate choice. “Radical” is necessary to break from the incremental and unsatisfying creep away from the 1970s.

Our choice is a weak one at best. Because there are no guarantees, the “choice” parents currently have in the process is often a false one. Sure, you can choose to list the most popular school as your top choice, but you could just as well end up in a school across town that you know nothing about. I would trade meaningless choice for the right of my children to attend a nearby school.

I got a job and this blog died. We moved and I really had no compelling reason to keep updating http://westwoodblog.org either. My life is pretty full but I do miss expressing myself and creating something here.

Partly, I’m also in transition. As we adjusted to a new rhythm of job, home, schools, etc. I dialed back to some of the personal things that mattered to me and found time for some more easily than others.

First, I started to read again. When I was working for myself or looking for a job, I don’t think I read anything of significance. Then, in January, faced with a cross-country airplane trip, I seized the opportunity (and my wife’s Kindle) and read The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration. From there it was a short leap into fiction with The Help,  The Kitchen House, and back to nonfiction with The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

On this blog, I’ve written reviews of business and social nonfiction, but it was refreshing to read stories of lives that mattered rather than opinions of semi/self-important people. Last month, I finished John Steinbeck’s East of Eden and–perhaps in a different “class” of literature–the Hunger Games trilogy, but fundamentally, I found myself happy to have re-ignited my interest in the substance of great story. There’s a lot you can do with a 30-minute ride on the Orange Line every day.

Next, I got a bit more serious about running. Thanks to my weekly run with friends in Westwood, I have not let my conditioning totally slip, but I’ve found it hard to get out and do those runs except on Saturday morning. But soon after we moved, I was slogging through the Boston snow to manage a run around Jamaica Pond or up and down the many hills of Roslindale. Running remains one of the most accessible activities–and again, something I can do significantly in 30 minute increments.

I bought a pair of Vibram fivefingers and enjoy the sort of “protected barefoot running” these shoes allow. Running on grass is awesome–I literally feel like a sprinting gazelle. Running on pavement changes the way I run and benefits my feet by putting less impact on my heels. Running on gravel…not so great. The gravel tends to get between the toes and you do feel every sharp rock through the shoes.

So perhaps there is another marathon on the horizon this Fall. First 10 miles a week. Then 15. Then 20. If I have time.

Now that the snow if finally gone, I’ve started riding my bike again and carved out an awesome commute that takes me up and around the “emerald necklace” of Boston.

Today, I blasted home with a tailwind in 41 minutes. The days of 3-hour rides in the country are rescheduled for sometime after the kids are in college I think, but it is great to be back on the fixed gear bike riding around Jamaica Pond and along the Charles River in the morning.

So what about the writing? It will come. I think the commentary on social media and even community news projects is something I need to branch away from. Reading fiction and comparing to the nonfiction I consumed before convinces me there is more truth in the fiction. There are stories to be told with passion that can change the way people relate to one another and change the world more effectively than identifying and solving problems.

So for me the challenge is not to just return to blogging but to find the story that must be told and then time to write it. It’s not a 30-minute task. So in the meantime, I read, run and ride to connect with the flow of energy that will find its voice eventually.

I watched the documentary Race to Nowhere Sunday morning at the Dedham Community Theatre with a crowd of parents and educators concerned about the direction of K-12 education. Through the stories of students and parents, the movie makes a compelling case that we are headed in the wrong direction.

Race to Nowhere profiles students, teachers, and parents across the United States who are increasingly stressed out by the demands of middle and elementary school. The title is a quote from a young man describing his frustration at the growing sense of pointlessness he felt as he was driven to do so much homework and participate in so many sports and activities…for what? We usher our children towards a high-stakes, low probability endgame of competing to get into expensive colleges. We assign impossible amounts of homework–beginning in elementary school. We expect performance from our teachers and measure it by how well they coach our kids to take minimum standards tests.

I started out watching this moving feeling ambivalent because it’s not news to me. What the kids describe is similar to what I went through over 25 years ago. I knew exactly what grade I needed on every test to maintain a 94.5 or above average in every class and ensure I maintained a 4.0. I was on a race to get accepted into MIT from a rural community in southern Virginia. When I got to MIT, I experienced the proverbial “firehose” education, but it taught me about prioritizing and choosing to do the things that really mattered. It was an impossible workload, but we learned to “punt” less important things and focus on getting what we needed to get by.

Today, the race is on for EVERYONE it seems. Kids are freaking out about everything as if one mistake dooms them to a life of failure. Parents are overwhelmed with keeping up with each other. And schools are pressured to “get better” or lose money or be closed as failing schools. But I don’t think kids are being allowed to learn the lessons I did. And why should they have to?

I chose an extreme path. I have no regrets, but I don’t think it’s the right path for everyone. As my kids start school, I want to help them find what is right for them.

After the movie, there was a great audience discussion in the packed theatre. But the most interesting comment came at the end, in the form of a question from a very involved parent. He simply asked “what’s the alternative?” What are parents supposed to do? If the race is wrong…if we are freaking out over whether our kids will be able to get into one out of a dozen schools that aren’t even on the top 25 U.S. News and World Report list…what is the alternative? We don’t want to limit their choices; we want to give them better than we had, so what are we supposed to do?

We bought a house in Rozzie, and we finally move this Friday. It was not an easy choice to leave the town of Westwood where I’ve been active in several town boards, developed many friendships, and started our oldest daughter in the school system. (And authored the Westwood Blog for the past 3 years.) It was not easy to move past the neighboring town of Dedham either, where we also have many friends and probably would have purchased a house had it not gone under agreement the day we scheduled to go look at it. But I am excited about where we are moving and am thrilled we decided to do it.

It shouldn’t be a surprise we’d be attracted to really living in Boston (Roslindale is a neighborhood of Boston) for anyone who has followed the urbanism thread of this blog. I was excited about the Westwood Station project because it promised to bring some urban advantages to our community. I created a town board to promote active transportation–walking and cycling–because I believed we could really enhance the community by connecting our village centers and making it easier for more people to get out on the street. I commuted to work in Boston on my bike (14 miles or so) and via the train not only because I didn’t want to sit in traffic or park my car, but because it made me feel more like I was a part of the city that has called me to come home ever since I was a college student at MIT in the 1980s.

But what about the schools? It was our biggest concern. I found a blog, started by a Roslindale parent, called Braving the Lottery, which details her journey through enrolling her kids in the Boston Public Schools. My daughter is eligible to attend any one of more than a dozen elementary schools but transferring mid-year, there will not really be any choice or lottery. We submitted a list of our preferences and we’ll see what we get–hopefully later today or tomorrow.

I’m optimistic we will be happy as long as we get one of the schools we know have openings. Because class size is limited by law, the popular choices are full and have wait lists from the last lottery process earlier this year. But families do move (the people who sold us their house moved to Dedham) and parents don’t necessarily yank their kids from one school to another this late in the year, so it’s not necessarily an automatic as to where we will be assigned. Once we get in to a school, we hope that our sibling priority will be able to pull along the other kids who are currently in preschool.

Over on Westwood Blog, I recently noted how Westwood was featured by Great Schools.org as one of the top 5 school systems in the country. When you look up my daughter’s current school, it’s a ‘10′ on a 1-10 scale–based largely on the fact that everyone passes the standardized tests. And we know from our own experience that it’s a great community school for many reasons other than just the test scores: parents are active, involved, and engaged and teachers and the principal are great.

Where we are moving…no 10s. But those numbers are all about the pass rates for standardized tests. We talked to parents and attended meetings to learn about our potential schools and heard mostly positive stories–and a great deal of energy from parents, teachers, and administrators who are working hard to improve their schools. The lottery does cause the schools to compete and attempt to differentiate themselves. In the end, we concluded 1) we will need to be heavily involved in our kids education and 2) it’s more about the specific teacher and classroom year-to-year.

I see some advantage to engaging in system that is trying to improve. When everything is already great, sometimes we miss the opportunity to see how our efforts contribute to positive change. Learning is more than just passing tests–I think it’s also about an experience of growing and adapting. I think we have set ourselves up for many of those opportunities in the coming years.

Several years ago, we discovered the First Church and Parish in Dedham. When we first attended, we were concerned that although the people were welcoming and the community was obviously strong, we weren’t sure if there was a critical mass of young families like us. We wanted our kids to be a part of a church community with other kids. But in the course of only a few years, the church has grown dramatically in this respect. Every Sunday, I am amazed at how many kids go to the front for the “story for all ages” and then depart to their classes–leaving the church back at about the capacity it was when we first attended.

Yesterday was the annual Fall Fair. It’s still not a big fancy production but I’m happy about that. Here’s a video of my daughter decorating her caramel apple.

The video is only 30 seconds long, and I know a video like that for non-parents (and maybe anyone not me) can kind of seem like forever, but as I was standing there watching her decorate her apple, it struck me how “right-sized” this community has become. I’ve been to plenty of seasonal family events and a more typical situation is a line of kids and perhaps pushy parents trying to get their turn at whatever is up next. We don’t have that vibe here. Kids had fun in the “bouncy house” and petted the barn babies. There was face-painting and various other activities that we’ve become familiar with as parents of 6/4/2-year olds. But no rush, no line, no problem.

It’s a tough balance…of course if there is not a critical mass of people, then things can be, well, rather lame, and unviable. And then if the “hidden gem” becomes popular, you have lines of people coming to check it out and crowd out the folks who built it up. But I think this community is in a good place now and growth means more people to help and more capacity to create good experiences and connections.

I’m not sure what starting me thinking about New York City again, but yesterday, somewhat impulsively–but with a little planning–I decided to visit. By myself. Cheaply. Without a concrete plan, I did a lot and spent just a little over $100.

I’ve been to NYC about half a dozen times. As a freshman at MIT, I took the train down from Boston, stayed at the West Side YMCA, did a quick sightseeing tour and hopped the train back the next day. A couple of years later, I followed the Gary Hart campaign to New York and camped out on someone’s floor in a Central Park apartment for a week while we rode the subway trains gathering petition signatures. I think that experience imprinted on me not just the “grit factor” of doing a crazy thankless task but also the geography of the city–enough so I feel “comfortable” in the immensity of it all. In 1992, I spent a week in the city with the Democratic National Convention–commuting back to a friend’s house in Staten Island every night.

Perhaps this trip began by watching one too many episodes of Louis C.K. Maybe it was cabin fever after my family went up to Lake Champlain while I started work on a new contract project and continued my job search. I thought I would bike and run every morning–but then it rained for 3 days. As the weather cleared I decided it was time to do more than just another bike ride or 6-mile run.

Fung Wah!

In Boston, there’s an infamous way to get to New York: The Fung Wah bus. Twenty years ago, they had a booth in Chinatown with a sign: “New York: $10.”  Sometimes I saw crowds of Chinese people and students lined up outside. When I moved back to Boston in 2002, I heard stories of how they now had a counter at South Station. I also heard about their bus crashes and fires on the local news.

The trip now costs a whopping $15. You can’t beat $15, especially when you are looking to go cheap. So I bought my ticket online and purchased a return ticket for the last 11pm bus. I drove to a 24-hour parking lot ($11 for 24 hours!), walked 5 minutes to South Station, checked in and hopped on the first bus of the day at 6:30am.

Born To Run

The bus ride was uneventful. No fires, no rollovers, no raucous partiers. I brough along my wife’s Kindle to read Born to Run. Christopher McDougall’s book is about the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s Copper Canyons and their incredible endurance. But it’s more about the joy and love of running and at a deeper level, the power of joy and love to enable us to accomplish things that seem impossible. The miles flew by and three-and-a-half hours later, we were in New York’s Chinatown.

TKTS to Broadway

I wasn’t completely without a plan when I left Boston. I had some things I was thinking about doing and one of those was to see Green Day’s American Idiot. It’s a 90-minute show that starts at 8pm though and I wasn’t sure I would really be able to pull that off. But I thought I’d see what developed.

TKTS sells day-of-show 50%-off theater tickets starting around 3pm in Times Square. From my 1980’s visit, I remembered long lines and could only imagine what that would be like 25 years later, but there is a satellite TKTS office in South Street Seaport that opens at 11am. Perfect. I walked from Chinatown and arrived just as they were posting the available shows. I stepped into line to wait half an hour–and got my ticket.

So, ticket in hand–and firmly committed to a 12-hour day–I set out across lower Manhattan.

Ground Zero – World Trade Center

I didn’t know anyone who died on 9/11, but after that day, we started to think about how our life on the West Coast separated us from our parents. We started  thinking about starting our own family. Now…my daughter starts 1st grade in two weeks. 9/11 didn’t “cause” things to happen, but it made us reexamine our lives and put some perspective against what had seemed important to us before.

I remember the World Trade Center from the late 1980s. Somewhere around that time, I rode to the top for the “worldview.” Later, in ‘95, my wife and I had some of the best falafel sandwiches I can remember from a vendor in Zuccotti Park. Yesterday, as I made my way across from Wall St, I remembered the park and begin to feel a sense of things different.

As I looked into the construction pit–now full of cranes and rising steel–it looked like any massive construction project. But then I looked up and tried to see what was no longer there. What once had blotted out the sky was now filled with light. Visually, it was wrong. It is hard to capture what is missing in pictures or words without the memory. I wonder as we fill that space with newness and as a new generation imprints on the newly built environment–will they feel the absence of what was? I can only imagine that feeling for the thousands affected by the gaping hole ripped not only in the sky or earth, but in their lives from the pain of those lost.

The photo I should have taken was as I ascended the Liberty bridge. One man crouched on the stairs, hands grasping the chain link, face pressed up close to peer through a small gap to see directly into the main pit. I wish I’d captured that moment. Whether he was fascinated by the construction or thinking about 911, who knows, but it stood in contrast to business of life moving on around me.

MoMA

I made my way north through what seemed and endless sea of shopping malls and shiny affluence and boarded a #2 train to head uptown.

When I was thinking of visiting the city, I thought of museums and remembered a rather stuffy tour of the Museum of Modern Art in 1992 when I was staying in New York for the Democratic National Convention. But I remembered the Monet water lilies and that they had a number of other impressionist works, so I figured if I had one museum to visit, this would be the one.

I’m no art history major. I don’t have a clue actually. But even since high school French class, I felt an affinity to the Impressionists. That was reinforced in 2005 when my wife and I took a biking trip in Provence and rode through the fields Van Gogh painted. So it’s kind of cool to have been where this was:

The feature exhibit was Matisse. Yawn. Sorry, I really tried to get into it, but his stuff just doesn’t do anything for me. I left the exhibit wondering if maybe I do need an art class to appreciate this stuff. But then I found Picasso, Van Gogh, Cezanne and Monet…

Nearly everyone in the museum was taking photos of the art which seems kind of lame to me. You can just go online, right, and download a copy. You can look at the photos in a book, right? Well, yes, but…

There is something more to the experience in person. There is a three-dimensional aspect to the canvas and also a situational aspect to viewing things at a world museum where hundreds of thousands come to regard what has stood the test of time as defining art. The camera…we document the experience, not so much the art. I was there; I took this photo. I captured the image and in my memory I can reconnect the experience through the photo. The photo in a book has no context for me.

It is similar to the olive trees. We were there. We felt the wind and breathed the fresh air as we rode through the fields of Provence. We took photos. I absorb Van Gogh’s work. I connect it all in a tapestry of ideas and experience that spans time and space and creates something rich within. The artists do all that and then express it in a way that millions can connect.

Central Park

I spent a few hours at the MoMA, then left and headed north to Central park. It was a spectacular day–mid 70s, clear blue sky, hundreds of people of all ages and backgrounds out enjoying the park. If I lived here…I’d be on a bike or running or something, but I didn’t exactly line up a shower stall for my day visit, so I just walked through the park and started to think about my evening plan. I wanted to go back downtown to Greenwich Village. I wasn’t sure what I’d do there, but I didn’t remember much from my last visit. So I hopped on a 72st subway and rode down to Washington Park.

In the Shadow of Jane Jacobs

The plan at this point was to get something to eat, then head back up to Broadway for the 8pm American Idiot show. It was still before 5pm, so not even the senior citizens would be eating dinner yet, but I walked around a bit and eventually ended up at the White Horse Tavern. It was the only place that had people at this early hour, so I secured an outside table ordered a beer and burger and drank in the scene.

Now I started thinking…Hudson Street–that’s significant, right? It has been a while since I wrote specifically about urban planning and economic development, but as I recall, Hudson Street is where Jane Jacobs, the author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities lived. I read the book only 2 years ago–it’s now almost 50 years since it was published, but it remains an inspiring call to arms for those who would change society through architecture and planning. I think if I’d read that book in college, I’d have gone to architecture school instead of law school.

I did a quick search on my iPhone–noticing the battery was about to fail–and located an article on Jane Jacobs’s townhouse being sold recently for $3.3 million. And the address–555 Hudson St. I looked across the street to see where I was and saw 554. Yes, I’m sitting practically under her windowsill.

2010 Hudson Street is nothing like the world described in 1961. But step off what is now the main drag and you can still sense the vitality of what has become a pretty gentrified urban environment. There are playgrounds and neighborhood stores. But it’s not like the Freewheelin’ Bob Dyan album cover. Students hang out at the bar but instead of talking about how Dylan Thomas died here or whatever, they are talking about their job interviews and how their friends moved to Brooklyn where they can afford to live.

American Idiot

I was a bit nervous about the whole Broadway adventure. I knew that if I missed that 11pm bus…I would be screwed, stuck in Chinatown at midnight with no ride home. So as my iPhone battery continued to go red and show 20% or less remaining, I double-checked the subway path home and set out a little early to give myself plenty of time before the show started at 8.

Earlier, I had downloaded iTrans, an iPhone app which gives you a map of the subway and helps you figure out how to get around. It was marginally useful. Mainly, I just looked at the map, but I did figure out there was a B/D train from 42nd St/Bryant Park that would take me to Grand St–about 2 blocks from the Fung Wah bus. That should work to get away from the theater around 945pm and leave plenty of room for any Fung Wah surprises.

So I hopped on the 2 Uptown to 42nd Street and walked the route from the St James theater on 44th St to plan my exit strategy: across 44th St to 6th Ave and down 2 blocks. D to Brooklyn, but make sure to get off at Grand or plan on taking a trip to Brooklyn.

With the exit route prepared, I grabbed a beer and then went to the theater about 1/2 hour before the show.

It’s a great show. It’s kind of confusing even for someone who has been listening to both albums (the show includes songs from 21st Century Breakdown and American Idiot) for months, but you know…these things are “non-linear.” It’s an emotional experience, not a story with a neat solution for angry depressed youth. So like those Picasso works–I can’t tell you the meaning or the why of it all, but I can tell you the feeling.

The opening is the most powerful. It’s an all-out assault that captures the overwhelming and confusing media barrage of conflict that kids today grow up experiencing. My eyes are watering because it really hits me in the face. Our media culture exposes so much violence and conflict to us all that we are left wondering “what am I supposed to do with this information?” Especially when we are young and idealistic, we want to DO something but it is just overwhelming. I think watching this production shares that feeling across what might be a generational and memory divide.

We worry about the future we are leaving our kids. Perhaps we should worry more about the present.

When the show ended, I found my way to the subway and headed back downtown as planned.

Fung Wah encore

I arrived at 139 Canal St with plenty of time to spare, but the scene grew testy as more and more people arrived for that last bus. We stood on the sidewalk next to the off ramp from the Manhattan Bridge, and observed an incessant ritual of taxis angrily blowing their horns at cars unfamiliar with the concept of the flashing red light at Canal St. (Turn already!)

The crowd appeared to exceed what would fit on a single bus. The bus operators began to run back and forth, counting and recounting us and yelling at each other and into walkie talkies. Then they told us to go. Everyone picked up like a herd of antelope started by the sight of a lion and ran towards the bus. They stopped us and told us to line up in a single line. Then the counting continued while people in line started to worry about standing or being left behind.

It seemed clear to me that we’d be OK. There were at least 30 people behind me in line and they are not going to send us all home, right? Then, they told the people in line to get on the bus…but stopped at me and told me and everyone else to wait.

Eventually, I think we all got on the bus. I grabbed a seat and settled in for a three-and-a-half hour ride home that I mostly slept through. My car was there. I was home and in bed by 3:30am.

What a great trip!

A few days ago I wrote about an idea for a web-based debate between candidates. When I met with other bloggers in our community, we had plenty of good ideas…but we kept looking at that calendar and realizing we had very little time and no guarantee the candidates would even respond. So we came up with a better plan. We are starting by posting this:

What question would you ask Congressional candidates Stephen Lynch and Mac D’Alessandro to answer if you had the chance? The editors of community web sites from Milton (02186 MyTownMatters), Dedham (MyDedham), and Westwood (Our Westwood) are inviting you to submit your questions as comments below from now until August 31. We will select 10 questions and submit those to both campaigns, then publish their responses online before the September 14 Democratic Primary.

If you are a constituent, go to one of our sites to submit your questions.

I wish I had a time machine to go back about a month because I really think a regional effort like this could make a difference in how we debate issues. I wish I had time to find more sites in the neighboring communities and talk to more people. But we’ll start with our 3 towns and see where it goes…

Over at Our Westwood (http://westwoodblog.org) I recently expressed my frustration that candidates in the upcoming September 14 primary for U.S. Congress and State Senate were unlikely to debate. I have a proposal for doing this online that will serve our communities, respect the candidates and voters, and increase participation and interest in the political process.

This needs to be local–sponsored and endorsed by real people with a stake in their communities. I’ve contacted the people I know in the area who run community sites like Our Westwood, and I am assembling a coalition to invite the candidates to participate. We will take on the responsibility of moderating and facilitating the public participation to avoid having the debate hijacked by extremists and “trolls.”

I think the format should be a hybrid of structure and openness. The debate will consist of three phases:

Phase 1: Developing Questions

During the last week of August, we will use “crowdsourcing” technology like IdeaScale to collect suggestions for questions and then vote the best questions to the top of the list. This phase will be “wide open” to anyone with an idea–i.e. no complicated registration, no verification of identity, anonymous participation OK. Then, our organizing committee will select 5 questions from residents to form the basis of the debate. If we can manage video interviews with those people, we’ll go out and record their questions directly using a Flip video camera.

Phase 2: Candidate Responses

We will set up a content management system with a structured commenting policy:

The questions will be posted by the debate moderator one per day at 9am. The candidates will have a window of 4 hours (the response period) before any response is published. This allows each candidate to respond but does not allow them to see their opponent’s response first. No public commentary is allowed yet.

After the initial responses are published (1pm), an additional window of 4 hours will be provided (the rebuttal period) during which candidates can respond to what their opponent said. At 5pm, the rebuttals are both posted and then the issue is open to public commentary.

Phase 3: Public Commentary

Public commentary will be available to users who register and provide basic identifying information and agree to a code of conduct. First name and town will be publicly displayed, but the person must also provide a last name, phone number, and email address for potential verification by the debate organizers. Anonymous comments will not be published. Comments can be text or video submissions, display a photo of the user if desired, etc.

If the candidates wish to continue participating, they may add their own comments. The candidate accounts will be officially verified and highlighted–i.e. no impostors allowed.

5 Days in September

I envision the debate cycle as consisting of a total of 5 questions–one per day–starting Labor Day, September 6. The public comment on question 1 will overlap with the response and rebuttal periods of subsequent questions, but I think it will be less complicated than that sounds.

What is needed?

Candidates – What I am suggesting here is a much more effective venue for communicating with voters than television, radio or a town meeting. We really need the people (see below) but if we make this work, I think it’s a venue of tens of thousands who will be able to really get a sense for why and how they should vote. I have not formally invited the candidates yet but I’d like to do this for our local Democratic primaries for State Senate and the 9th Congressional District of Massachusetts. With what we learn from this…perhaps we can cover more elections in the future.

People – I’m reaching out to bloggers and activists across the region because ultimately, we need to drive people to this. We can all post our little “you should vote” public service announcements, but I think a more effective way to stimulate civic participation would be to send people to a site where they can actually get useful information to help them make a decision about the primary. Also, I think the discussion itself will create interest and make it more likely people will vote.

Technology – There is definitely a big technology element to this project and although I can spec it out and could probably build it–I could really use help from a Drupal or Wordpress guru who could create the site that powers this. Managing it is going to be “hands-on” so I don’t need a bulletproof fully automated software application here, but I need someone who really knows how to set up these kinds of user profiles and custom workflow rules in a way that is super easy for participants to use. I want an open source solution here–something you would be willing to describe to others–not some proprietary system or custom-coded application. This is something that should be possible to create in a day or less. If it takes longer than that, you are over-optimizing.

Draft

I’ve sent a few emails and talked to a few people–now I’m blogging for feedback. I’m open to suggestions and modification by anyone willing to help pull this off.

Thanks to my diligent monitoring of my online banking account, I caught $2700 of errors in the past 30 days. Sovereign Bank (Santander) is still in the process of fixing the last mistake, but two strikes was enough for me to move my business to a local bank.

The first error occurred when David Adkins walked into the Salem, MA branch of Sovereign Bank and withdrew $1500 from my account. When I saw this withdrawal online I was surprised and clicked on the link to pull up an image of the withdrawal slip. That slip–handwritten with a drivers license number for ID verification–gave me a clue as to what had probably happened. He walked into the branch and asked to make a withdrawal. He didn’t know his account number, so the teller looked up his name (misspelling it) and found my account number. After visually verifying his drivers license (still oblivious to the misspelling), the bank handed over the cash.

I called Sovereign’s customer service and was told not to worry about it; they would investigate it and if there was a problem, they’d fix it. They said not to worry–if there was a problem, the would retroactively credit the account for any fees, etc. They did not seem to understand my concern that while they were “investigating” this potential fraud, my checks might be bouncing. Fortunately, I had money to transfer from savings and cover the mistake until it was fixed a few days later.

A few weeks later, a corollary  type of mistake happened. I noticed a $1200 “DEP RET” withdrawal on my account and a $10 fee. When I first called, the transaction was still pending, so I was told “that department isn’t open now–call back in the morning.” So I did. The automaton who handled my call engaged me in the following frustrating dialog:

Me: What does “DEP RET” mean?

Him: That’s a deposit return.

Me: What is a deposit return?

Him: That’s when a deposit is returned.

Me: But what is that?! Is that like a bounced check?

Him: Yes.

Me: But I haven’t even made a deposit recently.

Him: You deposited $1200 from an ATM a week ago. Because you did it at the ATM, I can’t tell anything about it.

Me: So what am I supposed to do here?

Him: We’ll send you a copy of the check…or we might try to cash it again. Maybe it will clear. If not, we’ll send it to you.

Me: So then I can go figure out who I have to track down?

Him: Yes.

Unable to help me with this problem, the agent then informed me of a new policy going into effect immediately that I needed to “opt-in” to. It seems a new law prohibits banks from covering your overdrafts anymore, but if I agree to opt-in, nothing will change and it will be great. So he read me a bunch of legalese and I said, sure, why not? Nice upsell, but I digress…at least I’m not banking with Wells Fargo.

Well it turns out I did deposit a check for $1200–from a relative. Before calling her up and starting the wheels of financial worry turning, I figured, let’s wait and see that returned check.

Well, I didn’t have to wait long–the check arrived on Saturday morning. It was a $1200 check drawn on the metavente.com bank and made out to a woman in Rhode Island. It was marked “Return Reason – Stop Payment.” The key fact (which I spent about an hour trying to explain to 4 different people on the phone) was that the check was NOT made out to me. It had nothing to do with me! I did not deposit the check. The check I had deposited had cleared just fine.

So…4 people? Yes. The first person on the phone asked me if perhaps I had taken cash from someone to deposit their check. No…I can see her endorsement right here on the back. Then I said–I think this Metavente thing is a bill paying service. So she transferred me to Sovereign’s Online Bill Payment department. After about 10 minutes that person said, “wait, you don’t seem to have online bill paying set up with us.” I said–right…I never said I did. I think this check came from some other bank.” OK, transfer back to customer service. By this time, I had a better idea of how to describe my problem and the person I spoke to “got it” and opened a ticket for me–then told me to take the check down to the local branch office on Monday morning. She said, “this is a one in a million type thing”–I said, funny, let me tell you what happened a couple weeks ago…

On Monday morning I got to explain it all again to the branch manager. I’m done.

Here’s what I think happened: When that stop payment hit Sovereign, they looked up the history of transactions on that day and clicked on the wrong one, resulting in the withdrawal and fee to my account instead of the correct payee.

It’s been three days and I’m still waiting for this error to be credited to my account. But in the meantime, I’ve opened an account with a local bank and am in the process of transferring everything out of Sovereign for good.

Monitor your finances. I would have eventually caught the stop payment problem because they mailed me the check, but that $1500 withdrawal could have gone unnoticed until a check or autopayment of mine bounced. These types of errors should NEVER happen with a financial institution. More importantly, my experience with customer service should not be a defensive struggle to justify and explain myself. We all assume competence in these banking transactions (these types of mistakes should literally be inconceivable), but that is an assumption we can no longer take for granted.

In a twist of irony, I received my bank statement today which contained a notice that the returned items fee is increasing to $15.

My career is a search for opportunities to use my talents to help make a difference in people’s lives. My resume does not adequately make that connection. Much of what I enjoy writing involves connecting the dots between related but nonlinear ideas, so today I apply that to my own story:

I began with an interest in politics and ideas when I was inspired to go on the road with the Gary Hart campaign while I was an undergraduate at MIT in 1988. “Democracy, not Media-ocracy!” A similar motive led me to organize and lead Paul Tsongas delegates in Washington State in 1992 while I was in law school. In between, I created or improved student publications like the law school newspaper or the MIT Course Evaluation Guide. The common thread of my engagement was that I threw myself into–I committed myself 100%–to causes where I combined the tools I already had internally (communication, empathy, passion) with skills I rapidly developed (technology and presentation) to advance ideas for making something better.

Now that was a long time ago. But throughout my career I made choices based on my unique combination of talent and skills in pursuit of creative, innovative ideas that I believed would change the world.

At Smart Valley, Inc., I used technology to improve quality of life in Silicon Valley. I created an online database of volunteers to wire the schools to the internet, then build PCs for low income schools. I brainstormed the idea to create a voter information site–SmartVoter–that is still active today.

At Decisive Technology, we believed we could do surveys better online (instead of phone-based surveys). We could more accurately serve the needs of customers and employees by giving executives a way to hear those voices effectively. So I built a team of web engineers and we created EnterpriseView–a web-based analysis tool for survey management.

At ConsumerReview, we had dozens of websites driven by passionate enthusiasts like mountain bikers (MTBR.com) and audiophiles (AudioReview.com). To scale the company down to a survivable state, we need to consolidate. So we learned C# and .NET and rolled out a new publishing platform. Many were laid off, but the consolidated company has kept those user communities going for over a decade.

At QuitNet, we supported thousands of people trying to quit smoking by building, maintaining, and pioneering the online delivery of smoking cessation services through www.quitnet.com. As the business grew to serve a complete wellness and behavior change model, we managed the technology and community–from “servers under a desk” to a virtualized hosting facility and geographically-distributed telephone counselors. Now the service is part of a national health care company.

At Spire, I stepped into a role that quickly turned into the launch of a “spun-off” startup company. The core challenge was to provide a publishing and interactive experience where members could help one another. I improvised technology, integrated workflow, and promoted social media to support our efforts in growing the community.

Along the way, I acquired tech skills and titles. But I was always jumping into the trenches. I faced a challenge and I learned what I needed to get through it. I am not constrained by what cannot be done or what I lack experience in today.

So when people look at the individual items on the resume…and ask me if I am a manager, engineer, writer, marketer, or lawyer…I have trouble answering that. Yes. Well, OK, which one do you want to be? It depends on what I need to be to solve today’s challenge.

I thought, when I switched over to Firefox a long, long time ago, I had left behind the indignity of the whole pop-up ad banner. Perhaps I simply began visiting fewer porn sites (just kidding!). But whatever the reason, I began to notice that when I shut down my browser I would find half a dozen additional windows open–mostly containing ads for Netflix.

Now Netflix was a great idea in the late 1990s–I was a charter customer. But I think video-on-demand and just plain market saturation has driven them to scrape what they can from the remaining customer pool by running these incessant, annoying red pop-under ads that get around the built-in pop-up blockers. As my laptop began to slow down, I suspected these ads were consuming resources and decided to shut them down.

To my pleasant surprise, I found a voluntary opt-out process that did not require installing or purchasing a pop-under-plus-blocker. Here’s how I found it–so you can repeat on other responsible media networks.

First take a look at the ad:
I noticed the url of the ad began with http://cdn.optmd.com – which sounded to me like it was probably “Content Delivery Network” of something…so I went to http://cdn.optmd.com to see what was there.

I found “Optimax Media Delivery” a website with a lot of dense copywriting rationalizations and a video about the horrors of a boring Internet without advertising…but then, in prominent bold text, “CLICK TO OPT OUT.” Awesome. What judge ordered that as part of a settlement deal? Just do it. This will set a cookie–a GOOD COOKIE–on your computer that will tell optmd.com not to pop under any more ads for you.

All snarkiness aside, this is a breath of fresh air of responsibility, ethics, and accountability in the world of online advertising. But after you click that opt-out button, you will see this dire warning:

WARNING: by choosing to opt out you are taking an active position not to support the publishers whose websites you visit and whose content you consume free of charge. In doing so you threaten the long-term viability of their operations.

How dare you!

Update: No sooner had I killed those ads than I found more ads appearing from Casalemedia. To opt out of these annoying ads, go to http://casalemedia.com/optout/.

As an avid runner and cyclist, I wanted to track my workouts more effectively. So about 3 years ago, I purchased the Garmin Forerunner 405–at that time, a brand new product. Several thousand miles later, it is still the best choice for me.

The Garmin Forerunner looks like a regular digital watch–not an oversized data console. It fits under a long sleeve shirt like a regular watch. But it contains a GPS antenna and wireless data transmitter to accurately and effortlessly records workout data. That data is then automatically uploaded to a website which displays a google map of the workout and graphs displaying the workout data.

I still have not taken advantage of all the features of the watch which include the ability to configure a “virtual training partner,” but I have found the following features useful:

• Most features are managed through a “touch ring” around the bezel. You tap the bezel to change display screens and scroll through options. The touch ring is not perfect–it does not work through gloves in zero-degree weather, for example–but it is a simpler and less confusing interface than watches with too many buttons.
• The digital display can be customized. You might choose to show the total distance, average pace, and heart rate on one screen while showing current pace or heart rate in large numbers on another screen. As you run, you can quickly tap the bezel to cycle through these screens.
• The watch recharges through a simple clip. A full charge contains enough power to record long events like century bike rides and marathons.

The only criticisms I’ve had with the Garmin are:

• Removing the USB stick abruptly from a computer can sometimes cause a reboot.
• The watch could be just a little smaller–it still looks big on my scrawny wrists.
• The menus and navigation of features can be a little intimidating. The simplified interface of two buttons and a touch bezel makes routine tasks easy, but it can take some work to figure out what is in all those menus.
• The GPS elevation is not very accurate for relatively flat terrain. But I think it is about as accurate as possible and better than anything else I’ve tried.

My strongest recommendation for the Garmin is based on its simple durability and reliability. I tried other products like RunKeeper–a free/upgradable app that turns your iPhone into a tracking device and then posts your workouts to social media sites. However, I found the GPS much less accurate–dropping whole sections of trail runs–and the battery life unacceptable–leaving me lost in the woods with a dead cell phone.

The Garmin just works and works well. After nearly 3 years of running and cycling, it keeps on working and has never lost data or died in the middle of a race. I’m not afraid to take it into the shower with me OR wear it on a job interview.

Disclosure: The hyperlink to the Garmin Product is an Amazon associates referral link–I receive a small commission if visitors follow the link and purchase the product. I have no connection to Garmin.

Remember last year when the the Mayor’s office was routinely deleting emails? Policy chief Michael Kineavy said he assumed the emails were being backed up (blame the IT department!)–and described his practice of emptying his inbox every day and then emptying the deleted items folder for good measure. Kineavy defended his actions as just his way of being neat and not an intentional circumvention of the public records law, but many viewed the behavior as classic “double-deleting”–making sure there was no data available to be backed up when the nightly backups ran. The Mayor’s office quickly improvised a recovery strategy and found over 5,000 lost emails from backups of other people who had corresponded with Kineavy, but warned that a complete recovery would cost over $250,000 to do a forensic reconstruction of the hard drive.

New software and services are quickly making the whole story sound like an unsophisticated, pre-Internet tale of backwards bureaucracy. Companies like Needham-based Sonarian now offer a hosted email archiving solution–and tools to archive instant messaging and social media–that will eliminate excuses and make it reasonable (and accurate) for a staffer to say, “I assumed it was all backed up.”

These tools are also changing the business–and arguably career–model for information technology professionals. In the past, companies invested a ton of time and money in hardware and redundancy in-house to ensure business continuity and disaster recovery. The first wave of change came through software as a service (SaaS)–the idea that instead of say setting up my own perfect backup plan, I could just pay someone else to provide the service. We quickly transitioned away from swapping tapes and installing software to configuring lightweight agents on servers to push the backups out to some offsite backup farm. Personally, we discovered services like Carbonite and Mozy to ensure our laptops were safely backed up without having to think about it.

But cloud-based services take it all to the next level. At Carbonite…I suspect there is a server room somewhere in Boston with row upon row of network storage array devices where all those backups (including my own) live. In this sort of set up, a handful of engineers are responsible for building a bulletproof system and monitoring it constantly to make sure it works. The cloud approach forgoes the server room altogether in favor of Amazon Web Services. I assume there are no employees of Sonian loading tapes or swapping out failed RAID controller cards at 3am. Instead, the systems architect builds a solution of services in an environment of redundancy and scalability instead of having to create and manage that environment.

From a business model perspective, the company looking to provide a valuable service is liberated from the hardware and “spontaneous human combustion” type problems endemic to life as a systems administrator. They can focus on the service, not the exceptions and crazy, unpredictable failures.

From a career development perspective, the systems administrator’s role is changing. It has been a long time since anyone could lock themselves in an IT room and segregate from developers, but increasingly, if you see your job as performing miracles and keeping things working smoothly–your days are numbered. We have to build solutions today–and the mindset of assuming everything will fail, so we must plan around it–kills the creativity needed to architect exceptional service. Instead, we need to find systems in the form of services we can trust and develop solutions. If you are still trying to figure out how to get Microsoft SQL Server log shipping to work reliably…it’s time for you to reboot. It doesn’t work reliably enough.

Cloud computing is not magic. I’ve been hearing about SaaS and “the cloud” for years–mixed in with a bit of talk about Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Lots of buzzwords and excuses to have industry conferences, but what does it all really mean?

• It means if you, as a technology professional, are still banging your head against the wall solving stupid problems, you need to stop. Find services you can trust and create solutions that you are proud of instead of collecting war stories about how things all worked out in the end. Let other people manage the things you cannot control instead of trying to build redundancy everywhere.
• It means that if your business is pouring money into capital expenses and extreme specialists to build a system that won’t break…you are focusing on the wrong thing. You need to build a business that can be exceptional, not one that is less likely to fail.

Yesterday, Patch (the hyper local news publisher funded by America Online) launched a Westwood, Massachusetts site–the 11th town so far in Massachusetts. I met the editor and am impressed that they are making an effort to cover the news in this town of 15,000–potentially filling the void left when the Daily News Transcript stopped being daily. A few people have asked me what does this mean for my site, WestwoodBlog.org?

The short answer is that is a source of more news and that’s good. Paul Gillin analyzes the Pew Research Center’s report on the differing priorities of bloggers and journalists and observes how bloggers need the mainstream media to provide source material for discussion. Although I have probably done more “original reporting” on my site than a typical blog, my goal has always been to stir up conversation and share information–not to be a reporter or investigative journalist. The site is a service for residents–to empower them to post their own news.

I think that local connection to the community is what is missing in most news coverage. You can send a reporter to every meeting of every board and commission, but when you don’t live in the community, you don’t see or hear what people are talking about and you don’t develop a sense of what matters. The news reporters can find stories–and tease out the facts and events or what is going on, but there is no feedback. Comments on news stories are not really participation because the story has already been written. Conversations on blogs are ongoing discussions. Blog posts in the form of citizen journalism can be biased–but that makes them better in some ways because they represent not what an outsider observed, but what a resident experienced.

Blogs and news, proceeding independently, are unsatisfying. The blogs can’t cover everything and can degenerate into opinionated diatribes. News stories can miss the context and move on to the next story. But together, these forms of media can create a “news ecosystem” that is mutually supportive.

A number of citizen contributions on my blog have led to news stories. In one case a resident blogged about the preservation of a school building–and then, a few days later, was interviewed and quoted in the newspaper. Another posted an article about a school music program being cancelled due to budget cuts–and again, ended up quoted in a mainstream news story. In many cases, I post articles that direct people to more specific stories in the media or to resources on the town website. As content contributors and community participants we share in the value not of any one source of news and information, but in the evolving ability to participate through this medium.

Yesterday, New Jersey hyper local blog Baristanet announced it was expanding to cover three additional towns where the New York Times has withdrawn from the local print publication market. It will be interesting to see how Maplewood Patch and Baristanet compete, coexist or cooperate. But whatever the outcome…print left town.

I think the best outcome here will be a sort of “confederation” of content. I wish I had the time and resources to create something like Baristanet–to pull together the independent voices of writers and residents not only in Westwood, but in Dedham, Norwood, Walpole, Milton, Canton–something I would call “Neponset News.” I think several sites like this could be destination sites–like Universal Hub in Boston–where people start–and then find what matters to them via links to source material (news) and community perspective (blogs). But I need to find a job.

Most of the hyper local news initiatives like Placeblogger and Outside.in start from a “tell me where you are” perspective. I will never go to some generic web site and enter my zip code as a means to find out what is going on in my community. I am unimpressed by technology-driven sites that just pull a bunch of localized data into one place. I am disappointed in sites that crank out a templated advertising vehicle for every town. But if regional hyper local sites can develop clear, localized brand identity–they can become destination sites that informally mediate the discussion of what matters in the community.

Significant changes to Massachusetts Open Meeting law take effect on July 1, 2010. The new rules do not directly promote collaborative technologies–e.g. how a town might use a wiki to improve governance, for example, but some common sense clarifications do open the door to removing some anti-technology sentiment. And I think the documentation requirements will push more towns to an electronic–and shareable–approach that increases the practical transparency of government by making data transmittable. The major changes in law are summarized on Mass.Gov–with the biggest being how enforcement has been moved from local District Attorneys to the AGs office. The Town of Littleton also has a good summary with links to more resources. The substantial changes of note to local boards and commissions are:

Notice must include agenda – Notice of public meetings must be posted 48-hours prior to the meeting, excluding weekends. So, if the Board of Selectmen wants to meet Monday night at 7:30pm, they must post the notice no later than 7:30pm on Thursday night. Previously, Saturday night was “good enough.” Now there is also a new requirement that this notice include “a listing of topics that the chair reasonably anticipates will be discussed at the meeting.” That is a small, but significant change since most meetings are currently posted without agendas–or agendas are posted the day of the meeting if at all. I’m guilty of this omission myself–it’s not part of a vast conspiracy to hide the truth or anything, just lack of advance planning.

This is huge progress. Attending town board and commission meetings is a low probability exercise in irrelevance since most members of the general public will have no idea what is going to be discussed and no context to contribute in a meaningful manner. Under the new law, residents will learn, by Thursday night, what topics the Selectmen will be discussing on Monday.

All documents become part of the record – Section 22 of the new law specifies that meeting minutes include “the date, time and place, the members present or absent, a summary of the discussions on each subject, a list of documents and other exhibits used at the meeting, the decisions made and the actions taken at each meeting, including the record of all votes.” Subsection (e) goes on to say, “The minutes of any open session, the notes, recordings or other materials used in the preparation of such minutes and all documents and exhibits used at the session, shall be public records in their entirety and not exempt from disclosure…[references to employment contracts, etc. omitted]”

Speaking from the perspective of a town advisory board chairman, this is a burdensome requirement, but it fills a huge gap for the citizen seeking to understand what happened at a meeting. Every meeting of our Board of Selectmen is punctuated by the three members referring to materials contained in large binders compiled by town staff prior to the meeting. Sometimes a Selectman will make a point of “reading into the record,” if there is a letter of commendation or something. Now, ALL that material is a public record. Ideally this information should be made available to the public as soon as it is distributed to the members of the committee. I do not see language in the law that anticipates such pre-emptive publication, but the knowledge that whatever is prepared will become a public record should remove objections to its early disclosure.

I contacted our Board of Selectmen and learned 1) we are already in compliance; having saved 23 years worth of those packets for posterity and 2) no one has ever requested to look at them.

Remote participation is possible – One of our Selectmen was injured last winter but, thanks to a special agreement worked out in consultation with the District Attorney, was able to continue participating in meetings from his hospital bed. The new law allows the Attorney General to propose regulations that would allow remote participation by members of boards if everyone can hear everyone else and a quorum is physically present. No more excuses to miss meetings–we can Skype you in. This change will not take effect until the regulations have been proposed and approved.

Email usage is clarified – it is still impermissible to use email to develop policy. The valid policy basis for this is that the public can’t see what committee members are talking about when they prepare for a meeting via email. However, the new law spells out a number of specific clarifications to make it clear that emailing agendas, meeting minutes, materials for discussion at the meeting, and for procedural issues–is permitted.

Finally, I believe the centralization of administration makes it much more likely this law will be able to adapt to the changing needs of communities. When I inquired about how much of my committee work could be done online, I had some guidance from the town based on the AGs opinion…but ultimately I would need to call the Norfolk County DA for a ruling. I think they are busy prosecuting real criminals. Now the AG has created a Division of Open Government…I’ll have to send them a link to my article on wikis…

Drupal is one of the most popular and free content management platforms used to build sophisticated web sites. A new service, Drupal Gardens, provices a hosted and simplified version of Drupal so you can start without the installation and configuration tech tasks that put this out of reach of most users. Drupal Gardens is not “magic” but it does create an opportunity that did not exist a year ago, and it clears many roadblocks that can stand in the way of a person with a vision for what they want to create.

A content management system or platform allows a person creating a website to combine many types of content from different sources without having to write code.  My community website, http://westwoodblog.org was built with Drupal and required no “programming work.” But it was not easy. It did require a great deal of technical troubleshooting and persistence.

There are many things I would like to change about how WestwoodBlog looks and works. I end up doing many, many Google searches to find technical descriptions of what to install and how to configure it. It would be terribly misleading to imply that a non-technical person could have created WestwoodBlog. You cannot escape the time or expense required to work with Drupal effectively. But Drupal Gardens may change that.

This detailed review of Drupal Gardens provides a nice step-by-step illustration of building a site. But as you will quickly see from that review, you still kind of need to know what you are doing. It’s easy to start, but hard to finish. As soon as I started trying to implement more advanced things, I found myself right back in the same old Drupal administration pages I have become familiar with on WestwoodBlog. I became sidetracked trying to figure out how to embed an RSS feed from a Twitter list into the news aggregator–whoa! TMTI: too much technical information.

Drupal Gardens is a bridge to your proof of concept site. In 15 minutes I had a new website up and running. I successfully leap-frogged over things that took me DAYS to get past when I was first setting up WestwoodBlog. I was able to start thinking about more difficult aspects of the website I wanted to create instead of dealing with the systems administration challenges. When I’m ready to deploy, I could export the site and work with a developer to optimize it.

Without Drupal Gardens…no matter what sort of “one-click install” your discount hosting provider may have, you are going to run into a roadblock when installing your own Drupal. It will be stupid stuff–can’t figure out why it can’t read the database…uploaded something to the wrong folder…lots of little annoyances get in the way and it’s like trying to pack up the minivan with 3 little kids for a vacation trip. You never leave on time and then somebody needs a diaper change. Drupal Gardens gets you on the road fast.

Drupal Gardens will be at the July 14 Mass Innovation Nights. Vote for them to present and perhaps we can hear first hand about their vision for bringing Drupal to the masses.

Electric bikes have been around for years but recent advances in battery technology and Bedford, Massachussets company Pietzo, may have finally made them practical for commuters seeking an environmentally-responsible alternative to gridlock. I test rode several today, and I encourage others to hop on one of these bikes and learn how it could change your life.

I’m a serious bike commuter–I’ve blogged about my commute into Boston on my fixed-gear, but I haven’t found too many takers on that urban adventure. I think these bikes could change that.

A hybid electric bike is a “bike with a boost.” It has a battery-powered motor that can assist pedaling or be used to exclusively power the bike. The smallest battery will hold a charge for a minimum of 20 miles–more if you are also pedaling. The Zephry model pictured is also a folding bike–allowing you to take it on the commuter rail or easily wheel into a workplace and up an elevator.

I was not sure what to expect as I hopped on this bike on a hot, humid June morning, wearing my khakis and Doc Martens. Usually my bike commute would involve “gearing up” into spandex, special shoes, etc. and planning on a 2nd shower (or just not riding on a day like today). What I found was an easy experience that left my shirt far dryer than it would have been if I had walked 3/4 of a mile. All in all I rode about 3 miles to test it out. And I’m still wearing the same clothes.

When I started pedaling, I felt the electric assist kick in–which helped me quickly get up to a decent speed on the busy Great Road in Bedford. I was not doing the typical “accelerate to avoid angry motorists” start. I tried the electric-only option for a while too, but I really enjoyed the simple assist coupled with my leisurely pedaling. At one point, when I needed to make a U-turn across a 3-way intersection, I was glad to have that extra electric acceleration so I could quickly and easily get going, get out of the way, and focus on navigating the traffic instead of pedaling up to speed.

Pietzo has a nice blog post about why avid cyclists would ride a hybrid, but I was more impressed by how this bike should appeal to the non-cyclist:

• No sweat. Seriously. Having walked to the commuter rail station many times in the heat of summer, I can honestly say this bike is better than walking and it extends your range dramatically for other short trips.
• Lightweight. The folding bike in particular is really just like a regular bike but with a battery. It’s not going to tip over and it is easy to maneuver out of the garage, out the back door, etc.
• Multi-modal opportunity for suburbanites. I live about 3 miles from another train station that has 15-minute trains to Boston. That is about a 15-minute bike ride (in cool weather, with special shoes, etc.) But on the Zephyr, I could simply choose the bike over the car and save $5 parking. Then I’d take the bike with me on the train for an easy ride from South Station up whatever hill I need to climb. That combination would be faster than any method of transportation I have been able to dream up in the last 5 years.

Electric hybrids make economic sense. Use the Pietzo savings calculator to see how much money you could save by bike commuting. I’ve done that calculation myself, but I had to add back in many other costs like bike clothes and lost time due to a mandatory wardrobe change on each end. The beauty of these bikes is they make everyday commuting feasible for the Lycra-averse professional.

Pietzo will be exhibiting at tomorrow’s Bike Friday in Boston and at the July 14 Mass Innovation Nights event in Waltham. More information is available on their web site at http://www.pietzo.com/

Meat is overrated. After several weeks since I ate meat as part of my diet, I’m not really missing it. So I guess I am coming out as a vegetarian. It’s no big deal. But it wasn’t something I decided, planned, or forced myself to do. It just happened.

My family started thinking more critically about food after reading Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. For a time, the image of filthy cows crowded into feedlots knee-deep in their own excrement and doped up with antibiotics to counter their sickness to the unnatural corn diet we force upon them–did give me momentary pause as I ordered the occasional Double Whopper with Cheese. But I got over it and did it anyway. For awhile. But at some point, it actually did stop tasting good. One day I looked at my half-eaten Whopper–and threw it in the trash.

I am not going to say meat is evil–and I do still love a great steak or a bunch of fresh roasted pulled pork barbeque. But most of the time, what we eat for meat is not special. It’s bulky and poor quality with little or no taste other than salt. I started to notice how I kept adding more and more spices to my spaghetti sauce. I started to notice how the chicken cubes in the stir-fry were only distinguished from the tofu by their grisly, rubbery nature. We did try better quality meats–including grass-fed organic hamburger…but along the way, we just started to realize–this is optional. It’s not that much better.

We started cooking with vegetables. We already loved garlic and I discovered that more and more, what I enjoyed in a stir fry or melange of squash and peppers was the taste of vegetables and spices. We joined a Community Supported Agriculture farm and tried what they gave us. We found that grilling peppers and squash gave them a great char taste we liked. And ultimately, when we looked at the price per pound on the meat we were buying…the question became, why are we bothering with this junk?

It’s not about deprivation or fooling yourself. We tried many of the mimic products along the way and I’m not going to recommend tofu dogs or most types of “meatless meatballs” to anyone. If you compare to what you imagine you are missing, you will always come up short in your expectations. But take a critical look at what you are really missing. When you do find a great steak, by all means, go for it. But those chicken nuggets…you might was well be eating tree bark–as long as you can dip it in some high fructose corn syrup, you won’t know the difference. So why not just say no?

Say yes to more creative ways of cooking and eating. Nobody is going to pick up a brick of tofu and take a bite, but you can marinate it in sesame oil, soy sauce, and garlic, then bake it in the oven to create tasty flavorful cubes that go well in a mix of vegetables. You don’t need to put a slab of fat on those green beans–just steam them fresh and enjoy the flavor of what they naturally taste like. Have you had fresh beets? There is flavor to be found.

I came from a meat-lovers background so talk like this sounds pretty radical. But it is all about preference. I do believe my diet is healthier for me. The fact that I enjoy it allows me to avoid participating in the demand for meat products that results in all the food industrialization we hear about and ignore. But I don’t obsess on the details and conflicting studies or micro advice. I’m not going to publish a guidebook: The Meat-Lovers Guide to Going Vegetarian but simply suggest people eat more of the natural healthy things they like and see where it takes them.

Westwood Community Access Television is using a simple, but powerful combination of old and new media technology to jumpstart their efforts to bring public access TV to Westwood, Massachusetts. While the administrative and technical details for taking control of local origination programming are still underway, we are using Ustream to livecast from our minimalist control room in the basement of Town Hall.

The signal below is a taste of what you will see when we do go live. It is very much a work in progress and may not always be on, but we wanted to get something up and running and start to gather feedback–and demonstrate the progress we are making.

The truly clever idea our Director, Greg Moberg, came up with–after we successfully did a live webcast of a town meeting–was to take the output from our video server and use it as an input to the equipment (a NewTek Tricaster) we had used to webcast. We created a free account on Ustream and configured it to livecast directly from the Tricaster. This allows us to operate all the equipment in the basement as if we were live…and then just route it to the web. One day, we swap cables and this signal will be broadcast on the local cable channels too.

In the meantime, we have a sort of alpha soft-launch. We can share the site with people and begin to develop our schedule, programming calendar and start generating interest in the community. We have a long way to go–if you watch the channel now you mostly see canned content from the video server vendor–but we will soon be broadcasting the public meetings we have taped.

Life was good when you had your iPod all synced up with your old computer. Then, you lost that computer somehow. You didn’t care because you had 8 GB of songs safely stored on the iPod, right? Then, you bought a MacBook and thought, “I’ll just plug the iPod in and sync it back to iTunes.” You were greeted by this message:

Now hopefully, you had the good sense to click cancel right away and start googling “how to copy music from your iPod to your Mac” and landed here. I did that and found many confusing, involved tutorials. I knew I was in trouble when I had to start typing in linux man page commands to figure out what the tutorial authors were asking me to do.

If my tutorial does not work for you, try this one. But hopefully, these instructions will work for most people.

Apple does not want to make this easy because then bad people would copy other people’s iPod songs and commit digital piracy. That is not my goal here. I just wanted to get my songs back and consolidate what I had on my Mac (I had ripped dozens of CDs already into iTunes) with what was on the old iPod. Here’s how I did it:

1. enable disk use on the iPod
2. use the Terminal application to access and copy the source .MP3s from the iPod to the hard drive
3. import the MP3s into the iTunes Library

First, connect the iPod and cancel the message asking you if you really want to erase it. Then, in iTunes, select the iPod and click on the summary tab. Check the box to enable disk read. Confirm that you want to do this and understand you will need to eject manually. Click the Apply button to save this change.

Now launch the Terminal application. This puts you in a command-line shell–the opposite of what you might ever expect to see on a Mac. From this point on, you will be typing unix commands, but they are very simple:

• cd – change directory
• ls – list files
• cp – copy files

Type

cd /Volumes

then type

ls

You should see the name of the iPod like this:

new-host:~ daveatkins$ cd /Volumes
new-host:Volumes daveatkins$ ls
Macintosh HD    USER'S IPOD

If you do not see the Ipod, make sure you clicked the Apply button after checking off enable disk use.

The music files on your iPod are stored in a folder under USER’S IPOD (or whatever yours is called): iPod_Control/Music. They are hidden from the Mac Finder and they are in folders with cryptic names like “FA, FF, FC, etc.”

Copy the music files from the iPod to your hard drive using the following command:

cp -r -X USER\'S\ IPOD/iPod_Control/Music/ ~/Music/copiedstuff

To make this easier, take advantage of the command line’s ability to “autocomplete” text as you type by matching files and folders it knows are valid. Type “cp -r -X US” then hit the TAB key. Then type “ip” followed by TAB. Then type “M” and TAB. Now, type “~/Music/copiedstuff” and hit the RETURN key. This will ensure that the command you enter matches the specific names of folders on your system.

The -X option in the copy command removes extra information from the files that, among other things, make them hidden. There are other ways to accomplish this task, but this seemed the simplest to me. It does not remove digital rights management, it just makes the copies of the .MP3s visible so you can attempt to import them. It is also “safe” because you are making a copy of what is on the iPod so you can verify it works before you risk deleting anything on the iPod.

If you have many music files, the copy command may take a few minutes to run before returning you to the “shell prompt” of “new-host:~ daveatkins$”

When the copying is done, close the terminal application. Go back to iTunes and uncheck the box for enable disk use. Remember to Apply the change. You should now be able to disconnect the iPod without having to manually eject it. Set it aside for “safekeeping.”

Now go to iTunes and choose File…Add to Library and locate the “copiedstuff” folder you created.

Import the music. You may see some messages like this if the files are protected:

Cancel these screens unless you have a password. The rest of your files should import and be added to your Library. Verify that the songs play.

Now we are ready for the fun part. Plug the iPod back in and do an erase and sync. The old music from the iPod and whatever you had on your Mac should now be merged on the iPod.

You might think painting a crosswalk is only slightly more complicated than putting a yellow line down the middle of the road. Take a look around at the faded and nearly invisible crosswalks in your community and you can begin to appreciate that it’s not that simple. I had the opportunity to watch a demonstration of a new surfacing technology a few weeks ago in Boston and found it fascinating to literally watch paint dry…no, seriously!

Nature and automobile are hard on Boston streets. I’d argue a greater hazard to cyclists than cars is the unpredictable but uniformly bad condition of pavement where potholes appear even before construction of new roads and bridges ends. The roadway is in a constant state of flux. To attempt to apply a layer of an additional material (paint) on that surface is destined for eventual failure.

The solution I saw demonstrated is called StreetPrintXD. At 6 1/2 minutes, my homemade video is long–if you want to see a short, complete install demo video, you can watch the one produced by Integrated Paving Solutions instead. But mine does put it in some perspective as you can see the workers installing on a busy Boston street in 90-degree heat.

First, the asphalt surface must be evaluated–if the road is more than a year or two old, you will need to do a “mill and fill”–to lay down a fresh coat of asphalt where the crosswalk will be. In the video, you can see how the roadway around the crosswalk is older and lighter.

The mill-and-fill is a big deal that will add to the cost of any project because a machine must be rented and traffic disrupted for half a day…and of course you will have to hire a police detail.

Once the surface is ready, a heater is used to soften the asphalt so the paint will stick. The “paint” is aggregate-reinforced thermoplastic. By incorporating aggregate into a plastic mixture, the material is made more like the asphalt surface in terms of its wear characteristics. Regular thermoplastics have glass beads instead of aggregate which mean they will move differently under stress and lack the irregular reinforcing characteristics of roadway materials.

Once the asphalt is soft, rather than simply apply the coating, a mesh template is hammered into the pavement. In the final product, this creates a look of brick, but it also creates valleys of indentation that will be shielded from the immediate friction of automobile traffic. This feature is a key attribute of another product, DuraTherm, which has been used to create more elaborate, patterned crosswalks instead of the traditional brick look. These patterns hold up well because the pattern is impressed into the roadway so car tires do not contact it.

After stamping out the pattern, the coating is applied as big plastic sheets, heated, and stamped down into the indentions in the pavement.

A coating of sand is applied while the coating is still wet to more closely match the traction of the asphalt. Maintaining traction is critical for safety–remember the Tour de France time trials in the rain a few years ago with cyclists spinning out of control on pavement markings? The key is to maintain the same coefficient of friction across the surface–not to create either an extra slippery or suddenly extra sticky surface. Changes in the coefficient of friction turn the momentum of a moving object into unexpected horizontal forces that can start a skid.

The final product is expected to last as long as the roadway surface.

Most crosswalks will not be able to afford this treatment. In the video above, we are looking at Melnea Cass Blvd which sees 30,000 vehicles per day. When it’s not that busy, it’s probably being salted, sanded, and plowed. So a quick spray of Krylon isn’t going to last a day out there.

But even on our less busy town streets, I see how quickly the traditional paint jobs fade. Each spring our DPW goes back to repaint lines and crosswalks as needed. Roughly speaking, for a 2-lane road, the treatment above should cost about $5-10,000 including the preparation work. A newly-paved road would be cheaper–the actual materials cost is $13-17/square foot and if you avoid the mill-and-fill, it makes everything faster and easier.

A fair question to ask–especially given this cost–is “why bother?” In the case of our town, we don’t have the funds and are applying for a grant. But the objective is to get the attention of motorists who blow through crosswalks even when school crossing guards are present. We have “knockdown” signs in the road which do in fact get “knocked down” all the time. Perhaps if we only deployed the beacons I blogged about yesterday, it might make enough of a difference. But part of the goal is to increase awareness and respect for walkers overall. As the paint fades we face a long winter/spring season before repainting eventually happens…unless it rains too much that year. If we could make a permanent infrastructure enhancement in the most critical locations, I believe we could begin to affect behavior norms by telling everyone: this crosswalk is here to stay.

For about $10,000, a community can install an eco-friendly system to make crosswalks safer for pedestrians and much more visible to drivers. A new type of lighting system, the Rapid Rectangular Flashing Beacon is proving even more effective because the flashing lights–more like police and emergency vehicle lighting–get the attention of motorists.

As my town’s Pedestrian and Bicycle advisory committee researched ways to improve crosswalk safety, we noticed existing, effective crossings in neighboring towns. In Wellesley, busy route 135 can be crossed much more easily thanks to this crossing:

A newer technology–with a solar-powered option–is described below:

I obtained a quote for a similar system from Electrotechnics Corporation (ELTEC). Because the system is solar-powered and wireless pushbutton-activated, the installation could be as simple as planting two poles in the sidewalk. There is no need to run power to the system or trench the roadway for wires. Just install the poles and go.

RRFBs are new, but they have been embraced enthusiastically in St. Petersburg, Florida where, after obtaining interim approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation, RRFBs were installed in 19 locations. A study of some of those locations and other deployments in Chicago and Washington, D.C. indicated “a highly significant level change following the introduction of the RRFB that showed no sign of decay over time.” A full report from St. Petersburg is available here. A video about the crosswalk program really punctuates their commitment to systemic, infrastructural improvements citywide.

But for smaller communities who are simply looking for ways to make particularly problematic crossings safer, this technology could be the answer on multiple fronts. The modularity of the solution eliminates a few hurdles–there is no need to coordinate with the electric utility or dig up the roadway. The deployment must still be “designed,” to ensure it complies with local and state standards. And it’s still at least a $10,000 project which can be tough to fund given the reality of level budgets and cost-cutting required in the current economy.

Google maps have helped our town’s Pedestrian and Bicycle advisory committee by allowing us to project a satellite or streetview image on the wall for discussion. Using screencast software, I recently incorporated this into a presentation for a grant application to fund enhancements at two crosswalks:

I was looking for a simple way to share these ideas. I used Camtasia Studio from TechSmith because it allows for greater editing of the video, but an even easier solution is to install their free Jing software. Then you can capture a screen video–along with the audio you narrate. It will upload the resulting tutorial (5-minute limit on the free version) to a website and give you a short URL you can email or instant message to someone.

The coolest feature in the video above is the web browser integration with Google Earth. Simply click on the button at the top right of a map for “Earth,” install the plugin as prompted, and your map will turn into a 3D-ish representation that you can “flyover” using your mouse and scroll wheel to zoom in for greater detail. If a streetview exists, you can even drop down to the street level perspective and step through an intersection. In our meetings, this was invaluable to show members of the committee the automobile perspective approaching the problem intersections.

Another advantage of integrating this information into an online video is the power to share. I played the video (about 4-minutes) at the presentation I made to the group that decides what programs to recommend for funding, and although I think standing there next to the video of myself talking was a little strange, it was effective to be able to email that link out to other members of the group who were not present. Most presenters brought easels and cardstock, or handed out multi-page printouts.

The project was recommended to proceed to the next level. Tomorrow I will post examples of how technology can be used to actually improve the safety of these crosswalks.

The iPhone 4 is out and while mobile and tech gadget gurus will analyze its features, this 2-minute video describing the “Facetime” feature deserves the Oscar. The video pulls all the right heartstrings and makes the case for why you just have to buy your grandparents one of these NOW. From the Apple website:

People have been dreaming about video calling for decades. iPhone 4 makes it a reality.

For thirty seconds, we have a predictable application–Dad away on a business trip in his hotel room alone. He watches baby crawl then Mom and the kids laughing and playing. Life is so good it’s like you don’t even have to really be there.

Then we move on to the grandparents watching daughter and granddaughter prepare for graduation.  A different daughter away at college shows Mom (or older friend?) her new clothes…but then Apple really pulls out all the stops…

A pregnant woman talks to her serviceman husband…and shares the sonogram. She switches to the second camera so he can see the baby on the monitor. He is so overcome with emotion…they start signing each other. It’s a beautiful mini-opera of empathic consumerism.

I’m not being cynical or facetious…well, not entirely. I’ve hooked up my iPhone with Ustream and called my mom to show her the kids on Christmas morning. It would be cool if it were so easy and if we could get her hooked up with Skype or something to do a 2-way video call. But there are a couple of practical issues.

One is the wifi–this Facetime feature only works between two iPhone 4s that are on a wifi network. It is not transmitting the video over the cellular network; you need access to an open wifi network that doesn’t mind you video streaming on their bandwidth. If you are at home, no problem, but it’s not quite a no-brainer.

Two is just the fact that everyone has to have an iPhone. That must be why Dad is working all the time and sitting in that hotel room watching his baby crawl via the iPhone parental link.

But it is cool stuff; you just can’t deny it. The video chat will not replace or patch relationships any more than friending your relatives on Facebook.  But it fills an undeniable need. The advertising is perfect to offer a solution that is far more enticing than just the gadgetry. We dream about the Star Trek communicators and transporter beams not because we want to go where no one has gone before, but because we want to be where we should have been all along.

This blog started in 2006 as the writing anchor to many of my endeavors. I am simplifying, consolidating and focusing my online presence to more clearly define the DaveWrites “brand” around what I do best:

• notice opportunities to use technology to make our lives better,
• research how it works, and
• write about it in a way that everyday people can find value

Someone asked me what the heck “DaveWrites” was/is the other day…and I just said, well…it’s where Dave writes. But it is a little more than that. I realized that most of my work–although it involves a very significant technical element–is more about creating content and sharing information in context to drive action. Many people become frustrated when they cannot make things happen. I write. And things happen.

Saturday, I ran the Harpoon 5-miler here in Boston. Thanks to a new technology, this was the simplest and easiest race ever for tracking my time. The race bibs had ChronoTrack B-Tag strips–completely eliminating the hassle of a timing chip. I did OK:

Nettime  Pace  Name                   Race# City/state
=======  ===== ====================== ===== =======================
 40:19   8:04  David Atkins           2566  Westwood MA

For those unfamiliar with road races, the technology has evolved dramatically in the past few years. When there are 3000 people in the race, it can take a person standing at the back with the walkers and strollers, 3 minutes or more to cross the starting line. You cannot count on the actual (guntime) timing from when then starter’s pistol goes off to when you cross the finish line to know your true time and pace. So most races now measure “nettime” the difference between when you cross the starting line and when you cross the finish line. But how is this done?

Until a few years ago, it wasn’t. Runners came to the finish line, tore off a tag from their race bibs and handed it to a volunteer. Other volunteers stood by with stopwatches and called out the times. Someone wrote all that down. That is still how its done when a race cannot afford the more sophisticated electronic tracking systems.

Until this year, those systems consisted of a timing chip you tied to your shoelaces. At the end of the race, you would bend over and remove the chip (don’t pass out!) and put it in a bucket to be collected by the race organizers. Fail to return the chip–pay a fee. Last year, that system was replaced by a disposable tag you threaded through your shoelaces. But, even with a video and instructions, those tags were hard to figure out.

This year, the tag was embedded in the race bib itself. No confusion. No delay. Just pin the bib to your shirt and run. A few minutes after crossing the finish line, you go to a results wall where the real-time numbers are being posted.

The technology behind the bib is called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). The start/finish line is covered by mats containing radio transmitters that emit an electric field and induce a small current in the tag you are wearing which then broadcasts back your ID code. It is the same idea behind Fast Lane transponders and keyless entry systems. The transmitter/receiver creates an electromagnetic field around a highly localized area. The materials in the tag act as an antenna to collect the energy from that field and reflect back a unique electronic signature which is then detected and recorded along with the timestamp.

The link to RFID above provides a full, technical description of the electronics involved, but the advance for the purpose of racing timing appears to be in reducing the weight of the transponder so significantly that it can be unobtrusively added to the back of a race bib. There are just two plastic strips on the bib–antenna material far enough apart to be able to pick up the very high frequency signal from the mat and yet still resonate back an accurate and unique signal.

For those who can remember televisions with “rabbit ears” for antennas, you may also recall how frustrating it was to adjust the antenna, then step away and lose the reception. Perhaps someone was appointed to hold the antenna or stand nearby during critical moments of football games, etc. The principle is similar–a high frequency electromagnetic field is influenced by other conductive materials which generate interference by “reflecting back” some of the energy. Sometimes this enhances the signal; other times, it gets in the way. But the challenge for RFID is to do this in a reliable, predictable manner so that 100% of the time, the system will activate your race bib and then get the right number back–all done simultaneously with dozens of other runners who might be crossing the same field at the same time.

ChronoTrack seems to have nailed it with these race bibs.

This past weekend at the Burlington, VT ECHO Center, I saw this curious sign:

Once I downloaded the app reader described on the sign and pointed my iPhone camera at the honeycomb pattern, the software decoded that pattern into a web address and started playing a video about a tree planting with the Missisquoi River Basin Association in Highgate, VT. (It works off the image displayed here on your screen too–try it out!)

Watching the video on an iphone while standing in front of a museum display case was a bit awkward (better with earphones), but because I took a photo of it, I was able to access it later. That is much easier than bookmarking a URL or keeping track of a paper brochure.

It worked smoothly–the app install on my iphone went quickly and then it was just as easy as snapping a photo. The app viewfinder displays a frame that turns green as soon as it recognizes the pattern. Then, it sends you straight to YouTube.

My mind started racing. The code/patterns are free and easy to create on the BeeTagg web site. The process is very similar to a URL shortening service like bit.ly–just go straight to the BeeTagg Generator, enter a url and even add your own logo…then save the resulting jpeg image:

Then post that up on a billboard, right? It makes more sense than putting long web addresses on billboards or reading them over the radio.

But I was thinking of other applications–local content for my community. It’s fun to embed user-generated content like YouTube videos into a blog post, but how do you get people to the blog in the first place? I’ve written travelogues like this bike trip in France report but what if I could leave posters with codes on them behind at stops along the way for future travelers to watch?

I could design a walking tour of the historic district of a town with these codes posted at the various stops. How hard would it be to go around town with a Flip video camera, record short narrations by local people who grew up here, then print out some laminated signs to post? A project like that could be done in an afternoon and then it would be a free resource for the community.

How about a scavenger hunt? Find the BeeTagg and watch the video that leads you to the next clue.

How about tutorials and assembly instructions? Scan the code on the IKEA box and watch someone put the dresser together. Many times. Repeat. Try again. Recharge the phone. Better idea: snap a photo in the store, then go home and launch the product page in your web browser where you can visualize it in the room, then click a button to order.

What makes this revolutionary is that it shortcuts the cumbersome process of remembering and typing a web address into a browser. In the same way that bit.ly and tinyurl made it possible to quickly share links on Twitter, these BeeTagg codes can take links off the computer and into the physical world where a person can simply snap a photo.

Real estate listings. Forget about those “talking house” signs that ask you to sit in your car and listen to the am radio for a narrated Realtor pitch. Just scan the code off the for sale sign, go home, and load up the listing. Like this:

The potential applications are endless…and liberating because they can be done by people for free without complicated software. Having a Smart Phone with a camera IS a bit of a barrier, but for now, this is a low to no cost technology that might connect a few more people to their communities through a clever use of technology.

If you would like to see more Federal money spent on local projects to promote and make safer more bicycling and walking, call your Congressional Representative and ask him or her to be a co-sponsor on H.R. 4722, the Active Community Transportation Act. It is important to make the call this week, in support of the National Bike Summit.

Perhaps it is ironic that I follow an angry post about generationally-irresponsible recovery spending with a call to borrow more money against the future, but there is a big difference between investing to leave something for the next generation vs spending money to help the current generation cover the mistakes of the present.

The Active Community Transportation Act would make grant money available to communities for investments in infrastructure that promote walking and biking.

I want to keep this post positive, but I cannot ignore the sense that many people feel biking and walking are recreational activities and should therefore be lower priority. But in fact, because the impact of small investments here can be so large, they should be a higher priority.

The types of projects grant money like this could support could include components as small as improved crosswalks. For about $10,000, we could install a solar-powered pushbutton-activated flashing light and repaint a crosswalk so that dozens of kids and their parents would feel safe walking to school. We could deploy several of these across a busy, wide stretch of road that serves to divide part of our community and effectively “knit” the town together and reduce reliance on car trips. We could make it easier for people to choose to ride the commuter rail and walk to church by bringing the focus down to the sidewalks and streets and investing is small things that pull our communities together.

The benefits are not just aesthetic. We have a childhood obesity epidemic to combat. We have a national health crisis that, regardless of what insurance companies may or may not be doing, is driving the cost of health care higher and higher. We have recurring cycles of foreign oil dependency and occasional bouts of awareness with global warming, carbon emissions, and general sustainability. Do more than buy a Prius. Thank about ways to change the way we live to be more sustainable and more responsible to the future and then ask what stands in the way?

Active Transportation is a path through the obstacles. It’s a part of the solution that, unlike many government projects, is more efficient and has “externality benefits” rather than costs.

It’s efficient because this kind of grant program encourages community-based action. Our local advisory committee would gather information, talk to our neighbors, participate in the grant application process and assist in project managing and monitoring the implementation. The overall grants will be designed to support networks of improvements costing $5 to 15 million each.

“Externality benefits” are the intangible things like improving the strength of a community. It would be impossible to measure the economic impact on house prices down to such a micro level, but I would bet that over time, the increase in walking and perception of safety across a divisive roadway would translate into higher home values. I know we moved from one house because the street was busy and didn’t make an offer an another because it was “on the other side” of the road that we’d have to cross to get to school. Not everyone will share these valuations…but when small projects like these are happening all over the country, the sum effect has to be a net gain.

Will there be boondoggles and “bike paths to nowhwere?” Perhaps. But at least then we can start talking about the best way to do things. How many bike paths could have been built with the money that was used to make it possible for me to drive to the airport in 30 minutes instead of 45? I’m guessing a few hundred thousand.

This week marked the 1-year anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act–the stimulus bill that pumped $787 billion into the U.S. Economy to avert financial catastrophe and a 2nd Great Depression. We can debate all day about could have, should have, would haves with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, but I do believe, on balance, the actions taken by the administration over the past year probably did avert disaster. But…

Today I saw this quote from Governor Patrick:

“When you talk about what you do for your son, that’s what this is all about.”

Governor Deval Patrick, to Derek Lilly, a father of five, who had been describing what it feels like to be a role model for his son now that he has a job thanks to a Stimulus-funded job development program at Boston ABCD.

How can anyone defend the bailout of greedy bankers and free market enthusiasts as something we did for our kids? We did it because the cost of all other alternatives was far worse. We borrowed the future of the next generation to pay off the failures of the present and ensure that angry mobs of unemployed people didn’t burn down the Capital.

What does the future look like? I believe the next generation will find a way. As someone who is in Generation X, in my early 40s, I worry not so much that people like me and younger will simply suffer under the burden of higher taxes, long-term high unemployment rates, and increasingly diminished opportunities that result from paying off or not paying off this huge debt…I worry about what future bad choices we’ll be asked to make.

We are setting the stage for a generational war to replace the so-called cultural war. Instead of Red and Blue states, we will have Green and Gray states. We will see policy choices that increasingly “pay back” the current leadership generation for their abdication of stewardship. We will see a world where policy makers don’t have any sympathy for the “lazy” 70-year old who wants to retire or expects to receive a pension. Out of necessity, younger people will take charge of this mess they have inherited with solutions from their own perspective that is shaped by this world that is unfolding over the next decade.

I’m not saying young people are or will be heartless or seek to actively punish anyone. But the world of choices we are shaping will force harder and harder decisions that will hurt those who do not seek and maintain power.

There is already anger in this country and there should be more. We averted disaster. Great. But don’t tell me this benefits my kids. Tell me what we are going to do to ensure a future worthy of our stewardship. Tell me what sacrifices we are going to make now and then have the guts to lead on those issues.

A number of people who are unemployed in Massachusetts and have lost their benefits due to situations with part-time employment, freelance income, and problems accepting or refusing employment have commented on my blog or sent me emails asking for help. I made some calls today and decided to post some information here in the hope that it can help…

Disclaimer: I have not gone through this process myself (and hope I will never have to) and I do not have personal knowledge of the facts involved in any individual case. I am not representing anyone as an attorney; just reporting what I understand the process to be. If you know better…please comment appropriately and help everyone…

The most important thing you can do if you believe your benefits are being wrongly denied is to continue to file your weekly claim by phone or online. If you don’t file those weekly claims, even if the original denial is reversed, you will not be able to collect benefits retroactively.

When your benefits are canceled or denied, you should receive a letter informing you of this decision and your right to request a hearing. I get the impression that some people are told on the phone that they no longer qualify for benefits and then they just give up. Don’t do that. If you receive this letter, it should include instructions on how to request a hearing which initiates the process described on the DUA web site.

Make your appeal timely–you have 10 days from the original letter to contest the determination.

If you do not receive a letter, you can contact the Adjustment Unit of the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Division of Unimployment Assurance to state your claim and request a hearing. These hearings can take weeks or months to schedule, during which time you should keep filing your weekly claim.

Write a letter, identifying yourself, including your Social Security Number and any case/claim number information you have, and stating that you would like to request a review of your eligibility for benefits. State the facts about your claim–when did you file, what conversations did you have on the phone, what the current status of your benefits are as you understand them… It is best to state the procedural facts clearly and unemotionally to make it clear what you are asking for and what actions have been taken by DUA up to this point. Then, you can describe your circumstances–why you did what you were told disqualified you.

The purpose of this letter is to get a hearing, not to win your case outright. So don’t tell them your life story and don’t provide extraneous facts about your employment or other information that they don’t know about that might raise additional issues!

For example, if you were told that because you quit a job, you can no longer claim benefits, you should say something like this: “The Tele-Claim representative told me that because I had stopped working as a dishwasher, I was no longer eligible to file for weekly benefits. I stopped filing my weekly claim but never received any formal notice of this decision.” As you relate the facts, focus on “what” happened, not what you believe, think, feel, desire or wish. Then, request a review very explicity by saying, “I would like you to review my denial of benefits and give me an opportunity to appeal the decision.” Then, you go into the consequences: “Based on what I was told, I stopped filing weekly claims. I was never fully employed and [rest of story.]

That’s just my advice on writing a persuasive letter–obviously eveyone has their own situation, but the important thing is to lay out the procedural facts as accurately as possible and ask for an opportunity to provide additional information to help them make a more accurate determination of your status.

Send this letter to:

Adjustment Unit, DUA
Department of Workforce Development
Charles F. Hurley Building
19 Staniford Street, 2nd Floor
Boston, MA 02114

Then wait. Unfortunately, there is a backlog and it could be 6-8 weeks before you hear anything. However, after 3 weeks, you can call the Hearings Department at 617-626-5200 to verify that the case has been opened/entered into the system, at which point you would receive a docket number that can be used to check status on the phone.

Don’t give up. If I were in the situation described by some of the people who have contacted me, I would send a letter and start filing my weekly claim immediately AND argue that my failure to file previous weeks was not my fault because I was told to stop claiming. If the online form will not allow you to file a weekly claim…call the Tele-Claim center at 617-626-6338. If that person says “you’re not eligible,” then you should say “I am filing an appeal and want to certify that for this week, I was available for work, looked for work, and did not earn any money.”

Pace yourself. You still need to find a job, but these benefits–if you deserve them–might be the difference between digging out of debt for years after you find work. So:

1. write that letter and mail it
2. do your weekly claim – keep the work search log going too so you have documentation of your efforts to find a job and you don’t create another problem
3. wait 3 weeks, then call the Hearing Department at DUA to verify the hearing process is initiated. If it is not…hopefully they can help you on the phone to know what to do next.
4. go to the hearing and make your case

If the hearing results in an adverse judgment…you have the right to appeal the hearing as well.

As with any bureaucratic process, it would be nice if someone told you all this up front…or if someone acted as your advocate/guide/counsellor along the way. But that’s not how it works, so live, learn, and share.

Comment spammers are relentless. I spend time every day just deleting the comments that make it through Akismet and other spam filters.

The spam-filtering service Akismet defeats most automated spam, but I suspect there is a class of low-wage human-powered spamming going on based on some internet marketer’s idea of link building.

The reason some people post short comments like “Nice job. Keep up good work.” or “Good information, thanks for the post!” is because the comment form gives them the opportunity to link to another web site. That link becomes a part of my blog because it is published with the comment. This a legitmate way to build connections between bloggers. When I comment on someone else’s blog that has much more traffic than mine, I hope that people will check out my site to see what else I’m writing.

But the reason spammers comment on blogs is to improve search engine rankings. Links from blogs to web sites increase the ranking of those sites, because search engines believe sites with many inbound links are more authoritative and creditable. So a business might pay a marketing firm to go out and comment on all the blogs they can find. Then, they report back to the company: “we’ve generated 100 inbound links for you!”

The sad thing about such an approach–apart from my annoyance at these bozos–is that it is a fraudulent scam on the companies who are paying the “internet marketing firm.” Read Google’s opinion of comment spam on their blog. The message from Google is clear:

• it does not work; they will detect it and ignore it
• it can hurt you; they will penalize sites that use it

My simplistic description of how inbound links affect search engine ranking is NOT very accurate. Google has spent the last decade refining their algorithms for ranking sites. So it is not as simple as getting some links.

None of this is new. I’ve been deleting comments like this for years, and I try to avoid even thinking about it because it is a distraction from working on something that might actually generate some revenue for my business. But I think all bloggers should review Google’s recommendations on how to fight comment spam just to make sure they are not just hitting the snooze button every day for years. Let’s walk through Google’s recommendations with some real world practical commentary…

I think the CAPTCHA and Akismet approaches are the most worthwhile to pursue. Many of us set up our sites years ago and it’s worth a review of the technologies available to update our sites to make sure we are minimizing the amount of predictible spam, then, just delete those bogus comments that slip through.

This post turned into more than a few minutes diversion…feel free to submit your own comments and links to practical ways to fight spam. I’m sure this post will itself create a moderation challenge for me.

As I formalized the business organization for Dave Atkins Media, Inc., I learned a few things I am going to share here–sort of a corollary to my popular post on What I’ve Learned about Unemployment in Massachusetts.

But First Things First

Until you are seriously committed to starting a business, you don’t need to do anything more than find clients with work to do and make sure you get the work done on time. Thinking about tax issues and forming a corporation or LLC…even doing a business plan, spreadsheet, etc.–these are all distracting time-wasters that get in the way of generating that first bit of revenue. As a sole proprietor, working out of your home or a coffeehouse, the first step in forming a business is to get a client.

When you contract with your first client, rather than worry about whether you have formed an LLC yet or obtained a DBA certificate from the Town Clerk…just make sure you have a signed proposal that states the work you will do, how much you will be paid, and which includes a limitation on your liability such as:

CLAIMS. All claims for defective or incomplete Services must be made in writing fully setting forth the nature of the alleged defect or damage, within thirty (30) days from the date of the invoice. CLIENT’s failure to so notify PROVIDER shall constitute acceptance of the Services. PROVIDER’s liability is limited to the total cost of services invoiced.

Then, do the work. Do it well. Repeat.

When I started Dave Atkins Media a year ago, this was the rule I set for myself because I knew that as someone with legal training and curiosity about everything…I would quickly get lost in the fascinating details of things that mostly don’t matter. For accounting, bookkeeping, and taxes–use excel. Use a single worksheet of date, revenue, expense, description to start. Don’t run out and buy Quickbooks yet.

I also used Freshbooks–an online invoicing and time tracking system–to record my hours and expenses–then, each week, I would generate a report which gave me earnings – expenses = the amount I reported as freelance income for unemployment claims.

Ready for Prime Time
I reached a point where I decided to go “all in.” It would be nice if that point had been precipitated by a steady stream of cash flows and the growing realization that my business was taking off–but it didn’t work like that. I just decided that I needed to get out of my house and separate the business from my personal finances. I decided that whatever I built, it was going to be much bigger than just some temporary hourly contract work thing that I did until the next job came along. I think, for me it coalesced around the finding of an office space in the center of town with the opportunity to post a sign.

Choose the Form of Business
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has some guidance online: Forming a Business, Step by Step. It’s a good starting point, but it is easy to get lost in the details.

I chose an S-corporation as my business form. I started to write about why here, but then I found a blog in California that covers it pretty well. His decisions are influenced by the particulars of California law, but the Federal tax issues are the most significant to consider.

To form an S-Corporation:

Note: Your tax year will be January-December for all things. No Fiscal Year treatment for S-Corporations in Massachusetts.

Go to the Secretary of State’s Corporate database search and make sure the name of your company is not already taken. More info here.

Obtain a Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN). You will fill out an online form and get an ID number immediately.

Use the online filing system at the Secretary of State’s website to create your Articles of Incorporation. Some key “hints”:

• specify 275,000 shares of undesignated stock. That is the maximum amount. If you want to change this later…$100 fee to file and $100/100K additional shares authorized.
• specify 1/1/2010 as the effective date of organization. Do NOT make the mistake of forming a corporation in November or December if you can postpone to January. This will save you $456 in minimum corporate excise tax you would otherwise pay in March 2010 for the first partial year.
• One person can serve as President, Secretary, Treasurer and Director. It looks silly, but if you are a sole incorporator, this is what you do.
• Submit the form and pay with your credit card.

There are two forms you must file with the IRS to elect S-corporation status. Go to the IRS website to download the forms in instructions for:

• Form 2553 Election by a Small Business Corporation
• Entity Classification Election (“check the box form”)

The paperwork is far from over, but you are now a corporation. You will need to draft and file additional documents including your bylaws and minutes from an initial meeting (with yourself!). I’ll blog about that separately…but it is critical that you follow the rules and keep up with the formalities/requirements.

I’m excited that our Pedestrian and Bike Safety Committee was able to work with our town to secure almost $3700 in reimbursement funding to buy bike racks. And our monthly meetings are defintitely raising awareness about Pedestrian and Bike Safety issues and beginning to build a coalition of people in town who share a desire to make improvements. But it is really inspiring to read this story of how a group in California, over the course of a year, obtained $800,000 in grant money to improve sidewalks in their neighborhood.

It can happen, even in difficult economic times. We confront a budget crisis here and the likelihood of multiple property tax override campaigns next year. Despite recent good news about the fact that state aid for school funding will not be cut, even “level-funding” of Town departments has become the best we can hope for. The question is not what will be cut, but how much will be cut. Many people are going to oppose those overrides because times are hard for everyone and it’s a reasonable case to say, why can’t the town just “tighten their belts” like the rest of us…and postpone new expensive projects?

In such an environment, talk of sidewalks and other improvements that cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, faces an impossibility argument–but only if we assume the money has to come from the existing budget. When people are truly behind an idea, they can make it happen.

Tomorrow, our town of Westwood is dedicating a Veterans Memorial park that has been in the works for many years. Originally, Town Meeting approved $25,000 for the park, but it took the efforts of many people over the years to make the project happen. Then, when it became clear that $25,000 was not going to cover the project, the town conducted a brick sale–selling memorial bricks to residents to honor Veterans. Within a few weeks, hundreds of bricks were sold and in total, the Town raised over $45,000 of additional private money.

Figure out what needs to be done first. Get true consensus and involve as many people as possible so the idea is not just a good idea, but something many people want to happen and believe in. Then, find the money and make it so.

It’s easy to get sidetracked by negativity. Did you see how $9 million of Federal stimulus funding is being used to construct a footbridge to connect parking lots to Gillete Stadium? That is NOT my idea of walkability–to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize private development of a project nobody asked for? Meanwhile, we need this bridge fixed so people can walk under it from one side of town to the other and not be killed:

Instead of griping about things though, let’s think of the question in a more optimistic manner…if Robert Kraft can get $9 million for a parking lot bridge, why CAN’T we get this bridge improved? What can I do to make it happen? Shall I go back to that bridge with a stroller and videotape what it is like to push a baby carriage along under that bridge? Shall we form a neighborhood group to advocate for fixing the bridge? How do we make this thing “shovel ready?” I don’t think it would be that hard to light a fire around this issue, but we need other people to step up and a relentless focus on positive solutions…then, we will find the will to make it happen, the consensus to do something that is supported by the entire neighborhood, and the funding to accomplish the impossible.

The fact is, when you are laid off, you can lose your health insurance immediately, despite the so-called protections of COBRA. The only thing COBRA does is entitle certain qualififying persons (most people who are laid off) the opportunity to continue their health insurance under the same group plan they were eligible for when they were employed.

I’ve blogged here before about how to maintain health insurance while unemployed–essentially, you should 1) elect COBRA immediately because the Federal Stimulus subsidy means you will have at least 65% of the premium covered for 9 months, and 2) apply for the Massachusetts Medial Security Program and other resources which will subsidize an additional 80% of your out of pocket expenses through a reimbursement as long as you remain unemployed and enrolled in the MSP. These are generous benefits that all unemployed, eligible persons should take advantage of immediately.

Immediately is the key word. I thought I understood it all, but the learning process continues as I recently ran into difficulty confirming future doctor’s appointments for my kids. I was told my insurance had been canceled immediately upon termination from my last job–before I even received the paperwork for COBRA. This is at the discretion of the employer.

Technically, under COBRA, you have the right to choose whether to elect continuation coverage for 60 days following termination. Then, you have 45 days to make the first payment. In every employer I’ve worked for in the past, this was explained to laid off employees as “don’t worry about health insurance; you have 3 1/2 months before you’ll have to pay anything.” But it’s not that simple. The employer may decided to wait 60 days–during which time they are actually continuing to pay for your health insurance and the insurance company does not even know you have been terminated. But they are not required to be that generous. If instead, they terminate your coverage immediately, then you will lose health insurance on the day you lose your job.

I was advised by my insurer, Tufts, to simply tell the doctor that I’ve applied for COBRA…hopefully that will be sufficient to enable us to continue receiving medical care until my former employer processes the paperwork of my COBRA election form and reinstates my health coverage. But it illustrates how important it is for you to NOT wait and to IMMEDIATELY make your COBRA election on the day you are laid off. The law only provides you the opportunity to purchase health insurance; it does not automatically provide continuity of coverage. As I’ve noted before, given the Federal Stimulus benefit, this is a “no-brainer” now, but that benefit will go away in a few months and then, once again, the unemployed will face the very real fear of the immediate loss of health care and difficult choice to being paying over $1000/month–while unemployed–to keep their families covered.

Here is a short video of some serious critical cycling mass in Copenhagen, Denmark…

I’m wrapping up a final list of bike racks for our town to obtain through the Metropolitan Area Planning Council’s (MAPC) Regional Bike Parking Program. Today is the deadline to order bike racks which are then reimbursed by this program. Our town administrator and school officials are excited to get the racks and hopefully, this will be another small step towards increased biking and walking in Westwood.

Here’s one of the racks we hope to replace/improve:

The popular understanding of the origin of street design in Boston goes back to the original wisdom of cows pastured on the common and commuting home to farms. Although this is more folklore than fact, it does reflect the liklihood that streets were developed piecemeal in response to short-term needs and not as a part of an organized plan.

Such is always the case, unless a community has a blank canvas upon which to write…and millions of dollars of funding…and popular support for centralized design and planning of an urban utopia. Expect that confluence of opportunity sometime in the next century. In the meantime, improvements are opportunistic: a bike lane here, an updated intersection there…a new development bringing potentially more problems but at least some cash to manage solutions. When those micro-opportunties happen…advocates need to be ready to propose improvements, but these improvements should be seen NOT as accomodations for interest groups, but as opportunities to develop “complete streets” – recognizing that…

The streets of our cities and towns are an important part of the livability of our communities. They ought to be for everyone, whether young or old, motorist or bicyclist, walker or wheelchair user, bus rider or shopkeeper. But too many of our streets are designed only for speeding cars, or worse, creeping traffic jams.–National Complete Streets Coalition

Increasingly, communities are adopting policies to incorporate this new kind of paradigm. Even as they do so, however, they are not immune to the misunderstandings of those who view these measures as expensive luxuries that detract from “fixing potholes.” What opponents fail to realize is that today’s potholes were yesterday’s bogs and other “cow obstacles.”

Complete Streets is not about a master plan to impose a new design on cities, but an effort to develop a shared use strategy that recognizes how our needs are changing. We need safer ways for active transportation to be supported in our communities. Partly, it is “aspirational”–we do want to encourage more walking and biking–but successful change looks for real needs: where are people currently trying to walk and bike? It can never be about “build it and they will come,” it has to be “thank goodness they finally did something about that bridge!”

Adopting a Complete Streets strategy means coming together as a community to adopt a policy that commits to a vision of the future where the needs of all users are considered. It provides a reference point for “why do we want to do this?” and “why are we doing this?” so that changes/improvements are not seen as accommodations or concessions to appease a minority of outlier users, but as necessary steps towards ensuring a better future for all.

A few Halloweens ago, I picked up a barrel of “Halloween Pretzels” from Costco–mini-pretzels in orange and black bags in a big plastic container. About the ONLY one happy about that choice was our dog who got into the “treats” when the untouched bowl was left on the floor inadvertently. I believe we finally choked down the last remnant sometime in the following spring. Having learned my lesson, I am happy to see a giant bag full of candy in the kitchen now awaiting Saturday night.

Thousands of empty calories await as we prepare to march our children around the neighborhood in this annual ritual of excess. Given the explosion of childhood obesity in America, am I worried? Not really.

I’ve been following a number of stories in the past few weeks connecting the obesity crisis in America to health care. CBS’s Sunday Morning devoted an entire show to “Size Matters.” A radio program on NPR last week devoted an hour to a discussion of Overweight America. The radio show considered, in particular the question of how we advocate for weight loss without “blaming” overweight people.

We focus far too much on symptoms of a problem that has much deeper roots than can be addressed directly. For solutions, we leap to radical and drastic methods like surgery or the search for medications that will fix us. We guilt each other into diets or pursuing unpleasant exercise routines we hate…and then we watch the food we eat selectively–seizing on the most minute reports of the bad or goodness of a particular food, while oblivious to a landscape of excess that surrounds us.

But I digress. The folks at Zillow, where you can look up the value of your neighbor’s house, have created a Trick or Treat Housing Index for Seattle (their company location) neighborhoods. It’s basically a list of affluent, walkable neighborhoods–big surprise–but what I find interesting is the walkable connection.

A 30-minute walk once a year with your kids is not going to compensate for eating thousands of calories in a glorious choco-fest of indulgence this weekend, but perhaps living in a place where this traditional activity is easy will. 20-minutes of walking to a train and from the station to work everyday does make a difference. Deciding, several times per week, that it would be enjoyable to go for a walk around the neighborhood adds up to many miles of exercise. Hopping on a bike with a kid in the bike seat to go to the library occasionally…it all adds up to an active lifestyle that is foreign to many Americans who have become isolated in car-dependent housing developments.

So I look forward to enjoying Halloween and the “fruits of our labor,” so to speak, with no guilt or worry. We will eat crap and be happy. We will join our neighbors in this annual tradition that fills our side streets with parents and children walking from door to door, meeting each other, and collecting candy. It’s a great American tradition, but what is great about it is not just getting the candy but the whole experience that is fundamentally-rooted in an active, community-engaged lifestyle that reminds us of how simple, safe–and relatively healthy–our lives were before we over-thought and over-did everthing.

Every horrific death of a cyclist leads to rounds of recriminations and a brief “coming together” of the cyclist community to draw attention to how, in the battle between car and bike, bike (and biker) always loses. In Toronto this summer, a prominent politician (former Attorny General of Ontario, Michael Bryant) engaged in an altercation with a cyclist–the end resulting being the cyclist clinging to his car and eventually being dragged under the rear wheels and killed. The cyclist, a 33-year old father of 3, was a bike courier.

The Toronto Cyclists Union, after some initial reaction and anger and protest, is adopting a very different and positive campaign to attempt to get drivers to notice and respect cyclists–described in the YouTube video below:

The Cyclists Paving the Way campaign aims to “flip” the negativity and emphasize positive driver behavior by encouraging bike riders to hand out little “Thank You” cards to drivers who do “small” actions that acknowledge and respect cyclists…little things like looking before opening a car door or clearly checking for a cyclist when turning.

I like the idea and although I’m not sure about the logistics of handing out cards in busy traffic, I know that I’ve observed–even in Boston–some standout behavior from people driving cars that should have been thanked. I was shocked one day, at the Mass. Ave and Columbus Ave intersection, to observe a driver asking a guy on a bike about whether or not he (the driver) was OK to be using a lane with a bike drawn on it for his right turn. (Yes, the bike lanes convert to “sharrows” at major intersections.) I’ve also noted a number of times when I could feel cars patiently waiting for me to “clear” an intersection as they approached from behind to make a right turn…and many times when cars at 4-way stops waved me through as I slowed to pause…

We tend to remember the negative 10 times more than the positive, it seems. The story of the person in a car who buzzed me or yelled at me for no reason–that sticks in my mind for weeks or months, but really, most of the time, most people in cars are actually trying to co-exist. When I have crashed a few times over the years, I’ve had people jump out of their cars and offer to drive me somewhere–I was embarassed, actually–it was no big deal–but we tend to forget or cynically refuse to believe that actually, most people out there are kind and considerate. If they were not–you wouldn’t be able to get a mile down the road without being killed as the opportunities for mayhem are so great…and, as I said in the beginning, in a conflict between car and bike, the car always wins.

I hope the Toronto experiment works. It’s not always going to be practical and presumably a cyclist motivated to be this kind of “goodwill ambassador” will be safety-conscious enough to give out these little cards without creating a distraction. But it would be great to see those kind of interactions happening–with less emphasis on the demands for enforcement, penalty and road justice that color most discussions of how bikes and cars get along.

Yesterday, the League of American Bicyclists announced their updated list of Bicycle Friendly Communities. The closest town to Boston is Brunswick, Maine…and, in the past, Burlington, Vermont has been a winner. Both communities won the Bronze designation.

Despite some recent improvements, the City of Boston is not on the list yet. I would argue that their recent efforts make them a strong candidate, but the reality is cycling in Boston is still perceived as a life-and-death adventure and an award, at this point in time, would stretch the credibility of the League.

To win designation as a Bike Friendly Community, a community of any size (award winners range from Chicago and New York City down to Sitka, Alaska and Oxford, Mississippi) submits an application to report what has been done to make their community more bike friendly. It can be both a recognition of efforts and a promotion to encourage more residents to consider cycling.

The 28-page application is, itself, something of a roadmap for change. As communities review the application, they will quickly self-select whether or not they should be applying yet–and gather ideas for steps to take towards making an application credible.

We should be putting Massachusetts on this map. If Sitka and Oxford can be bike-friendly, then, with a bit of work, so can Westwood. Other towns like Brookline, Newton, Milton, Concord and Lexington are probably farther along, but all share significant cycling and cycling advocate populations and official town advisory boards. I would love to see one of these signs posted at the entrance to our town…of course, I’d love to see some bike lanes first!

Of course it would not be fair to just post signs without having made things any safer or friendlier. But as we deploy bike racks, involve our advisory committee in the repaving of roads (a small project next week on Gay Street is taking into account our committee’s recommendations), promote our schools participation in Safe Routes to Schools, and look for more and more ways to support and encourage cycling, I believe we should make these efforts as visible as possible–not to “claim credit” but to send a message that bicycles are a welcome part of our community.

Last Friday night, I attended an unconventional book-signing/networking party in Boston that brought together Gary Vaynerchuk, Jeff Cutler, and Mike Langford along with the usual suspects of the Boston social media scene. I picked up a copy of Gary’s book and then–because I missed the earlier train home, had an hour and a half to read it while waiting for the next commuter rail.

Gary is a “rock star” in the social media space because he used Twitter and Facebook to take his video blog, Wine Library TV, to stratospheric levels of popularity. He’s an inspirational phenomena of optimism, energy, and attitude whose contagious enthusiasm motivates and inspires.

I have a skeptical streak…and I will not to waste time here critiquing but instead focus on my takeaways. Like so many sources out there…you take what you need; you find the parts that challenge you to think.

People like Gary have aligned their passion with a platform that essentially makes sharing and self-promotion one and the same. The more he talks, the more people want to listen. Are his ideas revolutionary? No. Is there some deep insight in this book that will change your life? No. Is there a plan you can apply to your business idea to make a fortune and replicate Gary’s success, including a 7-figure book deal? No. So what is the point?

The point is that social media channels like Twitter, Facebook, and blogging give every person the power to both publish their own experiences AND, more importantly, CONNECT with others who share and amplify those passions. Find what you love to do and “Crush it!” Every person can become an enthusiastic authority about something and then, as they draw attention to their passion, perhaps they can “monetize” it. It’s not even all about money though really–if you could just afford to live your dreams, would it matter to make $60 million or $60 thousand a year?

But on this path, you really need to “Crush it.” To do that, you need to love what you are doing. A hobby blog about something you are kind of interested in is not going to do it. Starting a blog at your company and following the steps to promote it…is not going to do it. It’s not that Gary Vaynerchuck has a great video blog about wine. It’s that Gary Vaynerchuck is the Wine Library TV guy.

It’s not about expert opinions. I don’t know if Gary is an expert on wine. It doesn’t seem to matter. If you want a professional wine evaluation, I’m sure you can get that from people who are much less famous and making a lot less money. But they are boring. Gary is fun. You can complain that it’s not fair (if you are one of those people, for example) or you can realize, hey, it doesn’t freakin matter. Maybe if I find the thing I love and share it with everyone, they will love me enough that I can just do that and be happy.

But you’ve got to Crush it. Can you think of 100 or 500 blog posts you could write about the thing you are excited about? Do you want to scour the internet for information on that topic, commenting on everone else’s blog and engaging with everyone you can find? Are you motivated to hustle in this way? If not, don’t bother because there can be only one.

You need to find that passion…the thing that keeps you awake at night and is the burning fuel that will sustain you through what others would see as a lot of hard, tedious work. The good news is that social media gives you another tool that has the potential to hit the ball out of the park.

But you also have to pay the rent. That statement is the dream-killing, self-defeating reality check on so many aspirations for so many people. Fine, so pay the rent. Get a job and work 8 hours a day or whatever. But that leaves 16 hours for other things. After family and eating…ok, I guess you need to give up sleep. That’s the deal, really.

If you want to turn a dream into reality, you need to “Crush it.” You go “all in” on it and when you see an opportunity, you throw everything you have at it. Sunday, the Patriots beat the Titans 59-0 in 3 quarters of football. That sucks for the Titans, but it’s what happens when one team gives up against a team that doesn’t have a concept of “dialing things back a bit.” It does not mean you have a license/excuse to neglect other priorities…but when you are doing the thing you love–you need to give it all you have.

The passion is hard to find.

I found it hard, it’s hard to find, oh well, whatever, nevermind.

I don’t really know what Curt Cobain was thinking when he wrote that, but for me it symbolizes the fleeting nature of dreams for so many…especially those of us in Generation X who allow our cynicism to truncate promising optimism.

I do not write from the platform of a $60 million wine busines. I’m excited I found a project to do some consulting work this week that could turn into a longer term project. But what keeps me awake at night is thinking about how I can take this topic of active transporation, apply it to my town, and pull together my love of cycling and running, my desire to be a part of civic life, and my analytical and techincal skills to not only support my family, but make my world a better place.

A few weeks ago, I set up an IdeaScale web site to gather suggestions for ways to improve Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety in Westwood. It has turned out to be an effective, easy way to collect ideas and our challenge now is to do something about those ideas.

The site is simple to use–that is its principal virtue. I have experimented with other online tools to help improve communication and/or organize things before, with mixed results:

• The WestwoodWiki went nowhere–I think mainly because it requires a great deal of participation, awareness, and faith that one’s investment of time will be meaningful. A wiki is a website anyone can edit–allowing group collaboration in drafting documents, etc.–and although I believe it can be a great tool to foster civic engagement, and there are great examples of this in larger cities like Melbourne, Australia or Davis, California, it is hard to get the ball rolling, so to speak.
• WestwoodBlog has been successful, but inconsistent. It totally depends on my effort to stir up news and events and is most valuable when there are “hot” issues in town. If I post something about Westwood Station–the controversial development project that is now stalled due to the economic slowdown–it generates a ton of activity. If I encourage and solicit candidates for Town Election to post their ideas, this generates some commentary. And the topic I created for Walkable Westwood, has been a good place for me to publicize our efforts on Ped/Bike Safety…but the blog is a very general purpose, news-oriented site that many read, but few contribute.

The IdeaScale Site has generated 44 ideas and included several hundred people participating by voting those ideas up or down.

• I seeded the site with many of the ideas our group had already been talking about. This gave us a place to document and discuss those ideas. We had talked about circulating spreadsheets and drafting a group report, but I found publishing the ideas moved us forward more effectively.
• The site was relatively easy to use. I had a few reports of difficulty…and very few people went to the trouble of creating a login account–but as anonymous, guest users, they were able to quickly submit ideas and comments (60-plus comments so far).
• The “discussion” has stayed on track. On the blog, things can go off on tangents since there is no overall purpose, but on the IdeaScale site, it is so focused on a single purpose, I think this has avoided some of the community management problems that could result from just posting a blog item and asking for feedback.

The big question is “what next?” I believe our committee has had great discussions so far and is building an increased awareness of active transporation issues in Town, but I want us to start creating some “small victories”–little accomplishments that demonstrate we are putting ideas to work.

At our last meeting, we began to work through the ideas submitted. I exported the ideas into an Excel spreadsheet and, based on suggestions from other members of the group, created scoring columns for urgency, population impact, and relative effort–summing a 3-point scale so that when addedd together, each idea received a score ranging from 3 to 9. Then, we can sort the ideas and identify the most urgent (immediate safety issues) ideas affecting the largest number of people with the fewest obstacles to implementation as projects we should form subcommittees or working groups to address.

We began by sorting the ideas by their IdeaScale vote score and then working down through the list. The process of discussion itself was valuable–given this framework for approaching it. I projected the spreadsheet on a wall from my laptop and edited it in real-time. For each idea, I clicked on the hyperlink from the spreadsheet to a web browser that allowed us to read the full idea submitted and see the comments. In another browser window, we used google maps to view satellite imagery of the specific locations involved.

As a group, we then reached a consensus on the 3 ratings for each item. Unfortunately, our meeting was already running very late, so we only managed to review the first ten ideas–but along the way we have already begun to identify some projects and priorities and talk about solutions with people in the room who can make a difference–e.g. the Town Engineer, Safety Officer, Town Planner, Planning Board members, PTA representatives, DPW representatives, and other interested people. At our previous meetings, we have had a lot of discussion, but I believe this more structured approach is leading us towards a more methodical review of ideas.

It’s early. This was just one meeting and as it approached 10pm, I was torn between the desire to get things done versus the reality that everyone needed to get home to their families. It was not a simple, “that’s a 1, this is a 3,” kind of discussion as people have many perspectives on each idea and it is incredibly valuable to hear that input as a group. But we began to get into a rhythm of discussion and then a conclusion that, ok, that sounds like it affects the whole town…or, ok that will require work, but it is not impossible…”

I’ll report more as we progress.

Last Wednesday, Westwood schools postponed their participation in International Walk to School day due to a torrential downpour. This morning, we await the dawn to melt the first frost of the season, as the thermometer at my house reads 34 degrees and the Norwood airport reports 28. But clear skies should make this a spectacular fall day.

Meanwhile, the concerned parents and bureacrats in Saratoga have eeked at bit closer to permitting kids to ride bikes to school at Maple Avenue Middle School. The Board of Education did in fact strike down the 1994 policy forbidding bike riding, but transferred authority to the local school principal to determine whether it was safe or not. Advocates for change aren’t thrilled–it simply transfers the issue to the local school where administrators may continue to say it is not safe, nothing has changed, etc. But I think this is a victory as it opens the door to a local discussion and changes the conversation from “bike riding will not be tolerated” to “how can we make this school safe?”

The reality is that the perception of bike riding as an unsafe activity persists no matter what official policy is adopted. Parents are not going to encourage/allow their kids to ride bikes if they feel it is unsafe. Adults will not bike commute to work if they fear for their lives. Those who extol the virtues of active transportation must find solutions to real and perceived dangers through a combination of what are described as the 4 E’s of planning: Education, Engineering, Enforcement, and Encouragement. Additionally, a 5th E, Evaluation, is critical to success of Safe Routes to Schools programs as it “closes the loop” on making sure great ideas, as they are implemented, actually work.

These success stories from communities that have improved their walkability illustrate the key theme of inclusion. Change must “bottom up,” it cannot be imposed from above or simply “fixed” by changing a law or building a sidewalk. How we get there is vitally important to success.

Is it my imagination, or has the Boston Globe been sentenced to some form of secret penance that compels them to run “the other side” stories every once in a while? First there was a report of Boston’s unruly riders–scofflaw cyclists who annoy and confound drivers with their callous disregard for law and safety. Now it’s the pedestrians turn as we learn that “Despite increased risks, jaywalkers abound on Boston’s busy streets.”

These enforcement actions are a good idea. Some communities have even obtained state grant money to support increased police presence to stop cyclists and pedestrians who fail to follow the rules. But I don’t accept the common explanation for people breaking the rules–that they are stupid or too self-centered to care. Too much of the commentary on these stories easily dismisses the situation as personally irrelevent because the problem is caused by other, “bad” people.

The real problem is courtesy–and unfortunately, these controversy-baiting stories only raise the temperature and harden the judgments of many. Remember that story last week about the Saratoga Springs school policy against kids riding bikes to school? Well tonight, the Board of Education will hear a report from a committee that has been working on this issue for the past four months.

…the committee is comprised of about 24 school and town officials, students, parents and representatives of Saratoga Healthy Transportation Network.

The group met five times over the summer to investigate current walking and biking access to every school in the district and develop a potential plan for safe, alternative routes. In addition, the advisory committee brainstormed options for how to promote biking and walking to school.

Will the policy change? Maybe. But more importantly, people in the community are working on this issue. The original news story talked of the school district having to “backpedal” on a policy from 1994, but it seems the local process is working.

Measuring a baseline is the first step towards assessing and ultimately achieving improvements to walkability. Walk Score has generated a ton of news lately–winning a Rockefeller Grant to improve their service, providing a quantitative basis for the CEOs for Cities study that illustrated a link between walkability and housing prices and providing a measuring stick for communities to compare themselves to one another. A quick lookup of our new home versus our old one confirms what I already knew: a 12% increase in walkability, although it feels MUCH greater.

Walk Score is imprecise–it depends on searching google maps for known points of interest like grocery stores and other amenities. But it gives us some relative basis for comparison and can prompt a discussion of what factors go into generating a higher score. Ultimately, when the Walk Score shows up in real estate listings, it becomes a “marketing tool,” and that’s not bad–it helps quantify the often vague assertions in home listings of “walk to shops, parks, trails” which could mean there is a patch of green grass somewhere withing 2 miles of a house. It helps get people talking specifics and reinforces the idea that walkability is a valuable topic.

I’m also impressed by what the League of Illinois Bicyclists has done in compiling a “Complete Streets” audit of road construction projects. They evaluated 46 recent Chicago area road projects for pedestrian and bicyclist safety and generated a 100-point scale that combines ratings for ped, bike, crossing and context to arrive at a “complete” score for the project. That study, published today, was cited by the Chicago Tribune to support their conclusion that “the best streets are built by those who will use them.” Projects administered by the state department of transportation scored lowest, while locally-planned and originated projects scored highest. Big surprise: central planning fails to serve the needs of the community.

These are two examples of data-driven analysis–and how it can influence the public debate. As we talk to our neighbors, we hear so many ideas and so many observations…but it is hard to get from talk to action. The big “deal breaker” of course is money–and I’d love to hear how cash-strapped communities have come up with funds to pay for projects. The short answer is that it is not a short process. There are grant programs that take time. The planning takes time and resources of busy people. At every step, there are questions of impossibility: how could we ever afford that?! The residents will not support it. Someone will object…whatever. These kinds of quantiative tools–combined with a more qualitative–quality of life–perspective and vision for the future are the best recipe for progress…

Over the years I’ve lived here, I’ve developed more and more respect for our Mayor, Tom Menino. Now it turns out he’s discovered cycling and goes for an early morning ride in the Hyde Park neighborhood every day. That can only be good news for those of us who brave the potholes and insane drivers of Boston as we try to bike commute. I would not characterize Boston as bike friendly, but it is a very bike-aware city. Drivers are familiar with cyclists, they just don’t like them. Here are some lifesaving tips for cyclists.

I enjoy riding my bike to work for two reasons. First, I like the activity…it is just fun to be able to ride a bike for a couple of hours on days that I ride in and out. Second, it gives me a different perspective on the city than I would have otherwise. I don’t claim to relate to the people of all the neighborhoods I ride through, just because I’m on a bike, but I see parts of the city I would never notice if you just got in your car and rode the MassPike from suburban Westwood in to work downtown. My daily ride takes me through Dedham, Roxbury, West Roxbury, Roslindale, Jamaica Plain, the South End, and parts of Southie. Sometimes I ride home through the Back Bay, out past Fenway and BU, Allston-Brighton, through Newton, Brookline, Needham, etc.

I’ve been listening to the bikescape podcast for a couple of years, and I finally managed to listen to last months podcast on Portland, OR. It really made me want to visit. Then, I watched the video on the bikescape website and it made me want to move there!

I’ve known Portland is a great place to live and work for some time and I’ve driven around the city going up and down the West coast, but I never stopped to visit. In the podcast, Jon (the amazing guy who has recorded over 60 of these hour long podcasts about cycling in San Francisco, New York, England, LA, etc.) narrates as he, his wife, and two kids cycle the neighborhoods of Portland and talk with local cyclists. I never realized how “Berkeleyesque” Portland was until I heard the local people talking about living there.

Bikescape is a great podcast. I’ve subscribed to a few “newsy” podcasts in the past, but got bored with them. Something about the “urban folksy” manner of Jon and the cool, laid back people he talks to really communicates a sense of “bike culture.” I listened to his podcast on fixed gear bikes a couple years ago and since then, I’ve become a fixie enthusiast myself. It is hard to explain to people why you would enjoy riding a bike with no shifting and no freewheel (no coasting; if the bike is moving, the pedals are moving your feet.) but when I listened to people talk about it, I found it infectious.

As I searched through his archives for a link to that Fetish for Fixies podcast, I realized the extraordinary memorability of so many of his conversations. I’m not really much of a part of the cycling community here, but listening to these people over the past couple years has helped me feel a bit connected to something larger.

The city of Boston is having a Bike Summit next week. If I can manage to take a few long lunches from work, I have to check it out and see what I can report back here.

Boston is currently conducting a “bike summit” to brainstorm ideas for making the city more bike friendly. I attended a public session today at city hall about bikes and economic development. I wish I could report that the session itself was worthwhile, but I think we only scratched the surface of what is possible. However, the great news is that a lot of people came together in one room from many successful efforts across the country.

Part of the opportunity for economic development is in bike tourism. Jennifer Toole, of Toole Design Group in Washington, DC described how bike tourism has benefited Vermont, where a study indicated that the economic revenue generated by bike tourism exceeds maple syrup revenue. An economic impact study from western Canada discovered that mountain bike tourism is responsible for over $10 million annually. The image of cyclists as cheap vagabonds who cruise through town and buy a couple of bananas is way off. For Boston though…I have a hard time envisioning the city itself as a bike destination.

I think the greater value of making the city more bike friendly is in how it can transform our urban experience. Boston is already a “creative class” city–our culture and educational resources are a huge magnet. But Boston is expensive and rough around the edges. I love the city, but when you start to look at what other cities are doing to enhance their overall quality of life, you start to think, maybe I’m paying too much to live here. Maybe there is greater value to be found elsewhere.

Louisville, KY held a bike summit a couple of years ago and has launched an aggressive program to integrate bikes into the life of the city. A specific goal is “We want to attract and retain young professionals to expand the economic base in Louisville.”

In Chicago the McDonald’s Cycle Center offers bike commuters lockers, showers, repairs, rentals–you name it. But that’s just a start. Nick Jackson, of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation spoke to the Boston group today about the vision behind these efforts to transform the city over the coming decades.

Another Chicago project involves education and publicity efforts behind a program to encourage “Shop by Bike.” Bikes could extend our pedestrian radius within a city; consider that in any given city you typically have smaller “squares” that are local hubs of activity. These squares, like Porter Square, Inman, Davis, Harvard, Central, etc. are hubs of activity with retail/restaurants in the center and apartments above and around. If people felt they could ride their bikes half a mile to buy something, it would dramatically extend the development possibilities. Right now you have the problem of opening a restaurant that is too far away from the square…or in a no-mans land between two squares. But on a bike, a half mile is less than five minutes. Add a rack and bag to your bike–and find a secure place to lock it up…and it changes the way you view your neighborhood.

But we have a lot of work to do in Boston. I found it ironic that my effort to attend this workshop illustrates just how much of a fanatic you need to be right now to bike Boston…first, I rode my bike in to work–13 miles dodging potholes, being ever vigilant for crazy drivers, constantly watching for right-turners who would cut me off, timing things to avoid running over oblivious pedestrians, choosing to ride on the sidewalk at times, running stop signs and red lights as a lesser of evils choice to get out of traffic-pinching situations and, after riding a short stretch of interstate onramp that is the only way to get from the South End to Southie, finally arriving at work where I changed clothes in the bathroom and tried not to sweat too much.

At lunch, I rode over to Government Center through the financial district. Again, pedestrians everywhere, delivery trucks, one way streets…I hardly ever run lights, but I found that the safer course of action for me was to run the red lights and go the wrong way a few times. Then I got to government center with its many, many steps on the plaza that I got to carry my bike across.

Whew. It’s very different from riding in Vermont or upstate New York or even the western suburbs.

Can Boston be a bike city? I think so. There are a lot of cyclists, it’s just not quite mainstream enough yet. Sometimes, I reach a stoplight and am standing there with 3 or 4 other cyclists commuting to work. Sometimes there is a line of us making our way down the Southwest Corridor park, a multi-use trail that takes me from Jamaica Plain/Forest Hills all the way downtown. But we don’t have the culture of San Francisco, that’s for sure. And we’re not New York City–but I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.

Cities like Portland really amaze me–as I blogged about a few days ago. They seem to have the whole package of housing and transit. It would be great to live in a reasonable family neighborhood, with clean air and trees, then hop on my bike and ride 20 minutes to the urban core…instead of an hourlong adventure through some of the most depressed parts of the city.

I don’t think we’re moving anytime soon. But the bike component is a key feature for any city to achieve the kind of living balance that so many of us want these days. We don’t want to commute by car in from the suburbs. We want to be a part of where we live and work. The bike can really help that feeling of connectedness.

Following the Boston Bike Summit last October, the city has created a program, Boston Bikes, and is working to improve cycling in the city. I’ve been receiving emails from Nicole Freedman, Director of the City’s Bike Programs that are encouraging:

• This year, the city will recognize all businesses that complete some bike friendly requirements with Boston Bike Friendly Business Awards, as part of the overall city green initiative. It’s too late now to nominate a company, but it will be interesting to see how many qualified for this inaugural program.
• The city is creating a city-wide bike map, collaboratively with cyclists by publishing instructions on how to edit a google map that contains routes all over the city. Cyclists of all abilities will edit the maps to rate the streets to help the city compile a baseline map of how difficult or easy cycling in the city is.
• You can report road hazards online through a form on the city website.
• You can sign up for the city’s newsletter here to be notified of additional initiatives.

This is encouraging on several levels:

• It appears the city is finally taking cycling seriously. I know my opinion of Mayor Menino improved dramatically when I read about his own cycling efforts.
• The city is looking for ways to use technology and grassroots energy to make a difference. I was amazed at the use of google maps…and while the implementation is a little rough, it is very encouraging to see a city agency taking risks and inviting the public to come in and mess with these maps. A more typical governmental approach might be to hire a consultant to do a study or develop some expensive technology boondoggle that would take forever to develop and never be used. This kind of “scrappy” internet approach is a breath of fresh air in city governance.

During the Bike Summit this fall, I blogged about bikes and economic development–a topic that was picked up by some other urban/economic development bloggers like Wendy Waters at All About Cities and Richard Florida. I think there is something about cycling that really captures the passion of creative people–at all socioeconomic levels. It’s part of the secret sauce of developing cool places to live and work…

One good thing about high gas prices…they may be encouraging more people to consider bicycle commuting. And more people riding bikes means drivers will be more aware of bicyclists and perhaps those of us who ride already will be a little safer.

I’ve noticed more bikes on my commute to Boston as reported by this Boston Globe article, although I do take offense at the author’s comment that

For bicycling enthusiasts – once a subculture of bike messengers, car haters, cash-poor students, and eco-activists – it’s beginning to feel like a tipping point.

I didn’t realize I was part of that subculture. I thought I was more of a “lycra-clad effete euro-poseur” on my road bike than part of a fringe subculture. Thanks, Boston Critical Mass for the email update about that Globe article.

Whether or not gas prices directly correlate with bike commuting is the topic of a thoughtful post at Jason Welker’s wikinomics blog. I commented there about the additional factors I think go into the “rider calculus” for me at least.

Over at WestwoodBlog, I write about my vision for increased walking and biking in Westwood. I include the following list of resources that are great for anyone looking to improve pedestrian and bicycle transportation:

• Dan Burden’s Walkable Communities is a website with tons of articles about this topic. Walkability is not just for cities or small towns–and it is part of a whole sustainability movement. I could go on…but Dan does it better.
• Cambridge-based Livable Streets sends out a newsletter that compiles links to interesting articles on many transportation issues in the Boston area and nationally. They also hosts events such as this upcoming talk about how residents of Jamaica Plain and Roxbury fought back the big highway projects of the 60s to save their communities.
• walkBoston is not just about Boston; this resource hub is helping facilitate efforts in 58 communities across Massachusetts. walkBoston piloted the first Safe Routes to School program in 2000.

These are just a few resources to get people started thinking about improving the walkability of their communities. Here is a link to the topic thread of my blog posts on Walkable Westwood.