The other night I made some remarks about the need to reduce the proposed budget we would be sending to the voters on Town Meeting Day in March. Here is some audio of my remarks a the meeting. Six minutes – okay, I’m long-winded. Audio courtesy of Middlebury Community Television.

This article by John Flowers of the Addison Independent has a good run-down of the events and frames the issue well: UD-3 board declines to revisit budget

The motion failed 7-5. The $16M budget will go to the voters across the district on Town Meeting Day the first Tuesday in March.

The newest incarnation of Shays-Meehan, HR 2093, is a BAD BILL and I urge you to vote against it, loudly. It will likely be attached to the pending House lobby reform package. Peter, when the ACLU and the Christian Right actually agree on something, I’d pay attention to it!

If anything, public interest orgs. should have an easier go of it when it comes to accessing Washington, not a tougher one. Foreign interests who would reach out to D.C. would have an easier time of it than U.S. grassroots orgs. under this scheme. There’s nothing good in this.

Problem? What’s wrong with a crosswalk that…works? Well, it’s tourists. I guess I have been a Vermont resident long enough (7 years) to recognize when a walker is unaware of the crosswalk etiquette associated with hamlets where drivers actually heed the ordinance of right of way for pedestrians.

Here’s how it’s supposed to work. You’re walking along the sidewalk and are approaching an intersection that you intend to cross. As you approach the intersection, identify the flow of traffic. If there is a new flow of traffic, slow down! Let the cars flow through the intersection! After all, they had just experienced a halt to enable the flow of pedestrians and now it is their turn. Then, timing is everything. Confidently queue to the curb. Cars stop. People smile. You cross. Unless….

New Jersey plates. Massachusetts plates. (Maybe) New York plates. Then, you, the walker, are in dire need of reflection upon your years on this Earth. “Is my life insurance sufficiant to cover my burial? And to cover the airfare of my old bud’s coming to the celebration?”

Now, drivers. Before I proceed, allow a flashback [harp sfx IN] It’s 1988. Santa Monica Freeway in Los Angeles. Crosswalk. I’m driving a rental. My front wheels inch over the crosswalk line (a bit.) Pedestrians begin to (I am not making this up) walk over my hood as they go to the other side. Lesson learned. [Harp sfx OUT]

When we are walking in Middlebury, we must realize that many drivers have been, well, just fine. Nice. Generous. But there are those who see it as I once did. Green means stop. The intersection is blocked. Amber means “kick it” through the uprights. Red means “fuggedaboudit.” Crosswalks mean “points.”

Just goes to show you that views aren’t free.

Allen Funt wouldn’t approve

The Town of Bristol, Vermont has just installed over a dozen security cameras throughout the village. There is a lot of discussion going on with regard to the plusses and minuses of going in such a direction in law enforcement in such a small, rural town.

I embrace new technologies as quickly as the next guy. But, technology likes to grow towards some sort of critical mass or ubiquity. Just because a certain technology exists (digital video surveillance) do we have to take it to the penetration point that Bristol has opted to do? I’m not suggesting that the technology may not improve the climate of the community in one way. It does, however, leave one wondering if there will be unintended consequences that outweigh the benefits.