POTD: Happy Birthday To Us!

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Rockville Central is one year old today! W00t! Here is the celebration balloon that Ruth Hanessian was kind enough to bring along to yesterday’s meeting of the Rockville Roundtable.

Watch for a few 1st birthday surprise ideas….!

Gajewski Town Hall Meeting Tonight

Gentle readers, we forgot to hit “return” and so today’s >Weekend To Weekend made it appear to the casual reader that Council Member Piotr Gajewski’s town hall meeting, which is to take place this evening, was scheduled for tomorrow night. Nope. It’s tonight! (The header for the next date got run into the description for Piotr’s event instead of appearing in the line below.)

Here is the info for tonight’s meeting:

Town Hall Meeting, Rockville City Hall, 8 PM – 10 PM. Councilmember Piotr Gajewski is scheduled to have another citizen meeting.

I am on deadline for “work,” but if I can swing it I will see you there!

More About The Interview

Dear >Rockville Central readers:

You may already have watched the video interview I posted earlier with council member John Britton. I have gotten a few comments and direct emails from people who took exception to my attire.

I interviewed John while wearing jeans and a t-shirt, which might have been fine in itself, but the jeans had a rip in them. Some folks have said to me that this was inappropriate. A friend pointed out to me, the jeans were OK, but not the rip.

Let me just say here that I meant no disrespect to either our readers or, more importantly to my interview subject Mr. Britton. I want to be clear that I have worn suits for most of my career. I do know how to dress for work — I thankfully do not now typically need to do so. In any event, what I wore was not a mistake of ignorance, but a conscious choice. It was a misjudgment for which I have rightly been criticized. I was trying to make a statement and went too far.

As you may have read, I have been interviewing other members of Our Fair City’s governing body. Those interviews have been conducted without rips or tears. Since he was the “guinea pig” and bore the brunt of my poor wardrobe choice, I want to publicly apologize and offer Mr. Britton another interview, this time with me more suitably clothed. My chief concern here is that my choice not reflect on my interview subject’s judgment — the interview is about him, it should not be about me.

Thanks for reading and, for those who did, for speaking up.

–Brad Rourke
Publisher

Rockville Central Radio Pilot A Success

In case you did not get a chance to tune in today for the pilot edition of >Rockville Central Radio, you should know it was a great success! We were worried about filling up all that time but the hour flew by.

If you missed it . . . there is still hope! You can listen to any past show. The latest one will always be available here at Rockville Central in the little player on the right sidebar. Or, you can go to our page at Blog Talk Radio and access any past episode.

Thank you to all who called in to 646-200-3332 and took part in conversation, as well as the listeners and chat room guests! And, special thanks to Rich Gottfried, who shared some ideas for local campaign reforms, Frank Anstasi and Council Member John Britton, who each gave some insight into the Court House issue, and Susan Coll who read from her book, Rockville Pike.

Tune in next Friday at noon for the next episode of Rockville Central Radio. We’ll announce special guests shortly!

But you never know who may show up, so stay tuned.

Join Us For "Rockville Central Radio" on April 4 at Noon!

We’re always interested in trying out new ways to connect with our fellow Rockville residents here at >Rockville Central, and we’re delighted to let you know about a new experiment.

Starting Friday, April 4, at noon, we are launching a weekly radio talk show called “Rockville Central Radio!” Over the next couple of weeks, you will be hearing more about it, including scheduled guests. We think it will be a lot of fun.

No, we don’t have a deal with Clear Channel — it’s on The Internets at BlogTalkRadio.

It’s completely easy to listen to: Just go to this page at noon on Friday, April 4 to start listening in. You’ll need a computer, an Internet connection, and speakers.

But, we really hope you’ll call in and talk to us! Just dial (646) 200-3332 and you will be connected. (We’re only going to take one caller at a time, and we will try to get to everyone.)

Since this is the first show, there may be glitches. Please be patient with us. We apologize ahead of time for any mistakes! If you have thoughts for guests for this or other shows — or have an idea for a segment — let us know.

If it goes well, we will keep it up! If not, then it didn’t hurt to try.

Thanks for all your support.

(That coffee cup is merchandise from a certain band. You can get one here.)

Cold Turkey On The Courthouse

Dear Readers:>

Lately, to some of you, this blog may seem to have become “all Court House, all the time!” Certainly the location of the District Court House is an important and contentious issue. People have strong views on both sides.

But, I believe at the moment just about all the arguments on both sides have been aired and those who are going to change their minds have done so. The issue has shifted from one where the chief tactic being deployed is reasoned argument to one where the tactics are more political. That does not make these tactics worse. But, it does mean that the opinion pieces about the court house have begun restating positions already taken, only more emphatically. I include myself in that; I am not criticizing anybody.

And so, I have made an editorial decision that for the time being Rockville Central is going to swear off of opinion pieces (by us here at the blog as well as contributor opinions) about the district court house.

As I have said repeatedly — because I believe it is an important transparency issue — I am personally opposed to the old library site for the court house. I think even if there was an agreement from the turn of the century to put it there, that now that there are other options possibly on the table, they ought to be looked at more closely and taken more seriously. I believe that there is nothing wrong with the affected neighborhoods, after having their protestations and complaints ignored for many years the apparatus of the state, to take the issue into a more combative arena. That’s just politics. That said, I also see arguments on the other side and am sympathetic to them. For me, they do not outweigh the neighborhood’s arguments, but they are valid and I have done my best to make sure they have a full airing in these “pages.”

This decision is not final for all time. If significant developments occur that seem important to weigh in on (or new voices come to the fore with important new arguments) we may well run them. But look to see far less on this subject for the time being.

This only applies to opinion pieces. If there is news on this issue, of course we will report it.

Here are some of what I think have been the most interesting arguments on this issue so far:

• Detail on the City’s official position.
• Council Member John Britton’s analysis of the issue, including the conclusion that there are many valiud reasons to oppose the court house at the old library site.
• Former Rockville Mayor Rose Krasnow’s contention that the City should honor its deal with the state to place the court house at the old library site.
• Letter by Brigitta Mullican in this week’s Gazette reiterating some of Krasnow’s points.
• Recap of the “timeline” of how this all unfolded, from 2001 to now, by Frank Anastasi.
• Argument that there’s wasn’t a deal with the state, or that it is not valid anymore, by Frank Anastasi.
• Montgomery County Bar Association Mary Ellen Flynn’s email and opinion piece recapping some of the state’s arguments
• Christ Episcopal Church’s statement of their opposition to the proposed location of the court house

These aren’t the only, or even necessarily the best, pieces on this issue. Just some of what I think have been the more interesting ones. I encourage you to follow this link and read to your heart’s content!

(The lovely oil painting of Blind Justice is by Doug Rugh.)

Glenview Mansion An Official Part Of History

The >Gazette reminded me this morning that one of the City’s wonderful jewels, the Glenview Mansion, has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

To commemorate the occasion, the Mansion will offer a free tour and lecture on April 6 from 3:15 to 4:15 (Call 240-314-8660 to reserve a spot). According to the press release:

Rockville’s Jeff Winstel, Historic Preservation Planner for the Department of Community Planning and Development, will give a lecture about the history of the estate, its contribution to Rockville’s identity and why it merits national recognition.

“We will be looking at the mansion from a cultural point of view discussing what the design of the building and grounds tell us about the people who built it and the society in which they lived. The landscape at Glenview has evolved over time, and many different periods have left their mark on the grounds. The challenge of managing this type of cultural landscape begins with understanding what the important elements are from each period,” said Winstel.

Glenview Mansion is a 19th century neoclassical home situated on 153 acres of Rockville Civic Center Park. Its hilltop location and stately white columns offset a stone façade exterior making the mansion an attractive place to visit and a desired site to host social gatherings.

Here at Rockville Central, we’re doing our small part, too. You might have noticed the “banner” at the top of each page has a new photograph — why, look! It’s Glenview Mansion!

POTD: The Yard

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Look at it a certain way, catch the angle just right, and it looks like daybreak over the walls around the exercise yard of a prison. Maybe that’s just my odd imagination. Actually, it’s the old Giant site — which appears to have lots of parking around it.

P.S. I believe this is the 200th POTD.

We Have Deleted Court House Poll

Dear Readers:>

As many of you know, we recently put up a “poll” asking what people thought about the State’s idea to build a new district court house where the old public library building is. This building is next to a school, a church, and an historic district, and has no parking available neither now nor in any plans. It is a testament to the power of this particular issue that our traffic more than doubled over the norm.

But, I have deleted the poll. It was ill-advised.

Why? Three reasons:

1. People appeared to be gaming the poll. Near the end of the day today, there were sudden floods of visitors from the same Internet addresses, corresponding with a sudden flood of votes. They came one after the other, all from the same place. The system doesn’t allow the same computer to vote twice, but it looked as if whole offices were all voting at once — from Bethesda, Frederick, Silver Spring and other places outside of Rockville. It’s one thing to motivate your network, another to try to stuff the ballot box. That is what it looked like was happening.

2. People were clearly positioning to use the “results” as political ammo. No Internet poll like this even comes close to being “valid” for anything other than a lark, which is what this was intended to be. But from the emails I was getting, people were pinning a lot on the results, as if they might actually mean more than they do. I did not want to see anyone claiming a “Rockville Central poll shows” that they were right, or the other side was wrong.
3. There were problems with the wording of the questions. This was less of an issue for me than the first two, but it is valid. Some people thought the questions were biased against the “move the court house” position (this even though I have been very clearly on the move the court house side and have a “move” sign on my lawn). The main beef was that I did not include the idea that the Giant option might still be on the table. In any event, one side felt hard done by because of the poll and that was not the point — and it damaged the overall credibility of this space.

In retrospect, I should have anticipated all of the above.

It added up to a clear decision. It would be painful, and involve admitting a mistake, but that’s what grown-ups do. My main purpose in starting this site was for it to be useful in people’s lives and for it to be a space for civil dialog about issues that matter. This was just too big a lightning rod and was clearly going to do more harm than good.

So, there you have it. I can take my lumps. I am sorry if my experiment raised the anxiety level. If you were really looking forward to voting later, you will have to look elsewhere.

In the future, if I try another poll, it will be about something benign, like Hard Times vs. Giuseppe’s. Hmm, maybe not that, either.

Thanks for bearing with me. This is as new to me as it is to you.

–Brad Rourke

Feedback On The Courthouse Poll

Dear Readers:>

We have gotten quite a bit of feedback on our “move the Court House?” poll that we announced yesterday. Some is substantive, and some relates to usability.

Usability: It appears that for users of AOL, your default browser does not play nicely with the Google poll. There is a workaround, which is to use a different browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox, but I recognize that this is a pain. Secondly, I have gotten a report of a disappearing “Vote” button. Suffice to say, this is a work in progress and we are getting what we pay for! I apologize.

Now, to substance. I was going to post this in the comments of the original announcement post, but I thought it important enough to make its own article.

The second question makes it sound like if you choose option 1, we’ll lose funding and the project won’t happen. Is that true? If it’s speculation, then it should be removed from that second statement or it should be phrased so it sounds like it’s someone’s opinion that the funding might not happen. . . . I also don’t think the wording on the first option conveys why people are so upset about the whole thing. In my mind, when Town Center was being planned and they said a new courthouse was going to go where the old library is, it wasn’t presented as if there were other options. Were there at the time? If there weren’t options then, but now there are (like the old Giant site), somehow that needs to be conveyed. . . . Personally, if I didn’t know the issues and casually looked at the questions, I’d vote for #2. It sounds more appealing, the way it’s worded.

This was not the first such response; I am just including it because it is well-worded.

Here is how I replied:

Thanks for the feedback. I was trying to be fair to both sides. Maybe I was more fair to the other side, but I am not so sure about that. In my experience, one always thinks the other side is argued more strongly than one’s own.

The “lose funding” argument is the crux of the “don’t move” point (#2). They don’t believe that we’ll be able to keep the funding our our place in line, notwithstanding promises to the contrary. (There concern is honestly felt, even if one doesn’t agree that it is warranted.)

On the “move” option (#1), I considered including something about Giant but a) I am not hearing proponents seriously saying Giant is on the table anymore and b) I wanted to force a choice rather than imply that one option has the “silver bullet” answer, which would duck the question. To me, this is an honest dispute that has real trade offs that need to be faced. With the “move” side seriously raising the idea of just stopping the court house, the question becomes not where it goes but whether it happens. Remember, I say all this as a proponent of the “move” option.

Since voting has already begun, it is impossible to edit the questions. But, I believe it is worth airing these concerns. Do both sides of this debate have a point? Is the poll inadvertently slanted? Are there other issues I am overlooking?

What do you think?

Our (Slightly) New Look! Let Us Know Your Thoughts

Dear Readers:>

If you visit Rockville Central, you might notice a few things have changed. It was not as easy as you might think, but we have added a long hoped-for third column to the layout. This is because, over time, we’ve grown and want to include more information to help you navigate the many articles that are available.

We know that, for a very small share of users (about 5%), this may mean that to see both columns you will have to scroll right or left — but the full width of every article should be visible. We didn’t make this change lightly and if it gets in the way of your enjoyment, we apologize.

The switch may seem small but it allows us to do more. Please let us know what you think, and what other features might be useful to you. If we can do it and it makes sense, we’ll try it out!

So, please, do let us know.

Happy MLK, Jr. Day

Dear Readers:>

In observance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Rockville Central will not be publishing today.

If you are one of the many in the area who have the day off (or can get away for a long lunch), please consider attending the City’s 36th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday celebration. It happens today at noon, at Rockville High School (2100 Baltimore Road).

Actor Jim Lucas, a civil rights activist and follower of Dr. King’s legacy and teachings, will present an excerpt from Dr. King’s final speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” (Listen to part of the original.) Other performers include:

• Meloso Duo (Prelude)
• Nationally renowned Duke Ellington School of the Arts Show Choir
• Mount Calvary Baptist Church’s Puppet Ministry
• Soul in Motion Players
• Jerusalem Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church’s Inspirations
• Youth Choir
• Derrick R. Middleton, Dufief Elementary School

See you back here tomorrow!

(Image from City of Rockville.)

Rockville Police Blotter 12-03-2007

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been working on some behind-the-scenes ideas to make the >mapped Rockville police blotter work more efficiently. It takes a long time to hand-code each incident to a map, and once it is done I can’t do anything with the set of information but map that one report. I believe I have developed a way to create an ongoing list of incidents that can be mapped. Moving forward, I will be using this new system, starting with the first blotter in the New Year. (For those who care to know such things, I am using the very cool Google Earth.)

Meantime, here is the very large blotter for 12/3/2007. Click on any “pushpin” for a description of the incident. (Remember the map does not come through on email so if you are receiving this as an announcement you will have to come to the blog.)

Thanks to Rockville Living for a pointer to a good batch geocoder.

Warm Holiday Wishes From Rockville Central

Dear Readers:>

Like many others, we plan to go over the river and through the woods (and along the Turnpike in our case) shortly. Barring major, calamitous events that beg for coverage, Rockville Central will be on hiatus until the later part of next week.

You can definitely look forward to a New Year’s-focused Weekend To Weekend from CindyCG and, if I can gather my wits, there may be a brief bit of opinion too.

This has been an incredible year and this little newsletter that started out as a bit of a lark seems to have taken on a life of its own. You, gentle readers, are entirely to thank for that — your comments, suggestions, thoughtful notes, and just the knowledge that so many are out there paying attention has kept us going and pushed us to improve every week.

In the New Year, we are planning a few surprises (good ones) that we hope will make this site more useful and enjoyable. You already know about my hopes to create a better method for mapping police blotters. We are also planning on moving the whole blog to a dedicated address (www.rockvillecentral.com) to make it easier to find for people. Don’t worry, your bookmarks will all still work.

(I may work on the switchover during the holidays. You may visit Rockville Central and find an error page. Do not be alarmed. This will only be temporary and indicates I am hard at work! Come back around later and it should be resolved.)

What else would you like to see from Rockville Central? A dedicated section for the local arts scene? Youth sports coverage? More restaurant reviews? An engaging lecture series? Let us know in the comments section. We can’t do everything, but we can try to add value where we can.

Please be safe, have a wonderful Winter break, and be excellent to each other.

UPDATE to Snow Shoveling For Neighbors

Dear Readers, it turns out that we got some wrong information about the City’s request that good-hearted folks help out by shoveling neighboring seniors’ drives this season. Doing this does >not earn “community service” credit for students. Which should not diminish your resolve to help out!

When it snows, if it ever does . . . pitch in!

Here’s the original article with all the detail you need.