Racks Downtown: A Non-Issue
February 4, 2010
The number of important issues facing Ashland is endless: water (or lack thereof), wildfire dangers, sustainability, green technologies, alternative energy, economic development … the list goes on.
Each of these demands immediate attention, and I find it extraordinary that the City Council could put a non-issue, the placement of newspaper racks downtown, on the fast track and come up with a ridiculous ordinance that involved an inordinate amount of staff time and very little input from the public or the affected entities.
The People Have Spoken
Wed., November 4, 2009 - 8:00am
The people have spoken, and unfortunately it was decided to continue with an unfair, unethical and immoral tax that foists the burden of collecting money on one small segment of the community that suffers an economic loss because of it. The size of this defeat was staggering, but if I were to do it over, I wouldn't change a thing. We simply had too big a hole to climb out of.
Vegas & Other Happenings
May 14, 2009
It’s been a while since I visited this blog. A number of things have been going on to divert my attention.
1. I went to a college reunion in Las Vegas in mid-April with 15 ol’ fraternity brothers from Indiana University. Don’t worry, though, no one did a keg stand, although we did semi-trash a banquet room at The Palm Restaurant in Caesar’s.
An Informative Email
April 9, 2009
After my rebuttal to Jeff Golden appeared in the Tidings on March 31, I received a call from Jeff who “had a beef” about my characterization of him as not working hard. So I placed an apology in both the Tidings and the Sneak Preview. In that apology, I mentioned that I was upset that he referred to cranky restaurant owners, and he also demonized Realtors.
Meals tax: it doesn't add up
April 6, 2009
I feel compelled to respond to Jeff Golden's revisionist history about the meals tax (see March 28 Tidings column "And you thought the meals tax was settled"). The proposal did not pass by a narrow margin in March 1993. It won by almost 9 percent. A subsequent recall effort in November 1993 narrowly lost by .05 percent.
Sorry, Jeff
April 3, 2009
First of all, I would like to apologize to Jeff Golden for some catty comments I made in a rebuttal I submitted to the Tidings last week about the meals tax. I don’t know how many people read it, but twice I insinuated that Jeff wasn’t a hard worker, which is not true. I overreacted to his statements referring to “cranky restaurant owners” and demonizing Realtors, and I went over the line. I actually thought about calling the Tidings to take out the offending statements but in a lapse of judgment failed to do so. Sorry again, Jeff.
