Category: Personal stuff

In many ways, this will be a summer rerun. Back in May of 2006, I posted this article. At the time I only averaged about 200 or so readers a week and hadn’t joined the Maryland Bloggers Alliance, so this may be new to most of you.

After I reread my words, I think there’s really not a whole lot I can add. Many of the questions I had are still unanswered, but I do have a few more thoughts – particularly with the growth (or lack of it) that’s plaguing Salisbury. After all, when I wrote the post in the first place, the assumption was that by this time construction would be well underway on the Old Mall project and its hundreds of housing units. Yeah, the market was softening a bit but little did we know how it would crater by now.

So the Old Mall just sits there and people are starting to question whether any work will ever be done before the building meets the fate of the former Civic Center almost 30 years ago. (Until the Daily Times mentioned it, I had no idea that most of the existing Civic Center was essentially a large addition to the portion not wiped out by the fire. Learn something new every day.)

As I note quite often, I work in the development business. My job is to make the dreams of owners and developers become reality. (Sometimes it takes overtime, like this coming week.) We should be happy that people want to invest in our area. However, I can see the point of those who would like to maintain as much greenfield space as possible. It can’t always be done, but to me there’s nothing wrong with reusing a perfectly good building for a new purpose. Look at the soon-to-be-former Station 16 and the battle underway to control the fate of that building. Personally, I think it could be a good restaurant location, and the clock museum idea could have some merit too. I happen to think it would be better for Salisbury if the building was back on the tax rolls than if the city maintained ownership and control, but a good argument is possible from the other side.

And using the Old Mall as an example again, I’d be interested to know if the mold problem has taken over the building entirely or if there’s some portion that’s been spared. Obviously it would take a tremendous amount of work to clean up the building and sadly most of it will likely meet the fate of the old Boulevard Theatre. To me, it’s a good candidate for a business incubator IF the place can be cleaned up enough. Maybe that’s not possible anymore.

But we need to be as business-friendly as possible on the Eastern Shore and in the state of Maryland itself (although Delaware is close enough to create jobs for our area too.) While we have more than enough residential development to go around, we’re still lacking in good white-collar jobs, the kind that can keep SU and UMES graduates around.

And we need to strike a balance. I can understand more now why people in Maryland have a passion about Chesapeake Bay. Let me say that I don’t want a dirty bay; no one does. I just want a better balance between the radicals who seem to inhabit the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the people interested in bringing development and good jobs to this part of Maryland (like me.)

It’s acceptable on a philosophical level to want more restrictions on a state level; after all, I’m in favor of states’ rights. But I’m also opposed to overly restrictive laws at any level. It’s why I wasn’t opposed to the Blackwater development and really perturbed that the state arbitrarily killed a development of Kent Island, despite the developer complying with the rules. That attitude is what frosts me, and I’m going to keep fighting it.

I found a different link (from WBAL-TV) to the Kent Island story – originally I used a Sun article but the link wouldn’t work anymore. Here is the phrase that pays:

“It’s a project of monumental environmental proportions,” said Comptroller Peter Franchot, who voted against the permit. The developer, K. Hovnanian, needed state approval to build sewer lines and a bridge over Cox Creek.

Before rejecting the permit, though, board members spent four hours combing through state development rules. The builder met all requirements for winning the wetlands permits (emphasis mine), but Franchot and Gov. Martin O’Malley argued that it was proof the requirements need to change.

“Isn’t there a point at which our understanding and common sense should not be derailed by outmoded practices” on approving permits, O’Malley asked.

Even state Treasurer Nancy Kopp, who ultimately voted for the permits, said the long debate over the Kent Island project showed a need for new development rules.

Whether you think the rules need to be changed or not, the fact is they were followed. To me this vote was simply O’Malley and Franchot taking matters into their own hands like the good little socialists they are.

Serendipity strikes again. Last night I got an e-mail from a friend of mine that asked me how I was coming along with putting together a neighborhood organization like that found in the Camden area of Salisbury. As it turned out, I wanted to update people on the progress anyway so she and everyone else will get the scoop here.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to note that at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 26th the Steering Committee of the Wicomico Neighborhood Congress will present the work done by its various subcommittees at the Greater Salisbury Committee Building in downtown Salisbury. I got that letter last week as one who volunteered for the Congress but not selected to the actual Steering Committee. Also, they’re scheduling the first WNC Convention for September 25th.

My idea took root with the formation of the Wicomico Neighborhood Congress over the winter and my desire to have the neighborhood to which I’d just moved secure a place in the Congress. But I’m going to begin this narrative a decade or so back with a bit of personal history. Early on in my adult life, I started getting active in the political scene of my native Toledo and that extended naturally to an interest in things going on in my local neighborhood. It so happened that my area had an active Block Watch program that met monthly or so at a local church, so I started going to the meetings and eventually I became one of the officers. In addition to that, I helped organize block parties on my street two summers in a row. Those were a blast (boy I still miss them) and I got to know a good number of my neighbors that way.

It was the experience of Block Watch that made me want to do the same sort of thing here once I found a house to buy and learned the Congress was being formed. What I envisioned was not necessarily a Block Watch per se, but a group that advocated for improving the quality of life of our little corner of Wicomico County. So I began the whole process by doing a little online research into what my neighborhood was comprised of.

I found out that the area I live in is pretty well established, with most of the housing stock built in the 1940’s and 1950’s; and, unlike Salisbury proper, about 80% of the houses are owner-occupied. But more importantly, I got a feel of the neighborhood by actually walking through it on a regular basis. People here would likely not know me because of monoblogue, but if I said I was the guy who was out a good number of evenings a week walking up and down the streets, they may say “hey I know that guy.”

So I got a feel of the neighborhood and found that the people were reasonably friendly. But how would that translate to the next step, which was getting interest in organizing a neighborhood group? This is what I decided to find out.

Many times a neighborhood becomes active in a group because of an outside factor. An increase of criminal activity is generally the motivator, but sometimes it’s a new development coming to the area like a mall or a factory, or some other item that they see as a threat to their well-being and complacency. One disadvantage I saw here in my area is that there was no obvious motivating factor at work. That’s a sort of double-edged sword when you try to get people to be active in the neighborhood.

My first step in the process was to figure out how many neighbors I had and how best to reach them. I decided to write a page-long flyer that spoke of the newly forming WNC and that I was interested in spearheading a group that I would represent there. In the flyer, I spoke of being proactive rather than reactive because, while there weren’t any underlying issues people in our neighborhood have, we have an interest in it remaining that way. So, on a Friday in March I went and had about 130 flyers made and hand-distributed them at each house. Then I waited for the responses to roll in.

I got three.

And I know that a good number of my flyers were at least handled because I intentionally had them printed on bright blue paper and placed them at each door or fence gate before the mail arrived so people would notice them when they collected their mail. That Sunday I went out and saw only about a half-dozen still outside, so I was pretty sure that they were read.

I even alluded to this neighborhood group forming a week or two later when I appeared on the radio, but still no interest.

That was frustrating. So I spoke with the people who did contact me and told them that I was going to work on it a bit farther and to stay tuned. Unfortunately, I had a couple other things in my life that took precedence and I didn’t get back to the idea until early May. At that point I decided to expand the area to about 300 homes total. As this group would be currently constituted, I encompass the area bounded by Parker Road on the west, the railroad track on the north, the Route 13 bypass on the east, and Merritt Mill Road on the south. This area is relatively homogenous as far as home ownership, home values, and is a fairly established neighborhood.

I got back to organizing on Memorial Day weekend with flyers in the rest of the neighborhood area, about 160 of them that it took me four hours on a hot day to distribute. Those results were, well, pitiful too. I got more hassle from the mailman than I got responses from people on that side of Old Ocean City Road.

(Now, I’m a veteran of many a political campaign so I thought I knew the rules about distribution of non-postal stuff. I was taught that you could not put unposted items in the mailbox, so I didn’t. But apparently now you can’t even tuck things in between the box and mailbox post or use the flag to secure nonpostal items. So in the future I’m just going to skip houses with “No Trespassing” signs, which were the situations I used the mailbox or a fence in because I respect private property rights.)

As things stand right now, I have a grand total of five responses. But I’m pressing on and decided to have our first impromptu meeting next week. That will be the subject of the latter half of this two-part series.

I made a couple changes last night to the sidebars and links. On the left I moved up my Republican Central Committee disclaimer for all to see, so there’s no confusion between my personal views and the collective views of the elected body. I also moved the BlogNetNews.com search engine up and now display my ranking among Maryland’s most influential political sites – ahead of some other sites regarded as influential statewide (there are over 50 affiliated sites in the rankings.) And I decided to drop the Amazon ad, it was doing nothing but taking up space anyway.

To the right about halfway down, I added links to the various MSM sources on the Eastern Shore. I’d actually like to figure out how to reorder these right-side categories but that may be beyond my pay grade and it’s not all that important on the grand scale of things. Eventually the Congressional and Presidential candidates will be at the top, that part’s relatively easy to accomplish.

And later this evening I’ll post the promised immigration post-mortem article. I finished it last night but am spacing my posts out so more people will see my 50 year plan post on top today.

To start I’d like to thank my commenters on the questions I posed. I honestly think I get the best comments of any local blogger. And I was amused at the post on Salisbury News about what I said on Tuesday. In answer to that comment, I regularly check my list of where people came from and I have about as much traffic coming from Delmarva Dealings as I do from Salisbury News. And my readership has been fairly regular; after all both sites link to me and I’m sure I have some folks who read my site on a daily basis while skipping one or both of the others.

The reason I had the idea of asking the question is that I think the local blog world is at a plateau of sorts. Obviously, like most other people who write websites (at least those who aren’t 14 years old and writing to their friends and anyone else who cares to read it about their latest crush) I’d like as many readers as possible to read my website – after all, the aim of monoblogue is to shift opinion on things I care about to be more aligned with my own beliefs and maybe make me a bit of money on the site once I get to a certain level of readership.

Since I began doing monoblogue, I’ve gotten to know a couple of my fellows who do local blogs, G.A. Harrison and Joe Albero. And I think both are good guys who also have their own agendas. G.A.’s agenda is relatively close to mine politically, which is why our sites sort of have the same feel to them. He is probably even more heavily into politics than I am as far as content goes, but he also looks at Delaware and Virginia issues that I don’t delve into. On the other hand, Joe’s site is very much locally driven, with his focus on issues in the Salisbury and Wicomico County area. Frankly, his agenda also seems to be a vendetta against those he doesn’t like – in particular Barrie Tilghman and several of those who serve with her in Salisbury city government. It’s reminescent of Richard Nixon’s “ememies list.”

His passionate dislike of those he crosses swords with was what drove me to ask the questions I did. It can be argued that the popularity of Salisbury News is similar to the appeal of NASCAR to many casual fans – they’re just watching for the 14-car pileups. I’m sure some peruse Albero’s site just waiting to see if this will be the post that gets him sued or arrested.

And I wanted to take a paragraph or two to address the Joe Albero vs. John Robinson blowup. I don’t know what it is, but sometimes people seem to get close to Joe and then they have a major falling out. It happened with Charles Jannace and now it’s happening with John Robinson. And this saddens me because I’ve gotten to know both and have no real issue with either. In fact I talked to both today, calling into John’s radio show (was I the only caller of the hour besides the prearranged Jimmy Sweet call?) and Joe called me from the ballgame wondering where I was at (sitting on my back deck enjoying a nice warm evening.) Both of these guys have opinions and we discuss what we think about issues of the day.

I’m hoping that the Robinson show can stretch past July (apparently that’s when Robinson’s contract is up) but I did notice that there was a plug for Laura Ingraham’s show within John’s. I know they do play about an hour of her show in the evening but I’m curious to know if there’s another shakeup in the works at WICO. I wonder if they’re contemplating going back to the pre-March lineup?

And this winding path brings me to the segue I was looking for all along. After some thinking on the subject of what I can do to improve my readership, I think there’s going to be a few changes here as well.

What got me started on this was the Salisbury referendum issue. First of all, I do want to thank Donna for keeping me in the loop and Debbie Campbell for her assistance, supplying me with the budget she prepared (sadly it appears to be a wasted effort on her and Terry Cohen’s part.) But my website is probably weakest in both those areas – breaking news and Salisbury city politics. Obviously, Joe Albero has the time to cover these because he’s “retired” and G.A. is self-employed so he can make time as well. And both have contacts and wherewithal to get to know all of the local players. Meanwhile, I do have a “real” job so that has to come first.

So I think I’m going to shift focus just a bit and leave the Salisbury and Wicomico County issues more or less to the other local players. I’m not going to abandon the local issues entirely, but most of that ground is well-covered by my cohorts. I’ll certainly comment on their sites when I feel it’s appropriate, and it’ll give me a chance to expand the “My feedback” page I’ve neglected for quite awhile.

My roots in blogging were in a website called ttown’s right wing conspiracy. On that website, I paid a lot more attention to Maryland and national issues and I think it’s time I got back to those places I thought that my ideas were better suited for. Obviously, things like “Ten Questions”, the 50 Year Plan, and my election coverage last year were perfect for this theme and I plan on continuing with those items along with new ideas I have. And because I just plain enjoy sports, particularly baseball, that coverage (including Shorebird of the Week) will continue. Same goes for the local music that Delmarva has a great supply of, I’d like to share that with a lot more people!

In order to get monoblogue to where I’d like it to be, I need to become a frog in a bigger pond. After all, people like Ann Coulter and Mark Steyn may have started with their local issues, but they eventually moved on to items of national import. Of course, in my mind Maryland is the canary in the coal mine as far as liberal lunacy goes so I believe coverage of what goes on in Annapolis is appropriate to keep tabs on because of its capability to catch on nationally (think of Fair Share and National Popular Vote allocation of the Electoral College vote as examples of Maryland-initiated ideas threatening to go nationwide.)

Also, one thing about the way I do monoblogue is that I have a pretty good idea of what I’ll write about in the following few days. As an example, I always set my Shorebird of the Week on Thursdays during the baseball season and a standings report at the end of each month. When I did “Ten Questions” last year and my Election Calendar they were similarly set on a weekly basis. So it’s a pretty simple idea that I came up with – a weekly e-mail to selected people I know read my website saying, hey, look for this next week. It’s actually an idea I stole from Joe Albero but also reinforced by Maryland GOP seminar speaker Summer Johnson, a regional press secretary for the Republican Party.

So there you have the post I promised for today, just in the nick of time by 35 minutes. There’s also going to be a few changes in the look of monoblogue to go with the new focus, so I look forward to more growth and thank those of you who have gotten me this far!

A little slow on the uptake the last two days. Last night I enjoyed the Shorebirds game (just wish a few more had joined me in doing so, a crowd of only 1,566 was pathetic on such a nice evening) and tonight I was at work until 9:00. So I offer no new good words of wisdom tonight, I’m going to mention this note and head for bed.

It’s sort of a shame I don’t have more to say, because Nathan has put together a nice little collection of articles, including two from fellow Eastern Shore blogger John Harris (ShoreThing). This edition also includes the post I did on Social Security.

By the way, I have two more chapters of my 50 year plan to go and hopefully I’ll have a chance to write one of them this weekend, with the second and a wrapup by the end of the month. Part of that wrapup will be announcing the new directions I’ll be taking the concept in. That is just one of the things I’ll be letting you know about in the coming weeks as I look at new opportunities for monoblogue.

Well, tonight is an anniversary at monoblogue. This will be post number 500, and it happens to coincide with my 18 month anniversary. So it’s been a year and a half of being a general thorn in the side of liberals and hopefully a voice of sanity amongst the local blogger rabble.

I decided to check back and see some of the progress I’ve made in the last year and a half.

Post number 100 (April 26, 2006): ACU Ratings (part 1): a milestone post! Readership that week: 261.

Post number 250 (September 23, 2006): Pre-election planning. Readership that week: 546.

Post number 400 (March 12, 2007): Robinson on the Radio. Readership that week: 1,089.

So tonight is post number 500, and my readership this week was 1,525. That’s actual readers, not hits. My hit total for May (according to my server site) was just over 180,000. That site also showed that I had 35,375 visits and 62,488 page views.

Now I have other news but I wanted to use this post to savor my success thus far and thank each and every one of you who make monoblogue a regular part of your day. I look forward to the next 500 posts – and beyond!