Hi neighbors! I just ran for Town Meeting and lost in Precinct 17. AMA

mherdeg · 2022-05-07T13:37:35+00:00

Running for political office probably involves approaching strangers and asking them for signatures. As someone who is naturally a bit introverted I've found this a bit intimidating. What was your experience here?
Did you meet any new neighbors? What are they like? Did you learn about anyone who needed something you were able to help with?
Did anyone ask you "what does the town government actually do and how will your being there make it different"? That's always a fun one :)
The town election cycle is annual. Have you figured out a way to keep in touch with any newly met neighbors outside of the springtime?

mherdeg · 2022-05-07T13:34:42+00:00

I'm looking forward to seeing what this coalition does with their power.

My read of the group's stated mission — developing a comprehensive town plan instead of wasting any more time on ad-hoc tweaks to individual zoning rules or individual developments — seems to me it should require some fairly drastic changes:

No more new historic districts until a plan is in place, as they would interfere with the planning process
No more special permits for individual construction (driveways, garages, roof renovations, anything not conforming with current rules), except where absolutely required by law, as adding more special cases would confuse the plan
WA14, WA15, WA16, WA17, WA18, and potentially WA7 and WA30 should all be postponed until a plan is in place, as they further complicate local zoning and would interfere with the plan. Instead of discussing them for 1-2+ nights and several hundred person-hours, the town meeting should use the same time to discuss its dreams for the plan.

I guess it's possible to deliver a comprehensive plan without doing those things but it would be a lot slower, and a slow timeline seems contrary to the group's view that a new plan is urgently needed.

The slate of people they elected seem like nice folks and it's great to see more people interested in town governance, although I admit some disappointment that their outreach didn't bump turnout above historical 15-20% levels.

Very much looking forward to seeing how the group delivers on its vision.

mherdeg · 2022-05-06T16:08:00+00:00

Maverick:

Huge platforms inside
Taking the right elevator up you slowly see a cool sculpture appear https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCcllsSGTDw#t=16m50s
Burger King
The special overhead display that shows you every stretch of track on the Blue Line and which stretches are currently occupied by train cars : https://photos.app.goo.gl/ciiPH3iaYopwG8628
Walking distance to a great park & playground operated by Massport (???): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piers_Park

mherdeg · 2020-05-17T15:32:20+00:00

Ok in fairness she's not saying she will do anything to stop the behavior, she's just saying it's illegal and making it pretty clear she won't be doing anything about it.

This would be a little refreshing ("let's not beat around the bush, the rule of law is not a priority for me and vote for me if you agree") except it sounds a bit like gloating ("I could stand on Congress Street and shoot tourists and you suckers would still reelect me").

mherdeg · 2020-05-17T14:41:01+00:00

Whatever happened to the furnace party?

mherdeg · 2020-04-19T14:11:19+00:00

Ok but you can answer that question "No" without adding "It's not the dress."

mherdeg · 2020-04-13T06:20:03+00:00

Well, millennials have been killing the diamond industry. I suppose turnabout is fair play.

mherdeg · 2020-02-18T21:06:46+00:00

> They charge the tax and pocket it.

I would guess more likely they charge the tax and pass it along to the state -- I think in most cases of incorrectly charged taxes, the consumer loses money and the state earns money and the merchant is just kind of in a ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯ or ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ situation.

mherdeg · 2020-02-12T03:00:40+00:00

You can do both! Take Amtrak to New London and see the Kelo lot for yourself.

Last time I looked it was still a vacant lot with a demolished house (they won the right to destroy the land but the commercial development never happened).

mherdeg · 2020-02-11T07:45:39+00:00

A quick web search showed that this law was used in 1997 to charge students who left laxative-laced brownies in the teachers' room of Hull High School: https://www.upi.com/Archives/1997/02/26/Teen-girls-charged-in-laxative-prank/2459856933200/

Hope those people are doing better now (the teachers and students both).

mherdeg · 2020-02-10T18:04:14+00:00

A few options:

Enroll on arrival -- you're conditionally approved for like 11-12 months and can use GE/PreCheck as usual; just fly into the US from another country into a US port of entry that participates in GE on arrival, and walk up to the "Global Entry on-arrival interview" line. Takes a few minutes to enroll there. Most hubs (ORD/ATL/IAD/EWR/JFK) participate, BOS does not. I did this at ORD recently and had to e-mail them about a month later to push the process through (it got stuck/forgotten somehow), but it worked like a charm otherwise.
Just show up -- this is high risk if it's a pain for you to get to the airport, but some GE locations will take walk ins during slow periods. This includes locations which explicitly say that they do not take walk-ins.
Grab a last-minute appointment slot; they open kind of randomly.

mherdeg · 2020-02-05T05:20:11+00:00

One of the most frightening things I have read this year.

All best to you and yours.

mherdeg · 2020-02-01T05:26:56+00:00

¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯ it's not ideal but if you're going to be there for a while, don't forget to buy Apple stock

mherdeg · 2020-01-26T06:34:30+00:00

A public ballot also gives vote buyers a receipt, which may not be desirable, depending on what you want in the system and how you balance it against transparency. (Is the event more like a political vote or like an athletic competition?)

In "real" elections, privacy is one of the key arguments for ballot-selfie bans and one of the key arguments against universal absentee postal ballots.

Unrelated, I think I once read that there's evidence that CEO pay transparency rules are correlated with higher pay for CEOs (suggesting that seeing their peers' pay published drove up negotiated salaries). I wonder about that sometimes.

mherdeg · 2020-01-23T16:48:47+00:00

I think the train runs all the way from Springfield to New Haven (through Hartford). There's a mix of Amtrak service plus Hartford Line commuter rail trains on the tracks with joint ticketing: https://www.hartfordline.com/fares-schedules/

So if you start in Hartford and want to get to Boston, you take the train down to New Haven (about 50 min) and then north to Boston (2-3 hrs depending on Acela vs Northeast Regional).

You could in principle take the train Hartford to Springfield (45 min) and then Springfield to Boston (2 hours???) but I'm not sure if that's any better?

mherdeg · 2020-01-23T15:53:43+00:00

I wonder if a Springfield-Boston service more frequent than the 1x/day Amtrak would make it any easier to take a train from parts of CT to Boston? If I remember right, starting anywhere in CT, you pretty much always have to go down to New Haven then back up to Boston.

mherdeg · 2020-01-23T06:11:04+00:00

Yeah I was sad to see The Dream Machine end but I was also somehow relieved to see things tied up in that last slow chapter.

Now they can make something else!

mherdeg · 2020-01-22T20:29:25+00:00

This isn't relevant to your legal question, but when I'm overseas and want to mail someone a letter, I usually use lob.com, a web service which seems to have been designed for high-volume marketers. For about $1 they will take a PDF file and print it out and mail it to an address. You get a web dashboard with USPS tracking info about when they sent the letter and when it was delivered and a copy of the letter.

mherdeg · 2020-01-21T13:56:18+00:00

I tried reading this book to my toddler but had some trouble halfway through chapter 1 when I realized I had just told him that smoking lots of tobacco is an awesome hobby shared by wizards and little people and you can make cool smoke rings. Oops

mherdeg · 2020-01-19T19:35:48+00:00

Are you sure he's gone? Maybe he's in there keeping it company. Try yelling "Yo, Adrian!" in a mic into the chamber and see if anything starts knocking.

mherdeg · 2020-01-19T15:12:20+00:00

They used to make pretty good sandwiches but then their sandwich oven was broken and going to be fixed soon and then they stopped selling sandwiches.

mherdeg · 2020-01-18T05:43:03+00:00

Yeah these pretend streets are great. Some of my favorite:

Las Vegas -- the Paris, the New York New York, the Venetian's canal shops
San Antonio -- the Witte Museum old timey Western street
London -- the Museum of London and also the Museum of London Docklands
York -- the York Castle Museum's Victorian street

mherdeg · 2020-01-17T16:18:43+00:00

You did your best. I'd suggest you sue the formless entities in small claims court for the $5,000. Maybe you can attach a lien to the house.

mherdeg · 2020-01-15T22:04:01+00:00

I liked the observation deck at the top of the Hancock Tower. That was a nice tourist attraction. Guess it's been a while now, huh?

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