Council Recap: Classic Transportation Conflict

"You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time."
— attributed to Abraham Lincoln

The Richardson City Council met June 15, 2026, and reviewed the FY 2026-2027 Transportation and Mobility Work Plan. In my blog post ("Council Recap: Less is More"), I quoted Mayor Pro Tem Ken Hutchenrider, who expressed concern about bike club riding in northeast Richardson, where he lives. I didn't find his statement to be particularly productive. I found it repetitive and lacking in constructive suggestions. But I didn't have anything brilliant to contribute, either, so I decided to ask ChatGPT. Here is our condensed conversation.

Council Recap: Less is More

The Richardson City Council met June 15, 2026, and reviewed the FY 2026-2027 Transportation and Mobility Work Plan. I'm not going to review that here. If you are interested (and you should be), you can watch the whole discussion online. Here's what two of the council members had to say.

POTD: Ark of Bukhara

From 2025 09 19 Bukhara

Today's photo-of-the-day was taken at the Ark of Bukhara. According to Wikipedia, it's "a massive fortress located in the city of Bukhara, Uzbekistan, that was built in the 5th century CE. The Ark's current structure began to develop during the 16th century under the Shaybanid Uzbek dynasty, while all of its existing buildings were constructed in the last three centuries."

Bonus photos are after the jump.

POTD: Stop! State Border

From 2025 09 19 Bukhara

Today's photo-of-the-day was taken along the banks of the Amu Darya, historically known as the Oxus River. It is the largest river in Central Asia, flowing through Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The oddest thing about the river (to me) is that it doesn't flow anywhere. Not to the ocean. Not even to an inland sea. Because of global warming and, even more, because of insatiable human demand for water for agriculture, today the Amu Darya just peters out in western Uzbekistan. Its mouth is in a dried-up area of what was once the Aral Sea.

This photo shows the desert the Amu Darya flows through. On this side is Uzbekistan. On the far side is Turkmenistan. Uzbekistan welcomes tourists. Turkmenistan, not so much. Signs warn visitors to stay on your side. Such has been life in Central Asia for millennia.

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"Ancient Oxus flows,
Carrying mountains to dust.
No sea waits below."
— h/t ChatGPT

Council Recap: Comply Narrowly or Surrender Broadly

Source: h/t ChatGPT.

The Richardson City Council met June 15, 2026, with an agenda that did not presage anything particularly comment-worthy. But public comments spurred discussion that proved me wrong. One was about water rates. One was about an unwelcome business in the neighborhood. And another was about the state overriding local control on zoning matters. Much of the night's deliberations turned on the same question: when Austin tells Richardson what it can no longer regulate, should the city comply narrowly or surrender broadly?

Money Heist (TV 2017)

Rotten Tomatoes

Money Heist (TV 2017): Spain. Parts 1&2. The "Professor" recruits a team to rob the Royal Mint of 1 Billion Euros. It's more a melodramatic telenovela than a proper heist movie, and the police miss every opportunity to foil the plot, but that just keeps this fun story going. B+

Netflix

#VeryTardyReview

Greenland 2: Migration (2026)

Rotten Tomatoes

Greenland 2: Migration (2026): Five years after the planet-killing comet, more disasters force our heroes out of their bunker and on a journey to a rumored paradise in France. Of course there are gun battles all along the way. No coherent plot, just a series of close escapes. C-

HBO Max

POTD: Child Labor

From 2025 09 17 Khiva

Today's photo-of-the-day is of a child with a chisel cutting into a board in a courtyard in Khiva, Uzbekistan. So many questions. Shouldn't he be in school? How many hours a day does he do this work? How much does his finished work sell for in the market? I feel bad that I know so little about this. A short search with Google suggests that child labor during the cotton harvest used to be a significant problem, but by 2022, the international "Cotton Campaign" coalition announced it was ending its global boycott of Uzbek cotton after concluding that state-imposed forced labor in the cotton sector had largely been eliminated. Of course that is not what my photo is all about. It's about one child in a city making a wooden craft.

Bonus photo after the jump.

POTD: Cosplay in Khiva

From 2025 09 17 Khiva

Today's photo-of-the-day is of a passing parade of locals cosplaying Khiva nobility in Khiva, Uzbekistan.

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"Gold embroidery
Glitters beneath smartphone screens.
Centuries collide."
— h/t ChatGPT

Greenland (2020)

Rotten Tomatoes

Greenland (2020): Disaster movie. Planet-killing meteor is headed towards Earth. A family embarks on a journey to Greenland seeking shelter in a government bunker for nuclear war. Civilization falls apart quickly. Nothing new here, but it does old perfectly well. B-

HBO Max

#VeryTardyReview