North Texas Tea Party Shuns Mitt

It's probably no surprise, but the North Texas Tea Party (NTTP) reports that its members don't much like the likely GOP presidential nominee, Mitt Romney. Three candidates rank higher in Tea Party preference: Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and, um, I forget the third. Oops. Oh yeah, it's Rick Perry. 35% of those who responded to the NTTP survey prefer Rick Santorum, 27% Newt Gingrich, and 13% Rick Perry. Mitt Romney is the first choice of only 9.7%.

After the jump, my analysis.

Stop! Give Me Your Money!

Red-light running isn't smart. Red-light running isn't safe. Red-light running kills. But cities that wanted to do something about it faced a quandary: the cost of putting extra patrols at every intersection to catch red-light runners was prohibitively expensive. So, local government did what private industry had already done (to combat shoplifting, for example): use cameras to automate the task, reducing labor costs. Suddenly, it became practical to enforce a common sense traffic regulation that even two-year-olds know: a red light means stop. (A yellow light, on the other hand, means something else altogether.)

Then, a funny thing happened on the road to highway safety. After the jump, we follow the money.

A Look at Richardson's Council Districts

Yesterday, I blogged about a story by Jim Schutze in Unfair Park about how Dallas's single member council districts prevent that city from pulling together to implement improvements for the good of the city as a whole. I said Richardson doesn't have Dallas's divisions and therefore, single member districts are inappropriate for Richardson.

In response to my post, I was told that Richardson does, too, have divisions. After the jump, a look at what those divisions might be and what impact single member districts might have on those divisions.

Single Member Districts In Action

There has been a lot of talk recently in Richardson favoring amending the City Charter to replace at-large council member elections with single member districts (and by "lot of talk" I mean an odd voice or two crying in the wilderness, and by "wilderness" I mean some place like San Antonio).

Dallas already has single member districts. How's that working out? After the jump, Jim Schutze, in Unfair Park, gives us a look. The issue is flood control in East Dallas.

A Few Comments About Comments

It's a new year. Time for resolutions and all that. I thought it might be a good time to offer a few comments about commenting on this blog. Popular or not, I resolve to continue to keep a light hand on moderating comments. That's because I welcome comments. I appreciate comments. I wish more readers would comment.

Still, there are some types of comments that I don't want to see, specifically those that violate the stated commenting rules: "Comments are welcome, but please identify yourself. Keep it courteous, keep it clean, keep it on topic." Hypothetically, calling someone laughable or boring or inane is both discourteous and off-topic. Such arguments are not welcome.

After the jump, a few more behaviors that are not welcome.

Rose Bowl Game (2012)

From 2012 01 Rose Bowl

"The Granddaddy of Them All," the New Year's Day Rose Bowl Game, first played in 1902, is grander than ever. Growing up, watching on television, I couldn't resist the warm, sunny weather beckoning football fans watching from frigid Wisconsin. The game put an itch in me to be there in person like no other football game ever did. Finally, fulfilling that "bucket list" desire, we attended our first Rose Bowl game. It's everything I envisioned and more. Except for the outcome: Oregon 45, Wisconsin 38. But even that can't spoil the experience.

All of our Rose Bowl Game photos can be found here.
Photos from New Year's Day in Pasadena can be found here.
Photos from the Rose Parade can be found here.

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Trivia about the Rose Bowl I didn't know until this year: The record attendance for a Rose Bowl Game is 106,869, set in 1973. This year's full-house attendance was only 91,245. What's up with that? In 2000, the Rose Bowl was renovated. Bleacher seats were replaced with seats with backs (except in the end zones). That reduced seating capacity by about 15,000.

Rose Parade (2012)

From 2012 01 Rose Parade

Twenty one marching bands. Eighteen horse units. Forty three large floats, all completely decorated with flowers and other natural materials. That can describe only one parade -- the annual New Year's Day Rose Parade in Pasadena, California. Fulfilling a "bucket list" desire, we attended our first Rose Parade this year. Attending in person restores the entertainment value of parades that television coverage has increasingly sapped. No commercial interruptions, no obligatory pauses while minor celebrities lip-sync to the cameras, no announcers reading lame, scripted jokes. Only the full-on experience of floats, marching bands, horse units and an enthusiastic crowd. All in the glorious sunshine of southern California.

After the jump, a look at the pre-parade festivities and more photos.

Berkner 63, Lake Highlands 47

From 2012 01 Berkner Basketball

The Berkner Rams improved to 4-0 in District 9-5A basketball Friday night with a 63-47 win over crosstown rival Lake Highlands. It's a great time to be a Ram!

All photos from the game can be found here.

New Year's Day in Pasadena (2012)

Caltech

From 2012 01 Pasadena

More photos after the jump.

OTBR: Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge

Latitude: 44.8450° N
Longitude: 123.0476° W


A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".