1949: Charter Change for Dallas

History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.

Source: Mark Twain.

Recently, I asserted that "There are pros and cons to any system of government. The [Richardson] charter commission in 1956 must have spent hours and hours considering all of them, before the voters approved a council-manager form of government with limited duties and responsibilities for the mayor and the current method of choosing that mayor."

I said "must have spent" instead of "for sure did spend" because, frankly, I didn't know. I did no research on how much time Richardson's founding fathers spent deliberating over Richardson's original city charter. But "hours and hours" seemed like a reasonable assumption, so that's what I said.

It didn't take long for a reader to challenge me (sort of). He asserted, "Richardson pretty much copied the Dallas charter all those years ago, with some minor changes that were Richardson specific." Whether or not it was intended, that could be taken to imply that Richardson's city fathers didn't break a sweat agonizing over options and details. Someone gaveled the first charter commission meeting to order, someone else pulled out a parchment containing the Dallas city charter, took his big black fountain pen and crossed out the word Dallas and wrote in Richardson, and then said, let's say we call it a day and all go out for a beer. Except I don't know how far they'd have to go in those days for a beer. Pretty far, I reckon. Chicago, maybe. So maybe they just went out for a sarsaparilla. That's another thing I didn't research.

After the jump, back on topic.

Richardson's First Directly Elected Mayor

Who will it be? Read on.

Yesterday, I analyzed the upcoming referendum to amend Richardson's City Charter to have a directly-elected mayor. I confidently predicted that the proposed amendment would pass. I less confidently predicted that there would be no serious organized opposition because the amendment would be likely to pass in any case. Everyone would save their time, effort and money for the upcoming mayoral election in May, 2013.

After the jump, how that will go down.

Mayoral Referendum: Now What?

Revolution is not coming to Richardson, it is finally here.

Source: Anonymous online commenter.

According to a press release by the political action committee that bankrolled it, the effort to secure enough petition signatures to force a referendum on the direct election of Richardson's mayor has met its goal. Assuming the signatures hold up, the big question now is, what's next?

After the jump, the road ahead.

Higgs Boson or Fireworks?

Today's diversion is a simple quiz. Which is it: Higgs boson tracks or Richardson "Family 4th Celebration" fireworks? You decide.

From 2012 07 04 Breckinridge

This July 4th, a team of nuclear physicists announced experimental evidence for the Higgs boson, the particle that gives everything its mass (the so-called "God particle," a term physicists hate). It was predicted to exist in 1964 and ever since physicists have been working towards having a powerful enough particle accelerator to produce experimental results to test the theory. Now they have one, the Large Hadron Collider, a $10 billion instrument buried in a 17 mile circular tunnel, the collaboration of dozens of countries, hundreds of universities, and thousands of scientists, the largest and most complex device ever built. With the July 4th announcement, scientists worldwide celebrated a major advancement in human understanding of the building blocks of our universe.

Coincidentally, the City of Richardson was holding its "Family 4th Celebration" on July 4th, too. Despite the smaller cost and more local audience, the tracks of fireworks across the sky at Breckinridge Park delighted young and old just as much as the Higgs boson tracks delighted scientists. This year, there were two reasons to celebrate. Congratulations, scientists. And Happy Birthday, America.

More photos after the jump.

OTBR: Desolate Flats of Bessemer Bend

Latitude: N 42° 50.058
Longitude: W 106° 38.922

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".