Random Acts of Love

Check out my new online portfolio

Finally sold a photograph! This has inspired me to put together a more extensive online portfolio, as well as to work on new images. Here are a few.

Two-Hour bike tour (with photos) of my beautiful city

Ok, I'm BACK. I know I've been away a while. Here are some photos I took yesterday on my bike ride. I rode down to Genesee Valley Park then up the river trail to the Pont de Rennes Bridge. Long ride, but beautiful stuff seen along the way!

Posted at 03:04 PM Read More

Fri - April 11, 2008

My Bad: Pointing out Gannett's Cookie Cutter online format

A version of this was posted earlier today in my D&C weblog. Within an hour it was deleted. I guess there are certain things you can't do on your D&C blog. One of them is you can't criticize Gannett.

Posted at 02:48 PM Read More

Thu - April 10, 2008

Suburban and rural drug abuse not reported locally

While middle-class suburbanites feel smug over their low homicide rates compared to urban areas, the drug-related deaths and devastated lives on their own streets are hidden behind closed doors.

Posted at 03:17 PM Read More

Mon - April 7, 2008

Blighted Neighborhoods: coming to your doorstep thanks to lending practices

Wide-scale bad decisions impact everyone, not just the fools who made them. Whether or not taxpayers bail out the people who fell for the sub-prime mortgage schemes (and the banking industry that promoted them), everyone will pay for this fiasco. (Also a D&C blog post).

Posted at 01:19 PM Read More

Sat - April 5, 2008

What could happen if Zero Tolerance Works

Another from my D&C Blog: I've had a fascinating internet romp today. Chanced upon several news articles and other publications noting the surge of gang activity in suburban towns -- attributed, in large part, to successful police crackdowns on crime in the nearby cities.

Hey, I think I've hit on something. If these articles are any indication, if the RPD is successful in cracking down on violent crime and drug dealing in the city, why it just might move out to the burbs.

Posted at 10:45 PM Read More

Tue - April 1, 2008

System vs. Choice: a view from the trenches

This essay was declined for publication by the Democrat and Chronicle because in the process of submitting it I mentioned that I happened to have sent a version of it to Rochester Police Chief David Moore. Supposedly anything you write has to be "exclusive" -- never mind that one's creative processes do not always work that way. Originally I was afraid to have this published by the paper, but I gained courage after discussing my ideas with people on the 19th Ward Yahoo Group. What I have learned from this is this: never tell an editor anything about the process behind your work.

This is about observations of mine from "the trenches" -- living as I do on a street and near an intersection notorious for crime, especially gang activity. I have seen many improvements in the nearly two years I have been here, and especially recently with the stepped-up policing that came with the Zero Tolerance initiative. I am not, as my D&C critics would have it, a "Mary Poppins" blithely unaware of the very real problems in certain neighborhoods, including my own. I decided to publish this despite the fact that it could fuel more of my critics' fire. I decided to publish this because the truth needs to be told, unvarnished. And while we are telling the truth, we need to take note of progress and hopeful signs. As I have argued repeatedly, it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

Posted at 09:16 AM Read More

Sat - March 29, 2008

Good news is no news: How the news distorts city life

Every day thousands of people in this city go about their business, resolving conflicts without resorting to violence, helping out friends and neighbors, doing the right thing. None of that will make the newspaper. When people get along the way they should, what's to report? ...If your understanding of city life comes from the newspaper, what do you expect you will see? You will not see the Odis Nicholsons until somebody kills them.

Posted at 02:08 PM Read More

Another day, another round of sniping at the city

Here we go again. A crime story gets posted on the D&C online. And someone has to pounce on that. Eventually the comments turn the story into evidence that the city is a "sewer."

Posted at 12:16 PM Read More

Fri - March 28, 2008

The care and feeding of an ogre

This post of mine has been removed by D&C editors, apparently. A little too mean, perhaps? No meaner than anything this man has said, repeatedly, from the moment the new pages opened for comment.

Posted at 05:15 PM Read More

Sun - March 23, 2008

"Money buys happiness -- if you spend on someone else" (Reuters)

Found this yesterday on the Reuter's news site. Another of my D&C posts. An answer to why the comment sections in that paper are so full of people who love to hate not only the poor but working stiffs who have a hard time making ends meet.

Posted at 11:28 AM Read More

Sat - March 22, 2008

Why there are so many cranks posting to the Democrat & Chronicle reader-interactive pages

Another post from my D&C blog I am making available here.

Posted at 10:45 AM Read More

Fri - March 21, 2008

Without Hope, Change is Impossible

I wrote this on my blog on the Democrat & Chronicle pages. Since I know the reader-interactive pages are not google-able, I am also posting it here. This is about a 48 year-old Iowa farmwoman, who as a freshman at the University of Iowa had much to teach me as a graduate student.

Posted at 10:50 PM Read More

Mon - March 17, 2008

A boatload of fun arguing with "oreilly" re: MCC Presidential Search Process

I've just had a boatload of fun arguing with someone who goes by the handle of "oreilly" on the Democrat and Chronicle reader-interactive comments section. Well, not just oreilly, but "originalaveragejoe" and a few others. This is all about the controversy over the search process for Monroe Community College .

Posted at 12:02 AM Read More

Sun - March 16, 2008

Urban vs. Suburban: Facts Fly in the Face of Myths

Posted these two pieces on my Democrat and Chronicle blog and decided to put them here, too. Who knows how long that blog will be accessible, and besides I think my regular readers would enjoy these too.

Posted at 12:08 AM Read More