Winning the battle, but losing the Ward

Central Clearinghouse for Information/Discussion (0.00 / 0)

People could have found the information about the voting sites easily but checking the school district website and/or the City of Keene website, but a central site would bring all that type of information to a central location. 

"Keene No Spin" on Community Television and WKBK Morning Talk Radio are very popular local shows talking about local issues.  Today I went onto the Sentinelsource site looking for something else and I found a blog of sorts on the site at which people were expressing their thoughts about the school vote and having exchanges between bloggers. By the looks of the participation in these shows and site, a central site would be well received.

There is a demonstrable desire out there to have a place to talk about those kind of local issues. My guess is that you would have more participants if it were county wide and non partisan.

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by: gradysdad @ Mon Mar 19, 2007 at 19:02:33 PM CDT

Keene No Spin (0.00 / 0)

Keene No Spin has been an absolutely great thing for the town, just a wonderful show. I'd love to have something along the lines of that -- informative, slightly left-leaning (but really middle of the road for Keene), focussed on the facts.

Re: Sentinel Talkback -- I may be a little anal, but my problem with Sentinel Talkback is that it seems to function as a place where people go to express their opinion, but not not really to talk, and very often it just devolves. My second problem is the posts give no real guidance -- it's just a simple question.

These past couple of days have not been the best example of it, but I think on Blue Hampshire most posts have been substantive, with people introducing new information and not just opinion, and I'd love to see something like that at the local level, where there is so much relevant info that never gets published, or gets lost in translation.

I'd also love to get some synergy between CheshireTV and a blog -- I know they have thier own site, but they might be open to some synergy -- they are doing a stellar job in their mission as well.

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by: Mike Caulfield @ Mon Mar 19, 2007 at 20:13:45 PM CDT

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I hate having to learn (0.00 / 0)

of local town meeting votes through scrambling to get the right paper on the right day, or happening to speak to the right person who knows more than I do because they had time to talk to so-and-so.

As a teacher, I find that to be a shocking way to come into knowledge about which school budgets rise and fall.

As more and more of the state gets tuned into high-speed internet, it should be essential for every town to take a greater role in maintaining a basic website with just such information, and even, as gradysdad suggests, having non-partisan fora on it to explain in greater detail the language of the articles up for votes.

birch, finch, beech

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by: Dean Barker @ Mon Mar 19, 2007 at 19:08:10 PM CDT

you know it's a latinist when (0.00 / 0)

they pluralize forum as "fora"... ;)

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by: Mike Caulfield @ Mon Mar 19, 2007 at 20:15:45 PM CDT

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And (0.00 / 0)

what's your datum to support that? :)

birch, finch, beech

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by: Dean Barker @ Mon Mar 19, 2007 at 21:33:54 PM CDT

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The shift in polling locations does confuse people (0.00 / 0)

In the lower-turnout school votes, three wards all vote at the same location.

But, that isn't a secret. The Sentinel lists polling places; perhaps local radio too? I suspect it would be just as easy to miss that, even if one were frequenting a truly local blog. (The roundabout might have dominated diaries lately.)

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by: elwood @ Mon Mar 19, 2007 at 20:32:14 PM CDT

True (0.00 / 0)

The shift is confusing not because you can't find out, but because you think you know, and it turns out you don't.

My thought was on polling day if it was in your face you might remember, but maybe not. There's a real power with front paging things the day of.

("day of" -- that's my wife's midwestern idiom sneaking through)

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by: Mike Caulfield @ Mon Mar 19, 2007 at 20:53:25 PM CDT

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Well, I would come. (0.00 / 0)

I'm a lurker by inclination, and don't even live in Keene, but more coverage of local issues would be really nice.  Being a recent transplant I don't know "how things work" in this state and (renting) it's harder to care.  Which is a loss, I think, especially in so town-oriented a state.

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by: Mormo @ Tue Mar 20, 2007 at 11:21:35 AM CDT

I could be wrong (4.00 / 1)

but I don't see town issues as generally partisan issues.  If some local blogs started to pop up they would probably have to be non-partisan in content.

I don't have any problem with using Blue Hampshire as a forum for organizing more local efforts, however.  This is a forum for New Hampshire Politics, and city and county politics falls under that umbrella just as much as state politics belongs on the Daily Kos.

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by: Nicholas Gunn @ Tue Mar 20, 2007 at 12:15:20 PM CDT

It's alway interesting (0.00 / 0)

to consider what's happening in the cities and towns in other parts of the state. If you have a little bit of familiarity with how other places have dealt with an issue, you're better able to develop an informed opinion in the event that your town or city has to deal with something similar.

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by: Alex Gallichon @ Tue Mar 20, 2007 at 12:24:20 PM CDT

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Partisan in one sense (0.00 / 0)

The Libertarians and Free Staters are becoming much more active -- especially in Keene.

Defeated State Senator Tom Eaton is refusing to sell a small strip of land to the city to allow a roundabout / rotary to be constructed. Libertarians are figuratively up in arms (in Plainfield, they are literally up in arms). "EMINENT DOMAIN IS THEFT," their signs claim. "Eminent Domain is never legitimate," testifies one.

The libertarian view that the government taking property is theft often extends to a similar view of taxation.

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by: elwood @ Tue Mar 20, 2007 at 23:09:28 PM CDT

[ Parent ]