Blango Draws Lesson
From Parking Choice

Busted!

And how about selfish choice of vehicles as well? If you're driving a vehicle designed to carry 8 cubic yards of stuff but you never carry lots of stuff, then you're part of the problem and not part of the solution.

Come on Paul. Why is this even a story???

Paul, I wish you had been there when a city employee (I believe engineer) almost side-swiped me here recently. He was on his cell phone texting, and had no idea he was next to a bike, in his city car with city plates. (Also would have been nice to see you video tape the woman from TT&P who blew a stop sign and almost hit me as I cycled out to Fair Haven the same week--two near misses from two city employees in a row. Harrowing!)

question:
It is interesting!

Like Blango says, we all get impatient, and sometimes make decisions that aren't in the public interest. Kudos to him for having a laugh about being caught & owning up to it, and kudos to Bass for realizing that a few minutes of amusement (and enlightenment) was available.

Being a great reporter is--to a different degree--like being a great photographer. You see the potential stories in the smallest things....

This is a story because we should expect our public officials to live up to the same standards as every other citizen...if not better standards since they are leaders and should be setting an example.

Not a big deal? This is the exact same place where a particularly gruesome car accident happened not so many months ago. A Lincoln navigator is just one more visual and physical obstruction in an already dangerous intersection.

New Haven Public Official Note to Self......Develop Paul Bass location app.

Yes Paul Bass is a weenie but he's New Haven's weenie!

Don't alderpeople get free parking downtown?

My guess is Charlie parked there b/c he knew he wouldn't get one of those $50 tickets.

Not that big of a deal, at least to me it isn't.

Who puts their last name on a vanity plate anyway? That's so out of touch. Kind of like driving an SUV around during the twilight of fossil fuel discovery.

Take the bus, Blango!

http://googleitfor.me/?q=peak oil

A fair catch. Will NHI start confronting cyclists that blow through red lights too? I'd like to see them dance in the video spotlight too. After all, fair is fair - right?

Charles Blango stated "I could have did that" multiple times in response to the question regarding why he didn't park in a legal spot.

"I could have DID that." Really? An Alderman, who is purportedly educated, is unable to use the past participle (done)?

Trivial, sure, but how can you expect New Haven's kids to learn and correctly use basic English (a necessary tool in education and entering the workforce) when its Aldermen are unable to speak to the public without making elementary mistakes?

This incident by Blango was NOT due to the lack of patience or the near cause of some accident which did not happen. on the contrary,
Blango could have found a legal space, or, parked in the lot across the street on Elm.

No,not him, this illegal act was caused by an arrogant alderman who feels his position and name plate grants him the right to trample on laws we others must follow,and by doing so would not deliver him a ticket or a tow which he well deserves.

He should have just parked in the lane of travel like NHPD when they have to run into the bank. At least he wasn't blocking traffic.

Pointless article. Try interviewing cops like that and see what happens.

The kids will learn good if we teach them penmanship.

I'd reframe this as an attempt to make an anonymous donation to the city of New Haven when he pays the resulting parking ticket.

I'd like to know how many of the people who cheered for Malloy's ticket are now defending Blango.

Good for you for doing this story, NHI.

NFJanette:
Do we need more focus on cyclists running red lights?

After I lawfully (check the state statute) used a pedestrian crosswalk signal last Friday, I was accosted by a belligerent and rude cop who had just ignored a driver running the same light.

This officer told me I was "welcome to lose a day's wage" fighting a ticket which he acknowledged he didn't know was legal or not (it wasn't), before running a red light himself, and then illegally parking in front of starbucks to buy a coffee.

Do you honestly think that police officers should spend more time focused on cyclists ... ?

What we can learn from larger cities:

Vilnius Mayor Crushes Parking Violators With Tank
http://www.planetizen.com/node/50717

Basic English

He probably did not want to be accused of this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acting_white


To the Staff at HNI,
I don't understand why the NHI declined to publish my initial post on this matter. The use of the above term is a well know problem in the African-American community. Pretending this attitude is non existent is not going to make the problem go away

Edward_H
You critcize the NHI for not printing your comment, because, not publishing it doesn't fix the problem. Fair enough.

Let us reverse the argument, however, and ask if your comment does anything to help the problem?

Edward_H
You critcize the NHI for not printing your comment, because, not publishing it doesn't fix the problem. Fair enough.
Let us reverse the argument, however, and ask if your comment does anything to help the problem?
Streever

I apologize if you misconstrued my comment as an attempt to fix a problem that has been plaguing the African-American community for generations. I do appreciate your faith in me and my comments on the NHI . Although I share the same skin color as Obama I was not born with the ability to stop the oceans from rising or heal the planet and I certainly cannot "fix" a pervasive problem that has existed in the African-American community before I was born with a post on the NHI. Sorry to disappoint.

My comment was an attempt to give a hypothesis as to why an Alderman or any politician would speak incorrectly in public. I don't assume that everyone knows about the internal struggles some educated Blacks have to deal with. Even our president, according to Harry Reid, knows how to turn his "Negro dialect" on and off.

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-01-09/politics/obama.reid_1_john-heilemann-african-american-voters-senator-reid?_s=PM:POLITICS

... Are Black men only allowed to comment if they are trying to fix a problem? As far as I know the NHI allows comments that abide by the "rules of the road". You take the liberty to make many comments that are not attempts to fix any problems. For example, nearly every article concerning police brutality has a comment from you describing your alleged experience with the NHPD. Your attempts to gain public pity are not going to improve the police department. ...

Anyway I must admit the 2nd part of my comment was based on a false assumption that Paul and I cleared up in a personal email exchange. I apologize for jumping to the wrong conclusion Paul.

FYI I am not calling Streever a racist, just his response. I am sure he believes he treats everyone equally. As an American who happens to be Black I am offended that he reserves certain privileges concerning the posting of comments to himself and denies the same to others.

[Editor: I think I made a mistake in removing Edward H's original comment. Our email exchange cleared that up for me. When people use real email addresses when posting comments or writing in to ask about our policies and decisions, it makes it easier to have an exchange and offer reasons; we recognize that we don't always make the right calls, and we apologize when people take offense.]

Edward_H:
Apologies for the misunderstanding.

I'm not judging the merits of your comment, nor am I setting a bar for comments. I am questioning your criticism of the NHI.

As you point out yourself, your criticism was not entirely fair, and has since been resolved to your satisfaction.

Paul is extremely accessible and is simply trying to foster an open, meaningful dialogue between citizens and neighbors. Again, I'm not saying your comment was neither meaningful nor relevant--just trying to explain why I was so off-put by your criticism of the NHI.

If that makes me potentially racist in your eyes, I'm sorry, but my objection is not to your content but the attitude you take toward being able to post your opinion here.

Paul owns and operates this "digital space"--it is his choice to allow a conversation to occur or a thought to be shared. I have given him a hard time myself, but at the end of the day, I genuinely believe he is trying his best to provide an incredible resource to us and we should try to give him the benefit of the doubt--or, at least, email him directly if we are unhappy with his moderation.

Again--no reflection on the actual content of your commentary, just a little put off by the criticism of the NHI.

Streever

"Again—no reflection on the actual content of your commentary, just a little put off by the criticism of the NHI."

I really have to say I am shocked by your response. Let's take another look at your comment:

"You critcize the NHI for not printing your comment, because, not publishing it doesn't fix the problem. Fair enough."

From my understanding you had no issue with my criticism of the NHI staff. Your use of the term "Fair Enough" relating to the first part of you comment means you understood why I posted my criticism.

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/fair enough

Now for the second part

"Let us reverse the argument, however, and ask if your comment does anything to help the problem?"

Here you are clearly taking an issue with my original comment concerning "talking white". In both of your sentences ,as I did in my original post, you use the term "the problem" as a substitute for "the "talking white" problem. From my reading of your second sentence you wanted me to ask myself the following question:

Does Edward_H's comment from August 5, 2011 9:35pm do anything to help the "talking white" problem?

Asking myself if my" comment does anything to help the problem" does not equate to "I am questioning your criticism of the NHI".

The only way your response makes sense is if you apply 2 different meanings to the words "the problem" in each of your sentences and somehow expected the readers to infer what your true meaning.

I actually have no problem with you disliking the content of my original post. I always appreciate informed, well-thought-out constructive criticism of anything I write. If there are any errors or omissions in my analysis of your post, let me know. I will apologize if need be or clarify anything I wrote.

Hi Edward_H:

Actually, I use the word "problem" in reference to your issue, because frankly, I'm not interested in your actual comment--it is your criticism of the NHI that I find interesting and relevant and that is what I am responding to.

When people tell me what I mean, or clarify my position for me in a way that supports their argument while ignoring my stated intentions, I feel there isn't much value in responding to them.

How can two people have a conversation if one of them chooses to interpret the others words in a way that directly contradicts logic and their own stated intention?

I say you seem to be criticizing the NHI for a certain reason--and I say, fair enough, if that is all it is.

Then I ask you, however, that if your position is such, is it not fair to apply the same metric to your comment? Regardless of the nature of your comment, or the subject matter it refers to, if your critique of the NHI is that they are not fixing whatever issue you refer to, can't they censor your comment for the same reason?

I don't actually hold that point of view: but, if you are going to criticize them for not fixing the issue, can't you give them the same right in reverse?

That's my question. If you honestly still don't understand it, I'm not sure what to tell you. You've made some pretty big leaps of judgement and greatly read into a few short lines asking you if the criticism you levy can't go two ways, and somehow come to the assertion that I am a racist.

If you have some specific instance of my words or actions denying rights to people of a certain race, or any other meaningful actions specifically against a certain race, please share them with the class, so everyone can determine if indeed I am a racist.

To the NHI readers

Out of respect to Paul Bass I have agreed not to post my response to Streever's post dated August 9, 2011.