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Shout outs to some local bloggers:
A few days ago, I ripped into TBO.com’s commenters as the worst in the area. I (quietly) received a few whispers and e-mails from people agreeing with me. Yes, differing opinions — even caustic ones — are great for media, but out-and-out libel, racism or cruelness? Those kind of commenters can quickly turn readers off from a website or blog.
I’m not the only one to think so. Time writer Lev Grossman recently editorialized on these hostile trolls, highlighting a guest blogger for the Stranger, an alternative weekly out of Seattle, who abruptly quit her gig because commenters had become too cruel. But it’s not just newspapers, he writes, but everything on the web from Flikr to YouTube:
A random example: on June 11, a user called way21337 uploaded a video to YouTube. It’s titled My new gerbil, and it shows, in fact, a black-and-white gerbil snuffling around cutely in somebody’s hand. It is 11 seconds long. By press time, it had acquired 102 comments. Let’s take a look! They begin with NewTyhuss, who writes, “sweet!” Things start going south with comment No. 4: “id hit it.” (Good one, ZRace67!) After a week, we’re down to eldergod: “why dont u shove that gerbil up yur ass and quit posting stupid videos.” bwalhof writes, “kill yourself. fast.” And so on.
Grossman sums up my feelings fairly well:
The horribleness of commenters isn’t really a mystery: Internet anonymity is disinhibiting, and people are basically mean anyway. Nor is it a mystery why the people who run websites put up with commenters: the economic model for Internet content is based on advertising, which means it’s based on traffic volume, and comments mean traffic. They’re part of the things that make online publishing work. TIME.com enables comments on its blogs, including mine.) It’s just hard to tell whether they’re ruining the Web faster than they can save it.
(As for the Stranger blogger, looks like she’s back up with a little extra dough from her employer …)
Just a quick shout-out to a few local blog posts that caught my eye recently:
Was “The Twist” born in Tampa? Sticks of Fire says yes.
What could possibly be more infuriating than a giant Confederate Flag off of Tampa’s interstate? A billboard proclaiming Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican. Pushing Rope has details.
Nabob of Nothing faces off against Facebook.
I got some props from St. Petersblog today over my cover story about the most endangered buildings in St. Pete. It’s good to hear people still appreciate an article on history; not exactly the most sexy material out there, you know.
One of the blog’s writers, Casey, makes a good point about the planned demolition of part of the 600 block of Central Avenue:
In fact, Alex points out a very disturbing fact about the city block in question (you know the awesome old store fronts on Central at 6th): “on May 1, the developer requested a demolition permit from the city, which is pending.” The assholes who bought that block kicked all of those shops out almost 2 years ago, leaving them as a horrible reminder of failure and now it appears their demolition is finally imminent - sad day.
The Central Avenue situation is one of the most infuriating spectacles of St. Pete development. That little strip was one of the most eclectic in the whole city and they moved those retailers out … for what? A vacant block on the city’s premiere entryway decorated with spraypaint and “no loitering” stenciling?
One of the interesting pieces of info I came across in my research is this clause in the preservation code: If a developer wants to tear down a building that has local historical landmark status, they must prove their financing before the City Council will approve demolition. This is not the case with buildings without landmark status, which is why you have several vacant lots downtown right now.
Why can’t they do that for all buildings in St. Pete? Doesn’t it make sense to actually have the money for a project before you start demolishing whole blocks?
The guys over at St. Petersblog continue to push the St. Pete curbside recycling issue in their own snarky way. Yesterday, they posted a link to a form letter you can use to write Mayor Rick Baker urging him to adopt curbside recycling. Today, they’ve added a scathing response to a form letter they received after e-mailing Mayor Baker.
Particularly galling to the bloggers is this paragraph written by Sanitation Coordinator Bill Sundstrom:
A curbside program would have an annual operating budget in excess of $3 million dollars; generate environmental detriments associated with additional fuel consumption (20,000 gallons per year), vehicle air emissions and potable water usage, with minimal impacts to extending the life span of the Pinellas County Landfill. The high cost of operating a curbside program must be compared to the low resource return, typically from a 2%-4% reduction of the waste stream. This imbalance represents a negative influence on resource conservation, which is the goal of recycling.
That’s my bold up there, because I’m calling bullshit on this one, too.
Last December, during a tour of Pinellas County’s Bridgeway Acres, I interviewed sanitation technician Rick Clarke, who told me recycling is crucial to the longevity of the county’s landfill.
“Seventy percent of this doesn’t need to be here,” he said as we stood on top of an 80-foot mound of trash (the highest point in Pinellas County, I might add). “If all we did was recycle paper, we’d chop a third of it right there.”
When I questioned him on his feelings about the lack of curbside in St. Pete, Clarke didn’t want to comment, though he did say, “Where cities have curbside, there is a lot less recyclables [at the landfill].”
The fact is, St. Pete adds a disproportionate amount of recyclable trash to the county’s landfill. Even the county has recognized this: they’re considering taking care of St. Pete’s recycling themselves.
I don’t blame St. Pete officials for not wanting to start an expensive program when the county might go ahead and pay for it. But tell citizens that and don’t spoon us bullshit like the letter above.
In the meantime, maybe environmental types should take a look at St. Pete Recycling Solutions.
(photo credit: Peter Kaminski on Flikr)
Remember Alan Snel?
He’s the bicycle enthusiast I profiled last August. Snel, a former Tampa Tribune reporter, is the director of the South West Florida Bicycle United Dealers (SWFBUD!).
This week, Snel was one of 500 bicycle activists attending the 2008 National Bike Summit in Washington D.C. to lobby Congress for pro-bicycle legislation. 500 bicycle lobbyists? That’s a lot of spandex!
Check out Snel’s report here.
Way to go, Alan. A good portion of Tampa Bay’s congestion problems could be solved if we used bikes, even if just for those small two-minute trips to grab a six-pack or lunch. St. Pete has already done a great job creating a bicycle-friendly city, but Tampa still has a long way to go.
What’s the biggest obstacle for bicyclists in Tampa?
(photo via LightMash on Flikr)
UPDATE: Another example of Pinellas County’s innovation.
During last week’s extensive media coverage of a Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputy dumping a quadriplegic out of his chair at Orient Road Jail, you might have missed the widely viewed video of a Baltimore cop berating a 14-year-old skateboarder. It’s quite possibly the best YouTube video I’ve seen since the Gainesville tasing incident.
Last week, the Baltimore Police Department suspended Officer Salvatore Rivieri for taking down a skateboarder in a headlock and scolding him for “disrespect.â€
Here’s the video:
I’m officially inducting the cop’s quote, “I’m not ‘man.’ I’m not ‘dude.’ I am Officer Rivieri!†to the YouTube Phrase Hall of Fame, joining “Don’t Tase me, bro!†and Mitt Romney’s â€Who let the dogs out? Who, who.â€
The whole episode reminded me of a Sticks of Fire post from last week that pointed out the arrests of a few Tampa skateboarders. Really, why do cops hate skateboarders so much?
But if you thought Officer Rivieri’s 15-minutes of fame was over, check out this new video where the plump police patroller goes ballistic over an art student’s use of a remote control car:
Out of control cop? Abuse of power? Should the Baltimore Police Department institute diversity training?
Naw. After seeing the second video, I’m blaming Officer Rivieri’s anger on having to ride in that dorky little car all day.
We’re still receiving more comments over last week’s Urban Explorer, which profiled Pass-A-Grille gallery owner Evander Preston’s gifts to the homeless this year (hint: they’re alcoholic and smokey). I was curious what may have sent the traffic over there and found Jackie Dowd’s Orlando-based blog The 13th Juror. Check it out: She has a wealth of info about the homeless situation in Pinellas County and Florida. But what’s choice is this YouTube video she posted:
UPDATE: Looks like a California radio station picked up the Evander Preston story, too. Check out the audio here.
Another missive from prison by George Martorano, the inmate serving life with no parole that CL profiled last month:
Bunk beds are cute in the free-world home, especially for children. Try sleeping on one for 20+ years as an adult. After years of it, one’s lower back can be ruined, unless, upon waking you stretch and exercise. Those who don’t usually end up in wheel-chairs.
For half of the prisoners “aging†in prison, a wheel-chair awaits. All sorts of illness’s call a prisoner as he ages.
Dan Mathews is the Vice President of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the man responsible for the “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur†campaign. He stopped by the offices of Creative Loafing this morning to chat about his book, Committed: A Rabbel-Rouser’s Memoir.
The most obvious question to me was the way celebrities adopt causes like Angelina Jolie adopts babies. I had to ask which celeb was a flip flopper on animal rights. To my surprise, he only had one.
“Naomi Campbell. She thought we were the coolest thing to come along, but when her career faltered, she went back on her word. She’s a glaring example of someone greedy.â€
Otherwise supermodels and actors have stuck by PETA and were a stepping stone into the world of fashion. Mathews, a former model himself, explained that engaging designers behind the scenes was more important than the passing era of supermodels. The designers were the ones after all making the decisions about whether or not to include fur in their collections. “PETA’s about keeping an eye on what people are paying attention to,†Mathews says. “Like fashion.â€
Just last week Mathews was invited by the Liz Claiborne Company, which sells a high quantity of leather shoes and bags, to do a presentation to the staff. He says it was “a great sign of things to come. 15 years ago the only way to get attention was to take over their office. Now we get invited in. Most of the time.â€
Committed spills the details of Mathews’ numerous times behind bars, among them for protesting without a permit in Harvard Square in his drawers for a “fur-out, love-in†in a mock bed with four other activists.
“Part of the point of the book is that you can devote your life to a cause without becoming a total bore. You can do serious work and still have a good time,†says Mathews. He’s learned that people want entertainment, not education. An energetic, mostly in-house team comes up with PETA’s campaigns with creativity that rivals any Madison Avenue advertising execs. They know they have to compete for attention with cable TV, celebrity headlines and myriad other distractions to get people to pay attention.
Which is why Mathews and PETA are so successful at reaching out to youth around the world. PETA2.com has a few hundred thousand street-teamers. At PETATV.com, pop star Pink narrates a video on wool. Mathews says of the video: “Most people don’t want to watch a sheep being mutilated. But her loyal fanbase will.â€
Mathews is ever optimistic and only let defeat creep into conversation once. He says PETA focuses primarily on reaching the younger generations because breaking habits of someone who’s eaten a steak a week for the last 50 years is nearly impossible. “I ask the kids to look at how unhealthy their grandparents are and if they want to end up like that,†he says.
Dan Mathews will do a book reading and signing Tuesday night at 7 p. m. at Barnes & Noble, 11802 N. Dale Mabry, in Tampa at 7:00 PM.
Ah, I love how big business takes care of the little guys.
Who cares if it’s safe? “It still sells,†said an employee of the biggest child-care car seat manufacturer in the U.S.
According to Oprah, “doctors found that men who stopped smoking experienced a rise in sperm count of up to 800%!†Conversely, guys who sto
