firestation #2 open house

On the 28th the rebuilt FS #2 had an open house at 5:30pm. I was in the area shopping for dinner groceries so I popped over to see.

Turns out the place was packed. People were parking in the church lot across arapaho to the north, and residential streets were full of parallel parkers.

Who'da thunk it? I wanted to see inside (and the fireman's slide in particular; no more pole!) but the line, seen to the right, was long. I'm guessing there were a couple hundred people in the area when I walked up. Since the line wasn't moving I took a couple of bad cellphone pics and went home to cook dinner.

Richardson thief caught on video

This, my friends, is what video is for.

Our ethically challenged friend is lucky there was no armed guard posted in the building. Perhaps this is an opportunity for him to repent (maybe he will read a similar situation in Les Miserables while imprisoned?).

rain

.6" of rain overnight.

So far the upside down spinach is the best of the lot, and the upside down peas are 2nd best. Both have no bug damage.

Two of my tomato plants got got eaten by bugs last week (snails? saw a few). Two others nearby are untouched and the ones in the shade look best of all.

I put two iPlanters 2.0 of tomatoes out yesterday. The new revision involves inverting the cut-off bottom of the 2L and affixing it upside-down to the planter (which is upside down so the bottom is actually upside-up). Confused? This cellphone pic is horrific, but shows the overall gist.

Also, here is a grapefruit tree I grew from a yummy grapefruit I ate in late 2007. I let the seed dry for a few months then sprouted/planted it in 2008. I don't have any illusions that it will ever yield fruit. But the leaves are a lovely deep green. I also planted a lemon tree from scrounged seed at the same time but it looks terrible (right beside it; basically a twig with one ugly leaf on it).

Early Voting

Went and voted.

I met Mr. Omar there, and he was as pleasant and professional as I would have assumed. I told him he was the reason I came out to vote (see below). I believe he is a good man (even if the RC recommended him!) and will represent the city in general and our talented immigrant populations in particular with integrity.

There were two other canvassers there, and coincidentally their candidates were also on my voting list. I do not feel strongly enough about their candidacy to mention their names.

I am not very political, and it was difficult figuring out who to vote for. Basically I wrote down every candidate and did my reading for a week. I put +1next to each name as I read things I thought were going to be helpful to Richardson, and -1 to things that I thought would be hurtful. In addition, any candidate endorsed by the RC was automatically dinged with a -1, but Mr. Omar was able to overcome that. :-)

Here are the things that concern me as a voter:

* embracing our productive diversity. I want citizens around me who want to contribute, who want to educate their offspring, run their own businesses, shop in their own town, run their own lives.

* crappy apartments breeding crime. I know, I used to live in one. I was very glad to have a CHL.

* uninsured and unskilled drivers. Take your life (and your car) into your own hands around SpringValley and Waterview. I try to avoid that area.

* Crime slipping over from Dallas from the South and from Garland on the East.

* residential burglaries, robberies, and assaults

* an intense hatred for officials who seek office for profit or self-advancement rather than for service to their community. Carpetbaggers and the good ol' boy network are not needed.

* wasting taxpayer money.

* hiding government business. Publish/podcast/broadcast! There is no excuse. Sunshine is the best disinfectant.

* the COR website, full of unpredictable URLs, and proprietary formats instead of open standards.

Burglaries get no love from detectives?

I wrote a little script that downloads the current crime "blotter" (such as it is) and parses it. In looking for data on a few neighboring streets. Here's an example for Summit Dr:

04/22/2009 05:00 PM CRIM MISC 50-500 400 BLK of SUMMIT DR
03/31/2009 03:30 PM BURG UNLAW-RESD 500 BLK of SUMMIT DR
12/09/2008 02:00 PM CRIM MISC 50-500 500 BLK of SUMMIT DR
10/28/2008 04:30 AM BURG FORCE-RESD/THEFT-FROM MV 400 BLK of SUMMIT DR
10/28/2008 04:30 AM BURG FORCE-RESD/THEFT-FROM MV 400 BLK of SUMMIT DR
10/27/2008 05:00 PM THEFT-MV PARTS 400 BLK of SUMMIT DR
06/09/2008 04:00 PM CRIM MISC 50-500 500 BLK of SUMMIT DR
04/24/2008 10:30 PM THEFT-ALL OTHER/VEH AUTO-THEFT 500 BLK of SUMMIT DR
02/05/2008 06:00 PM BURG FORCE-RESD 400 BLK of SUMMIT DR
01/13/2008 12:01 AM CRIM MISC 50-500 PARK LN // SUMMIT DR

What's odd is that all the burglary/mischief calls over the last year are marked "inactive", as in "no followup". That's odd. What are the chances that ALL of them are effectively in the trash pile? So I started looking for cases that were active or pending. Based on my reading, it appears someone has to be shot, assaulted, or have their car stolen to get their case seen by detectives. I suspect the car theft one is due to agitation by insurance companies rather than any particular concern for the property of citizens.

I would much rather have residential burglaries followed up on rather than car theft. My car can easily be replaced; my sense of security in my home cannot.

Scanner feed: COR.200904200741

MP3 uploaded here, 28MB.

04/20/2009 06:55 AM THEFT-MV PARTS 400 BLK of S GREENVILLE AVE
04/20/2009 08:00 AM ATT VEH AUTO-THEFT 400 BLK of INTERNATIONAL PKWY
04/20/2009 09:10 AM BURG FORCE-RESD 1000 BLK of NORTH PARK DR
04/20/2009 09:00 AM BURG UNLAW-RESD 400 BLK of SHADOW BEND DR

Scanner feed: COR.200904181505

Ok, I'm going to put my money where my mouth is. This is a partial day's scanning. The filename carries the date in YYMMDDHHMM format.

MP3 (20MB).

Here is my hack of the RPD non-blotter for the day:
04/18/2009 12:00 PM BURG UNLAW-RESD 500 BLK of TRAILRIDGE DR
04/18/2009 08:00 AM CRIM MISC 50-500 1900 BLK of VILLANOVA DR

although neither one of those will be on the audio because it starts so late in the day. In general I run the recording from morning to morning, but this one was different for some reason.