Voting Machinery Alert

Deadly Earnst has some new information about new voting machinery in the works for Chicago.

What do we want?

1. Paper trails (duh!)
2. Accuracy
3. Capable of Condorcet compliant Instant Runoff Voting.
4. Open source code owned by the city.

The last will likely be the hardest to get. (BTW what does David Orr have to say about the topic. Anyone, anyone, Ferris?)

Time to extend the Lakefront Bike Path is Now.

Sometimes change comes all at once in a big project. Other times it's small steps. The big project answer to Edgewater's traffic problems is the extension of LakeShore drive north. But there are small step improvements that could be done in the short term at anytime.

I will discuss those traffic solutuions at a later date but for the moment let me say that one of those solutions involves pedestrian underpasses along Sheridan road between Hollywood and Devon. The most natural points for those underpasses are at Berger Park at Granville and Thorndale Beach and Parks at Thorndale.

It's especially a natural now that Thorndale has a park on both sides of Sheridan. Which brings me to my real topic of discussion, bike path extension and not the big project, the in the lake version.

Now while the lake is down and the connection between Thorndale beach and Ardmore beach (sorry, I don't go for naming beaches after people) is wide is the time to move some rocks a build a paved extension of the Bike path to Thorndale.

There's another reason. Remember when they had Sheridan torn up for sewer work. Well they changed Thorndale to be both directions between Broadway and Sheridan and they eliminated parking east of Winthrop. That is now the point where the bike path should be leaving the lake to move to Kenmore and Winthrop, not narrow one way Ardmore.

Add the underpass with room for bikes and viola' we have make a significant, even if not the big project, improvement, for both bikers and pedestrians.

Local politics.

Here

Over at DailyKos I castigate myself for not doing enough on the local political scene.

I really don't care for this blogger software and if I were serious I would make a much greater effort at getting somthing else set up. I suggested to Mr Lawrence (sorry his first name eludes me at the moment) over at ECC that they host a scoop site.

The other place that needs a scoop site is the Schakowsky/Osterman/Smith/(Ronen?)/Volini storefront complex south of Bryn Marw on Broadway.

Well we can dream. And some of us can get off our butts. Starting right here I guess.

Here's a local Edgewater neighbor with a blog, who also hangs out at DailyKos:
http://maslovsrag.blogspot.com/