ChrisBachmann.com - ChrisBachmann.com

Saturday

19Sep2009

Choosing Civility in Howard County? How uncivil: revisited

Saturday, September 19, 2009 at 6:11PM

It's been an interesting trip since I first posted the original Choose Civility post in 2008. I've been writing a lot more than before, but not as much as I would like to. I've changed jobs and have been having a blast with that. The commute can be a bit of a pain, but it has it's benefits. P. M. Forni has been on Oprah shilling his hissy fit to a national audience, and we've had 2 public displays of incivility on the national stage in the forms of Rep. Joe Wilson and Kanye West. So given all of that, it's time to take a second look at the issue as well about the opportunity to bitch that my magnet was stolen off my car yesterday.

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Chris Bachmann |

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Monday

20Apr2009

Updates and city developement

Monday, April 20, 2009 at 10:57PM

Urgh. Sorry for the lack of updates. As those close to me know, the new job in DC is keeping me fairly busy and I'm adjusting to a more "normal" schedule. However, the change of pace has been fairly stimulating as well as exhausting at times. So it's just about time that I start addressing some more recent developments that have come out since not just my last post, but the brain dump that I had last summer on my personal blog.

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Chris Bachmann |

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Sunday

15Feb2009

Government 2.0 and Howard County/Columbia

Sunday, February 15, 2009 at 5:24PM

This morning I went to a very good beta presentation by Ken Fisher from clickforhelp.com about how Government can make it's way into the social media space. What was going to be a simple run through of his presentation became a quite active discussion concerning not only how he can improve his presentation for Wednesday, but also about government communications in general. This being a local oriented blog (although sparse so far -- sorry guys and gals new job and the need to learn new rules that apply to me and lobbying), the question then becomes how to apply these concepts to the local government.

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Chris Bachmann |

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Tuesday

21Oct2008

GGP's proposal for Columbia Town Center

Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at 5:27PM

In my email today, I got a letter from GGP saying that the general outline plan for Town Center is now released. Being that it's my day off, I figured that I would give it a good read and post some initial thoughts. Many of the references that I make to my previous writing can still be found at my personal site where I did a mental dump of some thoughts concerning TC.

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Chris Bachmann |

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Tuesday

29Jul2008

A Vision for a New Columbia - part 5: entertainment

Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 3:42PM

I've been giving this a bunch of thought and Columbia 2.0 makes me worry a bit. It the Sun article concerning the group, there was a member of the group that books entertainment acts. I really hope there isn't another venue for crappy cover bands that makes a barely tolerable night out on the town. Nottingham's and Sonoma's covers that market rather well, thank you. Then there's the folk music, which is cool, but that won't drag in the youth market. Then there's the high art events, which many young people would go to, but it's not exactly the sort of thing that people would go to on a consistent basis. As I stated in my first post. There's easily 500+ people who go to either Baltimore of DC to see acts doing original music. That's a demographic work pursuing. And that's just the punk and indy rock scenes. Let's not forget the various jam bands in the area. Put that all together, and you have the economics of a vibrant music scene right here in Columbia.

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Chris Bachmann |

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Monday

28Jul2008

A Vision for a New Columbia - part 4: errata

Monday, July 28, 2008 at 3:53PM

Trains

As Dave Bittner pointed out to me on Twitter, there is/was a rail line going into Columbia East. While some may point to this as a sign that train service to TC would be unfeasible, I would dispute this assertion by looking at the economics of the old rail line and the new rail line. First, the old rail line was designed to be industrial rather than for the transportation of people. It was built during a time when rail was being supplanted by trucks and this line's failure is a symptom of that. With the increase in the cost of gas in addition to people's increasing frustrations with traffic, a train service to TC would make sense. There was also the older argument against trains in that it would increase crime at the mall, particularly theft. Well, let's look at the potential theft v. the economic impact of saving up to an hour a day off of people's commutes. I don't have those numbers since no one has done a study yet, but just pure supposition would probably support my argument.

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Tuesday

22Jul2008

A Vision for a New Columbia - part 3: the private realm

Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at 4:30PM

Note: Thank you all for amusing me in my verbal dump of ideas and thoughts from over the years. It's rather cathartic to get this all out of the way and down somewhere that might spark some further ideas.

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Chris Bachmann |

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Monday

21Jul2008

A note about GGP's proposal

Monday, July 21, 2008 at 7:39PM

In general, the GGP proposal is pretty decent. They've evidently put in a lot of thought into what they're doing, but it really is thinking in the box and neglecting some really significant opportunities for a real transformation and putting money where their mouth is. They talk about green buildings, what's the technology behind it? What do we really do about cars? Do you really think people will be sitting on a bench next to a major road reading a book? What about places that are a genuine substitute for town homes and single family homes? Let's go and explore this together some more. Personally, I'd make cars look and feel like secondary citizens.

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Monday

21Jul2008

A Vision for a New Columbia - part 2: the public realm

Monday, July 21, 2008 at 6:17PM

As I stated in the last post, Town Center needs to the jewel in the crown of all development. It's what makes a statement of what Columbia is supposed to be. and I'm not talking about it from a design prospect, but from a community standpoint. This brings in the elephant in the room: the mall. The mall takes up so much space and is arranged in such a way that makes all further development difficult if not impossible. In order to get from one side of TC to another, you need to either go around the mall (a long walk no matter what) or go through the mall (and face the ring of moving cars, meander through the parking area, walk a lengthy stretch of the mall to get to a door on the other side, come out then face the parking lot and the ring of moving cars again). With all of that said, it's evident to me that the mall as it stands today needs to go.

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Chris Bachmann |

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Thursday

17Jul2008

A Vision for a New Columbia - part 1

Thursday, July 17, 2008 at 4:03PM

It seems that I'm having a difficult time getting away from the topic of Columbia, MD. No matter what, it seems what I most often talk about with others. I grew up here. After living in other places for periods of time, I always seem to make it back. Admittedly a few times was because I couldn't make it out on my own, but there's a weird thing about this town that is somewhat indescribable.

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Chris Bachmann |

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Friday

04Jul2008

More on "Civility". Fnord.

Friday, July 4, 2008 at 6:10PM

Okay. First off, it wasn't me. Just for the record. While it's certainly something I would do, I have decided to use a literary reference since it is a library campaign.

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Chris Bachmann |

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Thursday

19Jun2008

Touching.

Thursday, June 19, 2008 at 5:44PM

There are times where something comes out that genuinely touches me. Coco Wang came out with 11 comic strips documenting the 5/12/2008 earthquakes in China. Some were heartbraking, some were genuinely funny in a black comedy sense. I highly recommend reading.

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Chris Bachmann |

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Tuesday

17Jun2008

Bumper Stickers linked to road rage? Nature addresses the issue

Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 8:52AM

There's an interesting article in Nature last week concerning the link between bumper stickers and road rage. The conclusion from the Colorado State University team drew from their study is that there is a correlation between how someone uses their car as an expression outlet and their likelihood for anger behind the wheel. They link bumper stickers with territorial markers. This is my space, not yours

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Chris Bachmann |

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Thursday

05Jun2008

Zeitgeist: Let's look at the wider view. FNORD

Thursday, June 5, 2008 at 6:16PM

I'm such a procrastinator. I've been meaning to post a review of Zeitgeist for almost a year now and I'm just now getting around to finishing it.

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Chris Bachmann |

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Thursday

05Jun2008

Thoughts...

Thursday, June 5, 2008 at 2:55PM

What an interesting world we live in. I remember that when I was in high school, race relations were still tense. Even here in Columbia, MD, there was a tension between the races despite our more open attitudes. I remember when Neo Nazis were running around and being bold about it. I remember the race riots of LA on TV. I remember seeing Do The Right Thing in the movie theaters as well as the conversations that followed. And even within the past several years, I have seen its more subtle forms when people mock gangsta rap and hip-hop culture in general for not conforming to proper society (read: the way white people do things).

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Chris Bachmann |

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Wednesday

23Apr2008

Choosing Civility in Howard County? How uncivil.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 4:40PM

Run around Howard County, Md and you'll see these little green bumper stickers that say "Choose Civility in Howard County". I started noticing these a few years ago and I pretty much ignored it until recently. It always stuck me as a bit odd since HoCo is pretty civil to begin with. Then all of the publicity surrounding the campaign started coming out. Okay, so I now know where it's coming from and what the library is trying to push. What do I do about it? I read the book.

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Chris Bachmann |

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Friday

21Mar2008

Thoughts on the Obama row concerning religion and race

Friday, March 21, 2008 at 5:51PM

I was just reading an article in the Guardian entitled "Obama race row reflects divisions in key Pennsylvania city" and some thoughts began to occur to me concerning not race, but the state of religion in America. In this article someone said,

In Chickie's and Pete's restaurant and sports bar in Philadelphia, John Fernandez, a chiropractor, said Obama must have known what Wright was preaching. "How can you be that tight and not know or share some of those opinions? I was leaning toward him a little bit, but that took it over the edge," Fernandez said, hollering to be heard over the din of the bar and televised basketball game.

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Thursday

13Mar2008

Why Hillary should bow out

Thursday, March 13, 2008 at 2:16PM

For those of you who know me, or even keep track of this blog, you will know that I'm not exactly a talkative guy. I tend to keep to myself unless you come into my close circle. However, when something really starts geeing under my skin, I feel the need to make my voice heard. Sometimes I can be a little brash. Maybe a little vicious. But i feel like it needs to be said. Now onto the show...<./p>

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Sunday

29Jul2007

Need I say anymore?

Sunday, July 29, 2007 at 4:58AM

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Entertainment,

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Saturday

02Jun2007

Dan Hess: Dear friend and an example of DIY Punk. 1976 - 2007

Saturday, June 2, 2007 at 6:40PM

Last night, I was at the Pietasters show at the 9:30 club and I heard that my old friend, and sometime confidant, Dan Hess passed away from Hodgkin's Disease on May 14. One of the proprietors of Phantasmagoria and he suggested that I post my memories of Dan to DC Ska. It seems however, I feel like posting my memories and musings here and I'll let Michelle link to here. I'm still trying to put together specific incidents and photos (if I have any off hand), but at the very least, I can post my initial thoughts here for everyone to see.

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Chris Bachmann |

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