ContraAlito IV
This is the last part of my essay on the Supreme Court's decision to forbid states to remap voting districts on the basis of race but allows states to gerrymander for political reasons. The result will be the return of hidden racism.
Category Analyses
Village of Williamsburg’s ICIP: Streets = stormwater control = nonpoint source pollution to Rio Grande
I don't blame Villagers for not participating in the Infrastructure Capital Improvements Project. The meeting time was changed, you couldn't write in suggestions to the Village clerk, there was only one public hearing and it was only 30 minutes long. Getting the "why" out of trustees' ICIP choices was hard.
Trickle down economics + toxic optimism + lack of asset management = our present and future
Asset management plans are boring. Camelot dreams are not. We are still basing our choice of capital projects on "wouldn't it be nice" instead of "what is the state of our assets."
ContraAlito III
This is the third part of my analysis of Supreme Court Alito's Louisiana v. Callais ruling. In it I discuss the mostly unacknowledged undertow that pulls his argument together and the way those currents come out of the Court's decades-long destruction of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
ContraAlito II
The second part of my long read of Justice Alito's decision in Louisiana v. Callais is a direct analysis of his argument with attention to his use of two ambiguous words, "discrimination" and "intention," and his construction of a history of cases that lead to his decision.
ContraAlito
I begin a four articles long study of the Supreme Court decision on elections in Louisiana v. Callais. The articles are difficult with a lot of information, legal concepts, and linguistic analysis. I hope you will tackle it because voting may not be voting anymore.
More on water
Decisions about water are oddly complex, balancing private and public interests. Understanding hydrology helps resolve some of that complexity. This is an informational piece on groundwater, streams, riparian trees, and us to help make our decisions more reasonable.
Village of Williamsburg needs to plan with T or C on ICIP road and water projects
If the residents and Village of Williamsburg Trustees are not critically evaluating what their under-contract engineers are proposing, if they are just going along, the engineering firm will seek to maximize its profits instead of saving residents money, which appears to be the case.
Sponge City, not Hard City: Greening of T or C and Village should be ICIP goal
T or C and the Village of Williamsburg could use storm water to green up, but dump
it, polluted, into the river. We pay nearly $9 per 1,000 gallons to pump and treat sewer water into "effluent" that waters the golf course and parks. It's cheaper to intercept storm water.
T or C’s solid Waste Collection Center expansion would exploit polycart customers on behalf of Turtleback Mountain Resort’s new homeowners!
Do you think T or C and Williamsburg polycart customers should pay more so rich new homeowners at the Turtleback Mountain Resort can pay less to have their trash hauled and recycle for free? An expansion of the T or C collection center is proposed to accommodate them.
T or C’s proposed budget for FY27 is $84 million
The city must cram capital projects over a few years that should be spread over 20 or so. Must, because the city is leaking 57 percent of the water it produces in warm months. Must, because the city was under an order by the NMED to fix the sewer.
Convoluted sewer relationship between Village of Williamsburg and T or C determines rate increases
The City of T or C is considering how much to increase water and sewer rates and T or C City Manager Gary Whitehead came to the Village of Williamsburg April 9 Trustee meeting to explain what effect such increases could have on Villagers. It’s complicated, because the Village owns…