This morning’s “Sound Off” on WKBK featured a detailed discussion of the proposed parking rate increase. I listened for the bulk of an hour and the discussion and calls leaned against the proposal by the new “parking czar” to double parking fines and dramatically increase rates. Here’s the part of the hour I was able to record, which includes calls from me, James “Robin Hood” Cleaveland, and city code enforcer Fred Parsells:
Also, here’s another call from two weeks prior where I called to agree with the “Sound Off” hosts about cannabis decrim and the death penalty. Then I ask Chris Coates if he agrees that the school board deliberative session is mostly attended by school staff. He agrees: (more…)
Deborah Butler, a downtown part-time worker, wrote this letter to the Sentinel pointing out that if the parking rates increase as the city proposes, she’ll have to pay nearly twice as much to park, just to go to her job! She also rightfully points out that the parking fees are a deterrent to shoppers as well:
After reading the Sentinel’s article concerning raising the parking fees in downtown meters, I couldn’t help but wonder why the Keene City Council is determined to make downtown Keene as unattractive as possible to visitors and workers alike.
Reducing the amount of time each quarter buys means that shoppers will spend less time in the stores along Main Street. Visitors to the area, who may park on Main Street to see what the merchants in Keene have to offer, will not know that they should have brought along a pocketful of change in order to park for any reasonable shopping time. They will probably cut their shopping trips short in order to avoid having to pay a parking ticket.
Like many of the people who work in the downtown establishments, I am a part-time employee. Right now, it costs me $5.50 a week to park for the part of the day that I am at work. With the proposed change to the parking fees, it will cost me over $9.
The more difficult and costly it is to park and shop downtown, the more people will avoid coming here. Kris Roberts is quoted as saying, “…people who don’t use parking spots will have to come up with money to subsidize the parking fund …” Well, I don’t have any children in the school system, but I ‘subsidize’ that; it’s the same principle. Does the City Council want happy shoppers spending money in a thriving downtown business district? I would like to suggest that the Keene City Council not be “Penny wise, pound foolish.”
In video shot this morning, Keene District Court’s Judge Edward J Burke tells Cop Block Radio‘s Eric Freerock that he’ll accept his thirty-one community service hours as certified by the Shire Free Church. (He volunteered to record hours of panels and speeches at a recent event.) However, Burke warns Freerock that one is not supposed to do community service for agencies with which one is affiliated. That makes no sense. Why wouldn’t one be able to do community service for an agency one has already supported previously?
If one has worked previously at say, the Community Kitchen, does that mean one is “affiliated” and cannot perform community service hours there? Or does “affiliated” mean that one is on a board of directors of said organization? That is not made clear during this hearing, and the community service order that courts issue to defendants says nothing about a prohibition of affiliation with an agency. Regardless, Burke accepts the hours. Case closed.
Free Keene welcomes Joël Valenzuela as our newest blogger! Joël is one of the prime content creators in Manchester and he joins existing Manch bloggers Robert Mathias, JJ Schelessinger, and William Kostric to help feature some of the great activism happening there that has gone woefully unreported. Here’s his bio from the Bloggers page:
Joël moved to New Hampshire for the Free State Project in September of 2013 after making a promise to always be on the front lines of liberty. He runs The Desert Lynx blog and writes for numerous other publications. Valenzuela’s undergraduate education is in Statesmanship, and his postgraduate in Global Affairs. He worked for over a decade in public policy for such organizations as the Goldwater Institute, the Alliance for School Choice, the Cato Institute, the Leadership Institute, Americans for Prosperity, and the Western Center for Journalism. When not running The Desert Lynx, Valenzuela is a full-time martial arts instructor.
It was a big deal that HB 492 (the legalization and regulation bill based on Colorado’s Amendment 64) passed the New Hampshire House January 8, but it will need to survive another close vote in the House before it reaches the Senate. The second and final House vote is expected either Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.
Please take a couple of minutes to look up your representatives and their votes. You can find your representative(s) and their contact information here, and the roll call vote on HB 492 is available here.
If your representative(s) voted “YEA” in January, please call or email them to say thanks and ask if you can count on them to vote in favor again this week. A call is much more valuable than an email, but both are very important and time is short.
If your representative(s) voted “NO” in January, please call or email them and make an effort to convince them they should vote in favor. (more…)
