As the New Year 2012 dawns, a word about this blog. It's meant to be a gathering place for the many, many people in Encinitas who are not happy with the governance of this treasure of a coastal beach city. In the parlance of this 21st century shift in media its known as an aggregator blog (or long form web-log). Aggregator is a pejorative to really talented writers, journalists and the most politically wonky purists amongst us. But, thankfully, Encinitas doesn't seem a hotbed of any of these types.An aggregator by definition is all about gathering. The posts will direct you to other sources. Take this last batch of posts reviewing 2011. As with most posts, readers are pointed towards the original sources for news items shown as links (bold green labels) throughout. Click on these and come back to Our Mayor. These local news workers are paid salaries, presumably to uncover the news, the real facts behind the official speak. Often they aren't paid much unless they are a well known columnist and / or they don't do much more than "he said she said" reports or talking points from the majority. We will be critical. It's a promise. Happily we may see some young inspired journalists. We can dream and dream big.
Occasionally you'll find original writing, artwork and guest posts & white paper pdf's at this blog. This will be a treat rather than daily fare. Daily it would be just fine to have 25,000 voters a day stopping by for a quick read a few minutes before work and a few more in the evening - just to see what is going on in Encinitas. Hey, if that means 5,000 individuals from each of the five communities of Cardiff, Old Encinitas, Leucadia, Olivenhain and New Encinitas - it would be fantastic! Pass the word people, pass the word.
There are a series of tabs below the masthead for resources at your fingertips. These are things only needed when you need it and you don't want to wonder where to look it up. Not to worry. Look up stuff here. This is a work in progress, so there may even be cartoons, quizzes, celebrity bios, activist stories, etc.
This is an election year and there is no shame in demanding the very best of our local media and our elected officials, city staff and our new candidates. It's unacceptable to be accused of non-patriotism, non-cooperation, radicalism, boredom, divisiveness or the other silly crap we have heard for far too many years from this council majority. We are citizens with voices and we expect more.
