Netroots Nation Panel on Local Blogging

I will be moderating a panel on city and county blogging at this year's Netroots Nation. Though I took a hiatus from posting on this blog while I served on the Columbia Council and I have only slowly been getting back into posting since my term ended, I think I bring to the panel both an understanding of the pros and cons of posting while serving in elected office and the challenges of trying to build a group blog. All the longtime readers here have seen the waves of guest posters and know of my strong desire to try to build a sustained group blog. I also think Howard County has had an interesting mix of local blogs of varying styles and I hope to contribute that perspective.

The panelists that will join me in this discussion come from all over the country and have had a wide range of blogging experience at the local level and all have been more successful than I at establishing strong local blogs.

The other panelists are:
Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg of Philadelphia blog Young Philly Politics
Paul Hogarth of San Fransisco blog Beyond Chron
Josh Kalven who covers Chicago on Progress Illinois
Eli Ackerman of the New Orleans blog We Could Be Famous

It will be a great discussion and if you can make it to Pittsburgh on August 13-16th I encourage you to register for Netroots Nation and come join the discussion.

CB-29 Amendments Online

One of the great things the County Council has done to promote good dialog with county residence is put the draft language of the amendments they are considering online, so residence can read them in advance to help them prepare testimony for the County Council hearing on Monday, July 20th at 7:30pm at the Board of Education Building on Route 108 (near Cedar Lane).

I hope to post my thoughts on the amendments in the next day or so.

Party Party Party is Closing

Party Party Party a longtime Columbia establishment in Dobbin Center is closing. I have always appreciated having this high quality party supply store in our community and am very sorry to see them closing. The initial notice they sent to longtime customers was that their lease was not renewed. If anyone knows the full story, I would be interested in knowing more. When the lease in Dobbin Center was not going to happen, did they try to get a lease in other space?