Author Archives: Jon Lowder

TV Research in 2009

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Yesterday I got an email from a researcher for a Food Network show called Diners, Dives and Drive Thrus (or something like that) asking for suggestions for local joints to feature on their show. I offered up one or two and suggested she contact Esbee and Ed Cone since they know way more than I do about local eateries. I also figured that they would post the question on their blogs and get a ton of suggestions since they have lots of readers who are, uh, enthusiastic in their commenting. (I don’t know if she contacted Ed or Esbee before or after I suggested it, but it doesn’t really matter). Sure enough Ed posted it and the last time I looked he had over 24 comments. http://bit.ly/QouK2

Through this process we learned that the researcher had reached out to lots of local bloggers and, most importantly, to Smitty who HAS to know more about local eats than anyone. How did she find them? I know she found me via my blog and I’ll bet she found Smitty’s Notes simply by doing any kind of search on Winston-Salem. And really, what better way to do local research than to “crowd source” it to a bunch of people who love nothing more than writing about local happenings.

BTW, if you have a local joint you’d recommend for the show feel free to leave it in the comments and I’ll email it to the researcher. Locally, family owned and unique are the basic criteria. Also, I’d say anything froo-froo is out. Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

links for 2009-06-23

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links for 2009-06-22

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When is Kid’s Day?

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Today, Father's Day, is what my Mom always referred to as a "Hallmark Holiday", one of those days that she's convinced was created as an excuse to sell greeting cards and other doodads.  I tend to agree, but I'm also willing to take advantage of an opportunity when I see it, so I spent today lounging around the house eating things I probably shouldn't eat and doing it in great quantity.  Given all that leisure time I had a bit of time to think about this whole Mother's Day and Father's Day phenomenon and I started to wonder why we don't have a Kid's Day?  Before you scoff, hear me out.

I started down this road of thought when I read the quote from President Obama that said, "Any fool can have a child.  It's the courage to raise a child that makes you a father."  He's right, of course, and another way to look at it is to say that fatherhood isn't the act of siring a child it's the ongoing series of decisions to remain in that childs life and to lead your life so that you provide as much benefit as you can to that child that makes you a father, or mother for that matter.  What we often forget is that at some point the children also begin to make a series of conscious decisions to belong to their families, to adhere to the values set forth by their parents, and to be "good kids" as much as it is in their abilities to do so.  Of course there are rotten kids out there just as there are rotten fathers and mothers, but there are far more good kids and we really do forget that they are good because they decide to be.

We really do spend a lot of time celebrating our children, what with all the birthday parties, the graduations, the baptisms, the confirmations, the little league team parties and who knows what else.  But when you think about it there isn't a celebration that's dedicated specifically to acknowledging the kids' commitment to their parents and families, to being good kids.  I'm not sure that we need to create one, but it seems to me that if we're going to give moms and dads a day then we should give one to their kids too.

While I'm at it let me say this: Thanks Michael, Erin and Justin for making me the proudest Dad I know.  It's an honor and a privilege to be your father.

No that doesn't mean I'll be giving you any money.

Love, Dad.

links for 2009-06-21

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  • Local Froomkin Connection
    The to-do du jour of blogging this week was the cancellation of political blogger Dan Froomkin's contract by the Washington Post. It was vaguely interesting to me at first, but became more interesting when I read Winston-Salem Journal editor Ken Otterbourg's blog post about having dinner with a young reporter named Dan Froomkin at Mr. BBQ in W-S. I wonder how many reporters who have gone on to (relative) journalistic stardom have gotten their start at the Camel City rag?
    (tags: winston-salem newspapers)

Winning Isn’t Everything

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Want some evidence that people are p-o'd at the ownership of the Winston-Salem Dash, a venerable Carolina League franchise that's been an integral part of Winston-Salem summers for decades?  Just check out this story about the Dash having the best season they've had in years on the field yet only averaging 600-700 butts in seats per game.  Even with the new stadium I'm wondering how realistic it is to expect an average of 4,000 fans per game which is what the powers that be say is necessary for the financing of the stadium to work.  

More Thoughts on the Downtown Winston-Salem Stadium

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The following thoughts aren't mine, they were emailed to me by fellow Lewisville-ian Dwight and I thought they were well worth sharing (with his permission):

This is in reference to your comments about the downtown baseball stadium.  As a couple of Lewisville residents, aren’t we glad to be distanced (albeit only a few yards) from those dodos in Winston-Salem. 
   I have recently enjoyed watching the College Baseball World Series on ESPN and was very interested in the commentator’s take on the new TD Ameritrade Park soon to replace Rosenblatt Field as the site of the College World Series.  As you would expect, they said, “It’s going to be a beautiful facility”, but mostly they bemoaned the loss of a very special landmark.
   Well, does that sound familiar?  We (and yes, I include us among the dodos because Forsyth County residents have a stake in this fiasco as well) had a very special landmark in Ernie Shore Field but now it is gone.
   All this prompted me to google Omaha, Nebraska for info on the financing of their new baseball facility.  I have to admit that I am not the sleuth that I would like to be, but I did learn that their new facility is expected to cost $120 Million and will have a capacity of 25,000 and TD Ameritrade is paying $20 M for naming rights.  The remainder (I think) will be financed by public bonds administered by a special Commission.  WOW!  Why didn’t we think of that?  We have the successful WSFC Utilities Commission and the unsuccessful Tanglewood Park Authority as guides.  In my opinion, The Utility Commission was successful because it functioned as an independent Commission staffed with competent people (only recently have they seen revenue decline because local municipalities have been using solid waste fees to fund their recycling efforts).  The Tanglewood Park Authority was never successful because it was never “independent” of elected officials.
 
So where are we?
 
Omaha gets a new 25000 capacity stadium.
We get a 5000 capacity stadium.
 
Omaha pays $120M minus $20M. ($4000 per seat)
We pay $42M (and rising).  ($8000 per seat and rising)
 
Omaha owns their stadium when completed.
We have to wait 25 years for a deed (good luck Jon, I won’t be around then).
 
Omaha will have a watchdog if they appoint competent people to the Commission.
We have Billy Prim.
 
   Jon, I have chosen to send this comment to you via e-mail because it is somewhat critical of elected officials and I do not feel comfortable using your site for my agenda.
 
   You have my permission to post this comment on your sit or not as you choose.  As always, thank you for an interesting (and provocative) site.
 
Dwight

The Week That Was

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This has been an interesting week.  I spent a couple of days in Raleigh for the day job and had my first opportunity to get a first hand look at the NC legislature in action.  Here's my takeaways from the experience:

  • Compared to the US Capitol the state legislature is very casual.  It's nothing special to bump into a state rep or senator and give them your two cents while walking to a meeting or getting on an elevator.  Heck, it's expected.
  • There's no security to speak of;  no line to go through a metal detector and no one standing at the door to wand you.  Of course there are security guards but I've seen tighter security at a day care center.
  • With some exceptions their offices are tiny. I'm talking room for a desk and two chairs.
  • The legislators, and their staffs, were very responsive.  When I contacted them last week to try and schedule appointments I heard back from most in a matter of hours, which I found pretty impressive given the amount of work they're doing right now.

The other thing that made this week interesting was the hometown drama known as the downtown baseball stadium.  While I could probably write dozens of pages of thoughts on the whole situation, I'd rather just ask the leaders of Winston-Salem some questions:

  • What the heck were you thinking when you broke the multi-million dollar news on Friday and told the public they had a whole weekend to share their thoughts and give you their feedback before a probable vote at a special city council meeting on Monday night? 
  • Were you trying to make it look like you were railroading the thing? 
  • Were you trying to make people even more suspicious than they already were? 
  • In short, were you trying to be obtuse?

Seriously, the city's leadership couldn't have tried to make this deal look any worse.  I'm really not sure what the motivation could have been to handle it this way, but whatever it was I can't imagine that it balances out the negative taste that this left in the public's mouth.  Put it this way: Mayor Joines and the city council spent a whole lot of their political capital to get this done and while they were going to take a hit no matter how they handled this, I think they at least doubled the damage by handling it in the manner that they did.  It will be interesting to see what happens with the next economic development deal that comes along.

links for 2009-06-19

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