I don't know for sure, but it seems like UCD hired Ross Bender to write the NID plan. It's on the new and ostensibly improved UCD website (_http://www.ucityphila.org_ (http://www.ucityphila.org) for those who don't have the URL handy). It's hilarious, in a poignant, Chaplinesque sort of way. I hope they're paying Ross at the same rate as they blow the dough on neighborhood's favorite Flackette. Here's what one of my colleagues had to say about it:
"... my initial impression is that they have to be kidding! It's only 5 or 6 pages and doesnt seem to be much more than the outline that they had on their website last year. Where's the detail, and where are the bylaws? It took a year to write that? Looks like they slapped it together over the weekend. 5 pages of text and the first is taken up with overview." The funniest part (great parody, Ross!) is the budget. Here's how a group that wants to pick our pockets details in a responsible way their plans to spend money they never earned (our money -- what the inimitable and now indicted Vince Fumo calls OPM -- "other people's money"): 5. Proposed budget for the first fiscal year: a. Personnel and administration $100,000 b. Programs and services $350,000 c. Maintenance and operations $250,000 d. Capital expenditures $300,000 e. VMA replacement funding* $400,000 For an interesting contrast, the city's 5-year-plan budget is 254 pages long and actually shows where the final department figures come from. It's at (_http://www.phila.gov/mayor/pdfs/FY07_Financial_Plan.pdf_ (http://www.phila.gov/mayor/pdfs/FY07_Financial_Plan.pdf) if anyone's interested. And, SEPTA's budget is 199 pages long, and also shows a lot of detail. (It's at _http://www.septa.org/inside/reports/OpBudgetFY07.pdf)_ (http://www.septa.org/inside/reports/OpBudgetFY07.pdf)) Of course, the above two budgets are much bigger than what UCD is proposing. But the bite it takes out of the people who they think will pay for it is comparable. So, maybe the UCD apologists on the list would like to explain what that Steering Committee has been doing all year. And explain about all those changes that were constantly being made to produce something this shabby (oh, sorry, Ross. It wasn't your satire that was shabby. It was the idea that by putting forward a joke, the solid citizens of University City wouldn't read between the lines). Al Krigman Register your opposition to the NID via the Internet to Councilwoman Blackwell -- With some background: _www.iconworldwide.com/speakup_ (http://www.iconworldwide.com/speakup) Go directly to the form: _http://www.iconworldwide.com/speakup/nonid-01.html_ (http://www.iconworldwide.com/speakup/nonid-01.html) <BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at http://www.aol.com.
