I love this picture that my mom was able to snap while I was driving, Budweiser and the Gateway Arch:

And my official welcome to Kansas:

My first class is this evening.  This class is on public budgeting.  I had orientation Monday and Tuesday, and I’ll be visiting the health center tomorrow morning for a cough I managed to get sometime during my hectic last three weeks.

This summer should be fun, and jam-packed.  Everything is a little unnerving, because I’m living alone for my first time ever (granted, I’m in an apartment building).  There have already been several severe Kansas storms, but every building out here has signs for where to go in case of a tornado, so I’m trying not to worry too much.

I am going to be a University of Kansas Jayhawk!

photo credit: Hometown Invasion Tour

Friday afternoon I was informed that I had been admitted to the Master’s of Public Administration program at the University of Kansas.

And I couldn’t have been more excited.

Four years ago, I wanted to go to law school. I made the decision to attend the University of Georgia for undergrad, knowing that I could have gone to “big name” schools. I decided to save money and attend an in-state school where I would receive free tuition (HOPE Scholarship). I would save money to go to the best graduate school (law, at the time) I could get into.

KU is known for its city management program, the field I wish to enter after graduate school.

So when I got into KU, the best school (by far) for city management, the decision was a no-brainer.

I’m proud to say I will be attending the University of Kansas, where I will start in June (the MPA program starts at the beginning of the summer). I am a nervous (and a little scared) about moving so far away from home (and so soon, the beginning of June), but I know I can survive.

Posting might be a little light around here for the next month or so (or maybe I will do the usual and post on here to procrastinate). I’ve got to finish classes at Georgia, take finals, graduate, get packed up, move to Lawrence, get settled in, and become a Jayhawk.

Rock Chalk, Jayhawk!

This is rather incredible. To run down the article, the Canadian city of Nanaimo has released lots of information that can be used in Google Earth. This informations includes an RSS feed (see an introduction to RSS feeds here) of Nanaimo Fire and Rescue responses, a Google Map applet to show the response RSS feed on a map, and lots of planning data. Here is more information on the planning data:

The city’s planning department has, over the past five years, steadily fed Google a wealth of information about its buildings, property lines, utilities and streets. The result is earth.nanaimo.ca, a clearing house of city data viewed through the robust and freely available Google Earth 3D mapping program. The site sorts and maps every business, from restaurants to car dealers, while a click of the mouse brings up the lot size for every property in the city, including the building permit number and zoning history. Homeowners can use the facility to find out specific information about their garbage collection schedule, while the city’s 150-year-old downtown core is rendered in 3D and dotted with 360-degree panoramas.

This planning data can be found here in files that are meant to be imported into Google Earth.

The RSS feed of incident responses, updated 24/7, might be the neatest of these. Citizens can get data on traffic accidents and other emergencies, and even see the time of callout, location, description, and equipment dispatched (including firetrucks, EMS units, and even officers).

In fact, here is a Google Map of the current data about fire and rescue callouts (this updates continuously, so you are always watching the locations of fire trucks and EMS units in Nanaimo):

The city of Nanaimo is betting that by making this data more available that they can encourage business growth, increased development, and more tourism.

Warning: rant follows.

This is so interesting and incredible. Governments often refuse to open their data (data that is most likely an open record anyway) to public purview, use proprietary formats that are expensive to gain access to, and sometimes only allow viewing of the data through crappy websites that are hard to use and poorly designed, like Gwinnett County’s GIS data browser. You’d think that instead of wasting money on their own departments that design ugly and inaccessible web applications, they would allow open access to their data and use well established, open (often), and FREE software.

Sometime after 7 p.m. and before 5 a.m. on Wednesday evening, February 13, 2008, C.W. Matthews Contractors will begin re-striping the travel lanes on U.S. 78 so that beginning Thursday morning, Valentine’s Day, Section 1 will have three permanent lanes inbound to Atlanta and two permanent lanes outbound to Snellville. The striping will also include a center turn lane the length of Section 1. Once the paint drys, the overhead lights will be no more.

For some of my previous coverage of Highway 78 and the improvements, look here and here.

This is quite a momentous occasion for the Snellville area residents, and especially for the Evermore Community Improvement District. The reversible lane system is a hazard for everyone. A close friend of mine, his mother died in an accident on Highway 78. The current mayor of the City of Snellville, Jerry Oberholtzer, suffered a broken sternum and a bruised heart in a collision on Highway 78.

Let’s all hope that this construction is finished quickly, and remember to keep supporting the businesses along US 78.

Aiding the businesses through the Georgia Department of Transportation construction is the Evermore Community Improvement District, a group of business owners along the Highway 78 corridor committed to making sure business does not decline during or after construction of the median.

Regular readers may know that I interned with the Evermore CID in 2005 and 2006, and it is great to see this work finally beginning.

Here’s some other coverage of the groundbreaking:

• CBS 46 Coverage on YouTube
• Evermore CID
• Evermore CID Executive Director Brett Harrell
• Evermore CID Chairman Ken Shiver
• Snellville Mayor Jerry Oberholtzer
• Gwinnett Daily Post
• Loganville Tribune
• Flickr Photos

If you’d give me a moment, I’m going to use this as a springboard. This movement and others are a sign of American’s growing decline in trust of government.

USA Today is reporting that this decline is real, as Americans’ confidence in the U.S. Congress is at an all-time low (14%), the lowest since Gallup first starting polling this question in 1973.

These issues are real issues that need to be solved, but Congress and the federal government refuse to step up to the plate.

Greater solutions are out there, but they aren’t coming from the politicians we elect. They are coming from those successful in their private lives (including Schwarzenegger and Bloomberg) who wish to help out.

Bloomberg is so frustrated with the way things are going that he announced that he was changing his voter registration from Republican to unaffiliated. This could be a sign that he plans to run for president next year. I certainly hope he thinks about it, because, unlike the other 40-odd declared candidates, he seems to care about more than reelection. I really like that he spoke at the Googleplex last week, a sign that he understands technology and maybe even Web 2.0.

Another non-politician who is fed up is Lawrence Lessig. Lessig is a professor of law at Stanford, but more importantly, he is the uber-advocate for Creative Commons and the “free culture“.

After nearly 10 years of working in the intellectual property field and advocating for reduced copyright restrictions, Lessig announced on his blog that he will now be dedicating his time towards fighting corruption and the influence of big money in politics and government.

His post instantly became very popular, hitting Slashdot, digg, and Wired shortly after being posted.

It is becoming more and more apparent that our government and our elected leaders aren’t going to help solve our country’s problems. So Americans’ are turning to others, the real leaders, who have the gall for the fight and the money to avoid special interests.

This is a trend that really interests me, and I will be writing more about it in the future.

And just to be clear, I am not supporting anyone for president right now. I’ve actually become pretty apathetic over the past year, especially thinking about these issues. There’s guys I prefer, and guys (and a gal) I don’t prefer, but I want to wait to see what everyone has to offer.

I haven’t told that many people, but this summer I am interning with Gwinnett County Government. In fact, I started this morning with orientation.

I am working in the Department of Planning and Development, with a cool group of planners on rezoning applications and long-term planning.

I think I am going to enjoy working at Gwinnett County this summer, and hopefully I can learn a few things to get me into a good MPA program (like UGA’s).

PS- These opinions are my own and not necessarily those of Gwinnett County.

Last week, Card was interviewed on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. It was quite an incredible interview, and I think the length of the interview (one of the longer interviews I have seen) is testament to Card’s importance within the White House (see the interview after the jump).

Many people don’t know this, but the White House Chief of Staff is one of the most powerful people in the world. The Chief of Staff is like a gatekeeper to the President, constantly keeping track of the President’s schedule, his or her needs, the White House staff, the country, and the world. Andy Card, when Chief of Staff, woke up every morning at 4:20 am and worked until at least 10 pm.

While powerful, the Chief of Staff position is one of if not the toughest job in the White House. It ruins marriages, causes harsh feelings from children, leaves little time to exercise, and causes a Chief of Staff to age quicker than anyone else around.

I think of the Chief of Staff as one of the unsung heroes of American politics and America in general. Without effective Chiefs of Staff, the White House would be out of control and little would get done.

One of the more recognizable Chiefs of Staff is probably Leo McGarry, Chief of Staff to President Josiah Bartlett in the TV drama The West Wing. Leo is certainly how I came to recognize the importance and power of the position of Chief of Staff.

Leo was a former Air Force pilot, who convinced then-Governor Josiah Bartlett to run for President. He was Bartlett’s campaign manager, and after they won, Leo was appointed Chief of Staff. He is the closest advisor (and best friend) to the President, and is intricately involved in everything. Leo is in charge of the day-to-day operations of the White House, and he sits at the President’s side in the Situation Room. But, the stresses and commitments of being Chief of Staff cause Leo’s wife to get a divorce, and Leo also has relapses of alcoholism (he had been treated for alcohol and Valium addiction before becoming Chief of Staff).

Despite all of the bad things that come with the job, I kind of inspire to be the Chief of Staff to the President one day. When I was growing up, I always wanted to be the President. But now I’ve seen how dirty and scandal-laden real politics are, and I don’t want to involve myself or my family in that. I would prefer to stay out of the limelight, back in the office next to the President’s.

In case you would like to learn a little more, here is an excellent article from the Washington Post about Andrew Card.