A Hawkman Link Roundup

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman, video from MerasZuokas.

First up, I don't think the video above is real.  It's probably staged, but even so, allow me to break down why this is the single most awesome Youtube clip that will ever be created.  First off, the mayor of this town combines my passion for small-scale, quality-of-life issues with the G.I. Joe-related daydreams that keep so many of us from getting anything done.  In case you're the kind of person who reads articles without watching videos, the mayor of Vilnius, Lithuania, has been struggling with how to keep luxury cars from parking in the city's bike lanes.

"What should the city do about drivers who think that they are above the law?  It seems that a tank is the best solution."  THIS IS AN ACTUAL QUOTE FROM THE MAYOR.  Can you imagine what our city council meetings would be like if they were often punctuated with "It seems that a tank is the best solution"?  We could charge money for people to attend, and would fill our meetings to capacity every time.  What should we do about crime on 4th St N, or prostitutes at Penn and 26th?  It seems that a tank is the best solution.  2222 4th Street North needs to be demolished, in spite of Khan's pesky lawsuits?  It seems that a tank is the best solution.

But then, after destroying the Mercedes with a tank, he shakes the hand of the emasculated driver - it's really the gentlemanly thing to do.  The mayor finishes by sweeping up the shards of broken glass off the street.  That level of class is what puts the clip at the top of my ratings.

Locally, a recent article in the Strib details a different example of people taking matters into their own hands, by removing...

...sign spam.  Aside from a fellow compatriot in the never-ending battle against snipe or bandit signs, what was most encouraging from this article was a statement from the city's zoning manager Steve Poor.

"Poor said he encourages residents to remove unwanted signs themselves if they can safely do so."

What a breath of fresh air.  And speaking of that, two NoMi bloggers are back on the scene after an extended absence.  Irving Inquisition has a recent post, and Connie Nompelis wrote about sisters who grew up in her house, and brought back their Teddy bears.  And she posted mortgage technicalities around land trust financing.  Let's hope we see more out of Overnorth and I.I. in the days and months to come.

Connie was also profiled in a Twin Cities Daily Planet article about fostering dogs after the tornado, by the way.

And last but not least, CM Hofstede has gone through aide number 25 in her 5 1/2 years as our council member.  Thanks, Steve Brandt, for keeping track of the revolving door in that office.  I don't know if it's a dysfunctional work environment or if they're just really bad at picking out people for the position.  But there's no way around it.  The high turnover of employees amounts to a significant disservice to residents of the third ward.  What would help with staff retention?  You guessed it.  It seems that a tank is the best solution.