City Planner Pete Pointer is one of my favorite planning consultants. Check out his web site and his new book,

Planning Connections - Human, Natural and Man Made

http://www.petepointner.com/

Big Birds in our Back Yard

I shot these today with my phone camera. The quality of telephone cameras keeps getting better. The birds were not afraid and I approached to within ten feet.

Nice Sunset From the Backyard August 9, 2011

View from our Back Yard in Sarasota Aug 9, 2011

Our Neighborhood Gator

Costs of Clout

Good article in Urbanophile and in New Geography about the costs of clout to the citizens of the City of Chicago.

http://www.urbanophile.com/2011/01/16/chicago-the-cost-of-clout/

http://www.newgeography.com/content/002009-chicago-the-cost-clout

Democracy requires an informed electorate who punish corruption. Clean honest government is a necessity.

1880 Town in South Dakota on I-90

The 1880 Town on I-90 west of Murdo, South Dakota is a

great historic tourist attraction.

You can visit it on a trip to the Black Hills.

Full disclosure - It was founded and is operated by my

Hullinger cousins.

http://www.1880town.com/

"24/7 Wall St. has completed its first annual ranking of the best-run and worst-run cities in America. They reviewed the local economies, fiscal discipline and standard of living of the 100 largest cities by population to determine how well each is managed. Based on these data, 24/7 Wall St. ranked the 100 cities from the best to worst run. The best-run city is Virginia Beach, Va. The worst-run city is Miami, Fla."

What this article really measures is affluence and high socioeconomic status of residents.

Click to Read the article

Riding the Small Wave in Manufacturing

Riding the Small Wave in Manufacturing to More Good Jobs and A More Diverse Economy.

An analysis of the opportunities that exist for small and medium sized enterprises (which is more likely to be found in rural areas then the very larger companies).

Click to read the article

Along this line, is a recent NPR story -

http://www.npr.org/2011/12/13/143586152/airplane-mechanics-a-farm-team-for-everyone-else

Happy New Year - Powerful Images of 2011

The 45 Most Powerful Images of 2011 from Buzzfeed:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-most-powerful-photos-of-2011

May 2012 be a more peaceful year around the world.

Happy New Year one and all.

Taffy Cannon

Planet Planning