Ding, ding, ding!!! We have a winner! It’s clear that there are a lot of folks that don’t know the first thing about online presence and the tightrope walk that it is to keep personal and professional separate.

I don’t expect most people to “get it” because most people aren’t in a career where they have to monitor their professional online presence.

It really isn’t fun having to pay attention to this stuff. Now you can’t event attend trade show cocktail parties without being conscious of others in the crowd taking video and photos on smartphones & uploading labeled images of people to social media sites as they are supposed to be able to loosen up in a safe invitation only environment.

It’s unfortunate is that there are so many people that use modern technology without really understanding what it is capable of. That makes it both useful and dangerous at the same time, something that EPIC has been trying to communicate for years now — http://epic.org/

Please explain how placing a Library Gardens style structure over the BART parking lot would “transform” Lorin district.
1. how well did Library Gardens TRANSFORM downtown
2. what needs to be transformed about south Berkeley?

If you are attentive to the viability of this local apt/condo developments  since the economy went south, you would realize that a west BART transit oriented project would have look more like the empty lot at Ashby at San Pablo. see CitiCentre project covered well by the BDP,  they had all the green lights and greased palms yet the funding formula failed. No citizen obstructionist.

Bashing the opposition to the Bates/Anderson power grab of the public space at Ashby BART as simply ignorant obstructionist INSULTS one of the best excellent example of citizens engagement in demanding that the provisions of community process be honored.

Lack of community partnership is at the heart of the polarized public discourse that serves the powers that be in Berkeley.

Sorry westbezkeley I do not share you disdain for your fellow citizens effort, it is more complicated than you observe. I think you are being as reactionary as the people you are criticizing. We have worked on local political matters together but as soon as I questioned the chief judgment you attack me here on B-Side with unnecessary venom. Seems on the matter of top cop judgment you and Becky O’ Malley are on the same side.

Reciting the results of a vote in this town only reflects that Berkeley continues to be one party rule.

I am not interested in sides, I am interesting in good information. And the downtown plan (any of the recent revisions)  is not an economic development plan. It is simply green light for tall buildings. And that is really too bad, and a failure of the planning and economic development depts IMHO.

This  dust up on B-Side happened because nearly immediately some posted put out misinformation reducing the content to us versus them. By calling other citizens obstructionist in a town well known for a its government sponsored obstruction of any reforms to city services exposes your limited experience in civic matters.

What is missing from the Downtown Town plan, PLENTY,  Zelda is correct in asking “where is the retail plan”, what specifically leads us to the goal of a diverse array of retail option resulting in a viable downtown environment. Entertainment districts without proper alcohol regulations fail miserably, several local examples illustrate why. Yet, plenty of the signs indicate that is the direction Bates intended. 

On the anonymity issue, I chose to be mostly anonymous for similar reasons to WestBezkeley.
When someone not familiar with my handle demand to know who I am  I sign my post. WestBezkeley did the same some time ago in a thread with Eric, he signed his name. Remember, linking to the avatar brings up previous posts.

Laura

Those are posts from the days when I was allowed to post as “Charles Siegel.”  I don’t think you will find any from the days since I have been forced to post as “Charles_Siegel” with the underscore (except maybe this one, where I an talking about my name).

If I had wanted to protect myself from searches in a minimal way, and I had always posted as say “Charles B. Siegel” (not my real middle initial), I don’t think anyone searching for “Charles Siegel” or “Charles N. Siegel” would find my posts using google.

 I used to work for the fastest growing software development company in silicon valley and now I work for one of the largest, so I actually am part of the demographic that works in Silicon Valley (though, fortunately, I  rarely have to go there physically).

I am not talking about protecting privacy from people who are intent on learning personal information (which is what those books are about).  I am talking about the sort of casual google searches for someone’s name, which you say is what made you decide to use a pseudonym. 

But thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt.  In fact, I am not trying to be hostile, and I am sympathetic to the privacy concerns of some people who post here.  To summarize my position:

I do think there are valid reasons for posting under a pseudonym.  For example, Sharkey wrote that he was physically threatened because of political positions he took, and that is clearly a valid reason.  As someone pointed out, there is a tradition of writing anonymous political pamphlets that goes back hundreds of years, and this is the reason for it.

I think it is better for people to post under their real names, for two reasons:

– It improves the quality of the discussion, because people are more likely to stick to  the issues and less likely to resort to personal insults when they are using their own names.  It is much easier to insult someone who does not know who you are.

– It helps create a sense of community. For example, I expect that some day, I may meet Eric Panzer and Thomas Lord in person, and I will know who they are and have a lot to talk about with them.  I also expect that I may meet Sharkey and West Beserkeley in person, and I will have no idea of who they are and no connection with them.

Note that West Beserkeley is going to meet Thomas Lord for a friendly beer only because they have both seen through the other’s  pseudonym.  They would never have made contact if West Beserkeley had always used pseudonyms (in his letters to the Planet, to the Council, and so on) and had been absolutely successful in setting up his firewall.

Likewise, though I often disagree with Becky O’Malley, and we are usually on the opposite sides on development issues, I sometimes run into her at the farmers’ market and enjoy talking with her.  If some people on this list got to know her, they would realize that she is an interesting and intelligent person, and they would start to disagree with her positions rather than demonizing her through anonymous personal attacks.

I don’t see any perfect solution to this.  There are valid reasons for posting anonymously, as I have said, and everyone has to decide for themselves whether to post under their real names or under pseudonyms, but I think people should bear in mind that:

– There are advantages to using your real name, and the on-line world would be more humane if people used their real names when possible and pseudonyms only when there is a very good reason.

– There is one major disadvantage to using pseudonyms, that you are more likely to engage in personal attacks when no one knows who you are, so people who do use pseudonyms should make an extra effort to focus on the issues and to avoid personal attacks.

I’d probably build both. Something like Jupiter on the ground floor, and high density housing on top. The biergarten (modified so it made better use of space) would make a nice central courtyard/light shaft for the “slum” on top.

Welcome to the Urban environment. Enjoy your stay.

 At some point, the commenting system stopped allowing blanks. I think it was when the commenting system switched to Disqus. 

I think Charles_Siegel would be way down in the list of results if someone searched on Charles Siegel with no quotes. 

Again, it is a matter of how secure you want the firewall to be.  If I thought that clients would search for Charles Siegel and read the first few pages of results, then they would not get to Charles_Siegel.  If they were going to look more carefully at many pages of results, I would have to avoid the search by using Chuck Siegel or C. Siegel or Charles S. or something like that. 

I meant that posting as “Charles B. Siegel” would come up in casual search results for your name, because Google’s search function would just ignore the middle initial.

I think you are probably correct in that “Charles_Siegel” would afford a bit of a firewall and not come up in casual Google searches, since Google would see it as one word rather than two.

I posted this in response to yellowjacket and wbz this morning, since the comment I was responding to is so far back at the very beginning of this thread, I am posting here, hoping yellowjacket will answer the questions.

Please explain how placing a Library Gardens style structure over the BART parking lot would “transform” Lorin district.
1. how well did Library Gardens TRANSFORM downtown
2. what needs to be transformed about south Berkeley?

If you are tracking the viability of these apt/condo developments since the economy went south, you would realize that a BART transit oriented project is more likely to look like the empty lot at Ashby at San Pablo than revitalizing Lorin. Read Brenneman’s coverage of CitiCentre’s project in the BDP. CitiCentre had all the green lights and greased palms available for their benefit, yet the funding formula failed. No citizen obstructionist was required. Bashing the opposition to the Bates/Anderson power grab and hand off of public
space at Ashby BART as simply  obstructionist INSULTS one of the best examples of citizens demanding the provisions of community process be honored.

Lack of community partnership is at the heart of the highly polarized public discourse  in Berkeley.

Sorry westbezkeley I do not share you disdain for your fellow citizens effort, it is more complicated than you observe. I think you are being as reactionary as the people you are criticizing. We have worked together on public safety issues but as soon as I questioned the chief ‘s judgment recently you attacked with unnecessary venom. Seems on that issue you and Becky O’Malley share the same viewpoint.

Reciting the results of a vote in this town only reflects that Berkeley suffers from one party rule.

I am not interested in sides, I am interesting in good information. And the downtown plan (including all of the recent revisions)  is not an
economic development plan. It is simply a green light for taller buildings.  This is unfortunate and a failure of the planning and economic development depts to lead. Berkeley tends use a piecemeal approach to city planning which often results  in undermining even their best intentions.

What is missing from the Downtown Town plan, PLENTY,  Zelda is correct in asking “where is the retail plan”, what specifically leads to the goal of a diverse array of retail options. Entertainment districts without proper alcohol regulations fail miserably, several local examples illustrate why. Yet, plenty of the signs indicate that is the direction Bates intends. 

On the anonymity issue, I choose to be mostly anonymous for similar reasons to WestBezkeley.When
someone not familiar with my handle demands,  I sign my post. WestBezkeley signed his name some time ago in a thread with Eric. Remember, linking to the avatar brings up previous posts.

Laura

 Incidentally, I don’t think Library Gardens is a good model of pedestrian-oriented development because it faces inwards: the entrances face an inner courtyard, and impenetrable walls face the surroundings. 

They also made a big mistake by putting the storefront below ground level, so people sitting there cannot see the sidewalk.  I think it is vacant now, largely because it is not a pleasant place to sit.  They would have done much better to put the cafe at sidewalk level and to put tables out on the sidewalk.

Cafe Clem recently took over the cafe space.

The Eastbay Express just reviewed it.

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/the-french-american-experience-at-cafandeacute-clem-and-cafandeacute-jolie/Content?oid=3221666 

I remember that disagreement differently. It began by you posting a comment in BS that you and others in BPD were disappointed in my opinion, to which I responded that I didn’t give a hoot, & then you redacted the part of your post indicating you were disappointed in me, which was good because it really did have the feel of a mother that was scolding a child.

My reaction to your comments weren’t venomous, I’d call them an act of making it clear that I’m not a child in your household and you don’t speak for me on all things BPD related.

You’ve done many things to contribute to this community Laura, a lot of people know it and I acknowledge it (once again) here. But, sometimes you overstep boundaries. To be honest, I’d moved past this & thought you had too.

As I’ve told you via email before, I can’t allow myself to get hung up on everything that ticks me off. Doing that can make life miserable & since I’m only getting one shot at this life, I’m doing what I can to minimize the personal misery and focus on what makes me happy. BTW, one thing that makes me happy is being a straight talker, so sorry if my straight talk offended. It was meant draw a clear boundary, not offend.

Hopefully we have a better understanding of each other now.

ok, no. Urban is San Francisco. We’re more like a large university town.

Sore losers? Nobody lost anything yet.  Do mean measure R from 2010? That was an advisory measure that was bankrolled by Sam Zell a right wing billionaire and his lobbying group Livable Berkeley.  Then the City produced a downtown plan that will allow for massive synthetic biology R and D research facilities and speeds up demolition of historic and cultural resources.  There was no environmental review of such impacts on our community or mitigation measures to offset negative impacts.  I think adequate environmental review of such grandiose changes to our downtown is warranted and required by law.  Only time will still tell who will actually end up a sore loser Mr. sharkey.

http://www.synbiowatch.org/

Downtown berkeley needs a full time farmers market at the corner of center and shattuck, downtown berkeley needs affordable housing, downtown berkeley needs to support small businesses, and it needs a better nightlife.  Downtown berkeley does not need massive synthetic biolabs (GMO’s on steroids), million dollar condos, and 20 story buildings as intended by UC and right wing developers and facilitated by Mayor Bates.  Anybody that believes that the new downtown plan is a good thing for Berkeley is either a smart growth ideologue, a puppet for the UC administration, or misinformed.  

alan tobey needs a blog