The City Zen Ship  powered by the people

The last entry on this blog was also posted on Facebook and "boosted" in order to reach a wide audience. It did.

I have pinned it to the top of the page in case you want to read for yourself.

The overwhelming response was "leave it alone", followed closely by “maybe you...

Who owns the monument?

As a city asset, it is we, the city’s owners.

And, as the owners, we can do with it what we will. Most of the logical options have been proposed, and rejected, even though we don’t really know the ‘who’ or ‘why’ of the objections. It just isn’t cle...

Our form of government is not why we are a healthy, safe, and strong community - with all of the attendant deficiencies of cities and towns across the Florida and the country, but with smaller doses than most.

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It's because of us. Lakelanders. Citizens.

This proposed cha...

Much has been made of the value and volume of the political campaign contributions in this year's city election cycle.

Assessments. Assertions. Allegations. Accusations.

We have all been often advised to "follow the money" in politics, in business deals, or in any situa...

Fact. Fiction. Personality. Policy. Truth. Deception.

This post fits into one of these "tags". Which one will be determined by whoever reads it. And as we approach the final days before Lakeland's historic city election, we will be asked more and more to find a fit for...

This post was originally published in June, 2015 and has been updated to reflect the “election” of Bill Read in place of Keith Merritt. Read did not face the voters because he faced no opposition after Mr. Merritt decided not to run two weeks before the qualifying peri...

How completely silly. Lakeland city commissioners vote themselves a pay raise, effective immediately, and pretend it is about attracting working citizens to public service and paying for the very hard work they say is required of them. 

Commissioner Selvage and Com...

A meme making its way around social media, sent to the Pulitzer Prize-winning website PolitiFact, captured the frustration many Americans feel. The meme said, “11% approval ratings. 96.4% re-elected” – in other words, the U.S. Congress has 11 percent approval ratings,...

We are not statues.

We are not doomed to stand – staring frozen-faced into the past – with stone-cold eyes that cannot see the future, unmoved by the present.

We live and breathe and become. And now we have a great opportunity to become better.

To begin our conversation o...

Before any of us – candidates, reformers, citizens – decide what needs to be changed to make Lakeland different we would all be wise to discover what makes Lakeland, Lakeland. To that end, we recommend this:

City of Lakeland 2017 Demographic Guide

which can be downloaded...