Delivered to 15,000 Plainfield "doorsteps" Monday, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

City gets the word out on NNO, sort of.



The city's web calendar on Saturday morning,
day of the Bike Rodeo. (Click for large, crisp image.)




The same calendar this morning,
day of the NNO celebration. (Click for large, crisp image.)



Plainfield's 26th annual National Night Out celebration gets under way at 6 PM tonight in front of City Hall.

While the Star-Ledger listed 39 communities who are participating this year (see story here), Plainfield was not among them.

I cannot imagine that former Councilor Liz Urquhart, who has championed the anti-crime event since its inception, can be very pleased at the way the city has dropped the ball.

If it had not been for Councilor Carter outlining the two events at the last Council agenda session, it might have escaped notice altogether.

There was no street banner this year, and the city's online calendar (see images above) was only updated on Monday to include tonight's event -- leaving Saturday's Bike Rodeo out altogether.

Someone evidently DID remember to contact a caterer though, as attendees at tonight's event are promised food after the strenuous march from City Hall to Bryant Park and back -- 2½ blocks or so.




Councilor Liz Urquhart presiding over the 2000 NNO celebration.




A view of part of the crowd at the 2000 NNO event.


My best memory of an NNO celebration was when Liz organized a car caravan from Rushmore Playground through the West End to City Hall. With balloons, streamers, posters and horns blaring, a caravan of scores of cars and trucks were shepherded by a police escort through the neighborhoods and downtown to arrive at City Hall, where a huge crowd assembled in the parking lot for speeches, safety giveaways and SIMPLE refreshments.

Maybe the administration is just less interested now that the murder rate has been reduced by 300%.


-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are going to look like an IDIOT when the goernor shows up and you EAT YOUR WORDS..!

Please publish this so all can see... thanks!

Anonymous said...

They just CANNOT seem to get it together, can they? I don't get it--it's a CALENDAR!!! What is so hard about keeping a calendar? Professionals keep online calendars, and cities do as well. This is SIMPLE stuff that a high school student could do. Are you telling me that the mayor's secretaries or those in the mayor's cabinet can't do a simple update of all events?? I guess not, especially when the mayor's campaign website is still under construction. Today it sayss "63 days since primary election" when it should say 302 days until NEXT primary election. Unbelievable.

Rob said...

Hi...Welcome to the 3 ring circus that we affectionately refer to as The City of Plainfield. Yes, we are truly a city where our Guiding Saint Jerry and his pet Cheshire Cat Mayro Sharon truly believe if things in the real world operated like they do in Plainfield everything would be ok.
-- Dear Mayor: HOW YOU CANNOT SEE WHAT A FOOL YOU ARE TO ANYONE WITH AN OUNCE OF COMMON SENSE AMAZES ME..Seriously there is a village missing an idiot, would they come get her for us please ?? Since we can't see to get anyone to "get it right" regarding things like calendars and websites..how about we turn it over to the high school or better yet -- One of the elementary schools in Plainfield and let them handle it. Then at least we could chuckle and say " Those crazy kids!! " when it's continually screwed up and wrong.

Anonymous said...

Remember primaries do not make an election. I will say this until November, the power is within the voter. You don't like the way things are done - vote for someone else, and make your vote count. If you vote for the same group, what exactly do you think will change? Do not throw your vote away.

Also, I am not impressed with Councilwoman Carter's organization skills. She was to organize the event, and I felt that she did not do a good job giving direction and getting things wrapped up before she left. My experience is that she drops the ball on most things she leads