Monday, April 16, 2007
Internet impacts politics – here & abroad (local political club addresses)
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
A Nigerian born engineer friend, in the US since 1974 and currently semi-retired as a math tutor in Florida, visits Lagos annually, and claims that every household there is computerized, with internet access.. Not just those with school-age kids, adults too are accessing commercial sites, as well as non-commercial and government resources that make themselves available, and daily newspapers (we looked at some).
Can we make the same comparable claims about our New York neighbors? Well, yes. I can only think of four confirmed Luddite friends who refuse to use computers in their private lives. Otherwise, of the 18 neighbors surveyed 16 have home IT gear, and all have done or do work with complex commercial IT equipment. As to non-commercial and government services making themselves available on-line, the findings range.
Take government resources – all NYC legislators and administrators have web sites, government-provided, with e-mail and fax communications facilities, and staff to answer your inquiries and complaints. That means PR people and press relations experts and legislative assistants and chiefs of staff to supervise them, in profuse numbers, servicing all levels of legislators, City Council and up, as well as commissioners in charge of administrative departments. What an explosion in government costs and functions…
On the voluntary service level, let’s examine our political clubs, the citizens-in-action groups in the 74th Assembly District. Now, I’ve only looked at the internet briefly, and would appreciate your corrections, but of the four Democratic clubs only one appears to have a web site. This is a sad commentary, and there is a reason – the high cost of real estate has driven all of these low dues organizations out of rental rooms, and they are now relying on community-minded religious and social service organizations for donated monthly meeting space. No longer is there a clubhouse where you drop in to pass time and help fold and stuff envelopes, or make phone calls to voters, or answer their questions, or conduct housing clinics, or even keep files and maintain a web site.
Of the four 74th AD Democratic clubs, the Samuel J. Tilden Democratic Club, District Leaders Louise Dankberg and Steven J. Smollens, POBox 1500 NY 10159-1500, can be found as www.tildendemocrats.com or by calling 212/228-5980. By the way, they have their 54th Annual Dinner (the club dates back to the start of the Reform Democratic era in NYC) scheduled for April 24th at the Tavern on the Green, honoring BP Scott Stringer and Stuyvesant Cove Park Executive Director Joy Garland.
CoDA (Coalition for Disstrict Alternative) Club, DLs Katrina Monzano and Anthony Feliciano, can be reached by phone (646/246-4492) or e-mail districtleaders@hotmail.com.
The Eleanor Roosevelt Democratic Club, DLs Charles Buchwald and Molly Hollister, can be reached at 212/687-6874 , at charles@erdc-ny.org.
or POBox 1157, New York 10156.
The GSID (Gramercy –Stuyvesant Independent Democratic) Club, DLs Tom Nooter and Myrna LaPree, answers calls at 212/679-4271 and e-mail at gsid@worldnet.att.net .
The 74th AD GOP voters access their Vincent F. Albano Republican Club’s WWW.nyrepublican.org, website. President Frank J. Scala has four districts, East led by himself and Susan C. Cooper, South with DLs Isabel M. Pena and Bryan A. Cooper, North with DLs Philip Caracci and Elizabeth Schacht and West with Dena Winocur PhD.
Assembling this material was possible only with the help of a friendly DL. The telephone resources , internet search services and the blogs dealing with our area are not geared for this type of directory service. If interested, save this article, or locate it in my blogs by searching Wally Dobelis & Looking Ahead. For corrections or comments write to wally@ix.netcom.com..
Some of this info beyond the 74th AD is available by calling NYC Democratic Committee , Herman (Danny) Farrell Jr. Chairman. Ask for Carter Avery , 212/725-8825.
NYS Democratic Committee (www.nydems.org) has a huge website, covering election results in each of the the 62 counties. State chairs are June O’Neill and Dave Pollock, and from there, if you really care, you can link to NYS Young Democrats and the Reform Caucus of the NYSDC.
This study started as a wake-up call for US technology-minded people, not to fall behind, and is ending as a review of the grass-roots-level political organization of the Democratic party. One might conclude that there is hardly any room for grass-roots, that the action is with the million-dollar spending candidates on TV, who rarely visit local clubs for voter support, except in New Hampshire and Iowa. Is it the fault of the people are becoming cynical, unwilling to do political work, feeling ambivalent about withdrawal from Iraq? We had that in the 1960s-70s also, with Vietnam. One way or another the infrastructures of the parties are suffering, and not just because of greedy realtors, now for the young we also have American Idol, Netflix, tiredness from two - job pressures in the family. Democracy is a fragile thing, if you do not use it, you lose it.
A Nigerian born engineer friend, in the US since 1974 and currently semi-retired as a math tutor in Florida, visits Lagos annually, and claims that every household there is computerized, with internet access.. Not just those with school-age kids, adults too are accessing commercial sites, as well as non-commercial and government resources that make themselves available, and daily newspapers (we looked at some).
Can we make the same comparable claims about our New York neighbors? Well, yes. I can only think of four confirmed Luddite friends who refuse to use computers in their private lives. Otherwise, of the 18 neighbors surveyed 16 have home IT gear, and all have done or do work with complex commercial IT equipment. As to non-commercial and government services making themselves available on-line, the findings range.
Take government resources – all NYC legislators and administrators have web sites, government-provided, with e-mail and fax communications facilities, and staff to answer your inquiries and complaints. That means PR people and press relations experts and legislative assistants and chiefs of staff to supervise them, in profuse numbers, servicing all levels of legislators, City Council and up, as well as commissioners in charge of administrative departments. What an explosion in government costs and functions…
On the voluntary service level, let’s examine our political clubs, the citizens-in-action groups in the 74th Assembly District. Now, I’ve only looked at the internet briefly, and would appreciate your corrections, but of the four Democratic clubs only one appears to have a web site. This is a sad commentary, and there is a reason – the high cost of real estate has driven all of these low dues organizations out of rental rooms, and they are now relying on community-minded religious and social service organizations for donated monthly meeting space. No longer is there a clubhouse where you drop in to pass time and help fold and stuff envelopes, or make phone calls to voters, or answer their questions, or conduct housing clinics, or even keep files and maintain a web site.
Of the four 74th AD Democratic clubs, the Samuel J. Tilden Democratic Club, District Leaders Louise Dankberg and Steven J. Smollens, POBox 1500 NY 10159-1500, can be found as www.tildendemocrats.com or by calling 212/228-5980. By the way, they have their 54th Annual Dinner (the club dates back to the start of the Reform Democratic era in NYC) scheduled for April 24th at the Tavern on the Green, honoring BP Scott Stringer and Stuyvesant Cove Park Executive Director Joy Garland.
CoDA (Coalition for Disstrict Alternative) Club, DLs Katrina Monzano and Anthony Feliciano, can be reached by phone (646/246-4492) or e-mail districtleaders@hotmail.com.
The Eleanor Roosevelt Democratic Club, DLs Charles Buchwald and Molly Hollister, can be reached at 212/687-6874 , at charles@erdc-ny.org.
or POBox 1157, New York 10156.
The GSID (Gramercy –Stuyvesant Independent Democratic) Club, DLs Tom Nooter and Myrna LaPree, answers calls at 212/679-4271 and e-mail at gsid@worldnet.att.net .
The 74th AD GOP voters access their Vincent F. Albano Republican Club’s WWW.nyrepublican.org, website. President Frank J. Scala has four districts, East led by himself and Susan C. Cooper, South with DLs Isabel M. Pena and Bryan A. Cooper, North with DLs Philip Caracci and Elizabeth Schacht and West with Dena Winocur PhD.
Assembling this material was possible only with the help of a friendly DL. The telephone resources , internet search services and the blogs dealing with our area are not geared for this type of directory service. If interested, save this article, or locate it in my blogs by searching Wally Dobelis & Looking Ahead. For corrections or comments write to wally@ix.netcom.com..
Some of this info beyond the 74th AD is available by calling NYC Democratic Committee , Herman (Danny) Farrell Jr. Chairman. Ask for Carter Avery , 212/725-8825.
NYS Democratic Committee (www.nydems.org) has a huge website, covering election results in each of the the 62 counties. State chairs are June O’Neill and Dave Pollock, and from there, if you really care, you can link to NYS Young Democrats and the Reform Caucus of the NYSDC.
This study started as a wake-up call for US technology-minded people, not to fall behind, and is ending as a review of the grass-roots-level political organization of the Democratic party. One might conclude that there is hardly any room for grass-roots, that the action is with the million-dollar spending candidates on TV, who rarely visit local clubs for voter support, except in New Hampshire and Iowa. Is it the fault of the people are becoming cynical, unwilling to do political work, feeling ambivalent about withdrawal from Iraq? We had that in the 1960s-70s also, with Vietnam. One way or another the infrastructures of the parties are suffering, and not just because of greedy realtors, now for the young we also have American Idol, Netflix, tiredness from two - job pressures in the family. Democracy is a fragile thing, if you do not use it, you lose it.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 7:38 PM 
