For your consideration

Best line of the day (so far)
Commenting on the story in this morning's Times about Mayor Palmer participating in an Esquire fashion pictorial featuring members of the Conference of Mayors a poster to the NJ.com Trenton forum said "It's a shame he takes more time picking out quality clothes than School Board members." ---Eddie353

Dressed for Excess
On that story, does it surprise anyone that Mayor Palmer would volunteer to take part in this pictorial that will just happen to hit the newsstands one month before the Conference of Mayors holds meetings in Trenton? He says in the article it's all about Trenton, but we suspect it's really all about Doug.

School Board Approves New Positions; Changes Governance Style
News reports stated that Trenton's School Board voted to create three new positions and to do away with the four year old process that held the Board more to an advisory position than hands-on management. As someone who sat through the presentations explaining the process, I thought it made sense and held promise for our failing school system. As an outsider it is hard to say for sure, but one wonders if the process failed because it was inherently flawed or if it wasn't followed. That is, was it too difficult for members of the School Board to keep their hands off and did their meddling get in the way of education professionals doing better?

Good Sense
Mill Hill resident Dan Dodson has posted some thoughts about the recent vandalism and crime in general in Trenton.

He's absolutely correct that these kids and/or their parents or whatever adult is responsible for them should be held accountable for their misdeeds. Monetary restitution (a lot of City resources went into the cleanup effort not to mention the police work in identifying and capturing the suspects), community service, and a face-to-face apology to those whose property was damaged are in order.

The kids should have the opportunity to learn that there are consequences to their actions and that when they act responsibly they will be treated fairly and given second chances.

More Blue
Trenton's Police Academy will graduate 24 officers this month. Among them will be the son of a current TPD Detective. If the son is half as good a cop as his father, we will all benefit.

Assuming all 24 graduates stay with Trenton, it should help ease the manpower crunch and hopefully ease the mandatory overtime that has been exhausting and demoralizing patrols. Of course, the new officers will need seasoning (we often overlook the significance of losing years of experience when our officers retire or transfer to other departments) but the feet on the ground will help.

Further word, mainly through Councilman Coston's blog, is that the new class starting in November will have 50 members. We may be on our way to having a full compliment of officers in the TPD once again.

Kudos to all the individuals and groups who spoke up and contacted the administration and elected representatives about the Police manpower issue. It would appear your voices were heard.

Anybody Home?
Well it is August and there still doesn't seem to be anyone living in the Broad Street Bank building.

What's the holdup now?