Bits and pieces

[magid]

I learned that the overdue fines for books don't go directly to the library as I'd assumed, but to the city, which can do as it pleases with the money. At least, that's how it works in Cambridge.

The hospital across the street from me is having a "mock Disaster Drill event" this weekend. I wonder why they don't just have a distaster drill, and what turns it into an event.

The birds are awfully noisy around here by around 5 am. Pleasant to hear, but it would be nice to be able to sleep just a little bit later.

I was surprised to find out that the downstairs neighbors don't care for the next-door neighbor's lovely accordion music. She's quite talented; I'd been looking forward to hearing her all winter.

I'm off to NYC for a family bar mitzvah. Enjoy your weekend.

Comments

[jwg.livejournal.com]

Library fines not going into library budget

Of course, Cambridge has a fairly generous library budget for operations (as well as having allocated 63 mill for the new building), so this policy doesn't have serious consequences.

It seems common for municipalities to not give penalty revenue back to departments and this does have negative effect on their operations. For example the Traffic and Parking departments of Boston and Cambridge and probably most others don't get parking fines and if their budget doesn't have enough people to enforce the parking ordinances such as residential parking, they can't use the revenue from fines to pay overtime to the existing workforce to enforce them.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I wasn't doubting that the library has decent funding (well, not much, anyway, though I admit I was shocked to find that the main one no longer has copies of Nancy Bond's books. Once the new building is done, perhaps...); it's more that I'd never really thought about where the extra funds go. I'd just made assumptions, based on what seemed logical to me, without thinking it through.

And it seems a bit foolish to not use available money to enforce laws that bring in revenue, too.

[thespisgeoff.livejournal.com]

The hospital across the street from me is having a "mock Disaster Drill event" this weekend. I wonder why they don't just have a distaster drill, and what turns it into an event.

Was there live music? Because that would certainly turn it into an event. Or punch and cake, the institutional version of wine and cheese? That would also make it very event-like. They could also be having DisasterFest, to raise awareness, with three stages full of local bands and middling-famous lesbian folk-rock acts.

[magid.livejournal.com]

*grin* I don't know where they'd put the second and third stages.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to watch, since I was out of town, but I doubt they'd do the live music during the event, since it was 9 am on a Sunday. Perhaps in the afternoon...