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Marie Tillman Collection
Name: A finding aid and inventory of the Lowndes County Notes of Marie Tillman held in the Valdosta State University Archives
Dates: Total date range: 1861-1940 Bulk Dates: 1861-1865 (American Civil War), 1914-1918 (WWI).
Size: 1 box; 27 folders, approximately 250 items
History/Biography: Lowndes County was created in 1825 and was named for William Jones Lowndes, whose father had been a revolutionary leader from South Carolina. According to the 1840 census, there were 4,394 whites and 1,180 African Americans in the county at that time. On December 12, 1859 Lowndes established a county seat, which they named Valdosta, after Georgia governor George Troup's plantation home, which was called Val d'Aosta. Between 1890 and 1916, Valdosta became the largest inland market for Sea Island cotton in the world. The second plant to bottle Coca-Cola in the world was located in Lowndes County. In 1906 South Georgia State Normal College was founded in Valdosta to provide higher education opportunities to women in the area. The school was renamed Georgia State Women's College in 1922, and in 1950 the school became coeducational and was renamed Valdosta State College. In 1993 the college became Valdosta State University. Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta is home to the 347th Rescue Wing, the Security Forces Wing, and the Training Wing. There were 92,115 people in Lowndes County in the year 2000, a significant population increase over its 75,981 residents in 1990.
Scope and Content: Marie Tillman compiled sufficient notes, documents, and letters for one to grasp what life was like in Lowndes County during the late 19th Century. The material she has compiled provides a real understanding of the social and economical history of Lowndes County.
The box consists mostly of Marie Tillman's work on obtaining general information ranging from the construction of churches to agriculture in Lowndes County. The notes concentrate on the establishment of churches and soldiers from the American Civil War and WW I. Tillman includes lists of Georgia Infantry regiments, militia, and National Guard soldiers from Lowndes County. The papers also include miscellaneous notes about local organizations, livestock, and education pertaining to Lowndes County.
The box is not arranged in any chronological or specific order; the box consists mainly of correspondence, notes, and reports. There are a few major, formal correspondences from Governor Joseph E. Brown and W.C. Wardlaw, chairman, Executive Committee (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta). The papers include a report on Valdosta from 1863-1865, where Tillman describes the feelings of people after the Lincoln assassination, and the actions of recently freed African Americans. The manner in which recently freed "slaves" are discussed would not be considered politically correct today, but Marie Tillman was a woman of the times. The notes on local organizations, such as the Red Cross, U.D.C., and the D.A.R, provide lists of original members and officers. A Report on the establishment of the Christ Episcopal Church and Hahira Baptist Church provide founders of the church and original members. The notes that list Georgia Regiment Infantry and militia groups include H. Y. Tillman and T. H. Tillman, who were most likely related to Marie.
Carnegie Library of Valdosta
Daughters of the American Rev.
Hahira Baptist Church
Georgia National Guard 122nd
Red Cross of Valdosta
Lowndes Co. World War Chapter
B. F. Mosely, Captain, Co. G
Valdosta 1863-1865
Governor Joseph E. Brown
Hahira Masonic Lodge
Liberty Loan Bonds
Folder 1: Bees; 2/5/1940, E. J. Williams. Original hand written letters from E. J. to a business associate, concerning bee keeping. The letters list facts about the honey business in Lowndes Co. Also, the honey festival in Hahira is mentioned.
Folder 2: Bond- by George T. Hanover to Governor Joseph E. Brown; 1/23/1861. Original note by Hanover for a $2,000 bond for muster rolls to Governor Brown.
Folder 3: Carnegie Library of Valdosta; 1936, Elizabeth Havenkotte, Marie Tillman. Original handwritten letter to Tillman from Havenkotte concerning a newspaper article, and a note from T. S. Mckey about the construction of a new building.
Folder 4: Christ Episcopal Church, Valdosta; 11/20/1939. Original handwritten letter from Marie Tillman discusses the beginnings of the church and lists the original members and employees of the church.
Folder 5: Co. D, 50th Georgia Regiment, Infantry, "Valdosta Guards"; Lists the 50th Georgia regiment, all the men were from Lowndes County.
Folder 6: Company I, 12th Georgia Regiment, Infantry; 5/14/1861. List Lowndes Co. volunteers, gives a list of deceased soldiers from the Civil War.
Folder 7: Daughters of the American Revolution, General James Jackson Chapter; 1917. Tells of the community service that the chapter and Marie Tillman were doing in Lowndes Co.
Folder 8: Georgia National Guard Co. G, 1924, 122nd Infantry; 1912-1924. Handwritten letter which discusses officers from South Georgia, including Albany, Brunswick, Waycross, and Lowndes.
Folder 9: Hahira Baptist Church; 5/26/1890. Discusses the land that was purchased and the total cost of construction, also lists the original members of the church.
Folder 10: Hahira Branch of the Red Cross of Valdosta; June 1917. Handwritten note which lists all of the officers of the Red Cross in Lowndes Co.
Folder 11: Hahira Masonic Lodge; 1891. Handwritten note which lists original chapter members of the lodge, and tells of a few early accomplishments of the lodge.
Folder 12: Hahira Methodist Church; 1891. Typed note that lists the original members of the church and the founders of the church.
Folder 13: History of the First Christian Church, Valdosta; Formal document written by Wisenbaker about why and how the church originated.
Folder 14: Liberty Loan Bonds; 8/29/1938. Letter form W.C. Wardlaw, chairman, Executive Committee (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta) thanking Mrs. T.A. Baker for assisting the sale of liberty bonds in Valdosta.
Folder 15: Live Stock of South Georgia-cattle, poultry, swine; 7/10/1923. Typed report on milk and the importance of milk in the human body, and a typed letter from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture on the production of clean milk in Valdosta, and a report on livestock in Lowndes Co. after the First World War. Folder mentions H.Y. Tillman as president of the Valdosta Poultry Association in 1932.
Folder 16: Lowndes County's World War Chapter; Mrs. T.A. Baker, 1914-1921. Typed report on the situation in Europe and the feelings in Valdosta about the war, also lists the original members of the chapter.
Folder 17: Mayor of Hahira; Handwritten letter from the mayor concerning the construction of the Hahira Methodist Church.
Folder 18: Militia Co. District #658, #661, #662, #663; R.A. Peeples (enrolling officer) 3/4/1862. Lists all the militia soldiers from the South Georgia district. J. H. Tillman was enrolled in the #668 militia at age 48.
Folder 19: Miscellaneous; Mrs. Marie Tillman lived at 1701 N. Patterson St. (Jan 15, 1940), postcard from Mrs. Richard Parrish, Envelope from Mrs. Jack Homell (416 Lee St.)
Folder 20: Miscellaneous Notes (Military, education, County Formation); 1/23/1861. Tells of few early settlers in Lowndes Co., and lists the schools that were in the county at the time.
Folder 21: B.F. Moseley, Captain, Co. G, 5/15/1936. Handwritten letter to Marie Tillman form A. L. Henson (Veterans Service Office), Marie was asking for information on Moseley but the office could not find any, also note on Jan 1st 1862 granting T. H. Tillman leave of absence by B. F. Moseley.
Folder 22: Parent Teacher Association, Valdosta Public Schools, Mrs. J. L. Newbern. Typed letter concerning Mrs. Newbern's teaching career at the high school.
Folder 23: Dewitt H. Roberts, The Times, 2/18/1939. Typed letter to Tillman from Roberts, Tillman was inquiring about Roberts's service with The Times, Roberts gives a brief summary of his career.
Folder 24: Roster of 6th Military District, companies 1, 2 and 3. Lists the soldiers of the 6th military District that were from Lowndes County.
Folder 25: Valdosta 1863-1865. Some typed letters and notes. Discusses the jail known as the dungeon on Ashley St., also Mr. Benjamin Force, ladies fashion, Lincoln's assassination, and lists confederate soldiers who walked home from Virginia. Notes say the Freedmen's Bureau was headquarters for carpetbaggers. There was a lunar eclipse in 1865 and the people thought it was judgment day.
Folder 26: Videttes, 4th Georgia Regiment, Voluntary Militia. Typed report on the soldiers and describes the uniforms they purchased.
Folder 27: World War Work, 1917-1918. Mrs. Earl Mckey lists the members and officers of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Red Cross, and the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Processing Date: 3 March 2005
Author of Finding Aid: Louis E. Harper III, created in partial fulfillment of the requirements of History 3000, Spring 2005


Manhattan, the single most densely populated of the five boroughs which make up New York City, is bounded by the East, Hudson and Harlem Rivers and encompasses several small adjacent islands and a small area on the mainland.
It's the economic and cultural center of the United States. Home to the United Nations Headquarters, Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Manhattan real estate is horrifically expensive and New York County, the most densely populated county in the United States, is itself more densely populated than any individual American city. On a typical business day, a swarm of commuters swells the population of Manhattan to more 3.9 Million – that's 170,000 people per square mile.
The profile of the island also makes it a showcase spot for multinational corporations all vying to demonstrate mastery of their fields and those corporations are all keen to get a cutting edge on the competition.
So when Vick Art Advisors was called on to come up with a sculpture to call attention to a 24-foot niche in a recently renovated corporate space on the island, they began researching the feasibility of abstractly representing Manhattan. The company specializes in providing art consulting services to international corporations, firms and institutions.
But as is often the case, the deadlines were tight as a drum and called for a very fast turnaround.
VAA then called on Sparks 3D Design to take on the project. Sparks looked at using CNC technology and hand fabrication to create the finished piece before settling on 3D printing as the logical method of fabrication.
Sparks then went to Quickparts.com, the on-demand, 3D printing service bureau offering from 3D Systems.
"We needed to print very large models – very quickly – and in full CMYK color, so their ColorJet technology was the one option that made this even feasible," said Sparks' senior designer David Shamlian.
Thanks to Digimation Model Bank, Sparks found a 3D digital file of the Manhattan district and used that file as a template to refine and create the sculpture. The resultant CAD model, after being optimized for 3D printing, was separated into 15" x 15" segments for printing as 28 separate tiles.
Once the raw files were created, Quickparts called on their service centers to begin outputting the tiles on their ProJet 860 full color 3D printers. Half of the job was done at Quickparts' French facility and the other half in Andover, MA, and the parts where then shipped overnight for the final assembly of the installation.
"The last models arrived from Quickparts on the Wednesday," Shamlian said. "All the pieces were prepped and pre-hung by Sparks craftsmen on Thursday. It was shipped to New York and installed – to the delight of the client – on Friday."


Few higher learning institutions inspire the kind of devotion shown by people from the University of Michigan. The Wolverines form a true community, one that comes together to celebrate life and remember each other in death. This memorial site was created to honor and remember students, professors, officials and alumni associated with the University of Michigan.
The University of Michigan Memorial Site includes obituaries and Guest Books from the Legacy.com network of newspaper and funeral home affiliates.


Fifty years ago a visionary came to Florida and foresaw a future for our State that no one else could have imagined. In November 1963, as Walt Disney flew above the lakes, swamps, and pastures of central Florida, he did not focus on prevalent cattle and agriculture below him. Instead Disney saw a well-developed road network (including the planned Interstate 4 and the Florida Turnpike), multiple airports (i.e., Kissimimmee Field and McCoy Air Force Base – later Orlando International Airport), and an opportunity to change the world. In that moment, Walt Disney found the location for his "Florida Project" which would later become the location of his dream."Disney World".
FDOT and various turnpike, expressway and aviation authorities built and expanded the roads and airports necessary to serve the new development.
As a result, Walt Disney World transformed both Orlando and Florida in its wake. Orlando is now the most visited city in the world. Florida welcomed 90,000,000 visitors last year and has created a tourism industry that is second to none.
Who are Florida's next visionaries? What will be Florida's next great industry? Will Miami become one of the great cities in the world? These are just a few of the questions that the Seven50 Committee has explored during this planning process. The answers are not readily apparent and may be subject to debate.
What do you think are the keys to Florida's future?
What would Walt Disney say?


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TELDAP e-Newsletter (October, 2011)
Please Do As I Do: Digitization Procedures Guidelines
Since 2009,the Taiwan Digital Archives Expansion Project- the Establishment and Consolidation of Digital Content sub-project, has, by investigating and recording the working processes and related technology used by public and private entities and public calls for submission plans, as well as other work partners, and combining them with digitization technology and implementation processes which accord to international standards, compiled a "Digitization Procedures Guidelines Series".
Integrated Data Search: "Mozop"
What new ways of thinking about archives presentation has Mozop, developed by the Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica, brought? TELDAP e-newsletter is proud to invite Mr. Li You-sheng of "Research and Development of Digital Archives and e-Learning Technologies Project"to come and share the new results of TELPAD's technological research and development.
The August 23 Artillery Battle in Black & White
Without doubt, the August 23 Artillery Battle of 1958 was the biggest military confrontation across the Taiwan Strait after 1949. What traces of the crossing of swords between Mainland China and the ROC on Taiwan can be seen in the digital archives of the Chinese Taipei Film Archives?
Publisher:Fan-Sen Wang, Vice President of Academia Sinica
Editor-in-Chief:Zong-Kun Li
Publishing Department:Taiwan e-Learning and Digital Archives Program, TELDAP
Executive Editor:Sub-project: Digital Information - the New and Creative Way of Communicating
Mailing Address:The Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica
No.130, Sec. 2, Academia Rd., Nangang District, Taipei City 115, Taiwan
TEL: (02) 27829555 ext:310 or 183
E-mail:newsletter@teldap.tw
Issue:TELDAP e-Newsletter (October, 2011)
Publish Date:10/15 /2011
First Issue:02/15 /2007(Published on 15th every 2 months)
The copyright of all contents in this e-Newsletter belongs to TELDAP,Taiwan. The e-Newsletter publishing system is supported by the Core Platforms for Digital Contents Project for TELDAP.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Is Engineering the New Gig Industry?
Define "Gig"
Freelancing, contracting, moonlighting, side hustle, or the gig economy. Call it what you like, but it's a gig if it's a short-term project instead of or in addition to the traditional nine to five. These projects usually have a start and end point. Both parties know that the work might be temporary.
Why Would Projects be Popular With Engineers?
The new generations of engineers found a recession economy, where entering the workforce full time wasn't a possibility. New employees often become nervous after watching full time employees be stripped of benefits, laid off, or forced into early retirement. It's understandable that committing to one company for the next decade sounds impossible.
What's the Benefit?
Contract work offers more control for choosing personal insurance, working on specific skills, and choosing interesting projects. Most millennials see all of these aspects as an advantage, no including further networking and negotiating salary.
It's Mainstream.
Americans have an increasing preference to work where they want, when they want, on what they want, according to Freelancing in America 2018 latest study. Contract work has been on the rise for the last five years, despite the tightening labor market. At the moment, there's 56.7 million American freelancers. That's one out of every three Americans. There's a gig waiting for you!


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Irving Oil Awards Free Gas for a Year
By CSD Staff | November 17, 2011
Lucky customers in Connecticut and Vermont enjoy fuel savings.
Sheila Riley of Berlin, Conn. and Jim Hayssen of Bondville, Vt., have won free gas for a year thanks to Irving Oil.
Riley and Hayssen are two of six New England residents who will each receive $2,100 worth of Irving gas cards for participating in the Irving Rewards gas savings program.
The Hayssen family, including Jim's wife Joan, could not be more excited about their prize. "We have four kids, three tuitions to pay, three cars and drive over 50,000 miles a year, so free gas for a year is huge for us," said Joan Hayssen. "We are religious about using the Rewards card. The prices at Irving are great, the stations are always clean and the staff is incredibly friendly."
Riley expressed a similar feeling, "I am thrilled to have won. I'm putting two kids through college, and do a lot of traveling to visit them," she said. "The prices at Irving are always competitive, and they are one of the few places that don't charge more for credit card purchases."
Irving launched its Rewards program for customers on June 1. Irving Rewards allows consumers to save on gas at more than 300 participating Irving locations in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Every $200 in fuel purchases earns 10 cents off per gallon at the next fill-up. Customers can save at 18 participating Irving locations in Connecticut and 28 locations in Vermont.
Over 100,000 customers registered their Irving Rewards cards online since the program began in June. Nearly 61,000 customers entered to win free gas for a year or one of 100 Irving gift cards for $100.
Irving also deployed "Rewards Street Teams" throughout New England this summer, rewarding lucky customers at select locations with Irving tote bags that were randomly filled with gift cards ranging from $20 to $100. In total Irving distributed $6,000 in gift cards at these events.
"We are so pleased that Sheila and Jim have saved on gas through Irving Rewards and will save even more for an entire year," said Harry Hadiaris, general manager of Irving Oil. "There is still time to save now that the program has been extended through December. We encourage families to continue to fuel up and save."
Due to the success of Irving Rewards, the program was extended until Dec. 31, 2011. Customers can keep swiping their cards and saving on gas through the month of December. All rewards are redeemable by Jan. 31, 2012. For more information on Irving Rewards, visit theirving.com/rewards.
Irving Oil has nearly 900 service stations and travel plazas in New England and Eastern Canada.


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Tesco's Worst and Best: Spanish, Italian and Something Else
So I've just paid a load of money into the bank and am feeling dangerously flush. It occurs to me for about the third time in my life that instead of celebrating by going out and buying a dozen pairs of socks or a second-hand external hard drive - something useful, in other words - I could treat myself to a bottle of posh wine. That's what PK would do, after all, and what doesn't he know about lifestyle?
But even as I weigh up the possibilities (nice French red, maybe a decent Chianti for once, or one of those flash New Zealand whites) a friend emails me with the news that Tesco are knocking out own-brand wines for £3.50 a bottle and I should get down there before they all disappear. Not just any friend, but the maniac behind the tanker wine idea and, more recently, Sediment:The Sitcom, so I know it's for real. As he also notes, £3.50 is cheaper per litre than roof sealant, Brasso and Mr Muscle, as well as being a mere 51p short of the classic 1980's price point of £2.99.
Which is when I realise that not only has Tesco got some cheap muck in, but, in an incredible piece of synchronicity, my Brother-in-Law is actually in the process of doing his annual booze run to Calais, in the course of which he has promised to get me a couple of bottles of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc on offer at £2.99 a bottle. This is one of those moments when you feel the hand of Fate resting on your shoulder, a moment in which you say to yourself, This is my Destiny, like Michelangelo, or whoever, an understanding that this is the path mapped out for you and that you must take it or die. Or take it and die. Either way, you cannot deny your true calling. It is a big moment; and I discard at once any ideas of going upscale.
Instead I get down to the nearest big Tesco and scarf up a bottle of Tesco Spanish Red, a Tesco Italian Red and a Tesco generic Chardonnay, all at £3.50 a go. Actually, there are a couple of Lambruscos at £2.50 a bottle, but there's something clearly very wrong with a beverage that low on the evolutionary scale - even I can see that - so I give them a wide berth and head purposefully for home. Given that the duty + VAT on a bottle of wine at this end of the range is about £3, this leaves 50p for the producer/bottler, as well as Tesco's mark-up - assuming they are selling this stuff at a profit and not just getting rid of a terrible purchasing decision as fast as they can - which is enough to give me pause for thought at a roundabout; but, no, I've been here before, I can cope.
Half an hour later I find myself at the kitchen table with a ham and cheese sandwich and the Spanish Red, something of stand-off developing. Turns out the red comes in at 11% and is a Product of Spain, not even produce, a distinction I find troubling, but I take a deep breath and get stuck in. Bleeding gums raspberry colour, zero nose, followed by grapefruit, insoles, old flower water, some sulphur and a brief up yours of acidity. Perhaps better once I've left it overnight, I reflect. At any rate, I have three cheap bottles of disappointing wine to get through, rather than one equally but differently disappointing bottle for a tenner; so things are about where I expected them to be, and for a properly stoical wine drinker that's good.
More than that, though: also open (and now well into its third sullen day) is a bottle, by way of comparison, of Argentinian Beefsteak Club Malbec which I bought on offer from Waitrose but which has a full retail price of £8.79 - two and a half times the Tesco stuff. This Malbec is rank, sweaty, rebarbative, nothing appealing about it, not even the label, which bafflingly declares Beef & Liberty in stencil-effect red uppercase - a Nigel Farage kind of rubric which only makes things worse. But at the same time it consoles me: it is lousy and overpriced; while the Tesco is lousy and the right price, by virtue of which it becomes no longer lousy, merely adequate. And this is all fine. The spring sunshine has come out, I didn't crash the car on the way to or from the supermarket, the outcome of my trip is almost exactly as I anticipated it, my game remains firmly unraised. In these troubled times, I call that a result.
Everyday China – Changyu Noble Dragon
China is not well known for its wine – which, of course, means nothing. Just because something's not well known doesn't mean there isn't someone who knows it well. Don't even try and dismiss the wines of an oenologically-challenged country – Greenland, say, or Bangla Desh. Because there's always some smart-arse pops up, saying "How dare you dismiss their wines!
"Obviously you haven't tried tried Hiffen-Liffen, that rare blend of Triffen and Whiffen, let alone the extraordinary Mujid-Pujid or the languid Mesut Ozil.
"You really are displaying your ignorance. Presumably you've never even been there! Do you just buy your wines from the supermarket?" Well, largely, yes.
But fortunately, a supermarket is now allowing me to satisfy this particular smidgen of curiosity – because here is Changyu's Noble Dragon, China's mass-market red wine, being sold in Sainsbury's.
Immediately, a bottle of Noble Dragon presents some talking points. That irritating flange/lip/thing at the neck of the bottle, which means that some corkscrews won't work on it. An odd little plastic imitation of a wax seal, stuck onto the top of the cork, which doesn't actually seal anything. And pictograms everywhere, which for all I know might be either pairing recommendations, or hazardous liquid warnings.
But at the same time it's extraordinary how they've picked up all the clichés of traditional European wine labelling. There's the drypoint-like image of the "chateau" in Yantai. There's the use of Germanic and script typefaces. There's the reassurances of heritage ('Since 1892…") and quality. "Eighty years of quality assurance" – sounds like the Prudential.
There's a little map of China on the back label, because, of course, we should know exactly where in China it comes from, in case we expected something from a neighbouring appellation.
And could it be deliberate, to reinforce the distance, the otherness of this wine, that, given the wealth and resources of the company, the English on the back label is surprisingly poor? "It is round and smooth in mouth, acting elegantly as a full bodied wine."
It has, as they used to say of actor Karl Malden, quite a nose. It reminds me of those mornings after, when one had to face the fragrance of a full ashtray. Then there is some initial cherryish action going on, but it's quite shallow in flavour. Finally there's a very dry finish, followed by quite a bitter aftertaste.
This is the biggest-selling wine in the world; in 2015, it sold 450 million bottles, more than the entire output of Rioja. Which, frankly, I would prefer to possess.
This could be a cheap wine from anywhere, really, although a cheap wine from anywhere would give you more change out of a tenner. Noble Dragon gives you none. Which means its curiosity value is about £4.01, the amount you're paying on top of a similar cheap Chilean Cabernet.
Given the success rate of supermarkets at selecting wines from anywhere else, there is no reason to assume this is representative of the quality Chinese wine can achieve. But at least my curiosity has been resolved. Mind that dead cat.
Great Wine Moments In Movie History IX: Topsy-Turvy (1999)
As a rule, I find most of Mike Leigh's films completely unwatchable - his Happy-Go-Lucky of 2008 being about as bad as a film can get when it comes to tin-eared dialogue, lethargy-inducing mise en scène and dimwit characterization - and yet he has, in some kind of illustration of a basic human law, managed to produce a couple of really, really good movies - both period pieces: the authentically tragic Vera Drake (2004); and the authentically dazzling Topsy-Turvy - the story of how Gilbert and Sullivan got their groove back with The Mikado. And yes, in Topsy-Turvy, there is wine.
More accurately, drink punctuates the movie: a quiet index of the characters' situations and expectations, as meaningful as the clothes they wear and the expressions on their faces. Which means that when, about fifty minutes in, we observe the actress Leonara Braham (unflinchingly played by Shirley Henderson) slumped in her dressing-room, filling a wine-glass brimful of neat bourbon and staring abstractedly into its depths, we know not just that something is wrong, but that it is terribly wrong.
After all, Sir Arthur Sullivan (Allan Corduner) has been seen embracing the virtues of champagne (in a Parisian brothel); and some kind of high-end Burgundy, from the look of it, in a supersmart restaurant, where he inks his share in the new Savoy Hotel being built by D'Oyly Carte. His drink is a mark of licentiousness or high prosperity - in contrast with the stuff that W. S. Gilbert goes for. Gilbert (Jim Broadbent on pure top form) is prickly, diligent, obsessed with getting the small things right, keen not to waste money; tea and coffee are therefore his motifs, their sobriety only lessened when Sullivan - in one scene - plies him with a sugar-cube. Oh, and to round out the drinks selection, three of the younger male leads get stuck into some Guinness and oysters about half-way through the film; with hilarious consequences.
All of which is framed so thoughtfully, in such measured filmic terms, with such grave opulence, that it doesn't take much to disturb the surface richness. George Grossmith shooting up in his dressing-room is about the most shocking image; the actors' strike is almost as arresting, although for rather different reasons; Leonara Braham getting loaded and maudlin is another kind of backstage disruption, much bigger in impact than it has any right to be. As it happens, Miss Braham was in real life both a drunk and the mother of a clandestine child, even though her position in the company depended on her way with ingenue soprano roles. 'When I meet a gentleman, he invites me to supper,' she murmurs on-screen through her cigarette smoke, 'I mention my little secret - and then he's off, quick smart.' Her son, her 'Precious little bundle', is a tragedy as well as a justification for living - a situation which mirrors the bleak inability of the established, well-to-do Gilberts to conceive a child; as well as Sullivan's tendency to get his mistress pregnant before having the unborn child discreetly got rid of.
All of which is contained in the way Shirley Henderson aims her moue at the rim of her glassful of hard liquor, in the way she holds the glass close to her, tenderly resting it on her bodice, her fondling of the glass binding ideas of drink and maternal affection in one image. Which in turn is put into context by all the other visual references to cups, glasses, beakers and carafes littering the frame; which in their turn are all parts of the complex, crowded, visual texture of the film, whose genius is to reveal how all this density and complexity can be shaped into something as apparently air-light and uniform as The Mikado - or, if you want to go down that road, as coherent and satisfying as Topsy-Turvy itself. The glass is nothing, just a tiny part of the pattern, but on this occasion you've got to hand it to Mike Leigh: he really knows how to fill a picture with meaning.
Preserved for posterity – Jancis v Sediment
The University of California has acquired the archive of Jancis Robinson; forty years of wine tasting notes, her travel notebooks, notes on Chateau Latour, invitations from the Queen, personal correspondence and published articles. A feature in the San Francisco Chronicle explained the acquisition by saying that "Robinson invented ways to be a wine writer that had never existed before",
This is clearly also true of Sediment, which similarly invented ways of being a wine writer which had never existed before, viz. while knowing little to nothing about wine.
So perhaps there is some former Poly, or one of the poorly supported council libraries, which would be interested in acquiring the Sediment archive?
At the heart of the Sediment archive is a treasure trove of crumpled supermarket receipts. These provide a fascinating glimpse into the authors' wine-buying habits; they document the seesawing prices of discounted supermarket wines, and provide historians with precise documentation of the dates of "25% off six bottles" offers.
The receipts record the pitifully low sums which the authors regularly spent on their wines, illustrated further by a marked-up list from Majestic, a booklet from Lidl and some sort of leaflet which came through the door from Waitrose.
The archive pinpoints increasingly hard-to-find retailers such as Threshers, Nicolas and Oddbins, and tracks the relentless rise of CJ's pricepoint from £5 to the heady heights of £6.99, while the sorry state of wine deliveries is recorded by a collection of "While you were out…" cards.
There are, sadly, no notes on Chateau Latour; if there were, they would probably be "Can't afford it" from PK and, from CJ, "What?" But then, the Jancis Robinson archive probably lacks notes on Sainsbury's Basic, "reminiscent of alcohol and wet carpet, like the aftermath of a student party".
And here are all of the other original Sediment tasting notes, in handwriting whose deteriorating legibility provides confirmation that the authors didn't just consider wines; they consumed them.
There are fascinating similarities; Jancis's notes on Latour employ the descriptive term "open", which Sediment also use, having decided it was helpful to "open" most of their wines.
One can see in her notes on Latour comparisons like "red fruits", "cheese" and "violets". Sediment's points of comparison reflect more of a quintessential Englishness, referring to such evocative national products as Airwick, Flash and Copydex, in notes such as "acrid, nasal – like crushed insects in Brasso".
Sediment's invitation from the Queen sadly seems to have gone astray. However, there is one from the Prime Minister, a moment at which PK believed he would achieve new status in wine drinking, only to be offered a glass of Campo Viejo.
And, perhaps distinguishing itself from the Jancis archive yet again, the Sediment archive does contain an invitation from ASDA, to a tasting event at which CJ "sat bathed in mute and baffled dread." Which could explain the absence from the archive of any other invitation from any other supermarket.
Here finally is the original manuscript for the Sediment book. It makes fascinating reading, with particular reference to the amendments required by lawyers, including exchanges over the potentially libellous use of words such as "emetic". The archive allows scholars to identify the retailers that the authors were not allowed to describe as "dreary" and "charmless", and the producer whose wine could not be described as "rust remover".
What will students find, asked the San Francisco Chronicle, when they encounter the Jancis documents? "I think it will be an interesting snapshot into where wine was," Robinson says.
Sediment already know where wine was – it was in the bottle, then it was in the glass, then it was, somewhat briskly, gone – but their archive offers an alternative snapshot of everyday wine drinking, and a record of its cost which will be of particular interest to their wives.
Trump Wine: Cabernet Sauvignon and Fortified Chardonnay
So now seems like as good a time as any to contemplate Donald Trump's impact on the world of wine. And what an impact it's been! As he himself gets someone else to put it in The Art Of The Deal, 'I like thinking big. I always have.' And, 'From the very start, size was a top priority.' And, 'It's larger than life.' And, 'Listen to your gut.' If I ever wanted a teetotal megalomaniac casino developer to blend my grapes, than Donald J. Trump would be the man: it's all about quantity and bowels.
Yes, we have a potential situation with Trump's teetotalism (his older brother, Freddy, died an alcoholic which kind of accounts for it) but a mere complete lack of familiarity with something is oviously no bar to success in that chosen sphere. So Trump wines? Or vodka, even? Why ever not?
Well, not the vodka, obviously, as that's gone the way of Trump University, Trump Magazine, Trump Institute, Trump Airlines, Trump Steak, Trump: The Game, Trump natrual spring water, Tour de Trump, Trump on the Ocean, and Trump Network. Trump Vodka ('Awful,' according to one critic) was axed from most markets in 2011, despite being offered in a gold Cubist bottle with a vast T on the front. Nevertheless, the wine persists, with a smart website telling you all about the sprawling estate in Virginia where they make the Trump range, plus a list of its numerous awards, plus a calendar of upscale events like the Mother's Day Brunch and the Bastille Day Vine and Dine.
And there's an online shop, which sets my heart pounding at the thought that I might be able to acquire some of this stuff and thereby get that tiny bit closer to the current leader of the free world. With tragic inevitability, however, you can only get it shipped within the States, and not all of them. Why not Kansas, Delaware, West Virginia or Arizona? What have they done to be deprived of the Trump Winery's unique Fortified Chardonnay, known as Cru? Made by 'Blending Chardonnay juice with grape brandy', this 'Fortified wine is then aged for over a year in American bourbon barrels', but if you're stuck in Wilmington or Bisbee, you have nothing to look forward to.
It's even worse here in the UK, where I am reduced to speculating on whether or not I could persuade my New York friends to blag a couple of bottles and bring them over the next time they're here. I don't know: could I be bothered to drag a couple of Nyetimbers over to them? No, of course not. Which leaves me, for now, supplicating the internet for other people's reviews of Trump's output and trying to get a sense of it that way.
Naturally, one wants these reviews to be as highly-charged and inflammatory as possible, given the kind of person Trump is. But things are more nuanced than that. Even critics who have clearly set out to rubbish Trump Wines sometimes find themselves wrong-footed into grudgingly faint praise: 'This could actually be much more offensive,' says one, about Trump's Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot/Cabernet Franc Meritage 2014; 'Actually...quite subtle', says another reviewer about a white Trump; 'Well-crafted and food-friendly' is a third cautious encomium. The consensus? Trump Wines are quite often quite okay.
But then again: what really sticks in the mind is the way that the Trump Winery website harps on about so much that isn't actually wine. Yes, lots of wineries try to get you to consume things that are only incidental to the booze itself - guided tours, online sales, corporate functions in the fully air-conditioned Sauvignon Suite - but the Trump Winery not only has tastings, online buying, corporate events and commemorative meals, it also offers four different kinds of wedding experience, a wine club, toy dogs, baseball hats, semi-automated donations to St. Jude's Hospital and a frilly, conspicuously set-dressed boutique hotel with a swimming pool, 'A culinary experience unique to Virginia' and rooms at $449 a night. Given that Trump picked the estate up for not a huge amount before handing it over to his son, Eric, it's hard to imagine that it has much resonance for him. Could it be that Trump, wine and Trump Junior are only in it for the short term? And that some larger ambition awaits the estate? 'I never get too attached to one deal or one approach,' the great man has said. Which I think is something we can all learn from, especially if we've spent the morning drinking a bottle of fortified Chardonnay while wearing a themed baseball hat.
▼ Mar 2017 (5)
Tesco's Worst and Best: Spanish, Italian and Somet...
Great Wine Moments In Movie History IX: Topsy-Turv...
Trump Wine: Cabernet Sauvignon and Fortified Chard...


Parents may experience a change of circumstances that justify modification of an earlier child support order.
The most common reason for modification is an increase or a decrease in parental income. A change in the income of either parent can affect child support.
Some life events have a positive effect on income. For example, a parent may get a higher-paying job, have an investment return, receive an inheritance, or even win the lottery.
On the other hand, a parent could experience an event that has a negative effect on income, such as job loss, unexpected medical bills, or an investment loss. These events will normally impact the child support obligation of both parents.
Other variables that can affect child support include changes in child care expense, private school, health, and related insurance, and uncovered medical expenses. Changes in timesharing can also affect the amount of child support in your case.
It is important to hire an attorney to file your case as soon as you experience a substantial change that entitles you to abate, modify, or terminate child support. The court can usually revise child support back to the filing date of your case, even if you experienced a substantial change in circumstance before your child support case was filed.
You may be eligible to terminate child support if a child is over 18 years of age or if timesharing has changed so that you have more timesharing.
Many old child support orders will not automatically terminate when a child turns 18. An experienced attorney can help you dissolve these child support orders. You should take quick action because it may not be possible to get a refund for support that is paid after the child turns 18.
DeVoe Law Firm can help you modify your child support, abate child support, and terminate child support in eligible cases. Call for a free consultation.


The former Hole singer and widow of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain says she's patiently treading on a long-term trek back from her own personal hell of drug addiction, bankruptcy, identity theft and legal troubles. She has been clean and sober for three years, the singer says, "but it will be another two years before my memory is back to normal" because of her heavy drug abuse.
I was graduated in 1967, that was in sweet and mad 60-ies. I remember that fantastic period of my life very well. My Warsaw Polish-English high school was under UNESCO patronage. That's why it was kind of asylum in communist Poland. Some of my classmates arrived from different countries, They were Polish but they began their education abroad.
Krzysztof arrived from Australia after he finished catholic primary school. His Aussi pronouncation sounded the best in a sentence like: "Jane, take your place, please". Krystyna with her male, hard and metallic American murmurring went from Texas, USA. Ewa with her elegant, smart and polite English arrived from English primary school in Calcuta, India etc.
Most of us were fascinated with love, drug and rock'n'roll (we drunk alcohol instead drugs – I think it was the only advantage of communist regime: no drugs). We had the latest discs. I remember our ten minutes party during a break when we started to dance listening to "Five by Five" disc (The Rolling Stones). Believe me, we were absolutely not ready to meet a tragedy, which was coming on.
We were shaken with the news about terrible death of Janis Joplin. Jimmy Hendrix was the next. We were shocked and frozen by fear – something went wrong. The dream colorfull like a rainbow was gone.
Dear Courtney, I think you may be the 43-year-old rebel if you want to, of course. Drugs are not needed to rebel against convenances and rules.


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Tag: data
August 26, 2020 – By Katya Abazajian
A pandemic may seem like the worst time to fix slow-changing, infrastructural data challenges, but there is no better time to begin correcting systems that just aren't working.
Chief Data Officers (CDOs) manage critical data infrastructure that helps states innovate and make data-driven policy decisions. Earlier this month, we published Leveraging Data for Economic Recovery, a report showing how CDOs can focus their work to guide states to equitable economic recoveries. But within state governments, CDOs often struggle to make the case for sustainable data reforms when there are more pressing demands on frontline workers.
Data is an essential asset states should use to make emergency response processes more effective and efficient. Through responsible data-sharing, advanced analytics, and publishing robust open data, states can leverage data as critical infrastructure for disaster recovery.
Many states have set up centralized COVID data dashboards that serve as the main source of information for CDC reporting and national COVID tracking by civic hackers and journalists. Based on conversations with states, we've found that while some dashboards have been developed in coordination with data teams' best practices, others used ad hoc, paper-based processes to gather and publish data from public health officials. This means in states where cross-agency data sharing is not common practice, public health agencies have had to establish new information sharing processes on top of the existing strain of the health crisis.
While national data-sharing configurations continue to evolve, states are left to fend for themselves in determining what needs to be collected, by whom, and for whom.
Many states develop mechanisms for data-sharing based on internal legal guidance that may or may not not mirror decisions made by other states. This introduces discrepancies in different states' interpretations of what data is considered public or private, particularly with regards to sensitive health data. During COVID, each state has had to develop its own solutions for data challenges.
Suddenly, public health agencies need immediate, open channels of communication and data-sharing across departments to inform how schools, employers, social safety net providers, and other practitioners are supporting disaster recovery.
The CDO role has proven essential to developing multi-agency emergency response functions to COVID-19 in states that have leveraged their data capacity to enable collaboration. CDOs bring exactly the kind of systemic expertise on data use that governors and executive decision-makers need in order to empower quick action and collaboration as the pandemic's effects continue to shift.
CDOs can implement the steps outlined in Leveraging Data for Economic Recovery to find key opportunities to open up data-sharing across agencies. They can also champion internal cultural shifts that will allow public servants across agencies to work better together through open data and data-driven decision-making.
Often, the changes that public servants need to see in their data systems require adapting tech procurement language and shifting data collection processes. CDOs are particularly well-positioned to advise on these decisions alongside Chief Information Officers (CIOs) by streamlining which tools and data best practices are being applied and replicated across government agencies.
Not only is better internal data use essential for improving the efficiency and efficacy of states' public systems, but open data and public communication around information are becoming increasingly crucial for navigating the national crisis. Journalists and advocates have demanded better data reporting on racial and ethnic disparities in the effects of social policies and programs and the spread of COVID-19. But states often lack the data capacity to even collect the right data to report these statistics from the ground up. Resolving these challenges and allowing CDOs to inform how data is collected across agencies will require a fundamental shift in how data is treated as critical infrastructure in state government.
City officials like Beeck Center Fellow Amen Ra Mashariki, former Chief Analytics Officer in the Mayor's Office of Data Analytics in New York City, were the first to pilot the idea of "data drills," a nod to the fact that just as emergency systems need to be primed for immediate response, data systems need to be primed for effective use in an emergency. Running data drills can be as simple as setting up theoretical scenarios in which data owners across departments are tested on protocols and best practices for gathering and disseminating data in an emergency. This kind of systemic thinking about how to apply data in the long-run can help states integrate data use into other emergency response functions.
The key to better collaboration in a pandemic is enabling sustainable frameworks for data-sharing, integration, analytics, and open data. States must advance in how they are applying data in order to be prepared for the next natural disaster. And CDOs have a crucial role to play in bringing states up to speed on innovative data uses for public good.
Katya Abazajian is a researcher with the State Chief Data Officers Network at the Beeck Center. Follow her at @katyaabaz.
Note: This post originally appeared in the Boston Globe. It is shared here with permission.
Radical transparency in policing would be an important departure from the status quo. Here are five data sets departments should start sharing widely.
June 15, 2020 – By Clarence Wardell and Denice Ross
Prompted by the recent police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, protestors are demanding a wide range of changes to policing, including abolition, shifting funds to other community services, and more tactical reforms. A common thread across these demands is that American policing must be held accountable to the communities it serves. Accountability, however, requires transparency — and transparency is a concrete step that local leaders can take right now.
After Michael Brown was killed by police in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014, the Obama administration launched the Police Data Initiative as part of a detailed national response to racialized police violence. At the time, few if any police departments in the country published data about their own actions in sufficient detail for community members to check for evidence of bias.
These days, information about police officers' actions in addition to the arrests they make is more commonly released. But most of these data sets still lack key details and crucial context, such as corresponding body-camera footage, or published policies on what is allowed (and not) when officers use force. In most cases, the commitment to releasing data isn't mandated by law; it depends on what leaders want to do. The Boston Police Department, for example, stopped publishing its annual data on stop-and-frisk incidents after 2016. It took months of public calls for transparency, public records requests, and finally a subpoena to restore the flow of data just last month. BPD's excuse for the three-year gap in publishing data? Nobody had asked for it.
Americans shouldn't have to beg for data from agencies that have such extraordinary powers. As Art Acevedo, then the police chief in Austin, Texas, and now the chief in Houston made clear five years ago: "This isn't our data, it's the people's data."
"This isn't our data, it's the people's data."
– Art Acevedo, Former Police Chief, Austin, Texas
Governments should lean into the idea of being held accountable by their community members in ways that would represent a radical departure from the status quo. It is necessary for both legitimacy and trust. Leaders can start immediately by ordering the release of these five data sets:
Use of force, including shootings by officers. Is force more likely to be applied in communities of color, adjusting for other factors? What are the results from internal investigations into whether the force was justified? Seattle Police Department's use-of-force data is updated automatically in near real-time, and Orlando's officer-involved-shooting data includes detailed review letters from the State Attorney for each incident.
Complaints against officers. What complaints are people filing about police officers? How are these complaints against officers resolved? The Citizen Complaint Authority in Cincinnati helps the public understand this data in graphs, charts, and maps, making it easier to devise better policies.
Police force demographics. Does the police force look like the community it serves? Are they failing to retain women and people of color? Wallkill, N.Y., publishes an annual spreadsheet that details rank, years on the force, gender, and education levels of the 120 people in their department.
"Stop-and-frisk." Which populations are police most often stopping in the field, and for what reasons? The Boston Police Department's newly liberated data includes the name of the officer and their supervisor. NYPD releases annual data with demographic details and the reason for the stop.
Traffic stops. Are people of color disproportionately likely to be pulled over? Are police actions biased, whether they let someone off with a warning or ask to search the vehicle? The San Diego Police Department, in accordance with the California Racial and Identity Profiling Act of 2015, releases demographic details on the people stopped, as well as reasons for the stops and any actions taken by the officers.
Numbers alone won't tell the whole story, though. Radical transparency will require police and other government agencies to publish complementary records and documents, such as the department's policy handbook (including the rules on the use of force), police union contracts, prosecutorial and review board decisions, and internal disciplinary records. Departments should promptly make body-worn camera footage available when an incident is being reviewed to clarify, for example, whether a person "tripped" or was actually pushed by officers.
We need to also ensure that all data are released responsibly, protecting privacy so that victims of crimes and police misconduct feel comfortable reporting. Greater transparency will also, in some communities, require revisiting outdated laws and obstructionist police union contracts that are holding back data to which the public is entitled. Leadership is essential to breaking these logjams.
The lack of transparency has not only left our law enforcement apparatus unchecked and unaccountable to the community, but it also has made it harder to understand what actually works to reduce police violence. After the death of George Floyd, we learned Derek Chauvin had at least 18 citizen complaints filed against him. Accountability starts with transparency. We must face the difficult truths hiding in the unopened vault of police data.
Clarence Wardell is director of City Solutions for What Works Cities at Results for America, a research organization that advises governments.
Denice Ross is a fellow at the National Conference on Citizenship and Georgetown's Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation. They co-founded the White House Police Data Initiative in 2015.
April 30, 2020 | By Tyler Kleykamp
The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the critical role data plays in keeping the public informed and keeping ahead of the crisis. On a daily basis, governors report on new data related to COVID-19 cases, hospital caseload, and weekly jobless claims. The pandemic also shows the importance of integrating data sets across agencies and programs. For instance, the new Pandemic EBT program needs to match data so that families who are losing access to free and reduced-price meals at school can continue receiving important nutritional resources at home.
The 25 state Chief Data Officers (CDOs) across the country who make up the State Chief Data Officers Network are stepping up to support their states' efforts to use data. Whether accounting for supplies of personal protective equipment, noting which hospitals are nearing capacity, or reporting accurate testing data to the public, state CDOs play an important role in improving how data is shared and used.
Adopting effective practices in the COVID-19 response will help states move from crisis to recovery. Right now states are focused on sharing data about testing, infection rates in nursing homes and correctional facilities, and unemployment. In the future, state leaders will need the right data to inform policies on how to best reopen child care centers, economic sectors, and schools.
Our review of State of the State speeches found that data was rarely mentioned, and often not at all. Now, virtually every governor is basing their decisions on when to reopen state economies on data. If state leaders want to ensure that they have data readily available to support their decisions, the status quo won't help them. We don't have six months to negotiate one-off data sharing agreements, and we can't continue keeping data in silos.
What can state leaders do to advance their use of data? The State CDO Network has issued a report on best practices to improve states' ability to share and use data:
Coordinate data management. Establish an interagency data coordinating body, ideally led by the Chief Data Officer (CDO).
Remove barriers to data sharing. Several states like Arizona and California are leveraging enterprise memorandums of agreement (MOA) to create streamlined and transparent legal processes necessary for data sharing.
Make data discoverable. Even when data is protected, the information about what data each state agency has are generally not. Virginia recently released a public metadata catalog detailing the data holdings of many of its agencies.
Format data to be useful. Ensure any data exchanged is in a machine-readable format (searchable, sortable, and digital) at the finest level of granularity allowed by law that's necessary for the intended use.
Centralize data access across agencies. Indiana and North Carolina have statewide data warehouses that can readily secure new sources of data and make them available to appropriate individuals for analysis. Data that can be shared within government should be accessible through a centralized clearinghouse or repository.
Publish public data as open data. When data is public, make sure it's available through the state's open data website. Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York are publishing COVID-19 and other related datasets on their open data portals.
Map of Health Facilities in Connecticut. Via data.ct.gov
PDFs and Dashboards are great for communicating top-level findings, but should be accompanied by machine-readable data.
Lead with the analysis. Not everyone is comfortable with or has the time to work with raw data. State leaders and the public often need easily digestible information at their fingertips. Readily available reports and dashboards can help people answer questions quickly. Maryland's COVID-19 website provides easy access to top level statistics.
With executive support, Chief Data Officers can play a critical role in supporting emergencies like COVID-19 by using their centralized position to get the right data to the right people in a timely fashion. As state governments adjust to remote work, these practices will improve the way agencies communicate about and use data. It will also better prepare states for any future outbreaks that may impact the people and families they serve.
Tyler Kleykamp leads the State CDO Network for the Beeck Center, and is the former Chief Data Officer for the State of Connecticut. Follow him on Twitter at @TKleykamp
April 28, 2020 | By Amen Ra Mashariki
Governments should protect the data and privacy rights of their communities even during emergencies. It is a false trade-off to require more data without protection. We can and should do both — collect the appropriate data and protect it. Establishing and protecting the data rights and privacy of our communities' underserved, underrepresented, disabled, and vulnerable residents is the only way we can combat the negative impact of COVID-19 or any other crisis.
Building trust is critical. Governments can strengthen data privacy protocols, beef up transparency mechanisms, and protect the public's data rights in the name of building trust — especially with the most vulnerable populations. Otherwise, residents will opt out of engaging with government, and without their information, leaders like first responders will be blind to their existence when making decisions and responding to emergencies, as we are seeing with COVID-19.
As Chief Analytics Officer of New York City, I often remembered the words of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, especially with regards to using data during emergencies, that there are "known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns, and we will always get hurt by the unknown unknowns." Meaning the things we didn't know — the data that we didn't have — was always going to be what hurt us during times of emergencies.
"City officials admitted at trial that there were no emergency plans specific to evacuating or providing life-saving services to the most vulnerable population during disasters." – Disability Rights Advocates, dralegal.org
Case in point, after 2013's Hurricane Sandy, a federal court ruled that New York City discriminated against vulnerable populations including people experiencing homelessness, the elderly, and disabled in its failure to plan for their needs in large scale disasters. John Watson, a resident of the Coney Island Housing Projects in Brooklyn, testified about living on the ground floor of the housing development, and being flooded during the storm. After his family got rid of all of their soaked belongings they "endured living in a moldy apartment for over two months until the New York City Housing Authority finally moved them into a hotel to make repairs." Or, like the many stories coming out of Brooklyn's Gowanus projects, also in a predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhood, where Paula Diaz spoke of how she and other residents, many who were elderly and disabled, were "forcibly confined" to their apartments because the projects went without electricity for weeks. According to a release from Disability Rights Advocates, "expert witnesses testified about major deficiencies in the city's planning for a wide range of emergencies, including such events as explosions, terrorist attacks, and hurricanes. City officials admitted at trial that there were no emergency plans specific to evacuating or providing life-saving services to the most vulnerable population during disasters."
It was clear that while the city may have responded to this catastrophe, the leadership knew little about the most vulnerable in the community, including where they lived, their needs and services needed. There could be many reasons for this gap, including 1) limited data sharing capabilities, 2) overly stringent data regulations, and 3) lack of trust in government leaders having access to their information. However, more could have been done before and during that crisis to protect the vulnerable and ultimately have a successful and complete response to the challenges NYC faced during Hurricane Sandy.
There are three key steps that governments can do right now to use data most effectively to respond to emergencies — both for COVID-19 and in the future.
Seek Open Data First
In times of crisis and emergencies, many believe that government and private entities, either purposefully or inadvertently, are willing to trample on the data rights of the public in the name of appropriate crisis response. This should not be a trade-off. We can respond to crises while keeping data privacy and data rights in the forefront of our minds. Rather than dismissing data rights, governments can start using data that is already openly available. This seems like a simple step, but it does two very important things. First, it forces you to understand the data that is already available in your jurisdiction. Second, it grows your ability to fill the gaps with respect to what you know about the city by looking outside of city government. How do you do this?
Start with what is on your open data portal and extend to the data that city/state agencies may host on their websites.
Look at data from academic institutions in your community that is already public (i.e, research papers, web portals, etc.).
Reach out to county, state and federal government partners to get their public data.
Work with NGOs in your municipality, who likely have publicly available data.
Work with private companies that can make their data available (e.g. Mastercard, Zillow).
The advantage of prioritizing open data is there are already stewards of this information, and it's likely been used before, or has been vetted to maximize "responsible use." By using open data during emergencies governments can both improve effectiveness and accountability without infringing rights.
Show Your Work
Reporting to communities how data is being used puts accountability into action and builds trust. It also shows the public how open data can be useful and effective. But, transparency should not just be about open data, but also when using closed or private data sets. This data has been managed or purchased over time. By showing communities and citizens how their data is being used starts to build grounds for trust. Reporting ALL data use on a consistent basis should be a best practice and it will help cross the chasm of trust between citizens and their governments.
Learn from First Responders – Practice, Practice, Practice
First responders constantly train for emergencies. They don't just create processes to respond to emergencies. They run preparedness drills to understand the best tools, processes, and tactics to utilize during emergencies. They continue to refine these steps; practice further; and report publicly on their efforts. We should do the same for data during emergencies.
I learned this when I participated in a tabletop (simulation) exercise with the Mayor's office and the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) in NYC. This exercise is a simulated emergency situation where leadership across all city agencies review and discuss the actions they would take in a particular emergency, testing their emergency plan in an informal, low-stress environment. With that in mind, my office, the Office of Data Analytics, developed a concept called "data drills" in conjunction with OEM. A data drill is a multi-agency collaboration exercise that is used to gain greater insight into how a city collectively thinks about, manages, shares, and uses data.
Data drills help cities create a baseline on types of data available, how well agencies work together and build city-wide data practices. Done well, these drills help cities improve their ability to identify, understand, and use data to solve city's challenges as needed. Data drills also help address privacy concerns around data sharing. It shows which data will likely be used, the data rights implications of that data, and the best way to use it while remaining transparent and accountable. Through practice, we can know when and how to manage data privacy and protect the rights of citizens.
It is not acceptable that the most vulnerable members of our communities remain invisible during emergencies and crises. Government can restore trust with residents to ensure that their data rights are protected and data privacy is taken into consideration — both on a daily basis and during emergencies. This is an important first step to closing the chasm of trust that exists between residents and governments.
Amen Ra Mashariki is a Fellow at the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation and is the Global Director of the Data Lab at the World Resources Institute. He is the former Chief Analytics Officer of New York City. Follow him at @amashariki.
Photo by Lianhao Qu on Unsplash
February 7, 2020 | By Kyla Fullenwider & Katie Sullivan
Download the Playbook
Last month, the 2020 Census kicked off in Toksook Bay, a remote Alaskan fishing village, as the head of the U.S. Census Bureau, Steven Dillingham, arrived to personally interview the village elder and start the decennial process. While Bureau workers will travel around Alaska "on bush planes, snow machines, or snowmobiles, and dog sleds to get to villages," this year, for the first time, millions of U.S. residents will have the option to respond to the decennial census online or over the phone, alongside the traditional mail-in form. Federal workers will use handheld mobile devices to conduct the count and social media channels will catalyze rapid, real-time sharing of census news and information.
Though the first "digital" census presents an opportunity for a more participatory count, it also raises a number of obstacles that may threaten the completeness and accuracy of the 2020 Census. An incomplete census count leads to unrepresentative distribution of federal funding and political power while raising inaccuracies within the foundational dataset that is used by planners, policymakers, and researchers nationwide. An accurate census count is vital in ensuring the integrity of our democratic institutions for the next decade and beyond.
For the first time, issues such as data security, digital access and literacy, online form navigation, and social media driven misinformation and disinformation campaigns must be addressed.
Since the last decennial count in 2010, the political and technological landscapes of the United States have changed dramatically. While some challenges such as an increase in "hard to reach" populations persist across census counts, the digital nature of the 2020 Census raises new threats. For the first time, issues such as data security, digital access and literacy, online form navigation, and social media driven misinformation and disinformation campaigns must be addressed. With historic levels of distrust in the federal government, city and local governments will play a critical role in ensuring a complete count of their constituents. City leaders understand the importance of the census in allocating dollars and political representation to their most vulnerable communities. However, many cities lack sufficient preparation and resources to lead the charge in promoting an inclusive and accurate 2020 Census count.
Today we are pleased to publish the 2020 Census Digital Preparedness Playbook which helps address some of these challenges by providing a set of practical resources and explainers on some of the most challenging issues facing local governments as they prepare for the 2020 Census. The playbook provides:
A framework city leaders can use to understand the unique challenges posed by the 2020 Census including disinformation, cybersecurity, the digital divide, and data privacy.
Accessible one-page overviews giving decision makers information they need to recognize threats to the census' integrity.
In-depth how-to resources helping city leaders plan their response, avoid digital census pitfalls, and increase participation.
Comprehensive answers to commonly-asked questions about new issues in the 2020 Census including the internet response option.
A series of case studies highlighting how cities like Baltimore, Los Angeles, and Indianapolis are developing new and innovative approaches fostering census participation.
The 2020 Census Digital Preparedness Playbook was drafted in close collaboration with city officials, subject matter experts, and in partnership with the National League of Cities, Code for America Brigades and National Conference on Citizenship. We invite you to read and share the playbook to better understand the challenges ahead and to help ensure that everyone counts in 2020.
The rollout of the 2020 Census Digital Preparedness Playbook complements other Beeck Center efforts to support an accurate and inclusive 2020 Census count.
Development of the 2020 Digital Census Playbook presentation by Beeck Center Student Analyst Katie Sullivan
Engaging Students in Census Outreach presentation by Beeck Center Student Analyst Kell Crowley
In the lead-up to Census Day on April 1, 2020, the Beeck Center and the National League of Cities will be co-hosting a series of expert webinars on specific topics like disinformation and digital access. Tune in and get your census questions answered.
Kyla Fullenwider is a Beeck Center Fellow leading our work around the digital implications of the 2020 Census, specifically, what local governments, journalists, leading digital platforms, and the public can do to prepare and participate in this crucial function of our democracy. She previously served as the first Chief Innovation Officer of the U.S. Census Bureau. Follow her on Twitter at @KylaFullenwider.
Katie Sullivan is a Beeck Center Student Analyst, currently pursuing a Masters in Global Human Development at Georgetown University. Follow her on LinkedIn or email her.
January 30, 2020 | By Natalie Evans Harris
Society uses data for just about everything. Every day we hear about different ways organizations collect data about us for marketing purposes, insurance decisions, and improved delivery of social services including housing, education, and mental health. We also hear about data being used to deny home loans, set outsized bail, and often exacerbate existing biases within our social systems. It's no question that, good or bad, data drives decisions by large organizations, small nonprofits, government officials, and everyone in-between.
Through this expansive approach to using data, many government agencies are also experiencing the pains of governing how that data is shared, resulting in practices that are unsustainable, ineffective, and not forward-thinking. There is a fundamental need to evolve these practices into a governance approach that balances the need to protect people's data with the need to uncover opportunities to better serve communities through data.
As we head into 2020, it is already clear that a shift in how we make decisions with data is underway. The Federal Data Strategy Action Plan makes data governance processes a top priority. The California Consumer Privacy Act went into effect Jan 1, 2020, requiring entities to fundamentally change how they handle data with data governance standards as a main focus. And Congress continues to work on national privacy legislation that influences data governance standards, including nearly 10 bills under consideration for regulating the collection and use of personal data, individual consent, and even defining what constitutes personal data. Simply put, new data governance strategies are being developed and policy improvements are driving this conversation.
At the Beeck Center, I spent the past year leading a research effort to gather best practices and lessons learned on data sharing. In partnership with The Rockefeller Foundation, I hosted collaborative discussions with multiple stakeholders and practitioners, conducted independent research with dozens of organizations, companies, and government teams, and drew on my nearly 20 years leading data practices. We are excited today to launch a new resource based on that research: Sharing Data for Social Impact: a Guidebook to Establishing Responsible Governance Practices.
Thankfully, we aren't starting from scratch as many government agencies have well-established use cases for sharing data in pursuit of improved social service delivery in areas such as K–12 education, public transportation, and healthcare. For example:
In 2017, Florida's Broward County saw the number of children moving into their Kinship Care Program — where kids live with grandparents or other non-parental relatives — had increased significantly. To improve services for these kinship providers, the county took data from a variety of sources — the public schools, Department of Children and Families, Department of Juvenile Justice, and others — and worked with the community to analyze the information, then put it into practice. This engagement of stakeholders and participants created community feedback loops on shared data between families and agencies, strengthening family outcomes through a decision making process that emphasizes collaboration, transparency, and shared interest in positive results.
On the other side of the country, Los Angeles County wanted to study the effectiveness of a number of social service programs for people experiencing homelessness. While the data was available, it was trapped in individual agencies, making it difficult to understand if an individual used services outside a single agency. As a way to combat this siloing of data and link social service organizations, researchers created an integrated data system. This system, launched in 2015, "provided agencies with a comprehensive picture of the [homeless population] and their needs and helped these agencies consider different models for service delivery… The project was relatively easy to execute with the [integrated] data, but would have been impossible without it." By not only linking data from several agencies but also outlining data-use practices and procedures for each agency, Los Angeles County is ensuring the delivery of vital services to a vulnerable population.
Another recent trend is private companies, governments, and nonprofits forming cross-sector data-sharing collaboratives in support of the social good, but these can be hampered by organizational rules restricting the availability of data to external actors. In an environment where data are only used for making funding decisions or to narrowly evaluate programs, this model can work well. But in pursuit of innovation or improved social service delivery, this model is less encouraging. I discussed the need to shift to a more equitable and sustainable governance process in a previous blog.
As the amount of data and methods for collecting it increase, so have opportunities for drawing insights about society. Bringing together diverse data sources is crucial to ensuring that insights promote equitable growth. And as promising as data sharing is for improving societal outcomes, the analysis of integrated data (especially through predictive analytics) can easily repeat inequities learned from past service delivery. Contextualizing data analysis with methods used by social sciences and ongoing community engagement is crucial to ensuring data analytics do not replicate or worsen inequitable outcomes.
Through our research, we found three key phases critical to establishing equitable and sustainable data sharing governance practices for social impact. Our guidebook helps individuals and teams seeking a primer to better understand the key legal, technical, and cultural components to data sharing governance. The guidebook provides a holistic process detailing each phase and extensive resources to aid stakeholders.
Build the collective
Get everyone on board. Start with the policy problem. Identify stakeholders. Take stock of capacity, motivations, barriers, and potential data solutions. Demonstrate value and reduce uncertainty to generate buy-in. Establish a minimum viable coalition and enshrine your shared vision in a charter.
Define the operations
Get everyone in line. Create the governance framework tied to the charter. Design a feedback loop and integrate it into the governance framework. Formalize those two elements into a data-sharing agreement. Launch the operations of the minimum viable coalition.
Drive impact
Get everyone to improve and share. Re-evaluate assumptions, approach, and metrics. Survey impacted communities and stakeholders. Use feedback loops to enact iterative improvements to the governance structure. Repeat this process until feedback becomes minimal. Scale up.
We recognize that many different actors will be involved in this process and that each one faces unique challenges, goals, motivations, and opportunities. This guidebook is for people looking to leverage data and data sharing towards evidence-based policy making. Moreover, it can be used by policy makers and organizations interested in giving agency to individuals over their data along with organizations interested in ethically and responsibly sharing data.
While data use can sometimes lead to harmful outcomes, what will never change is that data can, should, and will be used for good. Because data plays such a large role in society, it is imperative that organizations and governments use and share it responsibly. While there are resources out there to do this, our Guidebook delivers the perfect framework with resources, advice and practical examples for tackling the complexities of data sharing going forward. We look forward to supporting organizations as they activate the lessons we captured and will continue recording and sharing good practices through that process.
Natalie Evans Harris is a Beeck Center Fellow and a sought-after thought leader on the ethical and responsible use of data after nearly 20 years advancing the public sector's strategic use of data. Follow her on Twitter @QuietStormNat
December 10, 2019 | By Ben Lang
For someone interested in working at the intersection of cities and data, I didn't find a clear pathway for either classwork or experiential learning here at Georgetown, at first. There simply is no guide for students to work in cities and data unlike the vast amount of resources on social impact at a national level.
To fill this gap, I researched these types of opportunities and interviewed expert practitioners in this field to create the basis of a resource guide for students like myself seeking to formulate a career path through data and impact in cities.
"Lead your search with causes you're passionate about, rather than working within data itself."
– Natalie Evans Harris
As a starting point, I visited Georgetown's Cawley Career Center last year to better understand what to prioritize when choosing a career. They gave me good input and a helpful framework. That led to a summer internship in my hometown of Atlanta working at a nonprofit devoted to community investment, social impact, and the leadership of Downtown Atlanta.
This semester, I came to the Beeck Center, where I'm working with fellows and partners who have built their careers working in this exact area. Current fellow and former director of Enterprise Information for the City of New Orleans Denice Ross shared with me the importance of finding local leadership that values the same type of innovation as you do.
I'm also supporting fellow Natalie Evans Harris, a former Senior Advisor to the U.S. Chief Technology Officer and data expert for the National Security Agency, as we finalize a guidebook on responsible data practices. Through the process, I've learned the importance of engaging the community and data stakeholders every step of the way to help drive impact. On a more specific level, she's shared with me the importance of leading your search with causes you're passionate about, rather than work within data itself.
As expected, despite my hours of research and interviewing, I did not come up with a one-size-fits-all solution. Luckily, I was able to formulate a few best practices along with a basic framework of where students can enter the field at a local level.
First, because at the local level you are directly engaging with a community, it is imperative to be aware of your own internal biases. Resources like "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" and "Building Technology With, Not for Communities" are just the tip of the iceberg on the necessary perspectives to keep in mind when working inside any community. To effectively provide equitable solutions, we need to fully understand why and how data work will drive impact.
Second, we should try to find opportunities in impact that fulfill our own personal values before leading with data as a whole. Drawing on the framework I learned from Cawley to formulate my career path (prioritizing your values, interests, personality, and skills), if you do not recognize and pursue opportunities that engage all four categories, what you might gain in external recognition you will likely lack in personal drive. Additionally, the Beeck Center's own Social Impact Navigator is a great tool for self-assessment before starting a career in social impact.
With that in mind, here are three attainable ways for students and young professionals to get involved at the local level:
Getting involved with your local Code for America Brigade
In cities all across America, the brigades meet regularly to educate, discuss and create tools for local government and impact. Involving yourself with these opportunities allows you to network and grow on a professional and local level.
Opportunities in city governments through data, technology, and innovation offices such as offices of CIOs, CTOs and CDOs
These offices of government provide the foremost opportunity to manage and use data for public impact from entry-level positions all they to the top. Moreover, outside of data offices, one can take advantage of data in many departments of local government like sustainability, transportation, and education.
Careers at nonprofits and foundations like Downtown Improvement Districts (DID) and the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP)
Every city has different types of nonprofits, but most cities have organizations committed to data-driven approaches for government efficiency, community investment or simply data for the greater good. DID's are tax-funded organizations that provide economic development and other services to bridge the gap between the public and private sectors. The International Downtown Association(linked above) is a national organization that helps organize these DIDs. The NNIP is another example of local nonprofits working to use data for the common good.
Working with local data gives people the opportunity to think creatively about new solutions without suffering from as many bureaucratic issues at the national or even state level. One can look to examples from Broward County and New Orleans to see the fantastic innovation done at the local level. This research provides a brief introduction to the important and extensive opportunities for students and professionals to engage with data at a local level and drive impact.
In the future, I look forward to pursuing opportunities in my hometown to help Atlanta run as effectively, equitably, and efficiently as possible. For me, this means actively searching for roles that balance data and service. While I cannot say specifically what this will lead to, I can already see a more defined framework of paths to follow as I go into my final three semesters at Georgetown and begin the job hunt.
Ben Lang is a Fall 2019 Student Analyst at the Beeck Center studying Economics and German in the Georgetown College. Contact him at bel46@georgetown.edu or follow him on Twitter at @blang716.
November 22, 2019 | By Tyler Kleykamp
In an era where states often compete with one another for jobs, economic development, or federal funding, the spirit of cooperation was at the forefront last week as the Beeck Center gathered the nation's state Chief Data Officers (CDOs) together for the first time. States are increasingly naming CDOs to serve in executive roles to influence the way states collect, maintain, and operationalize data to improve services for the public as well as to build efficiencies and effectiveness into internal systems.
At Georgetown, the CDOs spent two days sharing challenges and successes and identifying opportunities to collaborate with one another. While they had been meeting monthly via conference call for years, this is the first time they had all been together in person. Sixteen CDOs attended, representing all but one state that has a formally established CDO role, and including one CDO who had only been on the job for five days.
State CDOs met in person for the first time at Georgetown on Nov. 12-13, 2019.
"You have to lead with value."
The CDOs opened the meeting by sharing successes from the previous year. Examples included technology implementations like data integration platforms and improving public availability of data as well as cultural changes such as creating agency data officers and enhancing data literacy. They also discussed broad issues related to their core responsibilities and how they've overcome some of the challenges associated with the job, resulting in some central themes. First, relationships matter. It was clear that building trust with their partner agencies is critical and CDOs must demonstrate that they are enabling the agencies and personnel they work with to better leverage data. As one CDO said, "You have to lead with value." Mandates and more heavy-handed approaches to data sharing can easily make their job more challenging, but they must also demonstrate the ability to handle data in responsible and legally compliant ways.
A second theme was the amount of friction that occurs in sharing and using data. Much of this is necessary to ensure that sensitive data remains protected and that its use is legally compliant, while other issues are related to the data itself. Issues like data quality, lack of standards, or common identifiers present challenges. CDOs shared how they've streamlined or standardized legal agreements and ways they've dealt with more technical challenges — but it was clear that more can be done. One solution was having dedicated legal support for CDOs. "Having an attorney who 'gets it' and can speak the language of other attorneys has been critical," shared one CDO.
A primary goal of the convening was to strengthen personal connections among CDOs in additional to building their professional relationships. A rapid-fire question-and-answer session allowed CDOs to explore emerging data issues like artificial intelligence, geospatial data, and new data protection laws. This matchmaking exercise quickly identified common issues they are thinking about so they could follow up afterward. Another mechanism to encourage more personal relationships was through "speed networking," pairing people for short one-on-one meetings, providing an opportunity for individual conversations in a less formal setting, and setting them up to feel more comfortable working collaboratively in the future.
CDOs Ed Kelly (Texas) and Julia Fischer (Maryland) engaged in conversation during an afternoon break.
A CDO's job is big, but they consistently expressed a need to start small. They discussed surfacing discrete use cases and immediate steps they can take in their states to equip them with techniques they can apply immediately. For example, pulling together public data into a GIS map to better understand risks to children, or conducting an inventory of data that can inform an issue are great places to start.
Another approach was to break the CDOs into smaller groups to identify specific policy areas important to their states to identify common priorities which surfaced issues like workforce opportunities, reducing opioid-related deaths, and improving child welfare. The groups established ways they can leverage their role or data to make a positive impact immediately, and identified opportunities that may be more challenging where additional support and facilitation from partners like the Beeck Center could move the needle further.
CDOs John Correllus (North Carolina) and Rhonda Lehman (Delaware) discuss public policy priorities with Eric Sweden of the National Association of Chief Information Officers.
Working collaboratively with the Beeck Center team, CDOs identified a broad array of high impact items that can boost their work including:
templates for data sharing agreements or data inventories
repositories of documents or information
more in-depth research on technology solutions and best practices
The exercise demonstrated the value that the Beeck Center can bring to this emerging field and allows us to prioritize the creation of high impact tools.
At the convening, CDOs identified tools that could support their efforts and ranked them based on the impact they could have and the effort necessary to produce them.
Another approach with this group was to include expert lightning talks to demonstrate big ideas to use data for social impact including better serving the most vulnerable individuals in emergencies, reducing recidivism, preventing lead poisoning, improving elections, and enhancing child welfare. These plug-and-play solutions have shown promise in some jurisdictions and are ready for wider adoption by other states. Additionally, a panel of city, state, and federal government officials explored opportunities for collaboration and discussed where states can make a unique impact with data including through improvements in educational outcomes and access to jobs.
State CDOs are doing incredible work in their states, and at the Beeck Center we are committed to highlighting those successes so they can be replicated across the country. We're getting started immediately on building a CDO toolkit that will include resources both highlighted at this convening and activated elsewhere and will support CDOs in their commitments to sharing resources such as legal agreements with the network.
The Beeck Center will continue to convene this network both in person and online through webinars and other touchpoints and we look forward to welcoming in the next wave of CDOs as seven states recruit for these roles and hopefully join the network. The role of the State CDO Network will remain focused on keeping the momentum going until we meet again, which one CDO declared, "…is absolutely the one event I have to go to."
Tyler Kleykamp is the Director of the State Chief Data Officers Network at the Beeck Center. He was previously the CDO for the State of Connecticut from 2014-2019 and led many of the early calls and connections among state CDOs.
What's New in Civic Tech: State CDO Network Summit Wraps Up [GovTech]
State chief data officers get an association of their own [StateScoop]
Beeck Center Announces Launch of State CDO Network


According to census data in the year 2000 there were 41 housing units in Coyville. This represents a 10.9% decline from 46 in 1990.
Homeownership rate in Coyville is about 96.4%. Coyville's vacancy rate, including seasonal lodging, is about 31.7%. Average household size is 2.14 people.
The majority of houses, apartments or condos in Coyville were built after 1939.


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Maine mid-century marvel: Watch the year-long renovation of 1972 Brady Bunch style home
The folks at SoPo Cottage have spent the last year making Cape Elizabeth mid-century house their dream home and Cindy Williams has been along for the ride.
Author: Cindy Williams (NEWS CENTER Maine)
Published: 3:50 PM EST November 8, 2019
Updated: 11:14 AM EST December 5, 2019
CAPE ELIZABETH, Maine — Mid-Century Moderns are all the rage right now. Those are homes built roughly from the 1930s to the 1970s. Trends in architecture, as in clothing, tend to cycle through. But right now, the 60s and 70s are back big time.
HGTV is in on it. It bought the house in California that was used as the outside shot of the Brady Bunch house. While the inside was shot in studios and looks nothing like the actual interior, HGTV, renovation experts, and the cast of the TV show are banding together to re-do the inside of the house to make it an exact replica of the TV version.
Many of us harken back to that era of airy space, sleek lines and avocado green appliances ... ok, maybe not the avocado green appliances. But there is a renewed appreciation for open concepts, geometric lines, and blending the outdoors with the indoors through walls of windows and skylights.
Finding a Mid-Century Modern in Maine, at least one that as not already had the 50's, 60's and 70's scrubbed clean, is a tall order. But professional renovator Laurel Labauve and owner of SoPo Cottage happened upon one in Cape Elizabeth that stopped her and her husband Richard in their tracks.
Credit: NCM
Laurel Labauve is right at home at the Danish Museum of Modern Furniture. Photo credit: Richard Labauve
Perched on a hill, not far from the ocean, and using the rock as the foundation, this home is unique in Maine. It was built by an architect and his family and is a perfect example of mid-century design. Laurel and Richard decided to buy it, not to renovate for someone else, but for themselves.
What ensued was a year-long renovation project, full of unexpected problems, and pleasant surprises. Through it all, Laurel and Richard remained determined to honor the era and of the history of the house itself. Join us as we take you along for the ride, in our special series Renovation Rewind.
Renovation Rewind Part 5
The Big Reveal! After more than a year, the inside of the house is done. The cedar siding on the outside was completed just days before our series aired in early December 2019. So all told, it was a the project took about 21 months. Laurel and Richard are thrilled with the result. The re-design and decorating all stay in line with the 1970's style but with modern updates that bring the "Wow factor" and incorporate the work of a Maine artisan. Check out the final product!
In our fourth installment of Renovation Rewind the renovators are trying to get the house ready for the holidays. Renovator Laurel Labauve seamlessly preserves original elements of the home, like certain wallpaper, while updating dark spaces and old tile. Her updates stay in line with the 70s integrity of the Cape Elizabeth Brady Bunch style home.
In our third installment of Renovation Rewind, you never really know what you'll find when you open up a wall in a house; especially if it's an old house. The new owners of a Mid-Century Modern home near Fort Williams know this as full-time renovators, but this house is one they plan to live in.
RELATED: If you want to know how to build a house the Shelter Institute can help.
In our second installment of Renovation Rewind, the demolition begins. What's discovered behind the walls, and under the carpets is at times shocking; luckily these renovating professionals prepared for the worst.
In our first installment of Renovation Rewind, we'll take a walk back in time as we explore the house virtually untouched since it was finished in 1972. We'll explore the architectural features that made this era so special.
If you are embarking on the renovation of a historic home, Maine Preservation is a non-profit and a fabulous resource designed to help homeowners promote and preserve historic places.
RELATED: The 2019 list of Maine's Most Endangered Historic Places
RELATED: Tucked away off Penobscot Bay, the magical little village of Bayside