More uselessness from DBC

[Moghrey Mie]

A more important question is how much is Douglas City Council paying to rent a building to house its library.

 

[Sheldon]

13 hours ago, Clinton Baptiste said:

RIP Henry Bloom Noble.

Council egos have trumped your fine contributions to the Victorian city in the last 150 years. Coming next the similarly communist sounding Douglas Council Upper Douglas Park & Leisure Facility and the Douglas City Hospital 

As others have said, the signage is in a pretty poor state and needs replacing anyway. 

I console myself with the thought that the rebranded sign can't be any worse than the current one, which looks like it was designed in a competition by colour blind Year 1 primary school pupils using the only two crayons left in the box. Does anyone know who has designed its replacement? 

[Manx Bean]

5 minutes ago, Sheldon said:

As others have said, the signage is in a pretty poor state and needs replacing anyway. 

I console myself with the thought that the rebranded sign can't be any worse than the current one, which looks like it was designed in a competition by colour blind Year 1 primary school pupils using the only two crayons left in the box. Does anyone know who has designed its replacement? 

But £9k though? Really? Are they flying fucking Taylor Swift over to design it or something? They cut bin collections to save money then spunk thousands on a pointless exercise like this? 

[Sheldon]

1 hour ago, FANDL said:

If Mr John Skinner has indeed received (or witnessed) threats via email then hopefully this is a matter that will be investigated by the police ASAP

Calling somebody an imbecile is not a threat. It might potentially be defamation (unless, of course, they are in fact an actual imbecile.)

[Sheldon]

2 minutes ago, Manx Bean said:

But £9k though? Really? 

That's sort of where my leading question was heading. Despite the impression given by the current logo, these things don't just design themselves.

[Manx Bean]

13 minutes ago, Sheldon said:

That's sort of where my leading question was heading. Despite the impression given by the current logo, these things don't just design themselves.

Maybe someone should ask how much has already been spent on replacing the word Town to City so far on everything else? I notice even the Town Hall is now called the City Hall..signage, stationery etc..

 

Rather than improving the standing and visitor appeal of Douglas, this city status bullshit just seems to have cost the ratepayers a packet!

Edited August 15 by Manx Bean

[FANDL]

17 minutes ago, Sheldon said:

Calling somebody an imbecile is not a threat. It might potentially be defamation (unless, of course, they are in fact an actual imbecile.)

It’s strange this one. It looks like there was an earlier version of that Manx Radio story which inferred/implied more serious threats were issued. But the story seems to have kept its original publishing date despite what look like changed wording. Which is why the text on the above was changed after it was posted. Might have a look on way back machine or some other cashe. 

If he’s had threats (ie, emails he has found directly threatening) that isn’t pleasant though and presumably that should be a matter for the police. 

[The Bastard]

Death threats are clearly unacceptable (if they happened), that's nuts and must be very hard to deal with. 

As Albert points out, people are emotional creatures, and reactions to mundane things that are handled badly can be extreme and unpredictable. Change needs to be thought about carefully and communicated well, or emotive thinking will take control. In any scenario it's a mistake to build a pattern of rushing in unpopular decisions with poor communication and then complaining about extreme reactions.

If you get a bad reaction from a significant sector of the population just by the way you introduce high-profile changes, there are going to be substance abusers and those with mental health issues that are going to react in a psychotic, extreme way. That doesn't mean that you should write off any criticism as psychotic and extreme. 

[Amadeus]

1 hour ago, WTF said:

by reclassifying douglas to a city it adds 1 inch to the penises of council members

I'm tempted to make a light-hearted joke here, but for various reasons that I won't share here (yet...) I won't.

As for the renaming, the first question in committee was of course if HBN initially paid for the library, which he didn't. As the leader explained in a media interview, it was named after him after the idea of a statue was declined due to cost by the council members back then. You could say it’s getting its original name back, as it was the Town Library before, and now it's the City Library. What good is having the City status if we don't use it and proudly celebrate the fact that the Queen gave it to us? I really loved how Councillor Clague spoke about it in the chamber yesterday and he was spot on when he said it's about progress. Yes, Noble gave much to the island, but he was also a shrewd businessman and some things he did are sometimes overlooked in the glare of his charitable giving.

The library does so much more than lend out books these days and the rebrand gives them an opportunity to better highlight all the other services they offer. Services that have direct positive effects on the lives of island residents. The place and the team running it are huge assets not just to the city. The signage needed changing anyway and, according to the mayor's post on social media and my understanding as well, there's a chance most of the cost will be footed by the insurance due to the previous issues on the building.

I know it's (maybe more than) a running joke that the island doesn't do change, but a little bit of it here and there is a good thing. Helps us to move forward. Look and feel more modern. People sometimes say Douglas feels old and neglected (which I disagree with), but when we try and change it, it's often hit with disapproval as well. We are selling the island worldwide as a progressive, modern place to do business, and little steps like this help, so the look matches the words. It’s a pretty cool story when you can tell people that the Queen made us a city and the Pope gave us a cathedral. Helps to sell the place and makes us stand out against increasingly stiff global competition (not just in eGaming, where other jurisdictions are growing much faster than we are, and credibility is often an important factor).

I initially wasn’t planning on attending yesterday’s meeting but I’m glad I did. Not only did I get to quote Arnold Schwarzenegger in the chamber, but I also learned people care more about books than bins, and I think we made a good decision that I stand by. As the old saying goes, any publicity is good publicity, and now that I have your attention, why not check out the library and see what they offer?  https://douglaslibrary.im/

 

 

 

[piebaps]

8 minutes ago, Amadeus said:

why not check out the library and see what they offer?  https://douglaslibrary.im/

Its open for your convenience once a fortnight🤣

[The Bastard]

19 minutes ago, Amadeus said:

Not only did I get to quote Arnold Schwarzenegger in the chamber, but I also learned people care more about books than bins

Perhaps it's a learning point - how did a minor rebranding escalate to the point where it attracted more criticism than bin collections, which are always the thorn in the side for local authorities ? Do you think there was anything that could have been handled better ?

[WTF]

24 minutes ago, Amadeus said:

I'm tempted to make a light-hearted joke here, but for various reasons that I won't share here (yet...) I won't.

were you going to suggest it would double the length for some people ??  i left that bit off for someone else to come up with................................................................

[FANDL]

1 hour ago, The Bastard said:

Death threats are clearly unacceptable (if they happened), that's nuts and must be very hard to deal with. 

Knew an internet cache version would be out there somewhere. The original MR report did clearly say “death threats” had been issued against DBC members over a library change. Which is likely a very spurious claim from the usual sources who seem to like to play the victim which is why MR have secretly changed the original report but left the original publishing date up. Original report filed at 6:29 this morning (and cashed by Google) shown in clip. 

Edited August 15 by FANDL

[Amadeus]

55 minutes ago, The Bastard said:

Perhaps it's a learning point - how did a minor rebranding escalate to the point where it attracted more criticism than bin collections, which are always the thorn in the side for local authorities ? Do you think there was anything that could have been handled better ?

Yes, but what we can do is limited, especially if the media continues to report these things the way they do. Clicks are more important than background and facts. That's a general trend I guess.

[La Colombe]

Ooh! A squirrel!