Open Letter to Readers

I wanted to spend a moment and offer the following thoughts and disclaimers regarding my participation with Mayor Sam’s Sister City for the record.

1) As of Friday, September 23, 2005, I ceased being associated with Robert Hertzberg or BigIdeas4LA.com. I wish Bob nothing but the best. However, our paths in the road are headed different directions and it is the correct time and place for me to venture on a new road.

2) As for past items I have blogged or written on this site, they were done solely by me WITHOUT Bob’s knowledge. The conspiracy theorists among you will probably choose not to believe that, but it is true, and you can contact him through his website to confirm it. I helped start the Sister City after a very public offer (LA Observed’s post on the issue) to the previous Fourth Floor Blog. I am solely responsible for all of Mayor Frank’s comments and posts. Just for the record, I’d also like to point something out that most naysayers and “professional journos” got wrong. Note the posting times for Mayor Frank in the archives. They don’t overlap with Bob’s campaign for Mayor. It was a nice try though. I pushed content to a blast list including 35 blogs and media outlets during the campaign. Those blogs contain can all vouch for the spam mail sent from me. We even got into public spats (December 5^th, 2004) with our new friends over at Martini Republic over issues.

3) As for Roderick, he just doesn’t like it when he is told his shit stinks like the rest of us. Note his reaction to simple ribbing on Friday with Monday’s personal diatribe towards me. What makes no sense to me is that if I am such a “ juvenile” and the “least professional of the Sister City bloggers,” why the need to call me out the way he did? Why the hostility in the initial outing? The answer is that he realizes that we have honed in on something he once had to himself, but couldn’t handle. And now he actually has competition to call him on it and keep him honest. Can both blogs co-exist? Of course they can. Dgarzila couldn’t have summed it up better. Now Roderick just has to actually source his work and can’t play lord over everyone else. I’m sure the personal attacks will continue towards me and he’ll probably attempt to dance a jig thinking his little stunt on Monday somehow forced this hand, but he is wrong. I took a three week absence from posting on Big Ideas earlier due to personal family reasons, and those reasons still exist today. At some point people just have to choose what matters in life and make choices. Right now, as always, my family wins out.

The Future: Mayor Frank will blog on, so, here is your invite to blog away, and I look forward to continuing the fun.