« Pasadena and Pomona: Cities Bathed in Smoke | Home | Pasadena’s Housing Primed to Rebound? »
Wake-Up-Call Clangs No More
By Robert C.J. Parry | February 13, 2008
Note: The FC Blog is happy to welcome Robert C.J. Parry as a contributor. He’ll be focusing on Monrovia, along with Frazgo, which will greatly expand our discussion of the city here on the blog.
One of the best local blogs for afflicting the comfortable and needling those in authority, “ Monrovia vs. Mayberry RFD” (aka monroviawakeupcall.blogspot.com) has assumed cyber room temperature. Its content suddenly disappeared at mid-morning Monday, without explanation or salutation.
Run by the anonymous group of posters who collectively identified themselves as “Don Quixote,” MvMRFD had monitored, with detailed updates, two major recent events in the city – the City’s General Plan revisions and the area’s recent gang race war - the latter often with as-it-happens timeliness, querying readers what they knew about sirens and helicopters that darted about the city at a given moment. The blog generally tended to focus more on negatives in a delightfully overall positive town, but gave significant space to my own recent efforts to organize Primrose Avenue residents to fight our traffic problem, as well as plugs for various VFW events I tossed “Don’s” way.
“Don” writes:
The group dissolved after coming to an agreement that the initial objectives of the “wake up call” was met. Specifically, the topic of [calling attention to] the general plan amendments and inadequate support of the Monrovia Police officers and hiding crime by the city was met. The larger ongoing problems of the gangs are outside the original scope and not all members could agree to continue. Others in the community can take on the project of better news reporting and keeping the city officials honest on what is released for general consumption.
It seemed Monday that Don was off tilting with another windmill - the slowly slouching demise of Old Town Monrovia. The final (I think) post mysteriously referred to a couple of Myrtle Avenue businesses who were preparing to close up shop because of the recent gang violence and rising Old Town rents.
But, then, the blog itself closed up instead.
MvMRFD came in for unusually direct criticism from the City, especially PIO Dick Singer who once described it as “the same anonymous local blog that usually gets things wrong” on the City’s “Rumor Control” page. The City never expresses such opinions about any other business (X restaurant has lousy food), and certainly not a Constitutionally protected activity. Of course, given what Frazgo and the Tribune have recently experienced in regard to Singer’s respect for the First Amendment, that slight should probably be regarded less as an outrage and more a badge of honor.
Singer should be congratulated, on the other hand, for actually stating his firmly held view of something, and not dancing around with the bureaucratic obfuscation that marks pretty much everything else he says.
MvMRFD faced the same credibility difficulties that face many anony-blogs, especially because much of what Don posted seemed to come directly from City Hall. Moreover, many the posts referred to slightly conspiratorial events and unquotable sources referring to unmentionable subjects, leading one to scratch one’s had in wonder as to what a given post might really have meant.
None-the-less, it was a great one-stop-shop for Monrovia news not neatly pressed and folded by the City Hall “Ministry of Truth” (a reference to Singer coined by Don). For a Loyal Opposition movement to be effective, it must have leadership that provides a reliable flow of information. Don Quixote, whomever they were, provided exactly that.
Monrovia is a better town for it. That blog will be missed.
Last 5 posts in Main Page
- Feed Portantino's Election Reelection Campaign - July 23rd, 2008
- Alvarez Waterboarded! - July 23rd, 2008
- Morning Linkfest: 7 Reasons to Hate Corporations - July 23rd, 2008
- Even the Cost of Underwear Is Increasing - July 23rd, 2008
- Pasadena Has a New City Clerk - July 23rd, 2008
Topics: Main Page, Media, Monrovia |
February 13th, 2008 at 9:30 am
nice obit. Welcome to the FCBlog…coffee soon?
February 13th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
I discovered Monrovia vs. Mayberry when they linked to my blog. While they definitely needed a good copy editor and were overcome often with hyperbole, I definitely appreciated their points of view (I still think it was just one guy and then that other chick, but if they wanted us to believe legions of writers, that’s cool too). I was really grateful to know what was going on in Monrovia long before our City government thought to disclose information. It was also good to hear a dissenting voice and I will miss their efforts.
I don’t want to speculate, but I hope that they weren’t City employees who got into trouble for running the blog. While I think Monrovia is a fantastic place to live, this latest crisis has shown that we have weaknesses that need to be addressed.
RIP Monrovia Vs. Mayberry RFD