Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Gray hairstreak butterfly on grass on August 18, 2009

Please click on image to enlarge view of tiniest variety of gray hairstreak butterfly on a tiny seed portion of grass hanging over the edge of a street near downtown Fayetteville, Arkansas. People who choose to "naturalize" their yards in accordance with a new Fayetteville ordinance would have lots of these this time of summer in Fayetteville. Yes, these are so small their color patterns aren't easy to see without a zoom lens, they are truly magnificent and are a better thing to see in one's yard than a mass of monoculture grass mowed near the ground.

Why hasn't the park department stopped mowing large areas of the city parks as the mayor suggested many months ago. The fuel and labor costs of mowing seriously hurt the park budget in a desperate time.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did Jordan promise something before the campaign that he wouldn't be able to deliver? (native grasses in 4 city parks and minimal mowing all round) Or did he change his mind after the election? I hope you are getting some feedback from the city, Aubrey. Your photos are very fine and revealing.

Anonymous said...

Jordan was pretty cautious about making promises. He promised to listen to and work with everyone. He has repeatedly talked about using native grass and native trees to eliminate mowing in the parks. But the staff hasn't paid attention.
Maybe the ones who are ignoring the boss will resign. The fire chief retired, even though he hasn't disobeyed the mayor. In fact, he appeared to believe in Jordan as the rank and file firefighters did and do. I doubt he was forced out. He may have mishandled the firing of two employees but I doubt he did anything intentionally to flaut the mayor's rules.
Those who ignore Jordan's statements on various subjects of city policy are the ones who ought to resign. They know who they are.

Anonymous said...

Just say it like it is. A lot of employees drank the Coody Koolaid and are still following commands of Coody. Jordan expects people to follow his wishes but doesn't bully them. Some will require direct orders from the boss or many things Jordan expects won't happen.

Anonymous said...

You are suggesting that some employees are still expecting to be bullied into doing the mayor's will and don't know how to respond to requests, suggestions and public statements of what will happen. Zombies need direct orders. Jordan still thinks he is talking to real people, like the people who voted for him.
He may need to be a bit more direct to get things done.

Anonymous said...

Its obvious Mayor Jordan has a different leadership style than his
predecessors and I'd bet he's quite a bit easier to work for. In fact he would probably prefer the phrase to be 'work with'.

By now it should be very clear who among the City employees are capable of working with him and which ones are daring him to take tougher action and confront their insubordination, if that is what in fact is going on.

His department managers are the ones in charge of ensuring that the Mayor's policies are carried out, are they not?

This episode at the Fire Dept. offers a perfect opportunity for leadership at the top to make any needed clarifications system-wide and to start enforcing their mandates. Especially long neglected environmental issues.