P4P summit

Well Friday I went to the first annual Pipeline 4 Progress summit. I just wrote about how I’m a sucker for a great title and I’m sorry but this one doesn’t do it for me. Ok I should get all of the bad things out now, ok yeah the title could use some work and that’s pretty much it. I got a new understanding of what young people means, I was a little surprised by how many young people have gray hair but hey the number doesn’t matter so long as your young at heart. Oh god is that ever an overused line, forgive my cheesiness. So a few of the highlights, I got to speak with the new mayor of Elmira, that’s where I live in case you missed that. I’m shockingly impressed. I may have seen the light as to why people always say to think globally and act locally. I’ve talked with congressmen before and its not really a conversation so much as to people talking at each other, usually one at a time, but what one says really has no bearing on how the other person responds, you might as well have a debate with a waterfall you have about the same influence. This guy on the other hand was very personable and very open to suggestions. I don’t think that he is the world greatest person or any thing, what makes it more influential is that he’s a very normal fairly intelligent person. He’s just a guy that got sick of what he saw around him and decided to try to make a difference. That’s always a powerful message. So anyway I think I like the local politics because these folks are newer to the game and so they haven't sold out there souls yet. So any way we have a new mayor and I think he’s going to be a good one. He even set up his own website which I will be joining before the sunsets on this day. Here’s his site and Ill add it to the links.
http://www.johntonello.com/

Ok enough about the new mayor. There was also a lot of talk about how ridiculously cheap housing is around here. There were claims about second lowest east of the Mississippi, now I’m not sure about all that but housing is damn cheap around here. So there are more than a few folks around who think we should try to get artists into the area, loft apartments downtown, things like that to encourage the creative class to move to Elmira.
I want to make a connection with the new mayor of Elmira and see if he can help me a little to get to work on the campaign for Eric Massa. I would like to work on that campaign and having even a foot in the door always helps, maybe the new mayor can be my in. It could also be beneficial to Elmira and its mayor to have a person from here working on the campaign of a representative. Just a few thoughts, anyone from the area I hope you were at the Summit and if not then sign up early for the next event because this is not a one time deal. We will be back there is strength and energy in this group. P4P.