Posts by Brian Chicoine
With the rapid development and all the talk surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI), I wanted to write about the basics. I am still learning and am not a data scientist, but my hope is that I leave you with at least a basic understanding of AI, its history, and the desire to learn more. Because like it or not, AI is here and is already affecting our everyday lives.
The Christmas shopping season is here once again. I personally love finding a gift for the people on my list that is both meaningful and fits their personality, so quite enjoy the shopping element of the holiday. The gifts do not need to be large or expensive, they are simply gifts that are well thought out. I love finding that “one-of-a-kind” gift.
As we approach Thanksgiving, many people focus on travel, food, and football. Others think about – with impending doom I might add – Black Friday and the “crazy holiday season.” Others think about family gatherings – including some in our families who we see once a year and give their bold opinions about religion and politics. Some family members may annoy us and we may annoy them…but we’re family.
I love our city. Sure, it has problems such as addiction and homeless issues. And of course, there is the increasing housing costs, which is not just a Manchester thing, as well as issues that people have with the public schools. Should we be doing more to actually fix the issues instead of hearing elected officials or candidates for public office say that they’ll do something? Yes, we need actual solutions, not just empty promises.
As pretty much everyone knows, over the past several years, we have been experiencing a growing homeless population here in our beloved city. There are of course many reasons why people have taken a liking to Manchester, from access to services to other communities sending their homeless here, because, you know – “not in our backyard.” And it’s happening more than we know. I recently read where a man was sent here to Manchester via taxi because there were no services for him in his home community.
I was checking out the weather forecast the other day and was thinking how just a few weeks ago it was hot and how now we are entering the cooler – and soon the downright cold – time of year (and as most of the readers know from experience…New Hampshire can get cold). This was further reinforced during discussions with some unsheltered folk in Victory Park. These things got me thinking about how we haven’t seen much progress in our city towards helping end homelessness. Those currently without shelter will likely be living outside when we are in the colder months.
Every life has seasons and everyone experiences change. Some change is for the better, and some change is difficult and may result in setbacks. But one thing is for sure…change is inevitable.
Scrolling through my “X” (aka Twitter) and Facebook feeds, I’ve been reading a lot of posts of people commenting about how everything has gone up, especially within the last two or so years, but that individual salaries haven’t gone up. This of course is something that we hear about a lot – cost of living rising but not salaries, at least not at a pace to counter the cost of living increases, and many people do not get an annual Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA).
As I thought about this as well as other institutions and landmarks that have been physically lost and relegated to our memories, I thought about how just having memories doesn’t always serve us well. Unless we step in and save documents, repurpose buildings, or at least share our knowledge with the next generation, the memories will eventually die. I am a firm believer that we need to understand the past to successfully navigate the future so we do not want to lose these things. If we don’t know about the past, we’re likely to repeat the bad.
I was listening to the radio the other day and the song, “The Heat is On” by Glenn Frey came on. Aside from really liking the song – and being instantly transported to a time when my biggest concern was looking cool in my parachute pants as I strutted down the street – I thought about how hot it has been.
Today we are just divided. If I do not agree with you then I’m {insert name here}. Some say that we act like children. I disagree…in my experience, children do not naturally hate and usually do not learn that nasty trait until they are older.
Manchester is distinct in many ways, and it’s that distinctiveness that makes it special. It is my hope that the company selected to develop branding for our city, (North Star Place Branding of Jacksonville, FL), does it justice by not only holding community-wide events, such as the one recently held at the Rex Theatre, but that they actually go into the various neighborhoods to experience our distinctiveness for themselves.
Lately, I have known a few people who have had to utilize the “social safety net” because of sudden job loss or other situations where the ability to afford basic necessities for their families became a major struggle. (It doesn’t help that the cost of living has increased across the board).
I love living in the city because there is always so much to do. And living in the north makes this time of year through the fall an especially great time for us to come out and celebrate at the many events in our city.
Any election cycle in Manchester can be interesting (and for people like me who love this stuff, somewhat exciting) but this year is special. I am not calling this year special because it is the year before state and federal elections (although it will be interesting to see if outgoing Mayor Craig runs for governor and if Governor Sununu runs for president).
Last week I was reading about how a former mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island, is running for the 2024 Republican nomination for president. Within the article were the words “long shot.” So I started thinking about why he was labeled as a long shot. Shouldn’t he have as good of a chance as any to become president of these United States?
Even though vision is free, I do understand that if vision is to become reality, at some point, financial investments will need to be made. While thinking about this, I have come up with some ideas on how projects could be funded. Because I do not believe that the government should be expected to pay for everything, I will be presenting multiple ideas.
Part of what makes a city great in my opinion is the constant motion (or the always present “hustle and bustle” of a city). There is always something going on. In a community, as in a business or in life, I believe that many things can happen at once. So when I hear the comment that we as a city cannot move forward until the issues are resolved, I simply disagree. We cannot miss opportunities because we are blinded by that “one thing” that needs to be resolved.
I believe that we can work on solving the ongoing issues of addiction and homelessness while working on the continued development of our city so that it is an even better place for all. (As a city, we need to be able to do both. Yes, we have issues, but we also have opportunities that should not be overlooked or ignored because we are too focused on solving issues. (Of course, I say this as an optimist).
In honor of the new year, I was going to lay out some things that are done in other cities that may work here, (adapting ideas is a good thing in my opinion). But in light of the recent deaths of two homeless people, I switched gears and am going to write about an issue that is unfortunately as common in Manchester as the day is long.