If you were to line up all the causes I wish I could support more, Homelessness comes to the front.  It’s not that I think it is more or less worthy than others, but it feels like something we should be able to make more progress against.

Every time I go into my neighborhood QFC, I pass between 1 and 3 homeless people asking for money.  One man stands at the front of the store with a “Homeless Vet” sign, one woman sits across the street by the parking lot and occasionally there is a representative from “Real Change.” Clearly, we can do better than this as a society.

Now, there are a couple of problems that we all face.  If we write big checks to a charity that helps with homelessness, we don’t know where the money goes and if it is being used to help people get out of their situation or just make their situation more tolerable.  If you give money directly to a person, you don’t know if they’ll spend it down the street at 7-11 on a bottle of Boone’s.

So here’s my dumb idea that will likely offend a bunch of people.

I would like to try to focus some efforts on the homeless who are closest to climb their way out.  The  people who have cleaned themselves up, paid their debts to society or taken other steps to get back to a position where they can succeed.  There are plenty of people who just need that little burst of cash to get the first and last months rent, a nice set of clothes, a moped or bus pas, or whatever is keeping them just 1-2 degrees from that point.

So how do we do this? I’d like to propose a kind of combination of Anonymous LinkedIn and Kickstarter managed by some reputable organization.  In this system, i could look at the anonymous profiles of  everyone who is applying for personal donations and what they will be need the money for.  They set personal goals and achievements that they need to hit.  With each success, they get closer to collecting their donation from me and the others who are rooting / supporting them.  The reputable organization then makes the purchase of the apartment, clothes, car, whatever on behalf of the client.

So in a nutshell – the homeless person “earns” the money they need by achieving some set of goals and objectives, people like us get to choose the unnamed profiles we want to support based on our preference, and there is a group in between making sure everyone stays anonymous in the process.

I can already hear the 100 reasons this is unfair to a whole set of people and not a solution to a massive problem.  But I’m not trying to boil the entire ocean here.  I’m just trying to help a few people out.  Anyway, that’s my latest dumb idea.

I couldn’t resist.  I needed to check out the Town Hall meeting to discuss the SODO Arena Proposal.  I had no idea what to expect.

The Town Hall was hosted by King County Councilmember Bob Ferguson, and Seattle City Councilmember Mike O’Brien. I don’t have any previous knowledge of these two gentlemen, so I was able to enter this with an open mind.

In a word, the event was fascinating.  I now understand why so many dumb decisions get made in City Council.  You see, there are a lot of very old, very opinionated, very uninformed people who attend these meetings as a hobby.  They have the ear of the Councilmembers.  They ask questions  that are irrelevant, obtuse, confusing and just plain non-sensical. But they show up, and their voice gets heard over silent oppositon and common sense.

However, this Town Hall was filled with 150-200 Pro-Arena supporters (to go along with maybe 50-75 against).  And thanks to Sports Radio KJR, 710Sports.com, and SportsPressNW.com informing their listeners and readers with intelligent facts and data over the last few months, the Pro-Arena members of the crowd came across way more informed, way more intelligent and way more reasonable than those against it.  In some circumstances you expected the Anti-Arena person with the microphone to follow up with, “And how do we know they REALLY landed on the moon? Were you there to see it?”

That being said, it’s clear that while the arguments against the proposal aren’t 100% sound, they are loud enough to potentially kill the deal.  And with the Seattle Mariners, Seattle Times, and Port of Seattle working as hard as they can to stop it, you can’t just assume the deal will get passed because it makes sense.  There are clearly a lot of politics in the way. If you care at all, I urge you to attend the important meeting on July 19.

But I’m not an opinion writer and I’m not an expert on this subject. so I tried as best I could to transcribe the 26 questions that the crowd was able to ask Councilmembers Ferguson and O’Brien.  And I will say I was quite impressed with the two of them.  I thought they were reasonable, well informed and bright.

I captured the main points and tried to stay unbiased in my transcription.  I couldn’t keep track of which questions Ferguson was answering and which ones O’Brien was handling, so their replies are just mashed together.  Here are all the questions and answers they went thru in about 70 minutes, in order:

1. What is wrong with the Key Arena? Why would we build a new arena in an industrial area?
The Key Arena doesn’t work for NBA basketball.  It also doesn’t work for concerts. The proposal is to build a new arena in the stadium district. We do have to look at what effect that will have on our industrial area.

2. So is this deal for a stadium in SoDo or nothing?
For this proposal, yes. Chris Hansen has made it clear he’s not interested in building anywhere else.

3. Have the football and baseball stadiums worked out?
Yes (applause). However, we will have to ask, “Does the stadium reach a tipping point?”

4. Is 18,000 people at night a real traffic issue?
We’re analyzing. Independent reviews are being done to make decision based on data.

5. I’m not a sports fan, but why can’t you use the same footprint of the KeyArena?  We could bore straight down and dig out the ground and go as deep as you wanted to. (Crowd: murmurs and disbelief)
People at city have looked at this.  Not viable according to experts. I’m not an expert so I will have to rely on what the experts say.

6. Initiative I-91 passed to make sure we have no new taxes on sports arenas.  Also, how will you backfill the lack of events at Key Arena if a new arena is built?
The City operates Key Arena at break even.  We already wonder how long we will be able to continue to do so without giant improvements.  We don’t have a plan to support those kind of improvements.  This arena plan is also to support Key Arena.  If Seattle is awarded an NBA team, it would need to play for 3 years in an improved Key Arena while new arena is being built.  Mr. Hansen has committed to making improvements to Key Arena in this case, and those improvements would remain after the team moved to the new arena.

7. How can you submit to this kind of blackmail from a private property owner when the Port of Seattle is so important to us? (Crowd venomously boos this older woman.)
I hear your point on port.  This is not blackmail, its a choice.  Reasonable minds can disagree.  The Port’s point is important.  Reviews will be done, traffic and economic impacts. This isn’t an either/ or situation.  We are hoping to get data to figure out how to make it additive.

8. I am a Building trades member. I’ve heard that port will stay quiet if they get their overpass built. It’s them doing the blackmailing.  (applause)
We are all working on the (Lander St.) overpass issue.  It would cost $200m to build.  Mr. Hansen understandably doesn’t want to pay for it. If the Lander St overpass is most important issue, we will look at it. Impact of construction jobs can’t be understated.

9. Can you walk us thru the legal process of the MOU because it suddenly appeared without the knowledge of the public.
2 execs worked with Mr. Hansen and the Council was aware of what was going on. This wasn’t a backroom deal.  The Mayor and the County Exec have the authority to work on this without a committee.  That’s why we elect Execs.

10. A) Can we stop talking about Key Arena? (applause).  B) As someone who lost a job, I understand why the port complained. But traffic studies show there’s no traffic after 4pm.  Why isn’t the port on board with this?
There can be collaboration.  Disagreements now can be healthy and there may be chance to make changes.  Collaboration is taking place.

11. Has anyone seen any data from anywhere that backs up the Port’s claim that jobs would be lost?
(Raucous applause from crowd) No answer. (Note: Every time this question was asked, the Councilmembers tippy-toed around the obvious answer they didn’t want to say out loud.  That answer is – No, there is no data.  The Port is currently scrambling to pull together a report.  According to a source I trust, the port is not exactly nimble, so getting a study together at this kind of pace is causing them all kinds of hassle.)

12. In economic terms the Key Arena is sunk cost.  Key arena can make $1, new arena can make $2 .  Key arena is an asset now.  That property can be made into anything now. But this issue should go away. (No question asked)

13.  The Martin report says east side of port will be rendered useless. (No question asked)

14. How will you protect jobs of current Key Arena employees?
We have to look at how the deal will be set up.  We will look into ways that this is not something that would hurt Key Arena employees.  It makes sense to give Key Arena employees first shot at jobs at new arena.

15. A Sports palace should fund itself.  When the UW wanted us to build them a Sports Palace we voted it down and they got it built with tax dollars anyway. (Note: That statement was incorrect. The UW raised the money themselves.) We shouldn’t raise taxes to build a new sports palace.  When the Panama Canal is expanded, 1/2 the Port’s traffic will disappear.
There should be no absolutes on these issues.  This isn’t a tax it’s a bonding issue. (Note: No one seemed to understand the Panama Canal reference.)

16. Where does the NHL fit in? What are the safeguards if we don’t get an NHL team?
It’s not accurate to say that the arena deal needs the NHL.  Mr. Hansen is focused on NBA. Potential comes down road for NHL. Likely that in the 3 years of arena being built they would pursue a NHL team.

17. Please raise hands because our elderly friends are raising theirs better than us…..  It seems clear that the port is blackmailing us.  They say the arena will cost 100,000 jobs.  Where are they getting these facts?
We shouldn’t speak negatively about port, by insinuating they are blackmailing anyone.  The decision should be grounded in real data. We’re asking for this analysis and won’t consider a deal without seeing this data.

18. Note: Jason Rubenstein then brought the house down with a fantastic monologue filled with facts, figures and emotion that came so fast an furious I couldn’t keep up.  Well done, Jason.  Well done indeed.

19.  I’m hoping the council will consider what jobs will look like in the future arena. I don’t want to lose my family wage job in Key Arena.
The MOU states that jobs in new arena will be family wage jobs. No one is looking to outsource low wage contractors to replace current Key Arena employees.

20. The seawall repair will go to vote in November.  The Kingdome was a perfectly good building  (Crowd laughs in hysterics).  If the seawall needs to go to a public vote, why can the council make the decision on the arena?  After all, a seawall is a necessity, and a stadium is not. (Note: this man was 85 years old, so I don’t want to bash him too hard on the Kingdome comment.)
The Council can issue bonds, which are funds we need to pay back in some way. There’s no revenue model to pay back seawall bonds, so we have to raise taxes to pay it back.  Thus, it has to go to vote. Arena bonds are not reliant on taxes. Now, we do need to make sure we have the security to cover the bonds, but we don’t need tax dollars to pay them back.

21. Is the city evaluating the revenue the right way? The I-91 issue.
Onsite revenues and land value issues are hard to forecast. (I’ll admit I got a little confused at the response.)

22. Port of Seattle is responsible for 194k jobs. They are the widening Panama Canal.  I’m concerned about traffic.
(Note: Both the Councilmembers were perplexed by the non-question / unclear point the person was trying to make here, so they ignored it and moved on. It appears people against the arena are really concerned about this Panama Canal issue.)

23. The Stadium district is in the most transit rich area in the Pacific NW, and the perfect place to move people in and out of a stadium WITHOUT THEIR CARS. What’s the hangup here? (applause)
Relatively few people take mass transit to sporting events. While there is good transit, there will be 6000 cars going to games.  We need to examine the issue carefully.

24. The NBA didn’t treat us well.  How much money does the NBA have and why can’t they put the money up for a new arena?
If you are asking why the NBA won’t build an arena for us, well, that issue really isn’t on the table.  I opposed the last arena deal because all residents of King County would be paying taxes.  This deal is different.  We have plenty of private-public projects. I don’t take absolutes.  I don’t believe there can’t be public involvement in an arena.  There is a significant investment from private citizens in this deal. I am sympathetic to public investment, but there is city by city competition across the country and public investment in stadiums is part of that.  There are things to work on.

25. I live in West Seattle. There is so much construction these days. I can’t get home when I want to. Is a stadium the only thing that can go into the stadium district? Why can’t the stadium go in the Rainier Valley?
This deal is for an arena in the stadium district.  That’s the only place being considered in this proposal.

26. Why is deal different for one team (NBA only) than two teams (NBA and NHL)?
The ownership group is shooting for 2 teams. If they only get one team, then the city and council are only willing to put $125MM in bonds up, not $200MM. We’re hoping to get a win-win here.

Was anyone else there to check it out? Would love to get your slant.

A nod for all you space nerds. Found this at Swiss Miss, a fun site for design related links.

Fantastic tribute from the Webby’s

Well now I get to learn what it’s like to be called names on twitter by the uninformed.

If I was Alannis Morisette, I’d use the word “ironic” to describe the lonely state of poor AndyBoyer.com.  But since I actually understand the definition of the word irony, we’ll won’t give another English major a bloody forehead.

After all, I work for social media firm, am part of a start-up developing a product that makes it EASIER for people to blog, just taught a UW class where I forced students to turn in their assignments on a blog, and now teach a UW class where groups are building socialmedia campaigns for causes – and blog about them.

If there is anyone on the planet who should have an active blog, it’s me.

And yet, here we have what we have.  A lonely, neglected outpost, where 622 former blog posts sit patiently on an island, waiting for the next boat of posts to arrive.  Waiting for anything that will bring more visitors, more people who missed reading them when they were originally published 1, 2, 5 years ago.  Just sitting here…waiting.

I mean, there was activity here.  We used to rail on Clay Bennett here.  We had goals of coming up on search engines for the term “Nick Licata.”  The blog may not have had aim, or a real direction, or heck, even a long-term goal.  But at least we had consistent content.  And every once in a while, it was funny.

So what’s the deal?

Well I have new respect for all the professional bloggers out there publishing non-stop.  How do you guys do it? I write all day, and then I get home and see more stuff I have to write, and then I finally look at my notes of stuff I want to blog about, sit down at my laptop ready to hack away, and ask myself, “I DVR’d Mad Men didn’t I?”

I’m going to partially blame Twitter for this.  Before, if someone like the Mariners wanted to do something incredibly stupid that I wanted to take issue with, I needed to come over to my little .com outpost here and raise my tin cup disguised as a bull horn and start shouting.  Now, I can condense that thought into 140 characters and shoot it out via the FailWhale Telegraph and get immediate gratification with a Retweet or response.

So yes, I’m blaming my blogging drought on a combination of lack of time, excess writing, and Twitter.  And Yuniesky Betancourt.  I’m not sure why, but I think it’s his fault somehow.

But fear not.  I still have had plenty of issues that I want to vent about, including but not limited to:

• The Washington State Republican Party selling my email address to Rick Santorum’s campaign.
• The U.S. not qualifying for the Olympics in soccer.
• The real meaning of Lost (the TV show). (I finally watched it on Netflix – another reason I didn’t have time to blog.)
• Yahoo’s ridiculous patent suits and why that desperate attempt at maintaining relevance could have screwed a lot of people not responsible for Yahoo’s gross business negligence.
• The Maloof (Malouf?) Brothers.
• And more.

Soon, this little piece of online real estate will become interesting again.  Hang tight.

It’s been a busy month over here as I share time on the UW, Social3i and the upcoming Private Beta of Relaborate.  Now, it may seem like I haven’t been writing anything.  But actually I’ve been producing more content.  It’s just hidden over at the unpublished Relaborate blog as we work on getting the product ready for prime time.

But I’ll be at MarketMix 2012 today, showing a little sneak peek at what Relaborate has to offer – and more importantly – how we decided to go forth with the product in the first place.  So come say hi if you are at the event.

And thanks to the folks from NWEN for the invite to join their panel.  If you have an idea that you want to pursue, there’s no better organization than NWEN to help you get it off the ground.

Wanted to pass this along this email from the U-District Food Bank.

>>

Hey Food Bank Supporters,

I’m pleased to let you know that the 10th annual Neighborhood Grills benefit dinner for the University District Food Bank is happening, Wednesday, February 8th from 5 PM to 10 PM at Eastlake Bar & Grill and Greenlake Bar & Grill.

It’s the same format as previous years. Go out to dinner at either Greenlake Bar & Grill orEastlake Bar & Grill on the 8th of February and at the minimum 50% of the cost of your bill will be donated to the Food Bank. Order off the special menu and 66% of your meal cost will be donated to the Food Bank!

Our monetary goal for the evening is to raise $6,000. That’s essentially 50% of our food purchasing budget for the month of February.

If you are unable to attend the benefit dinner please consider making a donation of at least $10 towards our February food purchases. You can make a donation to the Food Bank from our web page – http://www.udistrictfoodbank.org/donate.php.

2011 was our busiest year on record – 55,000 customer visits and 2.3 million pounds of food distributed. Thanks to our community of support we continue to meet the increased demand for our services. It’s truly appreciated!

Please feel free to contact me for a tour of the Food Bank. I’m always happy to show donors their donation dollars at work.

What: 10th annual Neighborhood Grills Benefit Dinner for the University District Food Bank.
Where: Eastlake Bar & Grill (2947 Eastlake Avenue East Seattle) or Greenlake Bar & Grill (7200 E. Greenlake Drive North).
When: Wednesday, February 8th, 5PM to 10 PM.
Why: Raise $6,000 towards our February food purchases.
How: At least 50% of meal cost (66% if you order off special menu) will be donated to the University District Food Bank

All the best.

Sincerely,

Paul Yunker
Development Director
University District Food Bank

>>

So I’ll admit, content generation on AndyBoyer.com has been a little less than satisfactory lately.  One reason for this is the time I am enjoying being back at school.

No, I’m not back for a new degree, but instead I’m teaching Marketing 555 at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business.  And while I haven’t been able to post too much content here lately, I’m excited to point you to a resource that should please anyone who likes marketing and startups.

I encourage you to take a quick peek over at the MKTG 555 Blog, where 60 of the brightest minds in Seattle are contributing their thoughts on startups, entrepreneurship and marketing, on a regular basis.  The blog boasts about 150 pieces of content now, so there’s surely something there to pique your interest.

Not to fear, I’ll ramp back up the volume here soon, mostly thanks to Relaborate – which is almost ready for it’s public debut. But until then, feel free to check out the thoughts and ideas of Seattle’s future entrepreneurs.

Digital Buzz Blog is one of my favorite reads.  And they recently posted some stats which I believe came from Media Bistro.  Now, after you read the stats below, I’m going to give them to you in the exact opposite way.  Tell me if any of the story seems any different.

Version 1:

It was a huge year for Social Media and here is a great infographic that rounds up the key Social Media Statistics to kickoff 2012. It’s pretty impressive to see that Facebook has grown to more than 800 million active users, adding more than 200 million in a single year. Twitter now has 100 million active users and LinkedIn has over 64 million users in North America alone.

A few interesting take outs for social media statistics in 2012:

Facebook Statistics 2012:

• An average Facebook user has 130 friends and likes 80 pages
• 56% of consumer say that they are more likely recommend a brand after becoming a fan
• Each week on Facebook more than 3.5 billion pieces of content are shared

Twitter Statistics 2012:

• 34% of marketers have generated leads using Twitter
• 55% of Twitter users access the platform via their mobile

General Social Media Statistics 2012:

• 30% of B2B marketers are spending million of dollars each year on social media marketing
• Nearly 30% of these users are not tracking the impact of this marketing
• 20% of Google searches each day have never been searched for before
• Out of the 6 billion people on the planet 4.8 billion have a mobile and only 4.2 billion own a toothbrush

Facebook Statistics 2012:

• An average Facebook user is only connected to 130 of the people in their rolodex, address book, company phone tree and email database, and are only fans of 80 of the brands which they purchase or evaluate
• 44% of consumers say that they are NOT more likely recommend a brand after becoming a Facebook fan
• There are roughly 800 Million Facebook users, and each week on Facebook more than 3.5 billion pieces of content are shared, meaning the average person shares just 4 pieces of content per week.  With 1 out of every 7 online minutes spent on Facebook, lots of people are lurking but not sharing. 

Twitter Statistics 2012:

• 66% of marketers have NOT generated leads using Twitter
• Almost half  (45%) of Twitter users cannot access the platform via their mobile, and are limited to using it on their personal computer.

General Social Media Statistics 2012:

• 70% of B2B marketers are spending LESS THAN a million dollars each year on social media marketing
• 80% of Google searches each day are repeat searches

Complete Infographic can be found here: