Comments on: Spartanburg City Council ‘09: District 4 Candidate Cate Brandt Ryba

By: Steve Shanafelt

Steve Shanafelt — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:45:34 +0000

That site of theirs needs so much work, and on some fairly fundamental stuff. I actually e-mailed them and told them I’d help out, since it’s not really to anyone’s advantage if they go under without a web-based backup. (And, let’s face it, at print runs generally hitting 32 pages, it’s only a matter of time.)

Their Alexa.com rating is like 2 million ranks lower than the Spark’s, and they’re a fully funded regional news site that someone actually designed for money, rather than a glorified, strictly local blog run by volunteers and cobbled together from open-source programs and my own limited web-design knowledge. They really, really need help.

It turns out, however, I had the relevant Spartanburg Journal issue here at my desk, waiting to be read. It’s a profile piece, and it doesn’t address policy or voting insights. It’s not bad on that level at all — Anna B. Mitchell is good at that kind of copy — but it doesn’t really tell you what kind of Mayor either would be.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:36:28 +0000

I guess they don’t post the Spartanburg Journal articles online. But you can pick up a copy at a lot of gas stations or grocery stores. It may not be the most in-depth article but I found it gives some interesting perspectives. Fowler is concerned about people being evicted from homes and the empty storefronts downtown. White wants to continue the positive energy of Barnet, but also says that he is going to rely more on his fellow councilmembers then he believes Barnet has. I also thought it was interesting that Fowler started a program to give kids on the Southside a free book after going to a barber shop and that White has a lot of constituents who want to talk to him about the important stuff–like trash collection.

By: Steve Shanafelt

Steve Shanafelt — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:02:23 +0000

Keep in mind that the SH-J may be holding off on their most focused coverage until the race is a little closer. The election is still more than a month away.

By: JP

JP — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:51:27 +0000

It’s not that good of an article. At least, I hope it’s not the best we hear from these candidates! That’s the main reason I’m looking forward to the interview from this site. If it’s covered like the cadidates for other races, this will be much more in-depth than the Journal article.

Cannot find a link to the Journal article.

By: Steve Shanafelt

Steve Shanafelt — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:27:41 +0000

Do you have a link to it? I can’t find it, and I’d really like for all the voters to have the full set of information from all the sources in the area.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:01:40 +0000

There is a good article interviewing the two mayoral candidates in last week’s Spartanburg Journal weekly.

By: Christopher George

Christopher George — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:25:28 +0000

I was going to do the mayoral candidates this week, and I still may. I’m fighting a pretty nasty cold right now though, so it’ll probably be a little later than I’d planned. I doubt Mike Fowler and Junie White want to be interviewed by a sniveling, disease-ridden journalist who can’t keep the questions straight because he’s high on cough syrup.

I’ll get on it as soon as I’m feeling better.

By: JP

JP — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:40:12 +0000

Agree, this will be very interesting. I am very anxious to hear from the mayoral candidates…will that be coming up this week?

By: Sylvie Galloway

Sylvie Galloway — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:22:00 +0000

Again, nicely done. We have two candidates with different experiences, a similar desire to help serve our city and improve it, yet from what we can read have some different views on how they will approach things.

This may be the most interesting race in the coming election. But we’ve yet to hear from the mayoral candidates. Stay tuned.

By: camelmike

camelmike — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:15:06 +0000

I just want to have power to give back for what I have gotten.

Nice.