Basim makes some good points: the bureaucracy expense in NRP is pretty
substantial, local leadership can be unstable, and mischief originating in
Bob Miller's vicinity is there to be observed. But there are also benefits
to be recognized: NRP neighborhoods can combine in ways that augment and
counterbalance the city's traditional governance system - more hands-on and
more supple than a sometimes distant municipal government. Council members
can be rigid, overbooked, mesmerized by powerful interests and Bob Miller's
activism sometimes "saves the day". We're still tinkering with citizen
participation. My own feeling is that interneighborhood compacts in NRP's
second decade will create irresistable economies of scale.
How about getting rid of the ten planning districts: they've been overtaken
by events. Look at consolidating some NRP, Planning Department and MCDA
functions. The City Coordinator's ofice was demoted in significance and the
City Council absorbed the MHRA/MCDA Board functions some time ago. Why not
streamline some more of these overlapping city-level agency functions? This
is a real option, given the emerging advantage of integrated information
management. Then transfer some human resources from city hall into
functional nexuses - the two Greenways, the Empowerment Zones, and
commercial corridor scenarios come to mind as examples of regional
development interest that don't fit in either the old planning districts or
the balkanized NRP model.
Fred Markus, Horn Terrace, Ward Ten
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