Gregory Luce wrote: >While the neighborhood reps to the Board are limited by the type of >neighborhood (redirection, protection, revitalization), it's interesting >to note that the representation (including alternates who were also >elected) is predominantly South-centric. More significant is the lack >of real ethnic diversity, both in those elected and those who ran. I >was disappointed to see that a Hmong man from the Jordan neighborhood >did not make it on the Board as a rep from a redirection neighborhood.
>I know NRP faces incredible financial issues in the future. I believe >it also faces incredible representation and diversity issues as well, >particularly in a city that has a number of neighborhoods where the >populace has become or remains a majority of people of color--who are >not truly represented in the NRP system. NRP was rightfully criticized >for this in the evaluation of Phase I, but I'm not seeing active efforts >to change this in Phase II. Sure, it's a difficult road to attract and >engage those who have not participated in the past--but it's that >difficulty that NRP folks, neighborhood reps, and others must pursue if >NRP is to have any future vitality. Maybe that is what is partially >included in Mayor-elect Rybak's 90-day plan to "promote inclusive >involvement in neighborhood-level and citywide planning." I hope it is. Although one goal of the NRP may have been some type of democratic pluralism in which the greatest good is fairly distributed by a reallocation of governmental power, I would have hoped that by now people would have realized that the NRP has simply shifted power from a large municipal bureaucracy to smaller one, and not to the "people." Just as communism was based on an implicit assumption that the goodness of human nature would surface after the end of capitalism oppression, the NRP founders must have assumed that shifting power to the neighborhoods would automatically result in fair, wise, and representative decision making. Unfortunately, unlike the the Framers of the Constitution they failed to account for the propensity of humans to favor selfish personal interests over the general welfare. This reliance on the goodness of human nature and not on a series of checks-and-balances is the NRP's fatal flaw. Let it die its natural death, along with so many other failed social experiments. Michael Atherton Prospect Park _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
