David Brauer wrote:
>Linda Mack has another fine, fine piece about how Block E was
>reconfigured to lose many of its public improvements. (I say this as a
>jealous competitor but grateful citizen.) The story today connects the
>dots on how the city's development system failings allowed Block E's
>foibles to get through.http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/3130390.html
>
As I have listened to builders and repairs of things like buildings,
streets, etc., Mack has accurately described the status quo.
What I have observed, living in different cities across this country, is
that cities do make "reforms" to systems. However, they do not sweep
away the older, underlying forms entirely. Maybe the press of work gets
in the way. The result is that the older the city, the more layered and
convoluted the systems of change become. (Dickens' hilarious
descriptions of the English Court of Chancery come to mind.) My utter
frustration and failure with the Manhattan Island bureaucracy in trying
to get a fence installed on a playing field was the nightmare that
exemplified the status quo to me. The bollux Minneapolis created for
itself when it changed the system for assessing water use is an
outstanding example of failure to forsee a huge snafu. The question
apparently not asked was "What's our fallback position if this doesn't
work?" Or, 'how do we get the bills out next month if we've screwed
something up?'
The other question that comes to mind when thinking of instituting the
changes suggested in the Report is this: if Planning and MCDA are
combined, don't we automatically create a conflict of interest?
WizardMarks, Central
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