Let me reiterate something that has already been mentioned on the
List, in fact mentioned many times in different contexts, and that is
that involving oneself in NRP meetings can be time-consuming,
frustrating and inexpressibly tedious. It has occurred to me at
moments in these meetings when I find myself staring at the ceiling
and wishing I were somewhere -- anywhere -- else, that it's all part
of Bob Miller's strategy to keep Northern Europeans in the driver's
seat. But then I come to myself and realize for the umpteenth time
that neither Bob nor the NRP is to blame and that Sartre was right:
Hell is other people [mostly one's neighbors].
On a serious note, surely Brother James Graham is correct when he
says the NRP in Phillips cannot plausibly be accused of racism.
Stupidity, yes. Venality, perhaps. Ethnocentrism, to be sure. But not
racism (or at least not the variety we're accustomed to thinking
about). Minorities were far too intimately involved in the
decision-making process that led to the disbursement of Phillips' $18
million in Phase One to sustain the argument that the process
intentionally advantaged Caucasians. In fact, minorities were
disproportionately the beneficiaries of programs
sustained by NRP monies (which was entirely as it should have been.) I
do not share Brother James' contempt for statistics, and I do accept
the validity of Greg Luce's numbers which go to show that in some
neighborhoods (doubtless predominantly Caucasian) most NRP funds went
to housing programs. But Phillips' numbers were not provided by Greg,
and it is about Phillips that I am mostly concerned.
I'm not sure I have any answers for folks who feel that the NRP
has, wittingly or otherwise, excluded minorities. It may be that in
more affluent neighborhoods where education and professional
experience equip people to deal with NRP's bureaucratic requirements,
and where conciliation and compromise aren't viewed as selling out,
Caucasian interests do drive the process. But that isn't true of
Phillips, nor would I wish that it were. Here's an anecdote from the
neighborhood's Midtown region, where I live. We have an NRP Land
Use Committee that is currently developing a comprehensive plan. Last
week, Antonio Roselle and his staff distributed leaflets throughout
the region advising that a meeting on the land use issue was to take
place at Andersen Schools. The sign-in sheets show that more than 125
people came to the meeting, at least 75 of whom were Latino.
There's no dispute in Midtown now about who's going to run the NRP in
Phase Two. Here's a hint: It ain't the Caucasians.
Paul Weir
Phillips
