While I think that city wide planning meetings are sort of a cool idea and I would certainly be interested in participation I do not believe they will ever achieve the efficiency and success of NRP. NRP works as well as it does, in some measure, because everyone knows exactly what is being discussed and have probably actually thought about it for a long time. It is very local and very focused on the specific project. i.e. reverse the stop sign at 36 Ave and 32nd. St. That level of knowledge is not going to work city wide. Our experience at LCC is that it works very well at neighborhood level and pretty well at the community level. Once people get more than one neighborhood away from the project the level of interest and knowledge drop off pretty steeply. If you want city planning to work as well as NRP then you will have to work more with the community groups, much like city planning did in the late 70's with the planning districts. The development of the "City Plan for the 80's" was done with a lot of community input, but it was still mostly city directed. I think the neighborhood groups would do a much better job today, the level of sophistication is much much greater now than it was then and the neighborhood groups have access to a much greater array of professionals than they did in 1980.
I do not think the "Plan for the 80's" was ever officially adopted. It was submitted to the Met. Council, but seems to me the city then sort of discarded it. We then went through a decade of council spending on downtown and finally with NRP were the community needs, expressed 10 years earlier, addressed in any significant way. In all the "Plans" since then the neighborhood people have had to come to "central" locations to comment on what was essentially a city produced plan. Longfellow had a statement in their community plan to "clean up the Mississippi for water-skiing ( we were not even asking for swimming quality water) and we were told by our council person that it was too controversial and had to come out. I think that might not happen today. > Once we bring in experts to answer our questions, then we become simply an > audience, not a participating body. Let's get citizens discussing and > brainstorming ideas and solutions! At least that's what seems to work within > our neighborhood association... sometimes with angst, other times with > humor... and usually with good results. > > Wendy Introwitz Pareene >> From: Jim Mork [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > >> You know, you may have something there. HOWEVER, I think I have a better >> model. The Westminster Presbyterian Church downtown invites in experts in >> various arias, and anyone can come. There is an opening statement on the >> topic, and then yellow cards are collected with the expert to answer. I've >> really liked the ones I've gone to. Maybe that's a model for NROP "citizen >> involvement" or even "citizen involvement" with a broader swath of local >> government. >> -------------- >> Jim Mork--Cooper >>> The way to get the whole city involved (or those who care) is to hold >>> citizen forums at the Target Center on a series of weekend afternoons and 1 >>> evening per month (to give a couple time slot options to fit into people's >>> schedules) and set up a few mics for citizen ideas, comments and questions. >>> Establish operating procedures up front and form committees to explore >>> options. >>> >>> In other words... just do what the neighborhood assns do... on a grand >>> scale. Think Democracy in its purest form! Think ancient Greek forums... >>> except all citizens would be welcome not just the ruling-class males! >>> >>> Wendy Introwitz Pareene >>> Lyndale Resident >>>> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>>> One piece of the discussion -- and the Mayor talked about this-is: >>>> >>>> How can we incorporate the kind of community planning process that happens >>>> in neighborhoods currently on NRP projects into the whole city budget and >>>> agency expenditures? >>>> Scott Vreeland, president of the Seward Neighborhood Group >>>> ---- End Original Message ---- -- DeWayne Townsend 3222 39th Ave. S. Minneapolis, MN 55406 612-724-7010 [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
