Michael writes: > Take for instance the current Prospect Park Reallocation. > A number of groups with specific interests sought funds and > by lobbying people of like minds to attend the meeting > they were able to dominate which proposals were considered > and which were not. This is in contrast to representative > democracies where ideally our elected officials try to balance > the needs and conflicting concerns of their constituents.
If I had to choose between special interests lobbying the legislature and neighbors organizing to influence how NRP money is spent, I'll take the neighbors every time. I don't an idealized "no special interests" decision-making body exists in our polity. > What I find most distressing about this process is that my > neighbors care little what means they use as long as > their ends are achieved. I find this kind of "My Piece of > the Pie Politics" to be particularly distasteful. Frankly, I find the demonizing of disagreement to be particularly distasteful. It seems like so much of our civic discussion lately does not recognize legitimate differences of opinion - someone must be corrupt, or selfish. We, on the other hand, are selfless and pure and so much more decent. It's never that WE were simply outvoted by our equally civic-minded fellow citizens. > The fact that > the NRP pits neighbor against neighbor and brings manipulative > politics out of city hall and into our communities is one of > the factors that contributes to making the NRP a very bad thing. Making an important public decision always involves disagreement. This is the real world. In my experience, neighborhood biz is significantly more transparent and less creepy than much of what I've seen covering City Hall. It's nice to imagine a societal decision that doesn't pit someone against someone - but that's rarely how it works. And so often, the ones who criticize genuine differences start from the most adversarial mindset of all. > It might be different if the NRP had some standardized process to > insure that meetings were conducted in a fair and reasonable manner, > but when rules change dynamically from meeting to meeting to benefit > special interests little fairness exists. Ultimately, the NRP > structure insures that small cliques dominate neighborhood decisions, > and the voices of individual residents are drown out in the rush > to grab as much pork as possible. Just curious: how many people were at the Prospect Park meeting the other night? A dozen? Or several hundred involved citizens? As far as a court case, I hope if it's tried and fails, we won't read about the court was illegitimate. David Brauer King Field TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. ________________________________ 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
