Steve Brandt writes: >"Weiming Lu, recalled, "The highway resources were so strong, with the backing of the federal government, that it was hard to resist." That would change by the 1970s, when the highway planning process began to incorporate citizen review and more formal neighborhood organizations took root."
This would change because people got smarter. They began to realize that not all development was beneficial. The beginnings of the Freeway system took so many years that the public gained, and started to have, very real knowledge of the social damage and cost of such systems. That knowledge began to be applied by the most powerful political force yet to hit the American political world. The BOOMERS! A Doctor Seuss generation brought up to believe they were important and their opinions mattered. Steve Brandt inadvertently makes it sound as if the "powers that be" suddenly decided it would be a good idea to include more citizen input and review into highway planning. Nothing could be further from the truth. After numerous failed Federal projects and the rise of organized opposition, the "powers that be" came to the realization that it was less expensive to fight the battle before the construction, rather than after a project was half finished. The Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Transportation infrastructure had some classic examples of having to fight this battle, and in losing create their own monuments to failure. Teleco Dam, and the Freeway through the San Francisco Fisherman's Warf are two impressive examples of the cost of not considering public protest and organizing before the construction begins. In the private sector the "Sterns County Powerline Wars" are another. Billions of dollars were wasted because the "powers that be" attempted to ignore the public and put in whatever construction they wished, wherever they wanted it. The Baby-Boomers with the rights they felt were their due, their social activism, and the very real voting power they controlled made citizen participation a reality. It was not benevolence from elected and appointed officials. Many of the planned freeways have been stopped since that time. They were stopped not because they were too harmful, (Which is true), but because they could not be pushed through without overwhelming economic and political costs. The Federal Government recognized this fact in the late sixties and implemented such "Citizen Input" changes. The State, the County, and the City of Minneapolis have not yet fully come to grips with this fact. Federal Lawsuits are pending because the City of Minneapolis has not learned such. The Coalition of Impacted Neighborhoods, whether you support it or not, is a symptom of Minneapolis' failure to fully comprehend that 30 year old fact. The Phillips Garbage Transfer Station was a failure of the County to appreciate this fact. Our local units of government should no longer be able to site facilities in communities if those facilities are unwanted by that community. It is just too expensive and wastes precious resources at a criminal level. It is also just plain damn poor planning. The fight continues. The attempts at consolidating NRP and Planning decisions downtown are the last vestige of a dead system attempting to reserve to itself some of that lost power. It is a bit like the Pope becoming "infallible" in the last half of the 1800's, just when nothing, but the Vatican, was left of the Holy Roman Empire. The last general elections, and the special election of Don Samuels, are symptoms of this new political evolution; where those politicians viewed as having neighborhood and community ties won. Some running on such commitments changed, after being elected; to the opinion they had won because of some mythical "anointing", but most realize the source of their success. Those that have community connections win, those who have "power" connections have a hard fight. Just a side bar, Weiming Lu was ONE of the people who planned and committed to decking some of those freeways. So precious land would be returned to the communities and the City of Minneapolis. It was thought to be the way to correct, and in part mitigate, the overwhelming destruction and harm the Freeways caused to the people and communities of Minneapolis. Minneapolis presently has a deficit. Would anyone care to estimate the tax base value of the Real Estate and housing taken by that freeway system? Would anyone care to estimate the number of housing units taken? We probably would not have either a housing shortage, or a financial shortage, if those were returned and added to the income of Minneapolis. When LGA is talked about at the State, I hope those "State" people might try to remember what "their" freeway system cost Minneapolis. What "their" Hy 55 and LRT system cost Minneapolis. WE REMEMBER! Jim Graham, Ventura Village >"We can only be what we give ourselves the power to be" - A Cherokee Feast of Days >The people are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. >We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. - Thomas Jefferson 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
