Chris Johnson wrote: If you are talking bigger than the city, then you are also talking about something bigger than NRP, and you are also talking about letting the suburbs decide how we "revitalize" our neighborhoods -- something they pretty much have demonstrated they don't give a whit about.
Me: I'm not talking bigger than anything beyond the size of a planning district within the city. But I'm not advocating we simply adopt existing planning districts, because the decision as to size and whereabouts of districts is one that needs much more discussion, development, and involvement from many folks. One of the best citizen participation groups remains the block group, and that must also be part of the overall equation, as it already exists, is often going strong, and is dang powerful at times. Where I live, it's what I identify most with, and I suspect that's true for many people in both cities. I look at the thing as a continuum with no perfect unit at any level: block to neighborhood to district to city. Within that continuum no perfect unit of citizen participation exists, but I support beefing up that continuum so that whatever 'unit' a resident identifies with he or she finds an outlet for participation, and that would include affinity groups being charged with increasing citizen participation as well. The threat to existing neighborhood nonprofit organizations--i.e., there is no threat to do away with neighborhoods--is the threat to redirect funding, and I acknowledge that it's pretty scary to some organizations and leaders. Lest we also forget, in a remarkably open city like Minneapolis, we still have direct citizen participation. That is, call or meet with your Council Member or lobby the Council directly. I'm constantly surprised how open and available they are for a city of this size. Gregory Luce St. Paul PS: As to Chris Johnson's suggestion of forming a German-American group to, I assume, increase participation of German-Americans in the process--hey, all the power to you. Go for it. But, I bet you'd find a healthy level of participation already of folks with German heritage, who have lived and done well in this city for quite some time. Versuch's doch mal! REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
