I'll mention that in Seward when we wrote our original plan we based much work on ten previous years of development and community activities. Our action groups were attended by about 600 separate folk. Our Kick-Off meeting drew 300. We surveyed 1,200. Our total direct involvement in planning was around 1,000 folks. This in a neighborhood of 7,000 souls. We made special efforts to hear from folks who could not, or did not want to participate in meetings, we reached out to apartment dwellers, seniors, immigrants and other who've been underrepresented in our political arenas.
Of course when you talk about citizens in communal action you will by definition get only a small part of the populace. This does not mean that the decision they make are bad or wrong. We run our governments with much less representation and I don't hear many folks calling for abolition of them.
-Erik (full signature below)
On Feb 16, 2005, at 10:51 PM, Bob Johnson wrote:
[In my post tonight at 22.13.10, references to my 21 Feb 05 post should read 21 Jan 05.]
In a post on 21 Jan 05 titled, "Politicking and the NRP", I wrote:
>NRP has had 15 years to prove its worth. If it is so pacesetting, why >haven't other cities followed suit after 15 years of this experiment.
[Lickness responded on 22 Feb 05]
Other cities in the United States have adopted programs that are like NRP. They just don't call it NRP. The city of Los Angeles for instance credits the birth of it's Neighborhood Development Department to the NRP program in Minneapolis.
[Johnson] I am still waiting for the list of cities other than Los Angeles which have created NRPs or an analog.
And I repeat from my 21 Jan 05 post:
Felien believes "it's the best we have, so far."[Johnson responded]Not so. 15 years of the NRP Experiment have not shown the system still in use in other American cities to be obsolete. What is that other system? It is that of really democratically elected representation, selected at the ballot box, of a City Manager/Mayor, and City Council authorized to prudently expend tax income - now that's real and verifiable citizen participation!
It looks like nobody on this List will defend the miserable situation called 'citizen participation' or 'citizen engagement' in this City.
Bob Johnson Cedar-Riverside West Bank
Earlier that same day Bob Johnson wrote:
[Johnson writes now]
There has been a ZERO response from any neighborhood to my call for such data! I am really not surprised.
Those neighborhood activists know well that they can't prove anything close to even a puny democracy in their """neighborhood decisions""".
The neighborhood activists, who hustle out to neighborhood association
meetings, think they know best for the 99% of residents who aren't there,
viz., the General Bullmoose syndrome.
-- In cooperation,
Erik Riese Seward US@: A great place to live, work, learn, create and play.
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