A.J. Colianni says:
"I guess we're all going to settle for
"good enough for now" which by the time
it is finished will be: "Not good enough."
Why can't we go for insanely great?"<
Settling for "good enough" has ever been the answer of the herd. It is what dooms some societies to the dust rather than the stars. We should ever plan for the future rather than today, because the future has a way of becoming today. All we have to do is wait a little while! I-35W south of downtown and merging 62 with I-35 were disasters in planning and criminal in execution because of their lack of "planning". They are examples of "Planning" done by small minds willing to settle for good enough. Those mistakes have cost how much time in man-hours? Have cost how many lives? How many of us have mistakenly taken I-35 at rush hour (or almost any hour now) and after 20 minutes and still not being to Cross-Town thought, "My, isn't this "Good Enough!" Not many I would venture
So do not hesitate so late in the game to offer such advise. And our politicians should still consider it. There will never be the political will to create a LRT down I-35 to Burnsville. Until, and unless, the political pressure from suburban voters is great enough to force suburban legislators to join with "City" representatives to make it happen. We should not stop urging real long-term solutions and better investments of our tax dollars just because the Legislature has just taken an action. Every great mistake has a halfway moment, a split second when it may be recalled and perhaps remedied. Don't we all wish that the design of I-35 from 65th Street to downtown had been changed at the last minute to one that made sense? The "good enough" planning could not stomach a few South Minneapolis opponents and plan for the future, so we settled for "Good Enough" and got the mess we have now.
Trains running downtown are not a new idea. I think we tried them with a streetcar system a hundred years ago. They worked to! The LRT might have screwed up traffic on Hiawatha, but that was because of poor planning, not because it wasn't a good idea. Again planners settled for "good enough". The success of LRT is evident and this should have stretched some small minds at the legislature and maybe that stretch will carry over. Once stretched by a new idea, man's mind never returns to its original dimensions, so I doubt their's will go all the way back.
The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing. Hopefully we can learn from the mistakes of just getting "Good Enough" from our planners and our politicians. We need to shoot for "GREAT" now and then. How much did John Kennedy's drive to reach the moon cost? Now compare that amount to the return on investment (in just tax dollars) the technology to make it happen has given us. I am posting, and you are reading this post, because of a small part of that return from "lunacy" technology.
By the way, (since I am into Saturday "Sermon") the settling for good enough was what lead to inner-city neighborhoods having the crime and blight we now have. It was "good enough" to have better neighborhoods protected. Statistics say it is good enough! Heck, even some police officers say it is good enough (those driving office chairs rather than squad cars). Don't we wish our "Leaders would attempt to have a great city instead of one that is just good enough for their political friends. Remember, the statistical average elevation between someone setting on the roof of the outhouse and someone sitting at the bottom of the hole is someone sitting on the ground. But that does not help the guy in the "Stew". Using statistics to get what is "good enough" is usually means only a smelly situation for a lot of people. Good enough for them might be keeping their nose above it, but they do dream of something better for their children.
Jim Graham,
From the Ventura Village porch steps
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