[Mpls] 'Citizen Participation' still a myth; 'Activist Participation' not a myth

[wmmarks]

Barbara Lickness wrote:

>David - It is much easier to do nothing and sit back
>and criticize those who are. You know, the old arm
>chair quarterback thing. Peace.
>  
>
Oh, stop. It was ever thus.

The NRP has been less than perfect, their record is spotty in organizing 
who showed up to make the decisions. (Unexpectedly, Phillips did a 
fairly good job of getting people from all walks of life within their 
boundaries to show up. Good on them. Not to say that others didn't, but 
Phillips stands out on the south side to me.) That they couldn't 
continue that level of organizing push for ten years running should not 
surprise anyone. That's a lot to ask of humans.

The whole point of the NRP, originally, was to organize neighborhoods to 
address those issues ignored, undefended, underfunded, neglected, and 
screwed up by successive powers-that-be for thirty years and by an 
expensive and long-winded focus on the downtown of Mpls. There was a 
built-in tension between departments of the city and the populace, 
particularly in the nine worst-rated neighborhoods where the work would 
be most difficult. The stipends issued were connected largely to the 
housing stock and other infrastructural decline as a result of those 
same powers. I don't believe that Mr. Green takes those tensions into 
account.

At the same time, activists really are those people who have the time to 
devote to showing up for a zillion meetings, three times that many phone 
calls, and the rape and rapine of several forests for miles of paper.

Face it, democracy is labor and resource intensive. Some folks will not 
commit to that much palaver (or submit to it). Others will commit only 
so long, then they walk away from fatigue, not wanting to die with their 
boots on, so to speak. There is a sort of Shakespearean inevitability 
about it--last one left standing "wins."

The last one standing, in a protracted engagement, is sometimes the most 
doggedly bovine.

>WizardMarks, Central
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