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

[gemgram]

I believe Michael Atherton's  problem with NRP stems from his inability to 
convince the folks in his neighborhood that he is smarter than they, and 
thus should let him decide how the program should be run.  I can think of 
one or two others who had the same opinion of NRP after not being given 
their just due as the smarter people who need to be listened to. 
Unfortunately NRP does seem to empower some of these unwashed of mind to 
think they are just as smart as the elite and quite able to decide things 
for themselves.  If the people would only listen more then Michael and 
others might be more in favor of it.

I wonder if Michael feels any cognitive dissonance with some of his 
statements which are sometimes adjoining each other.  In one Michael feels 
that the City Council is wrong headed and unqualified to make decisions 
about smoking bans, and in the very next one states that the people can't be 
trusted to make decisions so we should leave decisions to the elected public 
officials.  Which is it to be?  Should we let these people exclusively make 
decisions for us or not?

I happen to agree with Michael about the ban.  It is an attempt at social 
engineering to please a small but powerful group of people who want only 
there way to prevail without any real concern for public health or property 
rights.  But I also think that what ever number of residents gather to make 
decisions about NRP and their neighborhood they are certainly better able 
(and better qualified) to make such decisions than the thirteen Council 
Members and the Mayor.  Heck most Council Members started out involved with 
NRP and their neighborhoods.  Funny, but most were not even the bright ones, 
or the driving forces, in that process.

Now my opinion on NRP could only be a theory, except for the very real 
experience of the last few years.  NRP has paid huge dividends to 
Minneapolis.  Exactly which "wise" City Council real estate deal has paid as 
well?  Target downtown?  Saks? The Brighton investments? Even Sears?

NRP dollars were the seed for many, many, development projects all over 
Minneapolis.  The Mercado at Bloomington and Lake, the millions of 
investment on Franklin are only two examples. How about the Whittier School, 
early learning centers in many neighborhoods, the renovated parks, the 
Nicolett renovation, and the hundreds of houses that were refurbished and 
the hundreds of homes now owned that were made possible through grants and 
loans from neighborhoods NRP funds?

History has shown the NRP process was not perfect, but that same history has 
shown that NRP is still the best investment of dollars that Minneapolis may 
have ever made.  Even if the neighborhood people were so dumb that they did 
not listen to those like Michael who were smarter than themselves.  Heck, it 
was such a good idea that Mayor RT Rybak promised us all that he would make 
sure it was fully funded in order to get us to vote for him in the last 
election.  Some other Council Members made the same promises to get elected. 
Either NRP is a great idea ,or those politicians can't be trusted to make a 
good decision on it.  So is Michael saying that we should trust their word 
that NRP is great and should be fully funded?

I just can not figure out why a smart fellow like Michael could not have 
organized a few other smart people, like himself, and took over his 
neighborhood's meetings.  Meetings that he claims were so badly attended. It 
seems those FEW dumb neighborhood residents had no trouble running the NRP 
process.  Pretty sneaky of them, don't you think? But it certainly shows the 
real problem with NRP.  Dumb neighborhood residents are so "Empowered" that 
they ban together and don't listen to their superiors about how to spend 
neighborhood money.  They even get empowered enough to think they know 
better than smart people what their neighborhood really needs.

It sounds like the complaint of a group of social service agencies when we 
organized to take over NRP in old Phillips, they complained that we had 
cheated because, "They stacked the neighborhood meetings with residents". 
It sounds like Michael Atherton's real complaint is that the "dumb" citizens 
are participating too much!

Trying to keep up with this anti smoking ban, pro NRP ban, dumb Council, 
smart Council, arguments is starting to make my old head spin.  So, I am 
going to go turn on the history channel and go to sleep. I already know how 
the show ends anyway.

Jim Graham,
sittin on the porch steps in Ventura Village

>"There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into 
>babies and revolution into minds."<