sirshankalot wrote:Thank you Mr. Bonwich for your repeated cynicism on this board...it accomplishes NOTHING
Well, it's already got one person to take the bait.
I didn't realize that board postings were limited to happythoughts on Pollyannish fantasies like 90-story buildings and giant Ferris wheels.
Perhaps I could have sugar-coated it, but what good would that do? Ask ThreeOneFour, or RBB, or some of the other gristled veterans on this board, about things like St. Louis 2004 and DowntownNow! (and, to an extent, Metropolis) and all the meetings we attended that asked for public input (in the case of 2004, meetings that even were held in St. Chuck and Chesterfield to get buy-in about the future of downtown). This is simply another in a series of repeated incidents where an unaccountable, self-appointed group of "leaders" claim public participation, but already have their own general frameworks set and refuse to even consider options.
My intent was to make all of you who believe in a more participatory, progressive approach uncomfortable, even angry. For many, many years, I've watched as groups of young visionaries have come and gone, each one with really great ideas that were given lip service but then completely ignored.
The
only time I've witnessed "outsiders" (i.e. weren't born here or didn't go to the right high school or don't belong to the correct country club or political party) make even moderate inroads is when they were loud and persistent. (For example, long ago, the VP organization actually got hundreds of thousands of dollars in subsidy from the City. One of those annoying alternative newspapers finally got that practice stopped.)
Dismissing it as "cynicism" simply falls right into the trap. They'll keep doing whatever the hell they please (like holding monthly private meetings at all-white country clubs with absolutely no accountability or transparency to the public) and you'll continue to be marginalized.
