Tuesday, May 20, 2008

muddled thoughts on local govt

I appreciate Council providing an outlet for people to express their views for and against the preferred alternative of the water plan. In the end, I hope we can move forward with an elongated time line for the preferred alternative and determine whether dredging options are actually cheaper.

Kevin Lynch makes a good point- one which I am unable to refute- Council approved of this plan because they were repeatedly told the dredging options were prohibitively expensive (and it was too difficult to get rid of the material, hence the expense). Turns out the dredging options may not have been so expensive.

When one doesnt have the accurate facts its impossible to make an appropriate decision. This city is blessed with wonderfully smart people- yet we cant agree on what facts to use? Mayor Norris is correct, we must compare apples to apples with this water supply mess.

At the same time when do we as a community decide?

When do we decide on the MeadowCreek PKWY? Did we already decide? It's just not clear based on the recent decisions. Also what about the neighborhood appeal of the BAR Fried decision? When will there be a decision on it?

Recently sidewalks were constructed on Calhoun Street. The neighborhood is very grateful- but when was that decided and how? For example, how should other neighborhoods go about getting additional sidewalks in their neighborhoods (ps- why are any streets in cville being built without sidewalks? all new streets should be required to have sidewalks)? Last time a remarkably similar issue was before Council, Council opted not to take any action- yet less than a year later there are new sidewalks? Thank you, but how can we replicate the process if there is no apparent process?

Leadership means making hard decisions, even unpopular decisions. I believe the Councilors are being purposefully deliberative so that they can have all the information to make the decision. I hope they have the information to make a decision on June 2.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sen. Obama is simply unelectable.
It would be helpful for anyone who doubts this hypothesis to read “Vote by Numbers” column by an astrophysicist named Neil DeGrasse Tyson on 6-6-08 in the New York Times.
“If the general election were held today, Barack Obama would lose to John McCain, while Mr. McCain would lose to Mrs. Clinton. This conclusion comes not from wishful thinking but from a new method of analysis of statistics of polls that has been accepted for publication in the journal of Mathematical and Computer Modeling. The authors, J. Richard Gott III, a professor at Princeton and Wes Colley, a researcher at the University at Alabama in Huntsville, are not politicians. They are astrophysicists. And one of the tasks of scientists is to clarify the apparent complexity of the universe by using the language of mathematics… ”
I don’t think we needed a these scientists to tell us what’s going to happen in November. This situation is very clear to most of us. For most Clinton supporters what happened at the Democratic Presidential Primary race was a true tragedy for Sen. Hillary Clinton and they know it was even a greater tragedy for America if not for the entire world. The Democratic super-delegates have abandoned their role as party leaders, for the purpose they were exactly created for. They were paralyzed and dysfunctional lot, most of them without a backbone, full of sentimentalities, various kinds of social and cultural justifications but unsuited make tough decisions that our country needs. You saw them in session in Washington DC trying to decide what to do with Florida and Michigan, last weekend. Did you ask yourself the question, are these are the cream of sum-collective of our political leadership of the Democratic Party? Not being able to vote against Sen. Barack Obama─ afraid it would be considered “racist” ─Democratic Party leaders and super-delegates have let unelectable Sen. Obama as their party’s nominee. But this is unfortunate because Sen. Obama can’t win against Sen. John McCain. We all knew that. Sen. Obama’s base of support is too narrow, having won most of delegates through caucus states. Not having won a single major state and not being able to get the support of wide segments of voters Sen. Obama is simply unelectable. The Democratic Super-delegates with the helped the American media are electing Sen. John McCain as our next president. Now the media is full of flattery for Sen. Clinton. Remember in 2000 before the media delivered us the disaster known as George Bush that Al Gore should concede by doing the “noble thing!” We can look forward to a George Bush’s third term in November 08. Get used to it. Get used to saying “President John McCain!”

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