October 3, 2012

City Council Resolution No. 971268. Ring a bell? How about Council Resolution No. 050298? Nothing? Let’s try Resolution No. 47335. Nothing there either? Thought so.

Just as a quick FYI, those are the three City Council Resolutions identifying the city’s 1997 FOCUS (Forging Our Comprehensive Urban Strategy) Plan (971268), the 2005 St. John Corridor and Infrastructure Plan (050298), and the 1977 Budd Park Area Plan (47335), all of which stressed collaboration and communication between city government and neighborhoods whenever infrastructure changes were implemented. Technically, last week’s city action on the traffic lights on St. John put them in violation of the previously approved plans as their actions were not “guided by” or “in compliance with” any of the aforementioned plans in regards to communicating with neighborhoods.

If you were one of the countless neighborhood volunteers that sacrificed your Saturday mornings to sit in the basement of Budd Park Christian Church with other volunteers, city staff and high dollar consultants, hammering out a plan for your neighborhood’s future development, you should feel like a Grade A chump.

Last week’s changeover was the poke in the eye with a sharp stick from your city government tellin’ you how much they value the collaboration component contained in the previously eluded to “Plans.” Next time, maybe you’ll know better than to naively serve on some city committee, thinking your opinion or your input actually makes a difference.

Fact: this city doesn’t give a tinker’s damn about collaboration and communication with neighborhoods and showed it with great flourish last week on the stop light to stop sign project. This Newshound shudders at the thought of how much Planning and Development money arrogantly got thrown out the window last week. The moral: Sit down, be quiet and know your role. You’ll take the medicine the city’s dishin’ out and you’ll like it.