Urban planners have a special talent no one else has, and that is the ability to detect the sense of a community, even if the community consists of millions of people. Our loyal friend, Dan S., has demonstrated this ability for us at least a couple of times.
First, Dan knows that enough Oregon voters have changed their minds about measure 37 (which passed in 2004 by a 61-39 margin) that he predicts that it “will be repealed in the 2008 election or a special election in 2009.”
Second, even though Denver voters (who supported a 2004 rail transit ballot measure by 57 to 43) now know they were lied to repeatedly by the promoters of that ballot measure, Dan confidentally says that “Nonetheless, the community does not want cuts to the program.” What is particularly amazing is that Dan himself appears to be from Cleveland, hundreds of miles away from either Denver or Portland.
One way that planners use this special skill is through visioning processes. They invite a group of, perhaps, a hundred people out of a neighborhood or town that may number in the tens or hundreds of thousands to meet together to plan the future of that town. Another amazing thing is that the people who participate in these visioning processes all end up agreeing that they want more mass transit and farmland preservation.
A group called Envision Oregon recently came to my town of Bandon for such an visioning process. By an amazing coincidence, Envision Oregon has the exact same street address and phone number as 1000 Friends of Oregon, a group that happens to support more mass transit and farmland preservation.
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In the interests of research, instead of going to the Envision Oregon meeting for Bandon, I stayed at home reading The Greatest Game Ever Played, about the 1913 U.S. Open golf tournament. Although Bandon is home to some of the nation’s finest golf courses, I have absolutely no interest in the game of golf. But somehow, reading this book seemed like a better use of my time than going to a five-hour meeting about my town’s future. (It is a good book.)
Still, I wonder if the planners who run Envision Oregon ask people questions such as:
Do you want to
- allow people to urbanize 1.75 percent of Oregon, which would keep housing affordable enough that at least two thirds of Oregon families could afford to own their homes; OR
- keep Oregon urban areas contained within 1.25 percent of the state, which will drive housing prices so high that only an elite group of perhaps 25 percent of the wealthiest families will be able to afford to own their own home?
Would you prefer that Oregon
- build more light-rail lines that will allow 1/2 to 1 percent of commuters to save ten minutes a day getting to work; OR
- use the same amount of money to build more freeway lanes that will allow 80 to 90 percent of commuters to save ten minutes a day getting to work?
Would you rather that
- all of your property taxes went to schools, police, fire, libraries, and other services traditionally funded out of property taxes; OR
- a large chunk of your property taxes went into a slush fund to be used by your city council to fund favored developers and property owners, most of whom (if you live in Portland) are friends of Portland’s greatest ex-mayor, Neil Goldschmidt?
Somehow I think these sorts of trade offs are never made clear by Envision Oregon or most of the other planners who whold visioning charettes. At least, not in Oregon or Utah.
Wow. That’s some real interesting pretzeling there, Randal.
First, I read your papers and see the polls that show buyer’s remorse. That’s where I get that from.
But let’s bet on the repeal of M37, Randal. We can negotiate on terms & go thru paypal. Or, maybe I’ll ride my bike down the coast again, and when I get down that far, I’ll buy you dinner if it doesn’t happen by a special election by 4/30/2009 (or the legislature repeals it, or whatever as long as its no longer in force by that date). How’s that sound? IMO August is best to ride the OR coast. I promise I’ll bring street clothes & won’t wear spandex.
Next, my inclusion of a newspaper article that said Denver residents don’t want cuts to RTD was my basis for my statement. I know exactly how packed the trains are(therefore popular), and I anticipate the college hockey playoffs will make the E line very busy this weekend, and I may have to leave a tad early so I can get a couple of seats so the women don’t have to stand.
Lastly, more evidence that you don’t know how things get done on the ground, your para:
Is almost entirely conceptually and contextually wrong. The 100 people is who shows up, not who gets invited; it’s what happens everywhere. These are the community activists. Additional work is usu done thru surveys, revealed preferences, market studies, etc to get an idea of what the rest of the people who don’t show up want. If more people showed up, you might get some folk who prefer to have only one transportation mode choice, but it’s unclear.
DS
I was once asked to be part of a committee to determine if the city of Medford should have a “vision”. Not surprisingly I was the only person to see no need for such nonsense. But as usual, goofy ideas are also stubborn ideas and the next thing you know the city has a “vision” that’s updated every so often but really doesn’t serve a purpose.
When a call goes out to the community for volunteers to serve on committees or provide input through forums it can be expected that anything but a cross section of the community will attend. The time and frsutration factors do a pretty good job of weeding out those who are busy and those who don’t suffer fools well. You also have people who decline based upon previous experiences with “facilitators” who run these meetings. The facilitators don’t allow a true dialogue or dissent from the predetermined results already planned. The Chalkboard Project is a good example of professionals facilitators steering groups (it’s like herding cattle) to support what an executive committee has decided in advance.
These are simply dog and pony shows meant to trick the public into thinking they have had input. Not hardly. ODOT learned this tactic a while back and now contracts out it’s public involvement duties to outside consultants who effectively get the “right” result. Usually they present three alternatives to any project. Those alternatives are 1. no build (generally considered not a real option) 2. The prefered option (this is the one ODOT wants) 3. The expensive one (this comprehensive plan includes so much cost it’s immediately thrown out with option 1). So what the public involvement process yields is… ta dah, ODOT’s favorite.
This same strategy as used in the recent Medford school bond. Three options with only one having any realistic chance. Guess which one made it to the ballot? Did the public have any real input? No.
Envison Oregon doesn’t want real questions asked. It wants nothing but the appearance of public support. They should be ashamed.
They almost always use the delphi technique to get those predetermined results. Cogan Owans Cogan is often the prefered choice to get this done.