The Incompetence Mantra
New Orleans Laundry
Rob Olshansky writes about the latest round of recovery planning from the vantage point of Illinois. From his post New Orleans Planning Update: The Unified New Orleans Plan.
Community Congress II also had political significance. At the core of the Unified New Orleans Plan is the idea that citizen voices are important, and that the city needs to have a broad and intelligent conversation regarding its choices. People have heard enough political grandstanding, and they are eager to converse. With the success of the Congress, local politicians now have no choice but to support this process. Mayor C. Ray Nagin, for example, led off the Congress ambiguously, but ended the day with a show of support.
While it was nice to see everyone in the same room, and nice to see our fellow citizens on the big screens in far off cities, why does Ron write that local politicians have no choice to support the process?
Now that we understand the Community Congress II to be politically significant, we need to ask ourselves, “What exactly did we endorse?”
Seven hours to cover six vague questions. The questions were designed to be open-ended, so people could decide for themselves what they meant. What is scary is that now the planners have that same luxury.
So, as has been true for some time, the mantra of planners in New Orleans continues to be, “We should have a much clearer idea over the next couple of months or so.”
While this mantra may bring inner-peace to urban planning types. It’s cold comfort for those who continue to suffer the wait.
3 Comments | 1 Trackback |
comments feed  |
Frightening. Even more professional observers are taking the AmericaSpeaks feel-good spectacle seriously? It’s noteworthy that the Olshansky article barely touches on what was actually discussed at the Congress, and that much that is mentioned is a vaguer gloss than the already vague “conclusions” we’re supposed to have reached. How politically significant is that?
Becky, I agree. I’m drowning in vagueness and I’m over it. Time for terra firma!
So I went over to another blog I found by looking for Joe Goldman, you know, to see where he hangs out. I found http://www.deliberative-democracy.net/blog/, and guess what, nobody ever comments there. Well its rare. I wonder who’s reading this? Anyway, they solicited comments on their 2006 events, and yesterday I posted Ray Broussard’s UNOP letter + my questions to Joe, and they haven’t yet posted the post. It’s still awaiting moderation.
“nola
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Comment by nola | 12/26/06 at 5:11 pm
Dear Joe,”
I’m just making this point publically because I realize that none of this is life or death to anyone but us. “They” don’t care if their democracy is chaotic or onesided or false. Our democracy ius being eroded for pet development projects, and we’ve been sold out by “democracy” organizations at the same time. wow, my head is spinning.
[...] However, in the New Orleans recovery, incompetence is offered as a legitimate reason for failure. Don’t be so hard on us, we don’t know what we’re doing. You try and fix New Orleans. [...]