Applaud the CE Plan .. Maybe not

The Shadow will always give it up for ideas and people who I think are doing the right thing. On the surface the Community Engagement plan seems to be a step in the right direction.
In years gone by the city council member was the one you went to if a neighborhood needed something. The council member would weigh the benefits versus the drawbacks, balanced against other city priorities, and push to get it thru. NRP changed all that. Neighborhoods spend the money at their whim with very little concrete oversight. Hence the problems with turning NRP into a jobs program, and the city basically throwing true city planning out the window. NRP took the very foundation of our system of government, a Representative Republic, and turned it into a free for all. We tend to forget that which has gotten this country, the great experiment, to where it is today. This is the greatest country in the world, but it can be lost if we don’t stick to our founding principles. Some would even say that we have alright lost too much, but I digress. The Community Engagement Plan is a way to get off NRP and still give the “elected” political cover. A group of citizens should not have to learn the inner workings of the complex city government in order to get a concern heard or a plan to enhance the neighborhood justly considered. They should spend the time in neighborhood meetings listening to the concerns of the people, not just wind bagging and leaving. That is the job of the city council member. If your city council member tells you to otherwise, then they should be replaced!