No, I'm afraid you are not.
All politicians who represent districts of 100,000 citizens will always
consult and work with all sorts of citizens' groups that deal with
smaller areas, when strictly local concerns arise. They may or may not
do bad things together. Probably, over time and space, thousands of
officials and thousands of civic groups will do both good and bad things
together.
There is, however, no way for a democratically-elected politician to go
about taking the pulse of the community, without referring in part to
local civic groups, if no elected local public officials exist for him
to consult with.
Civic associations are numerous in most large jurisdictions and they
often have overlapping or conflicting missions. They are part of a
larger mix of voluntary associations -- school, church, recreational and
business groups -- that routinely interact with government officials.
Their right to do so is enshrined in the Constitution. Both the
successes and the failures of democratic policy-making are largely the
outcome of this process.
About all we can tell of the merits of the P.G. development case from
afar, is that some folks are for it while others are against it. The
folks who aren't getting their way (so far) have an interest in
asserting the other side is nasty and unrepresentative; the folks who
are getting their way (so far) have an interest in being discreet about it.
Specifically: the Post story features the former president of the West
Lanham Hills Citizens' Association against its current president, in a
dispute over policy. So this story presents not the slightest evidence
that all civic activists are bad; it merely shows civic activists are
diverse and disagree.
I wish all the best to both factions among my former neighbors in P.G. I
was down there this last weekend Whatever the outcome of the tussle in
West Lanham Hills, I just hope those fellows can do something about the
traffic on New Hampshire Ave. It's dreadful! Left-hand turns are
especially hard.
-- Tony West
Glenn wrote:
Am I correct?
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