I happened to catch the testimony on the recent RCO bill on the public access TV. Our Councilwoman was on the people's side of this issue. But the Henon amendment passed 14-3.
Here is the UCR coverage. And here are the vital components of this corporate coup in quotation (everything else in the amendment is included as a complexity distraction):
"• Developers are now responsible for contacting RCOs about proposed developments. The developer can choose the RCO.
• RCOs can include volunteer organizations, unincorporated associations, non-profit associations, neighborhood improvement districts and special services districts"
http://ucreview.com/city-council-changes-the-rules-to-registered-community-organizations-for-th-p4496-1.htm
As you can see, community input has now been excluded from zoning issues! The corporate forces behind the zoning changes are ready to throw away and exclude the civic associations which helped them gain power. If you saw the City Paper coverage on this RCO issue last week, you know the corporate marketing campaign is pointing out that civic associations are dysfunctional and can often lead to extortion like demands from leaders.
Well, they are right about the civic associations they used, as I've been pointing out for many years. So, Penn and partners have now implemented their solution. To take all zoning discussions into secret rooms among themselves, and totally exclude the public's participation and public information.
Please understand that this is the big completion of the neo-colonial, divide and conquer cycle, that we should have detected so long ago!!! The shift is now happening.
The civic associations believed that they were being, as Al Krigman used to say, "anointed" as the new power brokers or neo-colonial governors for this neighborhood. In reality, these groups were being used as pawns to empower corporate forces and anti-democratic processes to eventually rule over us.
Ask yourself: If Penn and it's corporate partners want to build a shopping mall at Clark Park, will FOCP or UCD "represent" the community???
We accepted the lies about the concept of "representation" when the civic associations were making these. Now, we have had a normalization period of some 15 years, in which, it is accepted that an unaccountable, anti-democratic, self appointed organization of "experts" can plot developments secretly, while claiming to "represent the community."
The same exclusion of stakeholders that occurred at the beginning of the gentrification, which I fought against in Clark Park, is now happening to the same civic association leaders, who helped normalize exclusion and secret meetings!!!
Neighbors, now that you have the evidence of the true corporate "vision" for our rights, processes, and ending public participation; please reconsider the need for establishing a truly deliberative process for any and all "community engagements." People have accepted all of the neoliberal claims and demands- All things are commodities- Elite business experts must make all decisions in secret, and the people must be silenced..
The only way to reverse this corporate coup is to reestablish the mechanisms and processes of deliberative democracy. The confusing misleading RCO charade completely disregards the obvious issue of democracy, focusing instead on who will be chosen to represent us. The answer consistent with democracy is that NO ONE should be chosen in advance to represent us!
Any credible project, from honest developers, coming to the neighborhood must always be first introduced at an appropriately publicly announced forum, open to all! Any project that does not begin this way, must be immediately rejected by all of us on those grounds alone. Good projects can then gain wide community support, and established leaders and groups, or ad hoc leaders and groups, can begin their organization after information is given to all. (Journalists can attend such open forums. And the cumulative mind of the community is much better at detecting deceptions or poor information, than a tiny group of club leaders waiting to get their palms greased.)
Community partnership literature, even that written at Penn, shows that outcomes are always much better if open processes of deliberative democracy are employed by those who wish to advance projects. The community always gets a better outcome through full participation. Honest developers will always get better support. And even those who opposed the project can support a project when they know the process was fair, and the real community, rather than a tiny subset, did actually support the project.
Once again, we should all thank Councilwoman Blackwell for standing up to this final coup. Please reconsider the concepts of deliberative democracy, and inclusion of all, before the chains are permanently locked around our throats!!! A small group of us could organize a real general assembly at the neighborhood level, and when people experienced the power and promise of real deliberative democracy; the model would spread like wildfire across the city.
Glenn
