Does anybody really care??

Took a bit of a break for my birthday and for a great family daytrip yesterday!

So I've just cruised several of the local blogs (Hayduke, Tale of Two Cities, Columbia Talk, Chris Bachman) and the comments on their posts regarding the redevelopment of Town Center are-- and no offense intended-- underwhelming.  I go to Columbia Compass, and wow, Bill Santos has stirred up a hornet's nest!  Well done, Bill!  (Makes me wonder if my own decision to go semi-anonymous [a la Tony Stark is Iron Man] was a good one).

OK, so I read the local fishwrap-- at least the fine Patuxent publications and the Sun-- and I find, nothing.  OK, maybe the Post and Examiner have more.  And perhaps I'm bitter because MY letter to the editor was one that wasn't printed last weekend!  Maybe there's this entire, rich debate going on, that I don't know about.  But I doubt it.

So what's the deal?  Some possible alibis:
1. Of course, it's the middle of July.  People aren't tuned into community affairs. 
2. The presentation by GGP happened just over a week ago-- hasn't had time to sink into the community yet. 
3. Maybe the  discussion that has gone on is representative of the interest level of the topic, and I'm just looking for something that isn't there?

So I have no illusions that is this point, the redevelopment of Town Center is of primary interest to the wonkosphere and to the Cult O' Columbia.  (The former applies to people like myself and all my blogging and letter-writing colleagues; the latter to all of those Columbians, regardless of ideology, age or term of residency, whose blood gets pumped by local affairs-- you can be part of both groups)  But a lot of these blog posts that I just mentioned above are very strong-- and pose some very interesting thoughts to consider.  Don't we owe it to ourselves to write something a little more probing and pondering than "good job" or "why do you like this?" in response?

I have to toss a little venom here at the letters to the editor pages.  I can not believe that there haven't been more letters written in the past week on the presentation than have seen print.  And I know that at least mine didn't suck! : )  So why haven't I seen more?

At this very early stage, I find the quality of public discourse on this topic to be very low.  It is very easy for a corporation, elected official or advocacy group to get their voices heard.  But forums such as these blogs, and the letters pages, are supposed to represent the town square for the citizenry.  Failure to participate in such forums will lead to the end results being one crafted by the corporations, elected officials and advocacy groups.  And if that happens all bets are off.

Comments

[Chris Bachmann]

I've been wondering about this very question myself. It's been the sort of thing that I've pondered on and off for years, but really from a technical point of view. There is a culture aspect to my thinking as well. The problem is my voice. I tend to be an introvert, albeit a noisy one. I tend to get a little intimidated in public forums for a while, but I've found that posting on my blog is bringing my voice out. After talking to others in the community and talking about an overall vision for TC, I decided to do a verbal dump on my own site just to get it out. Columbia has had the problem of too many voices in the wilderness and as a result, the local blowhards get their way. No offense to Liz Bobo and Lloyd Knowles, both of who I still consider family friends, but I think their push will be to the detriment to TC. That, and I tend to be working when these GPP proposals come out.

Now the question is how do we make a more centralized location for indy voices. HoCoBlogs is a place, but maybe we bloggers need to make up a serious challenge to the flyer with some tools to start croudsourcing problems.

[Drew]

We're busy working!!!

For the last few years (since I entered the workforce, really) I've realized why a very finite number of the population decides elections (local and otherwise), major decisions, and other community events. Everyone is being kept busy with their day job.

Wasn't the big GGP meeting with The People held early afternoon on a weekday? Who the hell is available to come talk about the development plan on a random weekday afternoon? You can't take leave for these things because you'd be going out of your way *every time* something came up. The corporations, elected officials and advocacy groups don't have 40-hour work weeks and life in suburbia and bills and kids and taxes (oh the taxes, let me count them for you) and oh-my-god-give-me-the-scotch-now!!! to deal with.

That's a little dramatic, and it's really not an excuse, but you get the point.

[Clarice]

The people who aren't speaking up believe they don't have the time and energy it takes to make a difference and so are surrendering the outcome and hoping for tolerance. What Drew said.