Here’s the format I will be using for live blogging tonight’s Planning Commission meeting. I’m interested in experimenting with live blogging to produce commentary more quickly. (My comments will remain after the meeting for later viewing.)
The window will become live just before 6 PM, and comments will appear with the newest remarks at the top of the window. (Update: For replay, comments will appear from top to bottom, first to last.)
Here are a few additional remarks — serious, both of them.
Explanations of the Law. Municipal counsel for a town should be able to answer a question on the law simply, concisely, and understandably. This is no trivial point — a good politics depends on it. If it seems impolite to say, then we have forgotten what a well-ordered municipality looks like, or stopped caring that Whitewater should be such a place.
Wasting Time. Worrying about the style of cart corrals at Walmart isn’t planning, it’s not landscaping, it’s decorating. We shouldn’t be wasting money on these genuinely trivial matters. It’s not sophisticated to think these subjects are public matters; it’s embarrassingly pedestrian. A city with significant economic problems shouldn’t pay a consultant to consider something like this. Walmart can decide for itself; attention to these details reveals a complete lack of weight and seriousness.
In the middle of a deep recession, especially, taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for this lack of seriousness.