Tuesday, July 03, 2007

More of Us vs Them...

We've got a good little debate running here since my last Us vs Them post. In the latest comment by "pzguru" responding to an earlier comment from Hayduke, pzguru asked "As far as I can tell, there seems to be more people opposed to the recreation of Town Center than those who support it. What empirical evidence are you using to support your consensus claim?"

Okay, I'm not quite certain what pzguru means by "people opposed to the recreation of Town Center" but I think he means Them.

I personally am all for recreation in Town Center. The more the better.

And I'm not alone. The numbers of people coming out in opposition to groups like CoFoDoCo are growing.

Remember the Us's had a late start.

In any event, the Bring Back the Vision group has already amassed 130 signatures of thier statement. They have accomplished this without any endorsements,(yet) from our elected officials or a website. I suspect many more people will sign up once they become aware of it.

The "empirical evidence" that pzguru has requested will soon be forthcoming.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The "Us's" had a late start? What do you mean? If anything, the "Them's" had the late start since GGP, certain officials, and certain other connected personsto said officials, were pushing for the Town Center redevelopment idea long before the Charette ever took place.

I don't want to add to an "US vs THEM" angle to this debate, although I think that's exactly what you are striving for (not from me personally, but in general). I don't completely oppose something new happening in Town Center. But, I don't think something MUST be done anyway. I do disagree 100% with the notion that certain people are conveying, that Town Center is "dead" or "not vibrant". That's a bogus argument that people are trying to use to justify the whole proposal.

In truth, neither side can really say who has more supporters, and it doesn't really matter who has more supporters. The fact is there are many serious problems with the current "vision" ideas being bandied about, the biggest of which is traffic problems. And frankly, the proposed street realignment idea that would eliminate LPP and replace it with a grid of dozens and dozens of intersections (each with a stop sign or signal) would be disastrous to traffic flow (as in traffic would no longer flow). It would make getting into and out of Town Center a nightmare.

I can hear Hayduke screaming now - we need more public transportation. Sorry - public transportation can not fix the traffic problem. Sure, some people would use it, but not enough to outweigh the amount of vehicular traffic.

I'm not an "Us" or a "Them" - I'm myself.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely true. And along with traffic, include all infrastructure, ie., schools etc..

I just rec'd my RE tax bill, it's gone up 62% in the past few years, and I've made no improvements to my property. What has changed is the neighborhood.

Maddening.

Anonymous said...

Does the Citizen Journalist's Handbook frown on undisclosed subsequent editing of a post and for removing a comment that mentioned a misquote?