[Vision2020] Letter to the editor

[Nils Peterson]

Editor
Your lead story, DN 10/14, "NewCities starts off with a whimper: City
officials frustrated by lack of participation." Well, duh. Bring in a fancy
consultant, hand out hot dogs and give bad speeches, then expect us to flock
out to meetings? JoAnn Mack says "We put ads on ... our Web site." Part of
the problem, who goes there? Last spring I went to the Moscow Arts
Commission page to learn about music schedules for Farmers Market and
Community Band. Nothing. Why? Because the city has access to its web
presence trapped behind a webmaster-gatekeeper rather than distributing
content management responsibility to each staff member... so 90's. Get a
blog, get some RSS, charge each staff and committee member to get city news
out and let us manage how we get city content. Heck, the Vision2020 list,
for all its rough and tumble, does a better job of facilitating the flow of
information than the City website.

Beyond the communications inadequacy, is lack of real belief in the process.
The week before the NewCities hoopla came to town, Paradise Path brought in
some volunteers from Portland called CityRepair. They didn't suggest they
were going to tell us anything. Their workshop aimed at showing
neighborhoods how they might actually talk among themselves, discover, and
organize around what they found important. I was part of a group that took
results of CityRepair work to the Parks and Rec Commission. Actual
grassroots input seemed to scare the Commission. They couldn't even agree
that they like the CityRepair concept.

So where is the disconnect here? Outward communication that is inadequate
and delivered in ways no one wants, and listening skills dulled so they
can't hear grassroots voices without the filter of a consultant. Rather than
innovate around the edges, make some hard reforms at the core.

Nils Peterson
Moscow