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March 10, 2005 - May 20, 2006
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quadratdackel
Joined: 10 Mar 2005
Posts: 144
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 Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 6:14 am Post subject: Perth vs NIMBYs |
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Found this from some random web surfing. It's Andr?s Duany of new urbanism fame, on how Perth, Australia handles cases where NIMBYs are campaigning against the common good. Basically, they treat NIMBYs like a special interest group and use a random group of citizens to make the decision:
| Quote: | | Now, what I learned -- just to be interested in -- I learned this is what they do in Australia. I saw a beach in Australia that actually had all the wealthy peoples' houses on it. And as part of it, they built a beach club for the people who didn't live on the beach. And I said, "How'd you do this?? Don't you have a democracy here?" And he said "Yes. But we don't confuse a democracy with the immediate neighbors." (laughter) "We think the immediate neighbors are in fact lobbyists for a single issue." And what they do in Australia when the process is engaged -- this is in Perth -- they actually get the electoral board to select a few hundred names at random among the citizens. So they come in; they're told what the public issue is, and then several dozen volunteer, say fifty. And these people come in as jurors do in the United States to truly represent the community as a whole, and they're the ones who do the public discussion. Then people like yourselves who are the immediate neighbors are seen for what they are, which is the immediate neighbors; it's not the same thing as the citizenry. Because the basic principle is, the cure for the ills of democracy is more democracy. You see, whenever you get in trouble, whenever you say "it isn't working here," it's that democracy isn't working. And you have to figure out how do we make this more democratic. |
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I think this is a great idea. It shouldn't be much more difficult to implement than our jury system- maybe easier because meetings need not occur during the work day. NIMBYs can and should inform the process, but not dominate it. |
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ablarc
Joined: 10 Mar 2005
Posts: 825
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| Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 10:17 pm Post subject: Re: Perth vs NIMBYs |
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| quadratdackel wrote: | | I think this is a great idea. |
Amen and halleluiah. I'm already talking this up with folks I know in the development and regulatory community. |
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quadratdackel
Joined: 10 Mar 2005
Posts: 144
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| Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 3:54 am Post subject: |
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| You know folks in the development and regulatory community? What exactly does that mean? i.e., are these city or state employees, etc? Sorry I don't really know my way around this area. |
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ablarc
Joined: 10 Mar 2005
Posts: 825
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| Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 4:25 pm Post subject: |
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I work for developers and I have to deal with zoning and planning officials.
If responsible city building had to be left to one of these two groups to the exclusion of the other, I'd say "let the developers do it." Most developers I know aren't nearly as benighted and greedy as they're portrayed, and you need to be much smarter to be a developer. |
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