This will no doubt be an interesting two hours (assuming they
let me in), particularly if you attend city councils meetings and have spoken
with various people about the true State of the City.
Here are some items to ponder…
1.
This city belongs to everyone, not just a
certain group of people. Do you want to
know why things are not changing? The people
in charge of this city refuse to take a diverse approach. Direct and Simple. When people know their voice does not matter,
it takes moving mountains to convince them that if all of those voices who feel
they do not matter pull together; their voice is louder and stronger. At that point, they cannot be ignored. I am fighting for this city from the ground
up. As far as I am concerned, there is
no other way to do this. You cannot
cater to a select group of people and expect to grow your community or create
any cohesion. Take a minute, step back
and figure out that even the current ‘new council majority’ approach is not
working. The effort needs to be made by
our entire council to bring everyone in this community into the conversation; including the
people they do not want here. If this effort is not made, then things will
escalate beyond anyone’s control.
2.
They discussed back in January having town-hall
meetings. I attend every single council
meeting and we have yet to have a town-hall meeting. There is no follow-through. They need to start reaching out and getting
people involved. We are all a part of
this and will sink or swim together. The council chamber is almost never near
capacity and when it is, it is only for the first 15 -20 minutes, if we are
lucky. They will not follow through with
any concerns anyone not in that demographic they cater to, unless they are
forced. They can use the word
‘transparency’ all they want. Fact of
the matter: they should have looked the word up before they started using
it. Just so you know; they have a very
different perspective on town-hall meeting than a good number of people I have
spoken with about it. For example: they
seem to think that going to a senior community and answering questions is a
town-hall meeting. I happen to strongly
disagree.
3.
Economic Development: There was a meeting August 26, correct? I expected to hear some information regarding
the status being that council decided to allocate up to $40,000 in tax payer
funds. I would also expect that the
members of the committee and updates on status are easy to locate. Guess what?
There was no update last night.
4.
Downtown Revitalization Committee: This brings me back to my first point. While listening to the consultants discuss
the demographics, I was fascinated by their lack of knowledge when it comes to
race and what races they were and were not willing to address. One – the consultants think Hispanic is a
race. I can assure you that it is not.
Two - when discussing the demographics they only addressed Caucasians and
Hispanics. What about people with
backgrounds from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, along with Native Americans and
Latinos? All categories of which I personally fall into, so ask me how thrilled
I was when that conversation was taking place.
5.
I was truly disappointed in the flyer and
information distributed regarding the State of the City. I had to call City
Hall several times in-order to speak with someone so that I could post accurate
information. Why would you even attach
the idea of a charge for the State of the City?
Thank fully, it is a free event unless you want the breakfast. This should simply be the mayor addressing
the people of this city. Simple. No corporate sponsors, breakfast, $10 charge
and at a time when working people are able to attend in a venue that is able to
hold as many people from the city who want to attend. It is disappointing and gives the impression
that they only want a select group of people in attendance.
