Recently, my mom referred to the John Cougar Mellencamp song "I Fight Authority (Authority Always Wins)" when telling a story about her crazy school district in which she teaches, which made me laugh. (An aside: I used to torture my younger brother by singing that but changing the words to reflect the name his good friend, Mike Doherty .. "I Fight Doherty, Doherty Always Wins." Oh, he'd go crazy with rage when I did that!)
Anyhow, my neighborhood block did fight authority last week, and unlike Mr. Mellencamp, we came out the winners, more or less. I get a little warm, snuggly feeling when I think how we mobilized in three days, collected three dozen signatures just from our block, drafted and circulated a powerful letter to the city planning commission and various neighborhood/city politicians, and then arrived at the city planning commission meeting on Wednesday night ready to speak our minds, which we did.
We told them that 4-story-tall buildings and increased density would increase traffic, bring light and noise pollution, and worst of all, destroy any quality of life on our amazing street, the best street I've ever lived on when it comes to neighborhood support/friends and historic setting.
And they listened! In the end, the commission agreed to table any vote, because, as they determined following much debate, the plan to develop the nearby thoroughfare had become, after 13 years, "piecemeal" and outdated. They decided to bring the plan back to the impacted neighborhoods for serious discussion and review, because they recognized that after 13 years, very little of us who lived in the neighborhoods now were involved in all of its many iterations.
We were a bit stunned, because we went in as the underdogs, organizing at the last minute and feeling like we weren't coming to the table fully prepared nor cognizant of what all this meant exactly. It was a cool night. It was one of those times when you suddenly realize something you'd done made an important difference.
I enjoyed the process *somewhat* - if for only the fact that I gained a wealth of knowledge and terminology about city planning and city political process. I kept remembering how it felt to get a job as a writer at Free Range Media in Seattle in the dot-com hey day and to be surrounded suddenly by new business jargon, and MBA's, and being asked to write "white papers about our process." It was humbling and scary, but I quick-like learned that jargon, so I could speak their language and act like I knew what I was doing. And soon enough, I did, and I made a difference there, too.
On to the next series of meetings -- a neighborhood one and then a community one. We're organized, baby, and we're ready to clamor for low density development AND a Starbucks within walking distance.
