Most people seem to have no idea ....

Critter7r · Aug 16, 2016

... how actual politics work.

Coming from perspective of a city councilman of a small town (pop. <10,000), I've come to the conclusion that most people simply have no idea what it takes to run even a small town, let alone a country.

People are blissfully unaware of chains of command, the knowledge needed to be involved effectively, the effects of planning and zoning and the amount of compromise required just to get something done .... unaware of how it is possible for a city to have money to build an addition onto a DPW storage facility but not be able to spend that $100k to repair roads ... unaware that a city cannot arbitrarily prohibit a business from opening if it meets the city's planning and zoning ordinances ...

I find it baffling that so many people complain to the city council because a third auto parts store is opening in our small town and look to us to "put something else there".

I find it baffling that so many people would be against changing a 1-mile-long 4-lane road into a 3 lane road (2 travel, and a center turn lane) with bike lanes when that road handles less than 15,000 cars per day and never needed to be 4 lanes to begin with. (It had been widened in the 70s in anticipation of growth that never occurred).

I sympathize with the fact that residents see our city building a DPW facility and are upset that many of our roads are more patch than road surface. But the funds used to build that facility came from the water treatment plant capital improvement fund, and we can't spend that money on fixing roads, because it's an enterprise fund.

And the worst part is that the people doing the most complaining have absolutely no intention of getting involved any further than habitually complaining about what we do.

cpwill · Aug 16, 2016

Critter7r said:
... how actual politics work.

Coming from perspective of a city councilman of a small town (pop. <10,000), I've come to the conclusion that most people simply have no idea what it takes to run even a small town, let alone a country.

People are blissfully unaware of chains of command, the knowledge needed to be involved effectively, the effects of planning and zoning and the amount of compromise required just to get something done .... unaware of how it is possible for a city to have money to build an addition onto a DPW storage facility but not be able to spend that $100k to repair roads ... unaware that a city cannot arbitrarily prohibit a business from opening if it meets the city's planning and zoning ordinances ...

I find it baffling that so many people complain to the city council because a third auto parts store is opening in our small town and look to us to "put something else there".

I find it baffling that so many people would be against changing a 1-mile-long 4-lane road into a 3 lane road (2 travel, and a center turn lane) with bike lanes when that road handles less than 15,000 cars per day and never needed to be 4 lanes to begin with. (It had been widened in the 70s in anticipation of growth that never occurred).

I sympathize with the fact that residents see our city building a DPW facility and are upset that many of our roads are more patch than road surface. But the funds used to build that facility came from the water treatment plant capital improvement fund, and we can't spend that money on fixing roads, because it's an enterprise fund.

And the worst part is that the people doing the most complaining have absolutely no intention of getting involved any further than habitually complaining about what we do.

Yup. People expect government to Make Everything Right. It's stupid and ignorant, but these are the people voting.

Which is why they need to be filtered for ignorance.

Critter7r · Aug 16, 2016

cpwill said:
Yup. People expect government to Make Everything Right. It's stupid and ignorant, but these are the people voting.

Which is why they need to be filtered for ignorance.

I was thinking more along the lines of " ... need to be taught civics in school".

(And the people I deal with don't want gov't to "make it right" so much as they want us to "do it my way or leave it alone".)

The issue I have with civics classes I took in high school is like many other things learned in school: it doesn't correlate to the real world of actual politics.

cpwill · Aug 16, 2016

Critter7r said:
I was thinking more along the lines of " ... need to be taught civics in school".

Oh. The theory being that then they will know it?

You are more optimistic than I am.

(And the people I deal with don't want gov't to "make it right" so much as they want us to "do it my way or leave it alone".)

I have a friend running for a local county commission in Alabama. Most of the questions he gets are about Trump (either what he's going to do to help him, or how he's going to stop him).

Now, the local commission has actually been running itself as a little Kleptocracy, where members award county contracts and positions to their spouses or immediate family members, and then overpay them. That's what my friend is actually trying to run on. But people want to know if he's going to use his position to sue Trump, because Trump held a rally nearby, and it blocked traffic. :roll:

blaxshep · Aug 16, 2016

Critter7r said:
I was thinking more along the lines of " ... need to be taught civics in school".

(And the people I deal with don't want gov't to "make it right" so much as they want us to "do it my way or leave it alone".)

The issue I have with civics classes I took in high school is like many other things learned in school: it doesn't correlate to the real world of actual politics.

Then don't teach civics teach crony capitalism, because that is how the government is really run.

Critter7r · Aug 16, 2016

blaxshep said:
Then don't teach civics teach crony capitalism, because that is how the government is really run.

In all fairness, in a town of <10,000, the same 100 people are the only ones volunteering to put on festivals and run for office, so claims of "crony capitalism" are somewhat misplaced. First because no one else will do this stuff, and second, there isn't really much in the way of pay involved.

blaxshep · Aug 16, 2016

Critter7r said:
In all fairness, in a town of <10,000, the same 100 people are the only ones volunteering to put on festivals and run for office, so claims of "crony capitalism" are somewhat misplaced. First because no one else will do this stuff, and second, there isn't really much in the way of pay involved.

You're probably right for the most part in small towns but even there favors are bought and sold. Its no coincidence that the Mayor's wife's brother's company is the one hired to cater the festival.

Critter7r · Aug 16, 2016

blaxshep said:
You're probably right for the most part in small towns but even there favors are bought and sold. Its no coincidence that the Mayor's wife's brother's company is the one hired to cater the festival.

Well, when his company offers to do it for $750 (which is about half the price of the next cheapest option), have more variety, higher quality food choices, AND the festival is strapped for cash, you can see how the festival manager might be willing to overlook the relationship.

You see, our festival runs entirely on volunteers and donations. In a small town with an average household income of about $40k and 40% of the population is 65/older, you can see how both of those things might be tough to come by. So the festival manager agrees to let the mayor's wife's brother's catering company cater the festival. And for what it's worth, the mayor's wife's brother is providing his services so inexpensively that he's not making money on the deal. In fact, it's really the mayor's wife's brother that is the one doing the favor by catering this event so inexpensively.

We actually had a very similar situation play out in our town, and very similar accusations to what you're tossing out.