Simple Acts of Citizen Engagement for the City of Coral Gables

September 7, 2010 1 Comment

What kinds of new citizen engagement could be undertaken in Coral Gables that would increase community participation and input into the most important decision of the community.

Here are some simple community initiatives for the city manager and the commission that would cost little to do.

  • Send out an email to the citizens announcing all meetings of boards, committees and the commission; similar distribute agendas and minutes.
  • Send via email or included in the the city’s website results information on the execution of the budget.
  • During the year organize a series of public forums in neighborhoods on the annual budget and to report on important investments and spending.
  • Have meeting with business groups and citizens to discuss the economic and business future of Coral Gables (UM could be asked to lead the discussions.).
  • Create an online forum so people could contribute ideas the city (civility required).
  • Make public presentations by the city manager and department directors to explain their work.

Please contribute your ideas to this list.

Filed under Community, Coral Gables, Management

Can Coral Gables Really Work with its Citizens?

September 6, 2010 1 Comment

The National League of Cities provides excellent guidelines for cities, “Working Productively with 21st Century Citizens”.  I was struck by the commitment and philosophy of the NLC in promoting proactive governments that engage the many citizens that feel capable and want to contribute to good and successful government and a high quality of life to their city.

Unfortunately, this approach is strange to the culture of the City of Coral Gables that incorporates only a few citizens mostly friendly to current authorities.  There is a great need to expand the participation of citizens in Coral Gables, but this takes, first, a policy and commitment and, second, intensive work by the city to make it happen rather than follow perfunctory representations of community involvement through conventional, mostly powerless, boards.

Local officials in all kinds of communities are dealing with major changes in the relationship between citizens and government. Ordinary people seem more capable and more confident, but also more skeptical and even aggressive. Citizens may have less time for public life, but they often bring more knowledge and skills to the table. They feel more entitled to the services and protection of government, and yet have less faith in public officials. It seems like many citizens are more interested in governing, and less willing to be governed, than ever before. These changes can make local problem-solving and decision- making more difficult; they also can present opportunities for effective community building that will significantly enhance local governance capacity.

While city officials and commissioners may be uncomfortable with a new philosophy of engagement and participation by citizens, the process is sure to greatly strengthen the support and ideas of taxpayers and residents in the many hard decisions that will have to made in the coming years.

Filed under Community, Coral Gables, Government

Krugman on Lessons from 1938 in 2010

September 6, 2010 Leave a comment

Little to add.  The US in falling into a 1938 trap and forgotten the lessons of the Great Depression.

The economic moral is clear: when the economy is deeply depressed, the usual rules don’t apply. Austerity is self-defeating: when everyone tries to pay down debt at the same time, the result is depression and deflation, and debt problems grow even worse. And conversely, it is possible — indeed, necessary — for the nation as a whole to spend its way out of debt: a temporary surge of deficit spending, on a sufficient scale, can cure problems brought on by past excesses.

via Op-Ed Columnist – 1938 in 2010 – NYTimes.com.

Filed under Economy, National

More on the Economy–Economics 101 (Not Levels, but Growth that Counts)

September 6, 2010 Leave a comment

From Paul Krugman.  This is not political, it is just simple economics.

If you want the economy to accelerate you must keep stimulus growing.  The economy must grow faster to raise absolute levels of employment, otherwise, unemployment stays the same or gets worse.

Delusion #1 is that we’re on the road to recovery, just more slowly than we’d like; to be fair, the White House keeps saying this.

But it’s not at all true. GDP is growing below potential; employment, even if you focus just on private employment, is growing more slowly than the working-age population. If you ask how long it will take us to return to, say, 5 percent unemployment on the current track, the answer is forever.

Delusion #2 is the belief that the stimulus may yet do the trick, because there are still substantial funds unspent. I tried to deal with this last year. The level of GDP depends not on total funds spent, but on the rate at which funds are being spent, which has already peaked; GDP growth on the rate of change in the rate at which funds are being spent, which peaked last year. It’s all downhill from here.

via Delusions Of Recovery – NYTimes.com.

Filed under Economy, National

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