Jeff Cogen is an elected official, Commissioner for Multnomah County in Oregon and he nails it about Urban Renewal.
Here is Jeff’s YouTube Video where he discusses the negative impact of urban renewal in his county. The Pearl District is apparently an urban renewal district that is draining valuable resources from the county budgets. Watch as Jeff describes its affect on his county.
The issues that Jeff discusses sound similar to our own issues with the LCDC, don’t they?
Jeff’s web site doesn’t say whether he’s Democrat or Republican. I believe he’s a Dem, but urban renewal’s impact shouldn’t be a partisan issue.
I know Democrats as well as Republicans in Coeur d’Alene are upset with the antics of the City Council and LCDC. But I find it odd that other blogs paint the LCDC issue with a broad partisan brush. Framing those who question the LCDC as “über conservatives” or “anti-progressive” is wrong. In fact, I’d be curious as to what Mr. Cogen would say about those attacks when Mr. Cogen himself claims to be very progressive.
Someday, here in Coeur d’Alene, we’ll have elected officials like Mr. Cogen. Officials who feel that the people who live here and basic government services are more important than tax dollars going to underwrite big development. Someday soon.
The broad partisan brush is pigeonholing. It’s a not so clever propaganda technique used to lump people with complex and differing ideas into what appears to be a single group. Give the group an easily recongizable name. Then attack the group by name as if it exists. Pigeonholing relieves tyrants of the need to think critically and differentially. It also makes it easier to print bumperstickers and generate sound bites. The technique fails when the target audience demands individual ideas be heard and considered.
Comment by Bill — August 13, 2008 @ 7:46 am