It seems like more and more people are apt to make “a federal case out of everything.”
The use of social media has not helped this trend, but who am I to buck this trend? Well, I am bucking this trend.
So yes, consider this a lecture of a sorts.
For years, even as a reporter, I was amazed at how so many people looked to the folks in Washington to solve their local problems, when they could easily be solved if people would just spend some time working with their city council, or even their county board of supervisors.
Because I covered theme parks, and Disneyland, as a reporter for over eight years, I was fascinated by the fact that Disney, and in particular, Disneyland, had so many people covering it via websites, blogs and more.
There wasn’t a new thing at parks, no matter how small and trivial, that wouldn’t be “breathlessly” covered in detail by all the various bloggers. With an annoying number of photos, when one would have been fine.
Over those years as amazed as I was at the minutia of coverage I kept pondering the fact that if those same folks, or others, would spend as much time blogging about the issues in their cities then, perhaps, those cities would be better for it.
Imagine, if you will, if there were four or five folks blogging on a daily or many times daily about what is going on in the city I live in, Buena Park.
Would there be any potholes in the city? Would the streets be maintained? Would common sense apply in approvals of things to be built by developers? Would we even allow the state government try to dictate what and how we can build things in our city – some of which are some of the (to use my own words) stupidest things ever built?
For your information, stupid things get done because a few people (usually only two or three) really understand how things work at a local level on a project or development and focus on it. When the public starts realizing it, it’s on a city council’s agenda and by then it might be too late.
Now, all that said, there aren’t that many potholes in the city. They’ve done a good job in the last few years on the potholes and the streets – though it wasn’t always so.
And yes, unfortunately there have been some stupid things built – why I cannot say. Though I have some pretty good information on why they happened. But I cannot say as my source is off the record.
So, I say to everyone wake up!
Stop making everything a national issue and get involved at your local level. Not just the city council, but on all the commissions, and things like the water districts, the sewer districts, the fire departments (in Buena Park, they use the Orange County Fire Authority – did you know they have their own board made up of representatives from all the cities that are part of it? No one pays attention.) and even the county sheriff’s department. Even Vector Control, (Vector Control deals with things like pests and mosquitoes.) which is a county thing, like the Fire Authority in its oversight.
I know it’s more fun to pay attention to the fun things, like Disneyland. But our cities and counties could certainly use this kind of attention to make everyone aware of what is happening and to ask why? Why are some things approved?
Let me tell you, from my experience, by the time a development project gets into the news media; or to a city council or county wide’s board for approval – it’s too late. Or it’s a long court process.
Now I put my money, in a small way, where my mouth is. I applied for and was appointed as one of seven commissioners on the City of Buena Park’s Planning Commission. Our meetings are scheduled for twice a month, if there’s anything on the agenda beyond approving the minutes of previous meetings.
You will find that we want to hear from our residents on things like new development projects, whether they be housing or otherwise, that are on our agenda. In fact, by law we have to, but I like that. It means the public has a chance to speak on anything on the agenda before it is debated for a vote. We even have a part of our meetings for folks to come in and talk about just about anything.
While we try to make sure that the plans deal with many of the details that us regular folks expect. Some of the projects we have to approve, even if we have issues with them, because of several state laws that have been passed with regards to housing and parking and more. Trust me, if I have issues with them, I will go on the record at the meetings saying so, but will still approve them, as I have to due to those state laws.
In the meantime, I wish everyone in every town across the state and the country, would stop making federal cases out of everything and start reporting on every little thing in their local communities. If there is a pothole, take a photo and put it online – somewhere. If there are rundown houses or businesses with windows broken or other, take a photo and post it and send it to your city folks.
Take the time to read the agendas of not only the City Council, but also the planning commission, and the oversight boards for those county-wide things like fire and sheriff and more. A lot of tax money and tax increases are forced by those groups due to negotiations with their unions.
Only by paying attention as citizens and taxpayers, working on this individually every day, documenting things with our smart phones and putting them up online, will we make things better.
If you have any comments about this post, or suggestions for future posts about just about any subject, feel free to email me at: markaeades@aol.com.