5 ms·

Not enough people are willing to spend time at city hall community hearings and make the voice of reason heard whereas these other people will show up to make d

Not enough people are willing to spend time at city hall community hearings and make the voice of reason heard whereas these other people will show up to make demands. Same thing happened here when the city wanted to install free wifi in public parks for students, all the nuts flooded the meetings making ridiculous claims and demands but none of the people who would benefit bothered to show up so they canned the idea.

kelnos 6y ago
And the council members are so incapable of critical thought that they believe that the loud nutjobs who show up are representative of their constituents?
- notJim 6y ago
  Turnout can be pretty low in city elections, so the cranks may not represent their constituents, but be overrepresented among voters. For folks reading this: there are probably YIMBY or other pro-housing/infrastructure groups in your area that will tell you when to show up to meetings to fight back against this nonsense.
- acdha 6y ago
  The concern is more how many of those people will show up to vote against you in races which can have very small numbers of voters, and how much of a hassle they'll make for your office. If someone decides that you're part of the problem, you'll be getting lots of contacts, public records requests, etc. The things which circulate on neighborhood listserves, Facebook groups, etc. can be pretty absurd but they might break down into the 95% who don't care and ignore them and the 5% who care enough to put a lot of energy into obstruction. None of that precludes doing the right thing, of course, but if it's not an issue you care strongly about you might decide not to fight it. The best countermeasure is for everyone else to tune out local politics less, which is an area people oddly ignore even though it has the most day to day impact on your life.
- shard972 6y ago
  Maybe they know who their voters are better than you do?

kelnos 6y ago

And the council members are so incapable of critical thought that they believe that the loud nutjobs who show up are representative of their constituents?

notJim 6y ago
Turnout can be pretty low in city elections, so the cranks may not represent their constituents, but be overrepresented among voters. For folks reading this: there are probably YIMBY or other pro-housing/infrastructure groups in your area that will tell you when to show up to meetings to fight back against this nonsense.
acdha 6y ago
The concern is more how many of those people will show up to vote against you in races which can have very small numbers of voters, and how much of a hassle they'll make for your office. If someone decides that you're part of the problem, you'll be getting lots of contacts, public records requests, etc. The things which circulate on neighborhood listserves, Facebook groups, etc. can be pretty absurd but they might break down into the 95% who don't care and ignore them and the 5% who care enough to put a lot of energy into obstruction. None of that precludes doing the right thing, of course, but if it's not an issue you care strongly about you might decide not to fight it. The best countermeasure is for everyone else to tune out local politics less, which is an area people oddly ignore even though it has the most day to day impact on your life.
shard972 6y ago
Maybe they know who their voters are better than you do?