[Durham INC] no ideas yet...

[Pat Carstensen]

My new line is that our ability to do things through government is as as overcommitted as the Colorado River Water (plus with the deferred maintenance, we have been doing the equivalent of mining non-replaceable aquifer water).  We hear over and over that there just isn't money for all the things we feel we need to do.  And in a lot of cases, it will cost a lot of money up front to save some money over the long term (the concrete things like making buildings more energy efficient and the less concrete things like getting more kids working at grade level so they they're not such easy prey for the gang recruiters).
One of the things I heard at the workshop last week was that citizens would be willing to pitch in to do more for themselves (and it would be neighborhood-building for neighbors to work together on some things), but government makes it too hard.  I think we need to think hard about what we have learned from Community Oriented Policing and apply it more broadly.  For example, maybe Parks and Rec needs fewer doers and more people who can organize the community to do stuff.
Regards, pat
Date: Sat, 6 Mar 2010 02:07:08 -0500
From: rwpickle at gmail.com
To: inc-list at durhaminc.org
Subject: [Durham INC] no ideas yet...

So out of this collective bunch, you mean no one has any ideas of how the City can reduce spending and save some money? That's hard to believe.
 
So you didn't like the idea of getting rid of some human assets. So let's look at physical ones. Here's something that has been mentioned. Sell some parks (we have 66 I believe). It shouldn't cause any alarm for those in Northgate, Rockwood, Forest Hills (or any of the parks built in bottoms and being mostly in a flood plain), but look at Duke Park. It's high and dry and full of beautiful mature oaks. What a pretty subdivision that would be. And there are others parks that are less desirable because of their location, yet able to be sold and developed. And then there are yet other parks that we can never come-out on selling because of the Federal funds used to buy the land (this makes it more expensive to sell them; breaking even on their sell would be lucky). How does getting rid of Duke Park sound? Hey, it's for the greater good. Perhaps employees are looking better all the time...

 
Come on folks, this is where an idea might just make the ends meet. Instead of posting ideas by a Pulitzer Prize winner (for his 3rd world economic work; he thinks  those getting unemployment checks stimulate the economy; I doubt the 15 million plus people who are unemployed think that...), brainstorm on some cost cutting measures. It all adds up! Maybe paying more taxes is fine with you; it's not with me.

 
RWP
27 Beverly 		 	   		  
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