From On the Commons:

It began with a simple enough thought: “There aren’t nearly enough people here.”

On a fall afternoon in 2007, I was attending a public meeting held by the Minneapolis Planning Department to garner citizens’ input on their latest revision to the City’s Comprehensive Plan – The Minneapolis Plan for Sustainable Growth. As President of the City Planning Commission, my charge is to steward the vision for the growth of the city as outlined in its comprehensive plan. One definition of stewardship is “a person using every talent and repeatedly sacrificing desires to do the right thing.” Wasteful actions or not doing everything possible to achieve a positive outcome is contradictory to notion of stewardship. It was the sensation of just going through the motions at this particular meeting, not really embracing the democratic notion of people shaping their own city, that struck me as wasteful. The attendance, comments, and results of meetings like this one led me to the conclusion that the planning commission wasn’t stewarding anything but the opinions of city staff and our own points of view.

I’m 40 years old. I’m a Landscape Architect and lover of all things urban. I cherish what an amazing city Minneapolis is. I know that the backbone of any true democracy or democratic process is the degree to which it embraces the notion of the commons – when people are actively engaged in crafting and influencing what belongs to them, the results are richer. I am dedicated to preserving and enhancing these qualities and methods for myself and for future generations. I’m sure many of you feel similarly about your own cities and towns. And I know that people here care about Minneapolis and, if given the opportunity to truly engage in the nitty-gritty of city building from the most grass-roots level, they will get involved. Why? Because they are already building the commons everyday—engaging in their neighborhood organizations, volunteering for charitable organizations, holding events to improve the human condition. But they were not offering input to the City of Minneapolis’ Comprehensive Plan.

WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE?
Public process as it exists today is not a desirable commons-based, inclusive, creative, bottom-up assertion of ideas by the people—although that is what it pretends to be.

It’s actually an expert-driven, one-way dissemination of ideas from the top.

What prevents us from having the citizenry engaged in planning from the outset? The answer, as Robert Reich illuminated in “The Power of Public Ideas”, goes back to the era of Woodrow Wilson and F.D.R. when “expert choice” was the preferred method for implementing policies, which even the public itself was solidly behind at that time. Public interest was deemed non-existent – it came to be seen as merely multiple groups competing for influence and power. As Reich points out, “instead of finding the common good…the new language of public management saw the task in pluralist terms – making ‘tradeoffs,’ ‘balancing’ interests, engaging in ‘policy choices,’ and weighing the costs and benefits.”

This brought us to the current process of public participation: experts ruminate on an idea; which is then crafted into a plan or policy; this policy is then drafted and given to the “public” for their “input”. But that input is limited—it is received for only short period of time, and is seen as data to be reviewed for relevance by the expert. This basically means that the decision rests with a public official, who weighs the experts’ plans and then reviews public opposition before making his or her own decision. Do you see anything wrong with this model? What I see is a process where the public’s sole role is reactive, attacking proposed changes. They have no say in actually creating the plans, no true integrated opportunity to express their ideas and visions.

WHO AM I AND WHERE DO I LIVE?

It is well established that a sense of place helps form identity. People form distinct attachments to home, neighborhood, and city. While social attachment—to the people who live in that place—is greater than physical attachment, both types of attachment to place exist.

When people chooses a place – to live, work, play – it becomes part of their personal identity. This is why the reactions are so strong about planning decisions; it’s more than just the changing of a “place”, it’s perceived to be a threat to personal identity.

When people’s identities are threatened, emotions can flare– I see this quite often at public hearings here in Minneapolis. Threats to the identity of a place triggers people to resist change. The “experts” – myself included – usually have exponentially more information at their disposal to frame their opinions and decisions than the public, which oftentimes possesses only the limited information of a staff report picked up at the beginning of the meeting. These reports often

do not include the same details of the case that are given to the experts.

A process that hinges on providing only limited information to the general public can exacerbate the frustration and heighten the emotions felt in response to the issue a hand. I believe we should all have the right (and a rite, since we also need a new vision for the rite of engagement) to interact with our governing institutions from the outset, because what is being discussed affects us all – it is based in the commons. This means, among other things, that citizens should have access to all the information that pertains to the issue. Our country was founded on the idea of the ‘commonwealth’, wealth being interpreted as ‘well-being’. This sense of common belonging – the essence of democracy – must be the starting point for a new approach to collaborative community engagement.

Robert Reich notes that bureaucracies overwhelmingly reinforce “expert opinion” because they cannot imagine a method of public engagement that would foster “an efficient way of reaching agreement in so large a crowd.” He notes that “identification of alternative solutions is primarily a technical task for which the average person has no particular competence or relevant knowledge.” This approach discourages—even disenfranchises— those who might want to participate in the process by offering fresh ideas and important insights.

As long as we continue to follow this tired old model of public engagement, the public will continue to feel indifferent, angry, and cynical.

A COMMONS-BASED APPROACH TO PLANNING

Let’s now contrast the current system with a more commons-based approach. In this approach, experts and the public begin the process together with shared ideas and collective creativity. Challenges are framed and ideas are vetted from multiple perspectives; detailed information is provided via multiple channels; threats to people’s deeply felt identity with a place are considered from the beginning and help shape the plan or policy; a draft is written by both the experts and the public together – offering recognition and fostering pride in its creation; engagement has occurred from beginning to end.

A commons-based process builds early and cross-jurisdictional collaborations to shape a shared vision. The best ideas do not always come from a lone genius or experts, but rather are an amalgam of many ideas nurtured together. If someone is truly involved, deeply and intimately, in a process they take ownership in it. It matters a lot to them that they are being taken seriously and listened to. Taking the time to do this is—to some degree—a sacrifice, as we all have busy schedules. Yet, engagement is an act of stewardship that should not be ignored.

This understanding about open-sourced ideas generating improvements in many levels of public policy is at the heart of a new commons-based participatory process for a new era. Think of the creative power possible in your neighborhood, your city, your region, when this process reaches its potential?

PUTTING NEW IDEAS INTO PRACTICE

I think it’s clear we need new ways for community involvement in important planning decisions. After the meeting where I was dismayed to see so few people, I began ruminating on what kind of new vehicle people might use to enhance and translate their love for their city and its commons into action. If my friends and neighbors could easily access a document, like the entire Minneapolis Plan for Sustainable Growth, online, at any time they desired— and if the interface was simple and easy to use—they would be more willing and able to offer their opinions. If they were given action items, and could go online to represent their thoughts after putting the kids to bed, or while they’re at a coffeehouse on Saturday morning, they would be more engaged in building their city than by coming to a 4:30 p.m. or 7 p.m. public meeting on a cold winter night after a long day of work. And if my friends (with children, with full time jobs) would do this, younger generations who have grown-up in the globally-connected, collaborative universe that is the web, would certainly embrace it.

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