The Problem With Participatory Democracy
With the wife out of town, I did something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I attended a Village Board Meeting.
The hot topic tonight under the Citizen’s Comments portion of the agenda was a plea for the village to remove No Left Turn signs on Eastbound Central Avenue. It turns out these people are upset because they enjoyed using the side streets to head toward downtown Arlington Heights. Put another way - they were shortcuts through residential areas.
The residents of the so-called, Triangle Area in question, petitioned for and got these signs put up and now people are perturbed that they have to go around to Arlington Heights Road or New Wilke Road to head North rather than use these roads. We’ll ignore the fact that they still have to bolt across Kirchoff (which is pretty busy in its own right) to do what they’re talking about.
In another first, I spoke at the meeting and called them on it. I told the board something to the effect of “You guys have gotten beaten up pretty good tonight. You’ll think twice before you take away peoples’ shortcuts next time.”Â
I was a little nervous (I have got to work on my public speaking skills over the next few years) and continued on saying that if I lived on those streets - which have experienced a 50% increase in traffic volume since the hospital expansion - that I might take matters into my own hands and start whipping water balloons at the extra cars. These streets are chock-full of single-family homes and I wouldn’t want my kids exposed to needless traffic from people looking for a short cut. That was my point, but I don’t think I came off very well.
You can see my so-so performance on Arlington Cable Channel 17.
Oh well. Next meeting is in two weeks.