Photo of the second round table on Friday morning: once again, zero attendance.
The city of Winnipeg drove the final nail in the coffin of "public consultation" today, when the inaugural "Round Table" feedback session for the vaunted 25 year development plan Our Winnipeg drew ZERO humans to Red River College on Princess.
When local publisher Bob Axford and I walked into the room today to cover the event, all the attendees were dressed as empty chairs. Not a soul had crossed the threshhold, save for 2 city planners involved with the SpeakUp Winnipeg project.
Neither of them could answer basic questions, such as:
* Who is responsible for scheduling the meeting with less than 24 hours notice to the public?
* Why are the Round Tables all scheduled within the next 6 days, and only during working hours so that people with real jobs can't be heard?
* Why did 311 not have any information about the Round Table or Information Open House session tonight at RRC, beyond that the city had rented the hall?
Today's session was intended to discuss "Creativity", or the role of the Arts, in the future of the city.
Maybe the city could have started by finding some creative way to turn bureaucratese into comprehensible English rather than planner bafflegab and airy-fairy fuzzy feel-good buzzwords.
This should have been the most well-attended round table, given the central location within a 5 minute minute walk of the creative/artists class that populate the adjacent Exchange and South Point Douglas enclaves.
Instead, we have seen the true agenda of the administration laid bare.
They do not want feedback from the taxpaying working class; the phony "consultation" process, perfected with the Disraeli Bridge and Bike Lane shams, is a tool wielded by unaccountable bureaucrats to give cover to councillors and the Mayor, who can say it is not their fault when no one shows up.
In fact, it IS their fault. THEY are responsible for the City holding a series of important meetings about the future of our city at the onset of summer, and expecting residents to choose on short notice (if they even found out about the meetings at all) to drop everything to be able to have their say.
RELATED POSTS:
http://www.chrisd.ca/blog/24459/our-winnipeg-public-consultations-empty-room-photos/
http://progressivewinnipeg.blogspot.com/2010/05/our-winnipeg-draught-dripdripsomethings.html
More from Graham Hnatiuk :
“Some of the staff were arrogant, condescending, unknowledgeable, treated people with legitimate questions or concerns with dismay or GUFFAW. Yes, I just made the word GUFFAW into a verb… Our Winnipeg? No. Not yet anyway. It’s Our Winnipeg’s Winnipeg.
Time to burst that bubble you guys are living in. You guys have to be able to answer these questions. They are legit. To deny or refuse to answer questions like the ones I’ve raised is not acceptable. Some of you guys would be awful poker players.”
Next week: Councillor Harvey Smith; all about Scouting; and more Parking Authority bullying of city businesses and parkers.
