Public process ain’t what it used to be
In her latest post on the Planetizen blog, Barbara discusses how public process has changed since the “good old days.”
Two famous quotes from Robert Moses—“Once you sink that first stake, they’ll never make you pull it up” and “Those who can, build, those who can’t, criticize”— sum up the attitude toward public process in those days. In other words, these guys built their reputations on getting something done. Bacon and Moses did not give much attention or credence to the public’s reaction to a project until it was complete—i.e., too late to matter.
But times change, and many recent projects have gone ahead and sunk that first stake only to have to pull it back up again.