Just to warn you, this post is going to rapidly devolve into "inside baseball" talk about Shorewood politics. So if this doesn't interest you, please hit the "back" button on your browser.
Joe Mangiamelli's post questioning whether democracy can work raises some valid points. However, his presentation of the history of the coffee patio idea for seniors needs slight modification. There are a several assertions about my own role in the process which are not entirely accurate.
Joe says this:
"I got two of the three candidates during the campaign at the last election to say that they thought a coffee patio in connection with the senior center sounded like a go idea. But I couldn't get a follow-through after the election." First off, I was one of the candidates who supported the creation of informal gathering space for Seniors at the Village Center. Since I was not elected, only one person who approved of the idea is now on the board. Jeff Hanewall never supported the idea. I would be happy to follow through on the idea, but unfortunately have no power to do so.
Secondly, there were many influences to my position that seniors need this space. I met with the head of the Senior Resource Center, Elizabeth Price, before the
2005 campaign even started. I was convinced at that time that of the need for expanded space for Senior activities. So although Joe's advocacy of this issue has been consistent, it was certainly not the only thing driving my viewpoint.
All of that aside, Joe's question of whether democracy extend past the election is certainly valid. Mike Maher talked a big game about improving parking before he was elected in 2005, but the Shorewood renters still live with the same old draconian parking regimen. Margaret Hickey talked extensively during the 2006 election about improving the Village's use of technology. But the Village website is still an embarrassment, and Village Hall is still snowed under with paper-based processes. So the question that Joe poses remains valid. Are we electing a person to do what they said they would do? Or are we just choosing who gets to hold the position for the next three years?
