The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good

As I am sure you have noticed, the island is now populated by more litter on a stick.  This sign can be found on every street corner on the island.

And you know what?  I’m ok with it.  Council just spent 6 years coming up with a parking plan.  Six Years!  Why did it take so long?  Because they truly were trying to find the Holy Grail.  That is, a plan that would work and that would not offend anyone.  If you think this is easy, you need to run for office.

And all the complaining you are now hearing about the signs is exactly why no one runs for office.  The last 2 elections have been uncontested.  Despite the huge amount of hard work council put into this, a vocal minority wants to find the one perceived problem and pile on.

Remember, this plan is not carved in stone.  What many many people said about parking was, “Just do something, anything.  If there are problems, changes can be made.”  Sounds pretty reasonable to me.

Well, Sandy “Fiscal” Ferencz started to complain about all the signs.  She was able to lure Jimmy Ward and JimDaddy Carroll onto her cause.  So, at this point the plan is all set and ready to go.  And, oh yes, already paid for.

But wait, what about all these signs?  Well, they have been in the plan all along.  But if you read councilmembers’ comments in the newspaper and on social media they seem to claim they did not know there would be so many signs.  Mayor Cronin told them the plans have been available all along.  Hmmm.  So, let me get this straight.  Council does not even know what is going on.  Is it any wonder that the average citizen is totally in the dark?

See my earlier postings on the non-transparency of city government and how it could easily be fixed.

But, back to the issue at hand.  Someone got the brilliant idea of starting a petition drive to get the signs removed.  By methods unbeknownst to me, JimDaddy nabbed Jeff Evans, and got him to go door to door.  JimDaddy took the easier route and said if you were interested in signing the petition he had a copy in his office!

Having been involved in a huge petition drive I can tell you this:  If the signer has to come to you, you ain’t gonna get many signatures!  To mount a successful petition drive requires a large number of committed people and a lot of time.

All of which tells me this drive is going nowhere and it is probably already over.  Which is good.  If you are going to put effort into a petition drive you need to make sure it is for something really important, like monster mini-hotels taking over the island in the areas zoned for residential living.

A petition drive to get some signs removed is just not worth the effort.  And as Mayor Cronin noted, if it proves the signs are too much or not necessary, council can look at taking them down.

Thank goodness for the adult, clear thinker in the room.