OCR Text |
Show Guest Editorial From Your Editor Participation by residents in community programs which committees and boards. They are affect their lives brings about provided, not who runs the conflict and tensions. The reason for this is that no longer can the professional control the goals and program. Nationally, elections for such posts often draw less than 10 of the community as managmenet of programs voters. services. To realization by the community that the advisory committee does not have any real power or influence over the program. Board members are angerly designed to provide basic human look at how community participation usually evolves we need to define the by both professionals and residents. In stage one, we generally find a stages gone through group of professional people who have identified a community need, organized a program to fulfill that need and obtained funding for establishing the program. At this point, the professional orga nization, which may sincerely believe in community participation, wants to create such participation concerned about services The next stage is the criticized and the professionals try to hide the fact that they really want to run the whole show themselves. often are very organizationally skilled, articulate and verbal sensible working relationship. If the latter develops, we have a people. But their selection to serve on an advisory board does not involved the great majority of the community's population or n of represent a wide opinions and ideas. Many people community organization that is not merely window-dressinIs this the happy ending? No, because we are still faced with the fact that about 95 of the community has no influence on "instantly. community organization" attracts and finds inevitably those community people who are active in other projects, hold leadership positions or have strong polictical or idealogical motivations. This provides a passive, , grateful which committee advisory window-dressing- sanctions what has already been planned by the professionals. cross-sectio- in the community and urban centers and particularly in the poorer sections are too busy struggling for survival dealing with problems like getting jobs, food, housing - and have little interest in serving on in -- g, g. experience in the organizational system, in decision- - making, identification of problems and processes for arriving at solutions. priorities than middle-clas- By Steve ecology There must be modification, changes, or even giving up some of the priorities in order to truly serve the people in the community. People who are concerned with survival are going to be worried about that before they are concerned with other automobile as beautiful red sunsets are really Bituminous retributions of a striving to keep the economy going. Once in awhile an inadvertent lump even forms in our throats as we gaze across what was a beautiful valley, the samelumpthat cuts the laughter when someone tells us of a river a program on a community. The poor know what their needs are and what their priorities are and they are demanding to be a part of the planning, implementation and monitoring of programs designed to serve them. It won't be an easy road but the end result - better services for people in need - will be well worth the effort. that caught fire. What we don't see, although it's there, is a new attitude that in itself is at least as polluting as these, and maybe more: it's the great Ecology Race. learned of the race by accident one day as a friend and were starting out to climb a nearby peak located on the east I I WANTED bench of our valley. As we approached the trail to begin our hike we were met by a "No Trespassing, Private Property" needs or priorities to those Senior Citizens sign of ominous importance. controllingthe program. Effective, local community to attend Re checking our Parks Service map of trails in the area we participation cannot accomplsihed overnight or with Publication of the Model of City and County offices located at 151 East 21st South, Building No. 4, Salt Lake City, Utah 841 15. ication of the newspaper is weekly with a distribution of 20,000 copies. Commissioners with editorial Publ Marlene Marie Young, Editor and Community Information Specialist Distribution by Reliable Courier Kirk Terry, Staff Reporter Roger Taylor, Staff Reporter and Photographer Steve Varley, Staff Reporter and Photographer Ralph Y. McClure, Chairman Phillip R. Blomquist Stephen Harmsen Conrad Harrison Jennings Phillips William E. Dunn Redwood Service Center new "Private" around. Well, we had both seen our share of James Bond movies so we decided to take the law into our hands and "trespass" past a well "signed" area up to the trail. To no avail. Within two minutes we were again face to face with a brand-nelocked gate bulging Lunch by Reservation: 466-875- 5 Cost per plate: 60 cents Tuesdays - 12:00 noon Reservations by Monday FREE BINGO WITH PRIZES Don't be left out! estates that apparently didn't want us News is made, possible through a grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Joint Board of Commissioners decided to try down the road a little further. Same thing! We tried again, this time way up the road. Same thing again! The foothills were covered with large a mods! neighborhood news volume one Neighborhood -- weekly luncheon at be w with more "No Trespassing, -- Violators will be Prosecuted!" signs. "They can't do that," my friend said, "this is America." It seemed impossible to ever get to the mountain. We gave up and drove to Alta where there are some very nice campsites. At least there would be none of that sign business up there . It's a National Forest. WHAT? Is it possible that these people have completely taken over the entire Earth? We had arrived at one of my all-tim- e campsites only to find new houses, summer homes, future condominums, and the highest form of exasperation: fences with locks and "No favorite Trespassing" signs. Apparently land speculators, in their finite wisdom, had seen fit to sell off a little more of Mother Nature to those who could pay the price. They had taken public its noxious fumes, that those by organization can impose heaven-sen- t blessings. We know now that the automobile is killing us off with gone when an is The vast informational launched to make us aware of air pollution and water pollution seem to be working. We no longer think of a large family and the professionals. professionals. The day is. and advertising campaigns s priorities established Varley Everyone knows what is no organized way to indicate its salt lake News is a publication of the Salt Lake Model Cities Agency under the supervision of the Joint Board need, also, training and the program. There the initial act of creating The Model Neighborhood - urban poor, often have different These community participants "instant e. professional organization to offer the community group a greater share in the formulation of "broad, general policy." does little to satisfy the Ecology Race community Citizens - recipients of the services offered by professionals Citizens, particularly the This The Great citizen's board. It takes conflict, hard work, a willingness on both sides to come to agreements and, most importantly, a sincere belief on the part of professionals that active, real citizen participation is imperative. There also needs to be an effective way to obtain feed-bac- k and input from the The usual response is for the community because the real power of controllingthe jobs, the money and the budget remains with the professionals. The result of stage two is an angry, polarized divisive conflict between the two groups. The object of the effort - a program to serve people - is lost in the name-callinyelling and charges of failure by both sides. Two things then happen, either the program becomes inoperable and stops, or the two groups sit down and painfully hammer out a This . . . campgrounds and turned them into new sources of short-rang- e profit by selling property to people who apparently can't enjoy something without owning it and keeping others out. That is the new form of pollution, the great ecology race; the race to get some for yourself before it's all gone (if you can imagine the logic in that!). People became convinced that ecology was a good deal and wanted it so badly they went out and bought some. The "escape" and "getaway" commercials have set an odious precident. After all, what could be more American than "buying yourself" out of a mess. Or, how can a person enjoy something, really enjoy it, unless he can own it and put up his own sign? Remember this all started with the idea that we should get together to STOP pollution. The ecological campaigns have been more than successful. People want natural land with its built-i- n beauty and some, ignorant of the effects they're causing, are able to obtain this land easily. The "get involved" advertisements worked for them; only it worked in reverse. don't think they have any idea of what they are doing. Well, what does the gigantic race mean to public land rip-of- f you? The shortrange planning of what remaining natural beauty there is surrounding us will be exploited cheaply and fast. Not only does that mean it's not accessible to you and right now, it means forever. We'll never have I I those bright, flower-covere- d hillsides in Alta back again once they've been taken. What it amounts to few people taking advantage of rights that belong to thousands. How does it affect you? These are your rights: yours and your childrens. Your children will pay more heavily than you will. is a |