Accountability

HayDuke and I are in absolute agreement that it is great to see a reporter actually fact check. As HayDuke says:

Flier reporter Nate Sandstrom has earned my respect for actually reporting the facts, rather than just repeating dubious claims verbatim. More like this, please.

Reading both of Nate’s articles on the candidates forum also highlights that the number one issue of this election will most likely be zoning/development, which is something I tried to get across to several of the candidates last fall. Zoning and community planning has the greater impact on voters day to day lives than any other issue. It is the leading factor in how long we are stuck in traffic, how easy it is for us to shop where we want to shop, how difficult it is to find parking at our house or where we shop, how crowded our kids schools are, whether those who work in our community can afford to live here, whether those who grew up in our community can afford to stay here, and, as James Rouse has shown us, on the character and values of the children who grow up here. The design of a development can have a huge impact on whether it divides sections of the community or brings people together and builds community. And of course the design of a community has an impact on the health and accessibility of nature in our community as well as an impact on the likelihood of crime in our community.

I was glad to see many of the candidates recognized the importance of accountability to the voters in the zoning process and want to keep the Zoning Board elected. A couple months ago I responded to HayDuke saying that impartiality was a myth when dealing with zoning by saying:

HayDuke declares “impartiality is a myth” when dealing with zoning and I could not agree with him more. I will add that though it is impossible to have impartiality in such matters, but you can have accountability. If the final decision rests with an elected Zoning Board ultimately the voters can keep the zoning process accountable to the citizens through the ballot box.

I went on in a later post to explain further:

There is no such thing as impartiality with such things as zoning decisions, but we can have accountability. That is if the zoning board is elected the voters can hold them accountable. That is the only way the public can have a voice in this very important process. The more the zoning board is separated from the voters the less voice the public will have and the more likely back room deals with developers will be able to go on unchecked. Let’s not throw out accountability in the search for the mythical notion of impartiality.

It is good to see that some candidates are realizing this. Hopefully the others will wake up and recognize that accountability must be the cornerstone of our zoning process.