“Only a fool would assume they won’t abuse their power.” Don’t we know it. It seems like wisdom has become old fashioned – with so many cautionary tales about people who expect to retain power while renouncing their authority; and those who give over their authority for the promise of thoughtless ease – it’s surprising that today’s uber-naive demand that their government act responsively; when they’ve already given up the power to demand anything.
“Form Based Codes: If you think they’re not authoritarian; Try to get them changed.” Form Based Codes have the following attributes:
1. They give government a much greater regulatory power over where and how people are allowed to live.
2. Developers get a “streamlined” approval process.
3. Most descriptions of the advantages of form-based codes are only statements without any actual proof.
Are Form Based Codes right for your community? Do you wear a sign on your back that says “Kick me!”?
“Times Change • But for the better?” The Adolescent Society is all pride and prevarications – so when they tell you they’re doing this so that things will be better in the future – they are only thinking about what they want now. “If you buy me a dog; I’ll take care of it.” Maturity and responsibility are Adult traits.
“Ethnic mix” was for everybody — today’s “Ethnic purity” is a proud doctrine of privilege and hate – argued for a future that is only an excuse; not a goal.
Everybody I respect; from Abraham Lincoln to Frederick Douglass, from Mother Teresa to Malcolm X: believed that the Only way to achieve a future of human worth and equality was by never practicing discrimination.
They weren’t fools. Human nature hasn’t changed; and these were smart people; people who heard a lifetime of arguments and pronouncements telling them that they should turn from that path – even if only a little bit, or just for a while – and they refused.
Does this mean you are walking on a different path? Yes, and if you think you’re heading to the same destination – just look who you’re on that path with. And clean up your room.
It’s an age where people don’t need to know what they’re talking about – only that it needs to conform to what they are supposed to say. When this book is finished and available; even with all the documentation – many people will see it as an attack on their beliefs – without reading it – and without thinking. It’s “fake” news, “fake” facts, “fake” something.
This unthinking mob of adolescent adults may be useful for politicians and corporations – but it’s a one-trick-pony where survival is concerned. They need to see a disaster movie screenplay where they are not selected as the designated survivors; because no one survives.
Today’s government policies read like a man who jumped off the roof of a hundred-story building and as he passed the 79th floor was heard to say: “All right, so far!” We’re falling to place most people can’t imagine; and are not being told about. Parachutes made from recycled plastic bottles will only give you a soft landing into a toxic sea, breathing unsupportable air.
I won’t live that long — but here’s a thought: maybe the building is only 50 floors . . . or twenty five. Think “fake” extinction.
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TOWN OF LANSING COMPREHENSIVE PLAN
Part 1
Home Invasion
The rural Town of Lansing is racing ahead to be the “the growth part of the Tompkins County area,” but when you look around; there’s no competition in sight — so why are they doing this?
Nothing shows the duplicitous agenda of Tompkins County government as clearly as their treatment of housing. This essay will examine housing policy statements in both the Tompkins County Comprehensive Plan, and the Cornell-written Town of Lansing Comprehensive Plan.
Ithaca has been simultaneously listed as both “the best destination for students” in the American Institute of Economic Research’s list of the best college towns in the country, and as #11 in the Top 20 cities with the “least affordable rents” by the New York Times.
With its high rents, high taxes, and lack of housing already forcing 80% of their workers to live outside the City, how can Ithaca attract new businesses and provide affordable housing while keeping College revenues up and protecting those low-density, high rent urban neighborhoods with that “small town feeling” students and professors love?
Answer: Force another municipality to build the affordable housing that your workers need, and let them shoulder the cost of the schools and services; while you keep the businesses and spending in your upscale, “small town” Ithaca.
Create a “vision,” for Tompkins County and use all of your credentials and influence to sell it directly to another town government – and by the time the town’s residents wake up to what’s happening; it’s too late.
The Tompkins County Comprehensive Plan’s backers heavily and aggressively promote the creation of an “Urban Center” and “Development Focus Areas”:
“The Urban Center includes portions of the City of Ithaca, the Towns of Ithaca and Lansing, and the Villages of Cayuga Heights and Lansing and is the largest of the Development Focus Areas.”
“It is envisioned in the future at least two-thirds of all new residential development would occur in the Development Focus Areas.”
The following excerpts from the comprehensive plans of the “Urban Center” municipalities gives a clearer picture of how this residential development will actually be shared:
Village of Lansing Comp Plan: “All HDR [High Density Residential/Multi-Family] parcels in the Village have been developed.”
Village of Cayuga Heights Comp Plan: “For the purpose of land use analysis, the County plan . . . anticipates no major changes for the Village in the coming decades.”
City of Ithaca Comp Plan: “No significant changes to the character of low-density residential areas are proposed.” “No significant changes to the character of medium-density residential areas are proposed”
Town of Ithaca Comp Plan: “The HDR–High Density Residential zone accommodates detached and semi-detached (duplex) residences in a medium density setting. . . Only 136 acres, or 0.7% of the Town, is zoned HDR.”
Town of Lansing Comp Plan:
“From these residential housing maps, we can see that the area of South Lansing, which runs along Triphammer and Warren Roads, is currently unaffordable for the majority of people within the region. However, due to close proximity to jobs, shopping and the university it would make for an ideal location for housing, which would provide the opportunity for people to earn a living and spend less than the 30% threshold for affordability.”
Since the rural Town of Lansing is the farthest municipality in the County’s new “urban center” – 8 miles – from Cornell and Ithaca’s business and shopping: arguing this development on the basis of its “close proximity” and “ideal location” is more than a misrepresentation.
“By creating compact neighborhoods of high population density, TCAT would be more likely to expand into this area and thereby making housing more affordable by eliminating the costs of additional vehicles and associated transportation.”
How can you argue to expand mass transit into a new area; when you already have an existing transit system and great walkability in an urban area with endless housing redevelopment potential? An area that has the jobs and businesses that these relocated workers would need to be bused many extra miles to get to.
“Housing expansion in the form of new developments and PUD’s will result in increased traffic and the need to expand roads and/or mass transit to accommodate the resulting increase in population. As with municipal water and sewer, the logical choice would be to gradually expand out from the village into the area of South Lansing and eventually further north.”
[PUDs are “Planned Unit Developments” – a term used to describe a housing development that is not subject to standard zoning requirements for the area – a further erosion of any community control.]
Since the Town of Lansing will need to “create neighborhoods,” “expand roads,” and add “municipal water and sewer” to their infrastructure, as well as being miles further away from Ithaca’s job and business center than any other municipality in the County’s “Urban Center” plan — how could this ever be considered the best planning solution for Tompkins County?
Town of Lansing 2018 Comprehensive Plan’s “Proposed Future Land Uses”: depicts thousands of acres that will be zoned for apartments and condominiums. Tompkins County and “Lansing’s” government plan to turn a once rural town into the largest and most concentrated collection of housing developments in the region.
“The construction of a new four-lane highway on the outskirts of Ithaca, NY created a rapidly growing commercial center in the previously rural Town of Lansing. The clash between the newcomers and the old-timers over the direction and pace of this change led to the formation of a new local government and the incorporation of the Village of Lansing.” – Lansing at the Crossroads: A Partisan History of the Village of Lansing, New York, Rita Smidt
Incomers from Ithaca and Cornell continued to move into what was left of rural Lansing; creating a large urban sprawl bedroom community and gradually taking over the town’s government and planning. Finding a loophole from an old agreement to share municipal Highway Dept. services: that allowed residents of the Village of Lansing to vote in the Town of Lansing’s elections without any reciprocity – they blanketed the Village’s streets with election signs calling themselves the candidates “For All of Lansing” — there were no ethical qualms about having residents from a different municipality, with a very different viewpoint, voting into office a Town Board that would radically change the community they had historically “clashed” with. The plan worked.
It’s the Fall of 2021; and upcoming elections for Lansing’s Town Board – a sign in the Village of Lansing:
PLEASE VOTE!
Village of Lansing
residents
vote in
Lansing Town Elections
First Tuesday in November
After all; isn’t this in line with the ethics and actions already demonstrated by Tompkins County government itself?
The “Urban Center/Development Focus Area/Rural Sprawl” housing agenda that County Planners concocted for the Town of Lansing is an example of everything that’s wrong with the “City-centric” planning of Tompkins County today:
• Academic credentials at the service of vested interests.
• Adopting a lesser plan to appease a greater master.
And maybe what’s even worse; in a college “destination” with such smug pretensions of being a seat of learning and illumination — it’s intellectually dishonest.
In Tompkins County; it’s not just government above the people – it’s government against the people. Public participation is a smokescreen of meaningless ceremonies; and anyone who tries to pierce its obfuscations runs into a bulwark of bureaucratic defense. Bringing about change from the public sector is more than difficult; it’s practically impossible. If you don’t bring big money or power to the table – you can’t sit in on the game.
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CHIPPING AWAY AT BUREAUCRACY
(Condensed from the series in Cornithaca County)
Most people would probably agree that government help would be better with more of the “help” and less of the “government.” Our government is quick to proclaim the good of everything it does; and just as quick to find fault with anything that threatens its power.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a job that only requires you to work on problems, not to solve them? This the job description our government has written for itself.
Lines of Defense
If you have ever tried to question policy decisions, stop legislation, or just find out what’s going on in your local government; you’ve probably come up against a formidable array of bureaucratic barriers.
The following is a list of the most common defenses, and the order in which they are usually applied:
1. Discredit the Person
2. Discredit the Facts
3. Discredit the Situation
4. It’s Legal Anyway
“Lines of Defense” will discuss these techniques and give examples of how they are used to sap the energy of any opposition.
The essay will also cover four authoritarian attitudes you will encounter: “The Silence,” “The Refusal,” “The Referral,” and “The Questioning.”
It’s a battle where every time you type in a letter, they can hit the “backspace” button.
In our government’s protective reflex to swat away any annoyance, its first response is to “Discredit the Person” who is causing the trouble.
This is an action that I’m quite familiar with. [See Deadly Drift] After being sprayed with Roundup by an agricultural boom sprayer while mowing my lawn on a windy day [and vomiting up my stomach all over the bathroom floor that night]; I made a compliant to the NYSDEC with the following result:
Their report, that required a FOIL request to access, claimed I was “politically active against farming” even though I had rented the field being sprayed to a farmer for more than 25 years, and found my actions suspicious – leaving it open that I was lying or somehow at fault myself. None of the factual data, such as the wind speed on the day of a herbicide drift complaint, was ever addressed. The report ended with “case closed!”
When it comes to discrediting the facts that conflict with and undermine government policy making decisions; authorities can choose from a number of passive and proactive methods. A bureaucratic favorite is to present the public with background information that deliberately misrepresents, and even omits key facts; in order to validate their chosen course of action.
In their Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs): Preventing HABs public document; the NYSDEC never once mentions agriculture as a source of nutrient pollution, although it contributes more than four times the nutrient pollution of every other source combined to the waters of the Finger Lakes – employing terms like “exactly predict” and “fully understand” to justify this deliberate omission.
They do mention that “the amount of nutrients can be decreased by: Limiting lawn fertilization” and “Maintaining septic tanks” – that contribute less than 1% to the nutrient pollution total.
If getting government authorities to admit the facts is difficult; getting them to accurately report a situation and make appropriate policy decisions is almost impossible. Not only do they occupy a “high ground” that allows them to cite everything from jobs to jurisprudence as an excuse; they can change the ground rules to suit their objectives.
A good example can be found in New York’s Finger Lakes, where the region’s most powerful interests are allowed to do almost all of the polluting. Since cleaning up the lakes would restrict the operations and profits of these interests; authorities have decided on a policy that merely maintains the pollution at a profitable level – a level that retains just some of the uses of these lakes. A Total Daily Maximum Load [TMDL] of pollution will be decided, and then divided among these interests, who will “try” to meet the target goals. [Cornell: one of the larger polluters, and heavily tied to agricultural interests, will establish the TDML – so all the “pollution-reduction” planning can be kept comfortably “in-house.”]
This policy will cause many rural people to lose the lakes as a source of drinking water, but all the important residents [and decision makers] are on municipal water anyway; and taxes will be levied to make sure they get the proper treatment.
An important part of today’s regulatory process is how well it works to protect the interests of those who are regulated. Our government continually legislates ineffectual environmental regulations; that effectively protect the polluters.
The media never questions or exposes the laws that have been created to allow polluters to knowingly and repeatedly cause harm to people and the environment. The following court decision concerns an incident took place only a few miles from my house:
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [Mather v. Willet Dairy] in finding against plaintiffs suffering from the effects of manure off-gassing that included brain damage in one child and required surgical removal of eyelids in an adult commented that the laws “may be inadequate for ensuring the safety of our environment and for protecting citizens from serious injury. But that is the remedy that Congress has provided and to which we are bound.”
Willet Dairy was shielded by its “permit shield” from any citizen suits – the rural victims were shielded by nothing.
The Questioning: This is the point in the denial process where the experienced bureaucrat launches a barrage of questions; trying to find fault with anything in your argument, while looking for a handle they can use. If you find yourself the focus of authoritarian questions, ask some yourself: like “If this is an accurate description of the situation and these facts are confirmed; what can you do to help us correct it?” This may give you a little breathing room. [Be sure to have your own questions ready.]
The Refusal: When power is concentrated like it is in Tompkins County, it stands untouchable. No matter how much evidence is gathered, no matter how much misconduct is involved, the County’s elite can slam the door shut on any activist: They refuse to investigate, they refuse to enforce the law, they refuse acknowledge, they refuse to start, they refuse to stop; they just refuse — and what can you do about that?
“The Silence” and “The Referral” are classic bureaucratic tools for frustrating any troublemaker who upsets the smooth flow of government routine. You may be taking time out of your life, but this is their life, and they’re being paid for every minute they delay, equivocate, or redirect. It’s not surprising that you may keep leaving unanswered voicemails, texts, and emails and they are “out of the office until. . .” or “in a meeting” so regularly when you show up in person or try to work your way up the departmental ladder — a bureaucrat who does nothing is doing nothing wrong. And when you have finally caught up with the fugitive functionary; all the sweat of your effort may be turned to ice by “The Referral.”
It takes only a few seconds and a few words to send you off to fill out additional forms, lobby higher-ups for their approval, or to track down someone in some other department who is even more inaccessible and difficult to get in touch with. I have had the experience of being passed around in an inescapable circle of referrals; back to the same office and the same person I started with weeks before.
“The Referral” can be the most difficult of all obstacles to overcome.
“Scientific protocols: Don’t protect us from harm – They protect scientists from accountability.” An important part of today’s regulatory process is how well it works to protect the interests of those who are regulated. We are a country filled with ineffectual environmental regulations; that effectively protect the polluters. Methods that “sustainably catch” the one kind of fish; while they are devastating to another. The slippery-sliding codes of “USDA Organic.” “Voluntary guidelines” and “Best” practices – best for who? Science’s disastrous history of the importation and introduction of already existing species; has in no way reduced their willingness to create and release new organisms of unknown potentialities and repercussions. So don’t look at it as putting your fingers in a grinder — look at it as getting a free multi-articulating myoelectric prosthetic hand. The road to hell is paved with good credentials.
Why? Because I like to write poetry; and because this book is about thinking, and doing, and creating. Society is what people do – Art is what people are.
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Reasonable Rhymes
I
They’re all blameless
In a sea of sameness
II
The more they say
The less they do
If there’s a way
It’s up to you
III
We read
Jack Keats
He knowed
What is ode
IV
Pity
Recently divorced
Smiles like the rhyme is forced
Wherefore one not married yet
Deal in sadness
Non regretted
V
Scientific studies
Created for consumption
Fit within
A paper thin
Prerogative presumption
VI
They’re cunning as weasels
And slicker’n snot
But compassionate humans
Is one thing they’re not
VII
Politicians re-recount
To obfuscate our doom
Like a pack of pachyderms
That fill the anteroom
Cornell is a closed system. They act on; instead of interacting with those around them. We are the materials that they use to create their “vision” — and remake our lives. All roads lead to Ithaca [or Cornithaca] – there is no other way. One Thought – One Taught — One Voice – One Choice: and none of them are ours.
They were “going to die soon anyway” – “it’s culling the herd” – “it’s the nursing homes” – “they’re wallets” – “it’s due to pre-existing conditions” – it’s politics without ethics or compassion; anything to minimize it and rationalize it — it’s not who dies; it’s what you’re worth in our eyes.
Need vaccine? Fill out the form. Are you an Easter Islander? No? Then just mark “white.” Check the box if you’re “someone who has a sexual fetish for dolls that were made between 1903 and 1908” – it’s good to see we have our priorities straight; as we’re spinning down the YouTubes to an all-chomping reality that doesn’t give a shit.
“Tompkins County: A college destination with the sort of moral compass that lands people a spot on American Greed.” If you lived here you would know. It’s become filled with the sort of people who see making a better world, and making things better for themselves as the same thing. People whose sense of entitlement takes a cut off the top – to the cheers of an imagined appreciative audience. Autocratic Rulers in a crumbling democracy. Laughable in their denials – deadly in their acts.