A well-regarded visionary in online content creation wrote me the following in regard to using a voting system to determine principles and attributes for the City of The Future.
Experts can and should participate in the dialogue, of course. And
their opinions should be given higher weight. But actual voting
introduces some bad game theoretic dynamics not conducive to good outcomes.Consider your sink. It’s clogged up. Are you going to call 3 plumbers
and have them vote on what to do? Or are you going to call 3 plumbers
and make a rational judgment based on the arguments that they put forward?
I am not sure where I stand on the matter just yet. An alternative approach to expert “mass” voting would be a Panel of Judges with mass input…
These comments suggest you’re leaning toward an electoral system, where every individual votes but final decisions would be made by a select group of electorate representatives.
Consider the Federalist Papers, then take these components from conception forward with some of the new tools of technology.
My question is ‘What is the purpose of the selection process.’
If assessing popularity is the goal, then mass voting is the tool.
If identifying creative planning strategies is the goal, then some panel of experienced, visionary planning professionals would provide insight.
If the goal is to build the city, then voting with dollars by potential developers may be the right evaluation tool.
Or possibly, this process could be multi-staged, with a public vote to begin, followed by expert comments and then a search for investors.
Also, are you familiar with the Sonoma Mountain Village development in Sebastopol? It is an ultra green project that is in the permitting stage right now. http://www.sonomamountainvillage.com/home.htm
Since the 60s, planners and enviros in Calif has been fighting a losing battle against sprawl. The latest effort focuses on voluntary regional ‘blueprints’ for growth that are based around infill and transportation. The prognosis is not great, but last year’s Climate Change legislation, AB32, has added a new dimension to the political dynamic.
The time may be ripe for a web based effort by locals to hold local governments accountable for their development practices. The short term financial goals of most developers and the lack of viable community response have created our current unsustainable land use practices. With global warming as a new organizing principle, perhaps it is time to empower local citizens with the tools to force better decisions by local governments. Computer tools exist to measure GHG impact of sprawl, so a few experts could equip any web user with the analysis needed to evaluate the sustainability of local land use decisions.
I know working on ‘remodeling’ is not as sexy as starting with bare earth, but ultimately, that is the real challenge we face to become a sustainable society.
Keep up the interesting work!
I have been following Sonoma Mountain Village for about a year… we actually took a drive out there in December, but didn’t look like much was happening at the time.