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2002-08-13 - 11:28 p.m.

It has been a long time since I've heard one adult tell another adult to "Shut up." In fact, in my normal polite and civilized existence, I rarely hear anyone express strong emotions. Which is why I have been astonished at the events taking place in our neighborhood, and particularly the big neighborhood meeting Monday night.

The usual theme of the meetings is whining: complaints about crime and renters and parked cars. Complaints about the sidewalks and traffic and the city council. Complaints about how nobody takes an interest in the neighborhood (but when somebody new shows up they are greeted with suspicion). Joining the neighborhood organization seemed like the responsible thing to do when we moved here, but going to the meetings was so depressing, we always had to talk ourselves out of moving afterwards. I have backed away from it, a bit guiltily. Skootie represents our interests by being the treasurer and newsletter editor for this group. She has had the personality and persistence to win our acceptance as respected residents here, and I have hung onto her coattails, smiling and waving when necessary.

But we both attended an emergency gathering Monday night at the home of a young teacher, and so did at least fifty of our neighbors. The occasion was to take a vote on whether to support a big development project in our neighborhood. A religious institution is planning to expand their nursing home facility into an eight-story senior citizen's housing complex in what is now a small residential area. And people are angry. Nobody wants an eight-story building towering over their small two-story bungalows. And maybe more importantly, it is just the latest in a series of encroachments that keep eating up the neighborhood piece by piece.

The anxious crowd, grown too large for the house, gathered in the front yard. The vice-president of the organization bravely tried to impose some structure on the procedings by proposing a three minute limit on speakers. But that broke down as some members of the audience heckled the speakers, wasting their alloted time, and then others donated "their" three minutes to popular speakers.

There were two violently opposing factions at the meeting. A young woman, new to the area, who found out after buying her home that it would soon to be facing the monolith, was the leader of the opposition group. These were the people who just said, "We don't want it, so we are going to fight it." And they were angry because the organization had not honestly asked for the opinions of the members. It had just been presented to the neighbors as something that was going to happen. Most of the younger people were in this group and pretty much everyone on the affected block.

The other faction, in support of the development, had most of the power behind it. The wild-eyed political science professor, waving the book he wrote, and the eighty-eight year old matriarchal neighborhood president had joined forces with the project lawyer from the institution to convince the group that this was in our best interest. In short, their argument was that we need the political allies to fight off other, less scrupulous developers, and if we alienate the institution, they might sell out to somebody worse.

I've discovered there is something far scarier than a difference of opinion: when the truth or the outcome of a situation is distorted because one party thinks they know what is best for everyone else without asking. Without respecting their views enough to ask. And this is what has happened so far. Apparently there should have been votes and public hearings that just never got publicized because the neighborhood president was convinced to support the project, and she didn't want to give the members a chance to stir up any trouble.

Who is telling the truth? The lawyer and the professor and the (famous name) retired gentleman who threatened further disaster if we didn't give up and play politics?

Or the protesters who are calling their bluff? Who say we don't need any more development and the institution isn't about to sell out?

Other than the fact that I felt confused and conflicted.... the meeting was quite a display of the American way in action. And during all of this I felt kind of proud to live in such a diverse neighborhood, and be at this meeting where old, young, Hispanic, African-American, Caucasian, yuppies, apartment dwellers, gay, straight, rich and poor....had all come together in support of the neighborhood, in one way or another.

Not that it was warm and fuzzy. The man who owns the rental property next to us kept shouting everyone down. And I thought he and the professor were going to come to blows a time or two. But everyone got to have their say, even the neighborhood drunk who got up to announce that if he couldn't walk down to the liquor store, that wouldn't be right. Even the aging hippie couple who had WAY too much fun in the sixties, who babbled a disconnected monologue about Walt Disney parks and impeaching Bush.

So how do we respond? Last night I responded with my head, believing the threats of emminent doom if we didn't support it. Believeing that all these smooth talkers must know more than I. And being influenced by the fact that all the most articulate people seemed to be supporting it.

But today when we were talking to our neighbor on the sidewalk, (she of the opposition leadership), I began to visualize the giant building where I could now see the sky, and I got a sick feeling. I don't want it either. I decided it was really more important to follow my heart on this, even though I fear there is not much chance of stopping it. So I signed the petition against it. And it seems like the right thing to do.

(For another view see Paisley Piper'sentry.)

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