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Lance, you seem to labor under the delusion that all advisements by ANCs are useful, and you don't know what "great weight" means, I think because you probably don't understand math. They should not be used as a forum to veto the workings of the city. When the opinion of an ANC is worth "zero," then even attaching "great weight" to such an opinion, the value is still zero. Until agencies like ABRA and DDOT are willing to take an ANC vote and say, "this opinion of the ANC is to be disregarded as rubbish," then they're just passing the buck. And note that this has happened in the past: ABRA can take the opinion of the ANC into account and decide differently than the vote of the ANC. Which is what DDOT should have done in this case.

As I said: ANCs are a holdover from a misguided era 35 years ago when people thought hyper-local rule and hyper-local "community input" would lead to better governance. That hasn't happened.

ANCs are not 100% negative, but there is no reason for them to exist. At best they should serve as a quaint forum for people to express their provincial opinions as "community leaders" so that they can feel like they "had a voice." Their interference in the operations of DDOT in providing infrastructure was not only unreasonable but provided an undue burden on the rest of the community. There's no reason that some self-important idiot in Georgetown should prevent someone from Dupont Circle from having a place to park his Bikeshare bike. If you have a problem with what DDOT is doing, then talk to the mayor or your city council member: or have your ANC member do that. But the interests of the city over the opinion of some member of the ANC, must be paramount. You, Lance, simply don't understand that at all.

by JustMe on Oct 25, 2010 10:51 pm • link • report