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this is very good; you're getting at the core of the detail that illustrates how far our City has gone over the last 20+ years to limit ' incoming communications '.

How the City runs their supposedly ' public' consultations is the ultimate demonstration in how to appear as if you're wanting to hear from the citizenry yet limit the rubrics to such an extent that the meta-message is .... " we're only interested in TELLING you all what WE have to say, not in hearing and seriously considering your input ".

Best example is that there is rarely an open mic / forum (of adequate length) atmosphere at these 'public-consultations' ... where everyone can hear the question ... AND the answers ! ie. Keep everything 'under control'. Watson was the worst .... in establishing or riding on this tendency to control the narrative and not be open to constructive comments / criticism . ( At one point even the NCC were doing the same thing.) His / this attitude seems to have infected all City staff.

Now I'm wondering how many staff are in some form of 'comms' related positions ... and are clearly now guided by the attitude of keeping the lid on things ... not finding out what the public might have to offer as ideas or critiques

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I only did one presentation to a city committee. 1 min into the process I already knew no matter what was offered they had already made up their mine & were there to look like they were interested in public in put. Shortly after that I realized you do not need the top to create a better future. All you needed was to understand a problem exists. Use community collaboration to test an innovative approach. Once shown it works. Use open source thinking to assure at sometime someone in the financial or political arena well realize why they need to help influence change. As it in the best interest of all the community not just a privileged few. The unfortunate reality of our present situation is GEN X are not problem solvers & the Gold Rush driven GDP used sense 2002 tech boom to bust cannot be fixed using 20th century horse& buggy vision or tools. But the 21st century tools are there, but donot see the vision needed to bring the system into 21st century. As that requires not changing what we humans do,but how we do it and not lose freedom of choice. That does require a country wide collaboration, that gas $$ influencing anything that limit tgeir shortterm financial gain. As not my problem is the first thing you hear. As I am in a position to demand more & give less. Has some short term benefit to the community but does create long term unsustainable problems.

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