This is some neighborhood political stuff from 2006. The LCI Study (Livable Centers Initiative) in question involves the neighborhood center of Brookhaven, which is in the northeast sector of Atlanta. The LCI Study used $80,000.00 worth of Federal tax dollars and $20,000.00 worth of DeKalb County, Georgia tax dollars to determine what the residents of the neighborhood wanted their place to look like.  The Study was promptly thrown overboard by a Miami developer who was pleading their cause before the DeKalb County Commission.  The Commission helped toss the Study over the gunnels in exchange for greater tax revenues from the developer’s oversized project.

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Long before Dilbert came onto the scene, the concept of “slacking” was a part American cultural scene, perhaps even the world’s. That is, appearing to be doing something while, in fact, not doing something is a vital key to success in Corporate America. Put otherwise, a little hard work never hurt anybody, but why take chances? For politicians, there is a similar approach. When an issue arises, it is important to be seen as actually doing something about the problem. Consider a few modern day examples:

1). The death penalty for child molesters. It is, after all, the silly season, when the political consultants spit on their hands, look at the focus group results and push their candidate into posturing before the media, exhorting us to vote for them because “They are doing something about the problem.” So, we have a candidate for governor advocating public execution of those who even the people in prison hate; never mind that getting the death penalty actually applied is nigh impossible in these modern days. But, we’re doing something.

2). Cell phone usage while having an automobile accident. [DeKalb County made it illegal to be talking on your cell phone and causing an accident as a result]. There is a portion of the population that should not be driving, much less doing so while on the phone at the same time. Clearly, this is a compelling reason for the application of the death penalty, but the practice is so pervasive that enforcement of the law in that manner would decimate the voting population. Of course, short of having a time stamped video of the accident, it’s going to be hard to prove this one in a court of law, with things devolving down to “He said” and “She said”. Now gaining telephone records through the honored social engineering skill of call “pretexting” has fallen into disgrace, so proving this will be even more difficult. So, instead, we come up with some fancy signs and a press conference. But, we’re doing something.

3). The LCI Study. The focus groups tell the politicians that people are buzzed about losing control of their neighborhoods. It’s almost like Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland; “Yeah! We’ll just do a study, right out there in the barn”. So, a bunch of people who actually care about Brookhaven get together to conduct a long series of meetings to arrive at what they want their neighborhood to look like. But, since this is a political animal, there are no enforcement provisions put in place, so it doesn’t matter what people came up with once a big developer with deep pockets shows up in the neighborhood. But, we’re doing something.

4). DeKalb Neighborhood Overlay Ordinance. This hot little idea came about when the Hillside neighborhood and others were under siege from the McMansion marketers. The idea was that the neighborhoods would determine what they wanted the houses being built to look like. I asked a politico “Who determines the limits of the neighborhoods?” Her answer was that the neighborhoods themselves determine that; which is really pretty vague. In my feeble mind, this would mean that Ashford Park could lay claim to Brookhaven Fields, telling us what they wanted. So, do you see a pattern developing here? But, we’re doing something.

So, eventually the silly season will pass and we can all get back to whatever it is that the occupy ourselves with. But, we’re just another press conference away from another political “solution”.