Valentine for democracy

Today in Healdsburg, too many locals can no longer afford a place to live. The promise of the American Dream remains elusive for all but the few, in a system that seems rigged toward the top.
But democracy ― through local participation and vigilance ― can create more fair policies aimed at righting this unhealthy imbalance; without citizen involvement it’s all but a broken promise. This is why I attend city council meetings. Community members may speak for three minutes during “public comments” to further the civic dialogue from diverse perspectives. It’s not exactly a conversation, often council members do not respond to comments at public hearings — but generally citizens feel welcomed and that our contributions are heard.
The recent telephone opinion poll on the pending Growth Management Ordinance (GMO) was discussed at the Feb. 1 City Council meeting. Some of us who had taken the poll used our three minutes each to share our views on the poll’s shortcomings: undefined housing affordability terms and crucial missing details, either slanted or oversimplified, making accurate responses impossible. We had concerns about methodology too.
For example, my husband and I each received a polling call with different interviewers. The first took 48 minutes for the questions and responses. The second, whose nighttime shift was almost over, raced through the same questions and responses in 15 minutes. Yet the data compiled from the two calls was weighted equally.
Writing a good questionnaire is a challenge, and our GMO is complex, but the uneven methodology and details unaddressed in this questionnaire may have contributed to significant errors in the conclusions drawn from it.
This is important because the GMO is intended to address a crisis where locals are being shut out of shockingly expensive local housing.
I would support a ballot ordinance that reflects the community’s desire to monitor growth while producing affordable housing opportunities for local folks. I do not support an ordinance that inadvertently facilitates building more of the same kinds of houses presently being bought up for second homes. The details and the nuances count.
At the Feb. 1 meeting, the pollster presented an analysis of the completed survey, causing several speakers to express further concern about the often superficial, even arbitrary, interpretations of the collected responses. In just one example, on a five-choice continuum, “I somewhat agree” was interpreted throughout as “I disagree,” badly skewing the conclusions.
The City Council sought public input, so it was surprising that council members appeared to take these citizen comments personally, as an attack on the council’s good intentions regarding the poll, and seemed uncharacteristically dismissive of individual experiences, observations or criticisms. Defensiveness on either side makes any possible contribution difficult. Several left that night feeling our efforts to provide informed, concerned feedback were misinterpreted and wasted.
Healdsburg’s appeal goes beyond a charming town situated in a lush agricultural landscape. Its small size also invites ordinary citizens’ participation. As our city government continues to improve transparency in its dealings and open up opportunities for citizens to participate, it becomes our collective challenge to accept that democracy is not always a smooth or willing process. Sharing power, even in the best of families, is difficult. Each “side” wants their intentions to be trusted and their words heard fairly. When council and citizens see each other only as adversaries, communication suffers.
If we can take a chance and listen deeply and generously, if we can hang with this messy process, the American dream of democracy has a chance of righting some of the serious economic inequalities here at home. And let’s face it, those inequalities are what truly underlie the so-called housing shortage in Healdsburg.
Merrilyn Joyce is a Healdsburg resident