"Send in the Clowns"

Is this what they mean when they talk about something going from bad to worse?

For the past few years, we've been hearing about the embarrassingly diminishing attendance at Commission meetings.  It was Steve Bernard who introduced the idea.  Not only did he point it out repeatedly (as if it wasn't painfully obvious), but he explained the cause.  According to Steve, it was all because of the crushing and suppressing majority on the last Commission.  Not only did they dishearten him and Bryan Cooper, they also caused the residents who used to come to meetings to lose heart and give up in frustration.  Why bother to come to meetings?  The brutes were only going to ignore the public and have their own way.  And there were enough 3-2 votes to prove Steve's point.  But then...

In December, 2011, a month to remember, Steve succeeded in getting a new majority seated.  He sacrificed himself, but he added two protegees to Bryan Cooper, and it was a new majority and a new day.  Finally, the people were honestly and lovingly represented, and were more than welcome to venture out of their homes, to the Commission chamber.  I don't know if it was supposed to be joyous, or perhaps solemn like the pilgrimages made by Jews and others to visit the old concentration camps in Poland and Germany.  But one thing was for sure.  There was no longer anything to fear.  The beast was killed, and the public could rejoice.

Tonight, there were two meetings.  A workshop on renovation of the log cabin started at 6:30, and a special Commission meeting started at 8.  There were perhaps 8 people at the workshop.  Noah seems to treat workshops as his personal tutorials, and this one was no exception.  At about 7:40, he remembered that the few of us were there, and he thought perhaps he might as well invite some comment.  He correctly pointed out that the Commission had monopolized the meeting.  Some workshop.

At the 8:00 meeting, two more people showed up.  I didn't recognize them.  Cooper twice commented on the low attendance at the two meetings.  But he also recalled a charrette about something about "five years ago," and his memory was that it was well-attended.

So I think I lost the thread of what was supposed to be going on.  According to Steve's logic, the people stay away while the brutes are there, then come back when they're defeated.  What Steve didn't factor in, though, is that it was shortly after he was elected that attendance dropped off.  It was disturbingly low, and now that Steve's majority is in charge, it's even lower.  I don't think that's what was supposed to happen.

And Noah, who campaigned in part on the strength of complaints about our immediate past brutalizing Mayor, has been remarkably suppressing on his own.  He has dismissed both residents and other Commissioners.  The fact is, the immediate past Mayor was frankly quite accommodating, and Noah is suffocating, in that hand around your throat kind of way.

And both Noah and Bryan, who suggested that they were champions of the voice of the people, have invariably suppressed and ignored that voice.  Why just tonight, there was a vote to elevate the voice of the residents, by placing a referendum on the November general election ballot.  Noah and Bryan were the only two to vote against hearing that voice.

So where is the promised crowd of Village residents?  In fact, where is Steve Bernard?  If I can't have my neighbors back, at least I'd like to hear an explanation.