There's a link in the sidebar of this blog that I've had here for several months now. Dubbed Utah Planner's Corner, it's a blog operated by a hard-core Davis County central planning uber-bureaucrat by the name of Wilf Sommercorn. No. I am not making this name up. It would have been "Wilt Sommercorn," had I made it up.
Most of the material that he posts there is heavily "pro-central planning," which causes a pain in my wallet every time I even think about that kind of authoritarian governmental control that he takes for granted. It's especially nerve-wracking to know that Stalinist central-planners like Comrade Sommercorn operate freely and openly even in Davis County, without drawing so much as the slightest modicum of attention from the Department of Homeland Security or the FBI. Where is J. Edgar Hoover when we need him?
I'd previously put Mr. Sommercorn's blog in our WCF Blog-roll, because he unabashedly posts lucid, unadorned and frank admissions about how the crafty statist central planners actually "think."
He posted a surprisingly good article which took me aback yesterday, though The article goes to the question of whether it's best to make ivory-tower planning decisions by means of small groups (like City Councils and Planning Commissions)... or whether it may be best for central planners to listen to the "Collective Wisdom" of the greater citizen community.
Mr. Sommercorn's article has implications re our present Ogden City Council, I believe. Mr. Sommercorn advances some interesting arguments re the disadvantages of small-group "groupthink," which concept most certainly applies to the the present Ogden City Council "Gang of Five."
Here's a link to Mr. Sommercorn's surprisingly excellent article. As an added bonus, you'll find our friend, local politico and WCF regular, ARCritic, has posted a couple of comments there.
I was wondering where she'd been. She's not so nearly AR (anal-retentive) as here. When she's over there, she seems to royally suck-up to the great Central-Planning Zen-Masters.
I've also created an Amazon.com book-link in the right sidebar, for anyone who's interested in ordering and reading Surowiecki's "Wisdom of Crowds." I can sell it to ya at a discount!
I've already ordered it myself, BTW.
Heap up your comments, gentle readers.
Silence is not golden.
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7 comments:
Rudi:
I went to this Wilf Summercorn web site. What a piece-O-shit deal it is. Typical big brother mentality down Davis way! You have to sign up before you can comment! This Wilf guy is a major cog in the whole Davis County government. He doesn't want any one commenting that he cannot identify for future action if he doesn't like what you say!
So Rudi, I will post my comment to Mr. Wilf on your site, the only true forum for the free exchange of ideas and political opinions in Utah:
Wilfie:
What about the situation like we have in Ogden where we have a majority of council members that ALWAYS vote for whatever goof ball scheme the mayor puts forward? Even when given the big fat info packet of information 10 minutes before they are called on to vote, and even when there are tens of millions of public dollars at risk?
Or what about in Farmington where one developer seems to have the council eating out of his hand - including recently voting in the authority to give said developer $18,500,000.00 of public money for a project that will be built anyway? This is the infamous case of the pasture being declared blighted in order to twist the rules to this particular developers advantage. What about small councils like that who can be bought off with a few trips of show and tell and an ear full of great big empty promises?
Or what about an even smaller gang - like the one you work for, the Davis county commision - that proposed a 138 percent increase in property taxes only to be confronted with a very large crowd of angry citizens? Were they an example of a council being intimidated by the audience? Or was it all just a cynical game they were playing in order to get the substantial tax increase that they ended up with?
I think all you central planning manipulators suck! Very little of what any of you do is of real benifit to society.
This is common with neoCON bureaucrats, Thomas. They can't stand the heat, so they limit or eliminate public comments.
Check this out. Orrin Hatch is now a "blogger." He set up this totally dumb blogsite where people can comment... but nobody can read what they said.
Compare this to the blogsite of his main Republican challenger, Steven Urquhart.
It's the same old bullshit. People who can't defend their positions always shut off the opposition.
I'll admit, I've posted on Wilf's blog several times. Honestly, I think that most of the bad planning has already happened down here in Davis County. 45 years ago there were all sorts of bad planning mistakes. Some schools were put in bad locations that didn't take into account areas that would develop down the road, not enough land (or no land at all) was set aside for cemetery space in certain cities, and I could go on and on. If you ask me, they should have purchased even more land so that the I-15 corridor could have been even wider than it is in south Davis. Many areas are not walkable at all, and some cities *cough NSL* don't seem to have a problem with letting the subdivisions just climb and climb up the hillside; when they'll stop, nobody knows.
To post over there you only need register with Blogger.com. and while I am not sure, I don't think there is anything that requires you to, or allows other bloggers to identify you personally.
I registered so that I could keep my identity and no one else could impersonate me. Rudi knows my name because I emailed him something. (By the way Rudi, I call you him because I don't know if you are male or female, if I have made mistake please correct me. You did assume incorrectly on my gender).
As for being more AR here, I have found that there seem to be more factual errors here than on Wilf sight. Of course, he isn't trying to be as provocative as you are here, and he is not as prolific, so he probably takes a little more time putting his posts together than you do. NTTAWWT.
I have found that while I am not a liberal and am not a big centeral planner, I hope I am open minded enough to understand that there are nuggets of truth in most arguments on all sides. And I hope that I can glean the best from everyside to make the world I live in better.
I do have to admit, though, that when I am here I feel more liberal than I ever thought I was.
Yo Arcritic
Rudi is a broad. A very ugly broad. Hairy legs and a beard and a big butt to boot!
I like your attitude about government. Why don't you move to Ogden and bring some sense to our city council?
By the way, what the heck does NTTAWWT mean? Is that some secret code you have cooked up with your new squeeze Rudi? You can feel liberated all you want but your little dance with Rudi tells me it might not be liberalism but just poor taste in women!
Not That There's Anything Wrong With That. A phrase from Seinfeld.
Perfect analogy, AR....what we have here is a real life comedy of errors.
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