Eureka! --- Planning For The Future

[spa 968]

Date: 12/8/2005 5:20:17 PM Author: louisville327  --------------------- *  A note regarding the political environment of Eureka:  Political parties are not allowed at the local level, where their influence can play too dominant a role in the basic running of the city.  While regional and national representatives are members of several large parties, local leaders like city and district council members, the mayor and the council president must campaign as independents. 

 

Wow. This CJ is just incredible. I'm so impressed with what you've done here. I love the city planning and politics. It's actually what I've wanted to do in a CJ, but I don't have the patience to build up a whole area just to knock it over and I certainly don't have the photoshop skills to pull it off. I'll be watching this one as it's bang on what I have wanted to follow.

 

Just a comment here on your take on political parties on local government (I don't want to hijack your journal too badly). I don't think that political parties are such a negative at the local level for a few reasons. 

 

Parties would create a recognizable and clear plan. Without political parties there are no real unified agendas. Right now, you elect your councilor and mayor and then they go off to city hall to face the rest of council. This means that there are as many plans and platforms as there are councilors which makes it tough for the average citizen to keep up and difficult for council to come to a common plan.

 

Parties would improve accountability since when election time rolls around, incumbents wouldn't be able to pin the blame for failed policies on their colleagues. Plus, it is a lot easier to evaluate a governing party's record rather than trying to assess how any single councilor did.

 

Parties would improve turnout and reduce incumbent's huge advantage. A lot of the time, the most the voter knows about their council candidates is their name which doesn't encourage them to show up and vote. If there were two parties competing, the local media coverage would be more focussed and voters, even if they didn't know anything about their particular council candidates, would still be able to vote on the party label and the party plan. They might not know anything about Jane and John Doe, but they would know what the Apple and Banana Parties stood for. This would make for both more, but also more informed voting.

 

With more people paying attention we might have less business dominated local government. Right now, the business voter is turning up to vote for their buddies while the rest stay home.

 

Parties would probably decrease the risk of corruption. Right now, Joe Property Developer can donate directly to the candidate and if the candidate takes the money, as they almost always do, it is harder for them to say no to pressure later on. If there were parties, doners would be a step removed from politicians and politicians would be bound by the party platform.

 

It seems to me that, given the state of local democracy, the time has come that we shed our fear of partisanship and foster some civic political parties. Of course my argument only stands up if civic parties are separate in name and structure from other upper level political parties (getting the Democrats or Republicans to run in local elections won't solve anything as then local elections would simply become popularity contests for upper level governments). Futhermore it only works if there are at least two competitive and stable civic parties to offer voters consistent chocies and to ensure opposition in city hall. In many ways, Vancouver comes the closests to the party ideal as the city has a solid history with the NPA and COPE, both of which are parties unique to Vancouver. Other Canadian cities haven't been so successful as Montreal has a history of having parties collaspe when they're voted out of office, Toronto has only ever had upper level parties try and get involved and Winnipeg, in the past, has only had one dominant party running the show.

 

Anyway, I probably should start my own thread somewhere else. You just attracted my attention. Keep up the great CJ and long live Mayor Hiro!

[sloppet 3]

Hurray, this is a Trixie Winner

 

 

Welcome to pae 8!! Keep up the great, trixiest updates on!!

[IGGYMAN 101 1]

That's nice... That will be done. What are the road network along entire region?

 

Thank you very much. 

[jacqulina 162]

i love how you have presented your whole election campagn great work a lot of time and effort you have put into it

[Sproxxx 0]

Congrats on the Trixie

You deserve it!!

[Dr. Frickenstein 0]

Congratulations! I've read the whole stuff here, I must say (and I'm fair-); Good job!

[jacqulina 162]

congrats you deserve it

[winonanick 0]

Congrtulation louis on your award


And

congrats to Mayro Hiro, I am excited to see, now that the ugliness of the campaing is behind us what will happen to Eureka. Hiro is going to have a lot on his plate, the revelopment of Eureka, unifing the city behind his plan after the very divisive and colse election.

I am curious about the allegations of corruption in the mayor's office? Was this dirty politics, or is there something there? Will there be an independent inquiry into this matter?

[ElBarto92 7]

Congrats, on the Trixie, louisville! You were the clear winner for City Planning After Adventures and now this, you've made it clear that you're the city planning king!

[jasperdeman.nl 1]

Congrats!

 

You clearly deserved it! Obvious I voted for you (as for Mayor Hiro ).

 

I wish you many more Trixies in the future!

 

[PhilsCafe 8]

Amazing updates, louisville. Great story about the elections. This brings your city to life. Great presentation (The news anchor looks pretty too...).

Congrats for the Trixie

- Phil

[toxicpiano 125]

really good stuff! um the french news reporter women is hot

[cityhawk 12]

Congratulations on your Trixie Louisville327!'); height=30 alt=Insert smilie src=https://community.simtropolis.com/assets/emoticons/39.gif width=20 border=0>

 Your hard work definitely earned this reward. Keep up the good work and hope to see more great updates.'); height=20 alt=Insert smilie src=https://community.simtropolis.com/assets/emoticons/44.gif width=33 border=0>

[GreekMan 246]

Congrats in geting the award.

 

I was reading te election part and when Hiro was elected mayor he will serve for six years! When he is finished mayoring Eureka, he was is office for 12 years. It is wierd for a mayor to be in office for that long. I think mayors sever for 4 years. Anyway it's your city.

 

I am looking forward to see other parts in this CJ and goodluck.

 

GreekMan

 

[mcarch 15]

Congrats on the Trixie!  hehe, I voted for ya... so YAY!  Im glad a vote finally counted!  YIPPIE!

[oroen 0]

Yes, I too agree, definitely hands-down winner for best planner (although I did get honorable mention... but your presentation is far more professional looking than mine... ). I may not agree with new urbanist principles, but that doesn't take anything away from this excellent city journal. Here's to much more city planning goodness to come here!

[louisville327 0]

A Surprise In The Mail





Most of the offices at Eureka University aren't especially large. In fact, some are downright cramped. Lucky for me, the School Of Architecture And Planning (in which I work) has the nicest building on campus, which means the nicest offices, too. While not as spacious as Mayor Hiro's office downtown (which he gets to keep for a few more years), I do pretty well with the one I have.

I was deeply pondering this when my young, beautiful teaching assistant walked through the door. Letter for you, sir, she said. She handed an envelope to me, winked ever so slightly, and then left the room. Wow.

Anyway, I looked at the envelope in my hand. In a very formal font, my name was written on the outside. Intrigued, I opened it and pulled out the letter inside, completely surprised by what I found:





Wow! I knew I had been nominated for the very prestigious Golden Llama Award For Excellence In Urban Planning---curiously nicknamed the Trixie---but I had no illusions of actually winning! Even back at Park, White And Jacobs Urban Design, only Bob Park had ever won a Trixie, and that was years ago. Now I had a letter telling me I had joined that exclusive club.

I tried to calm myself, but the excitement was almost overwhelming. I ran out of my office and into the department lobby, yelling loudly and dancing about. My attractive teaching assistant ran to see what the commotion was about---I grabbed her in my arms and planted a big kis on her lips!

What was that for?! she gasped, blushing visibly.

My dear, I yelled, I've won! I turned away from her and ran down the hallway of the building, whooping and howling as loudly as possible, trying to express my excitement. Normally I pride myself on keeping a very professional demeanor at all times, but winning a Trixie is something a career urban planner shouldn't try to keep to himself. I was ecstatic!

Eventually (an hour later) I calmed myself enough to call Bob Park on the phone. After hearing the news, he too let out a wild howl and actually dropped the receiver! After some more yelling and a lot of fumbling, he managed to pick it back up and tell me congratulations, and then we both giggled like schoolgirls together for several minutes. I could hear cheering in the background as word apparently spread around the members of my old firm.

I had done it! I had won the most prestigious award in my field! Is there anything better in life than that?

-------------------------------------


Thanks so much to everyone who offered their congratulations. It was a huge surprise to actually win a Trixie this year, and I owe a lot to everyone at Simtropolis. I especially want to thank all of the visitors to this CJ and Adventures In New Urbanism. Your comments, ideas and criticisms have really inspired me to keep doing these journals. Obviously, it has been worth it.

Super special thanks again to Dannato, who's amazing city planning journal Turry has always been my absolute favorite CJ on all of Simtropolis, and without whom I could not have found the motivation to do this. He's always got a kind word and a constructive comment to add, too, and that's just the icing on the cake. Thanks again!

I've got tons of new updates and ideas for Eureka, so if you like what you've seen so far, stick around for more! I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Thanks so much everybody!!

[jacqulina 162]

you are welcome nice update by the way

[Kwakelaar 92]

Congratulations with your award, you deserve it!!!

[slann 0]

Congrats louisville327 FOR YOUR TRIXIE!!!

Was quietly following Eureka and other (although not recently RL is killing me *sigh*)

CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN! YOU DESERVE IT!
and I shall always remember your kindness and kind comment in the early days of my Dominea - *grin* I promise to unlurk more now and then once RL calms down...

 

Cheers!

[Micah 16]

Great job!!! Glad to hear this CJ won a Trixie Award.

[Shadow Assassin 336]

Giggle like schoolgirls? WTF?

But anyways, congrats on your winning the Trixie! You indeed, do deserve it.

[jasperdeman.nl 1]

Haha!

Great update! Very creative to announce your victory!

[FreewayofFlight 41]

Congratulation on winning the Trixie Award Louisville! You and the City of Eureka deserve it! And Congrats to Mayor Hiro for his Re-Election into office, he's the best choice right now with the flood of immagrants! Congratulations again!

[Sproxxx 0]

hehe giggles like a school girl

Bwhahahahahaha

ehem! Sorry.

(snicker)

Nice anouncement.

[jackel.22 3]

grats on the trixie,

[jackel.22 3]

sry for double post my comps a bit messed up right now.didnt know whether it posted or not

[jgehrts 18]

I don't read very many CJs, but this is one that I check up on daily. The true-to-life urban planning component makes it an enjoyable read.

[Dannato 4]

I knew it. And needless to say, it was absolutely the right choice by the jury!

 Most heart-felt congratulations for your Trixie!

And great how you incorporated it into the storyline.

Basically, you're my successor, since you got the Trixie in the category I did last year.  Although you would have deserved it for other categories too. And this journal is still quite young, I'm sure we ain't seen nothing yet. Keep it up.

BTW: No need to super-special-thank-me, but anyway:  extra-special-you're-most-welcome.

[GMT 389]

may you introduce me to melanie?

cool work goin on here.
awesome updates and grat pics!

keep it up