Feeling powerless? You aren’t

I love the simile Jerry Large uses in this column …”is the world driving itself while we pretend to steer, like kids in a carnival ride?”

Classic!
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Monday, February 19, 2007

Feeling powerless? You aren’t
By Jerry Large, Seattle Times staff columnist

A person could be forgiven for thinking life around here has gotten out of hand.

Neighborhoods change overnight, and big civic issues seem beyond the touch of average people. Big decisions about the viaduct, the Sonics, Iraq and development happen on a level most folks can’t reach. The paper seems full of anti-civics lessons.

Is the world driving itself while we pretend to steer, like kids on a carnival ride?

It’s that way sometimes.

Some decisions are made by powerful people without regard to popular wishes. Stadium construction, downtown development, Lake Union projects are all big-people stuff.

People have long complained about the Seattle process, endless hearings and debates, and some mourned for the old days when a few people would sit down and decide what was best for the city.

The old days aren’t entirely gone. It can take a long time to get things done, but not because they are done democratically.

Who knows what’s going to happen with the Alaskan Way Viaduct, for instance? Have you been paying attention, or do you believe you don’t have a say? We get to vote on a tunnel or another viaduct. So far as I can tell by reading about it, our choice will mean nothing.

I suppose if we were all excited about one option or another, if we felt strongly about a solution, we’d make some unified noise and affect the political process.

But who knows what to do about the roadway? Insufficient data. Insufficient passion.

Hey, how about those Sonics? I guess they might go to Renton, but they still need a bunch of tax money for that to happen.

Who’s going to decide whether they get it? Citizens?

The owners don’t want the decision put to a vote.

Some changes are driven, not by a few powerful people, but by organic forces — the transformation of Seattle’s neighborhoods in recent years, and rapid growth in suburban areas.

Quick makeovers of familiar territory can also add to a sense of powerlessness. But some people avoid feeling that way. They do it by taking advantage of opportunities to work from the ground up.

I was talking with some folks the other day about the transformation of Seattle’s Columbia City neighborhood. They described the work people there did that upscaled a formerly struggling area.

Change was already coming to the neighborhood, the result of years of work and a wave of redevelopment washing over Seattle from north to south. Market forces and demographic changes drove it, but individual and group effort fine-tuned its impact.

For instance, the neighborhood attracted the Columbia City Ale House. But the folks working to improve Columbia City also helped the run-down tavern across the street fix itself up, preserving a longstanding business.

Cynicism is tempting when so many civic questions seem beyond reach. But people like the ones who got involved in Columbia City feel empowered because they focused on the things they could affect.

Jerry Large’s column appears Monday and Thursday. Reach him at 206-464-3346 or jlarge@seattletimes.com.