Monday, December 19, 2005

* Alderman Offers Tips for Activists

Let me be very clear. I'm not offended that people would ask me to support the tennant association in their efforts to imporve conditions in the building. I support the right of tennants to organize, and I stand ready to help tennants individually or collectively get their legitimate grievances addressed by landlords. What concerns me is the manner with which the request was made. As I indicated in my previous message, a simple phone call would have sufficed. We could have exchanged information and agreed on a mutual course of action.

Instead, you inexplicably send out a blast e-mail. While I aknowledge the e-mail itself does not blame RPCC or me for Jay's alleged failure abide by his commitments, the mere fact that you urge people in a blast e-mail to contact us implies that the only way we will respond is through public pressure brought to bear by mass e-mails.

I've done a little organizing in my day, and the usual rule of thumb is you resort to such tactics only after you've contacted the elected official or agency through normal channels and they've failed to act.

Your resort to direct action before giving RPCC or me a chance to respond can't help but raise suspicions about your true intentions, and makes collaborative efforts with your organization much more difficult to achieve. This is especially frustrating since, as you noted, we share a number of mutual goals.

I hope this helps clear the air, and I look forward to working with you in a cooperative, mutually respectful manner to address the concerns of the residents of 1528 W. Morse.

Sincerely,

Joe Moore

7 comments:

Hugh said...

Uh, oh, Joe doesn't want us to use citizenspeak.org any more!

What should we do, Craig?

Hugh said...

> I've done a little organizing in my day ...

if we were all ducks we might benefit from some of that activity

gf said...

if jay johnson had simply done what he promised and was apparently paid to do, the tenants would not have needed to complain, would not have been frustrated at being ignored, not felt desparate enough to contact community groups,no blog posting, e mail alert or perceived slight would have occured.
there should be at least as much displeasure pointed in jay johnson's direction from the alderman as is being directed at community activists for trying to help their neighbors.

Hugh said...

Clearly Moore is moore comfortable talking about himself, e-mail etiquette, organizing techniques, Fran's hidden agenda, etc. than he is talking about the failure of one of his corporate sponsors to live up to his commitments to our neighbors.

Jim Witts said...

Is it just me or is Devcorp's website down? Did they finally close up shop?

dan2 said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Hugh said...

Thanks for the post.

Thanks for the advice on problem tenants.

>I'd say whomever comes next may not be so democratic, may turn Roger's Park into another Wicker Park in no time flat.

I didn't understand this. What do you mean?

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