Publication Date: Wednesday, May 05, 2004
Our Town: Is 'hate' too strong a word?
Our Town: Is 'hate' too strong a word?
(May 05, 2004) by Don Kazak
Peter Ahn, a Paly senior, was at the Garden Court Hotel last week to hear what's happening with PAGE (Palo Altans for Governmental Effectiveness). Ahn, bound for Stanford next fall, was there as a member of the Palo Alto Youth Council.
Sounds like it could have been a boring night with the adults, but it didn't turn out that way.
Ahn, who said he is in his "high school bubble," admitted he didn't know much about local politics.
He said people were respectful of his presence and explained what they were talking about.
PAGE is striving to find ways to reduce acrimony in local politics through a three-part series of community "town hall" meetings, the last of which will be June 3. Formed a year ago by a individuals long active in city and school politics, including ex-mayors and former school board presidents, PAGE is basically "The Establishment Strikes Back." It's also a who's-who of Palo Alto politics -- from the '80s, as I joked (being from the '80s, as well).
Later, after small-group discussions about "what goes wrong and how to make it better," I asked Ahn if he'd heard anything surprising.
"I didn't know there was that much hate in city politics. That surprised me,"Ahn said.
I repeated his comment to Ray Bacchetti, former school board president and a PAGE board member. Earlier, Bacchetti had given a thoughtful talk on the "common good." He said "hate" was perhaps too strong a word. Maybe, but that's what Ahn -- who was hearing tales of local conflicts for the first time -- felt. Fresh ears, yet to be jaded.
Ahn was there with another Youth Council member. Vice Mayor Jim Burch and council members Yoriko Kishimoto and Vic Ojakian, also there by invitation, gave PAGE high marks for making a noble effort to turn down the volume and turn up the understanding when people wrestle with local issues.
PAGE has spent two evenings identifying what goes wrong when local issues blow up and become too polarized for a middle ground to survive. There are plenty of examples, from the infamous Downtown North traffic barriers battle this year to the bloodletting over 800 High St. last year.
The final meeting of the series, June 3, will discuss one or more actual projects, yet to be identified. That means turning the well-meaning talk into real-world work.
PAGE would like to help broker more respectful ways to resolve local problems. The presence of a half-dozen neighborhood association leaders at the meeting last week is a hopeful sign, although some are privately wary of PAGE's intentions, as one mentioned to me.
The council members were less wary. "I really appreciate what they're trying to do," Burch said.
But when people are sitting around tables being nice, there really isn't much to argue about -- unless someone is going to vote for nasty. The deal gets real when the concept stops being abstract and gets applied to something potentially divisive.
That will be PAGE's big challenge June 3, when it tries to put theory into practice.
It's easy to be skeptical about all this, although there is no ignoring the sincerity of the effort. It just may not be that easy.
From talk radio to the 24-hour news cycle, we seem to have become a nation of shouters and skeptics, even cynics. There's not much trust in politicians, as a byproduct of failures in leadership at national and state levels. So why should we expect something better in Palo Alto? Because we are better? Recent history suggests otherwise, but that's what caused PAGE to form in the first place.
Ahn, after getting an unintended education about how distrust and animosity have become prominent in local politics, shouldered his backpack and apologized for slipping out before the night was quite over.
"Got a lot of homework left to do," he said.
Don't we all.
Weekly Senior Staff Writer Don Kazak can be e-mailed at dkazak@paweekly.com.
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