So-Called 'Reasoning'
Today, this country celebrates independence. Yet, one week ago today, the historic Freetown neighborhood was sold out to developers by a few members of Lafayette City Parish Council. In the intervening week, through many discussions, telephone conversations and e-mails, a rough sketch of the 'reasoning' that lay behind this sell out has come to light. These will be amplified here.
One thing which helped confuse members of the Council was a report from a prominent citizen that he had chatted with neighbors of the Capstone property in Baton Rouge and heard no complaints from them. This report was, at the very least misleading, as the Baton Rouge property is surrounded by trees on three sides, as can be seen from the image here. Moreover, these anecdotal reports are contradicted by first hand reports of the tenants, available here. This distraction notwithstanding, there appear to have been other errors of judgment by some of our Councilmen.
Early on in the fatal Lafayette City Parish Council meeting Louis Benjamin, the Councilor for the area where the proposed construction is sited, suggested that the appeal by the developers be halted until residents had the opportunity to request that the land be rezoned as something other than I-1, light industrial. This could have been done, perfectly legally, under La. R.S. 33:113. No other Councilor supported Benjamin's proposal, so it failed. However, it appears that the I-1 zoning featured largely in the so-called reasoning of the Councilors who had become catamites to the developers.
According to received reports, the catamites voted for the developers, in order to prevent more problematic construction in the area. It is true that I-1 zoning would permit all sorts of industrial horrors, that would clearly not be good for the area. However, any such future proposal would also have to pass through the Planning and Zoning Commission, at which residents could have expressed objections. So, the threat of some entirely theoretical, potential future problem was used to justify approving the current nightmare. This clearly is not smart and is also clearly not the much vaunted 'smart growth'.
A more improbable bit of dumb reasoning from the Councilmen catamites concerns the fact that the developers appear to have satisfied all the conditions for construction under an area zoned I-1. They seem to believe that being able to read and follow the rules entitles a corporation to engage in destructive and speculative property development, to the detriment of a historic neighborhood. The fact that the duty of checking the facts on these issues lies with Planning and Zoning staff, seems to have not caught their attention. This oversight also suggests that the Capstone fans see no real apparent role for the Planning and Zoning Commission. However, the men who sold out Freetown believe that they can justify their action on this basis. This is sad. What makes the situation truly culpable is that this error was brought to the attention of the councilmen in a written submission, that was included in their information packet. The submission said,
"One line of argument that Capstone might attempt to advance is that, given that they are in compliance with all the relevant statutes and ordinances, their project should be allowed to proceed. Such a line of argument rests upon a simple logical confusion between necessary and sufficient conditions. A condition is necessary if it must be satisfied for a particular result to arise. For instance, it is a necessary condition of holding a Bachelor's degree that an individual attends a university or college. This though is not a sufficient condition, as the individual must also pass their classes, etc. in order to get a Bachelor's degree....If Capstone claims that satisfying all the statutes and ordinances should allow their project to proceed, then they are like the student who argues that they should be given a Bachelor's degree, because they were admitted to a college, or university. Clearly, this is a logical error."
Now, it seems that our Councilmen wish to appeal to precisely this logical error to justify their actions! This is arrogant, culpable and unforgivable. They should know that this is a mistake. Maybe, they were too busy having secret meetings to actually read the materials provided to them? Perhaps, they are not bright enough to follow this reasoning? Who knows. It still stinks.
So, this was some of the so-called 'reasoning' that our civic leaders used to sell out the residents of Freetown. Did they reason so badly because of lack of rational capacity, or were they dazzled by the slick words of the developers and their lackeys? We will probably never know the answer on this. However, it should be obvious that the men who sold Freetown should not be trusted with future important choices about the future of our community, nor should they be trusted in any other important political role, at any time in the future.
One thing which helped confuse members of the Council was a report from a prominent citizen that he had chatted with neighbors of the Capstone property in Baton Rouge and heard no complaints from them. This report was, at the very least misleading, as the Baton Rouge property is surrounded by trees on three sides, as can be seen from the image here. Moreover, these anecdotal reports are contradicted by first hand reports of the tenants, available here. This distraction notwithstanding, there appear to have been other errors of judgment by some of our Councilmen.
Early on in the fatal Lafayette City Parish Council meeting Louis Benjamin, the Councilor for the area where the proposed construction is sited, suggested that the appeal by the developers be halted until residents had the opportunity to request that the land be rezoned as something other than I-1, light industrial. This could have been done, perfectly legally, under La. R.S. 33:113. No other Councilor supported Benjamin's proposal, so it failed. However, it appears that the I-1 zoning featured largely in the so-called reasoning of the Councilors who had become catamites to the developers.
According to received reports, the catamites voted for the developers, in order to prevent more problematic construction in the area. It is true that I-1 zoning would permit all sorts of industrial horrors, that would clearly not be good for the area. However, any such future proposal would also have to pass through the Planning and Zoning Commission, at which residents could have expressed objections. So, the threat of some entirely theoretical, potential future problem was used to justify approving the current nightmare. This clearly is not smart and is also clearly not the much vaunted 'smart growth'.
A more improbable bit of dumb reasoning from the Councilmen catamites concerns the fact that the developers appear to have satisfied all the conditions for construction under an area zoned I-1. They seem to believe that being able to read and follow the rules entitles a corporation to engage in destructive and speculative property development, to the detriment of a historic neighborhood. The fact that the duty of checking the facts on these issues lies with Planning and Zoning staff, seems to have not caught their attention. This oversight also suggests that the Capstone fans see no real apparent role for the Planning and Zoning Commission. However, the men who sold out Freetown believe that they can justify their action on this basis. This is sad. What makes the situation truly culpable is that this error was brought to the attention of the councilmen in a written submission, that was included in their information packet. The submission said,
"One line of argument that Capstone might attempt to advance is that, given that they are in compliance with all the relevant statutes and ordinances, their project should be allowed to proceed. Such a line of argument rests upon a simple logical confusion between necessary and sufficient conditions. A condition is necessary if it must be satisfied for a particular result to arise. For instance, it is a necessary condition of holding a Bachelor's degree that an individual attends a university or college. This though is not a sufficient condition, as the individual must also pass their classes, etc. in order to get a Bachelor's degree....If Capstone claims that satisfying all the statutes and ordinances should allow their project to proceed, then they are like the student who argues that they should be given a Bachelor's degree, because they were admitted to a college, or university. Clearly, this is a logical error."
Now, it seems that our Councilmen wish to appeal to precisely this logical error to justify their actions! This is arrogant, culpable and unforgivable. They should know that this is a mistake. Maybe, they were too busy having secret meetings to actually read the materials provided to them? Perhaps, they are not bright enough to follow this reasoning? Who knows. It still stinks.
So, this was some of the so-called 'reasoning' that our civic leaders used to sell out the residents of Freetown. Did they reason so badly because of lack of rational capacity, or were they dazzled by the slick words of the developers and their lackeys? We will probably never know the answer on this. However, it should be obvious that the men who sold Freetown should not be trusted with future important choices about the future of our community, nor should they be trusted in any other important political role, at any time in the future.
posted by Save Freetown at 9:10 PM
1 Comments:
Here is some fun and interesting commentary on 'the men who sold Freetown' :
Lafayette Public Policy - commentary.
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