IDEA - Establish a pilot park where members of the public can come in and make their own improvements -- install their own art, do their own landscaping and plantings, etc., with no rules or city oversight whatsoever. Give freedom a chance for a change! Find out what can get done when creativity and initiative are allowed to be unleashed without having to go through a soul-deadening bureaucratic process. The city has hundreds of parks -- shouldn't at least *one* of them be a Free Park where the people are in charge instead of a government agency? The resulting improvements could easily be significant, and wouldn't cost the city government a dime, and you could use the "Running Start Fund" to pay for something else. You wouldn't even need to advertise the Free Park -- just let the media know, and they would do the job for you.
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))
P.S. - If Phil plans to run a marathon, he should lose the suit and tie, and wear something more eye-catching. I suggest looking at some of the past Bay To Breakers costumes for ideas. Perhaps he could run dressed in a mass of red tape, pulling bits of it off as he goes. People would get a kick out of that. Alternately, if he could manage to actually win the race while buried in all that tape, it could be a real public relations coup for local government.
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