There appears to be no end to the number of constituents Paul Esslinger is trying to aggravate during his brief time in office. This far he has taken swipes at friends and supporters of Shirley Maddox and Karen Bowen and seems now dead set on pissing off downtown business owners.
Eventually, Esslinger is going to have to bring people to the table instead of just alienating them. He could get away with these kinds of stunts if he were just another member of the council where you can win a seat with around 30% of the total vote, but once he starts developing the reputation as being impulsively divisive, it's over.
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I don't know about percentages etc. But how often does divisiveness work these days? Quite often it seems. I remember when the idea of the religious right attaining power was pretty much a joke, too extreme, too small in number, etc. But wow, huh?
So the politics of divisiveness of where a small dedicated group orchestrates/publicizes issues that have a lot of emotional gut level 'hooks' for the average folk, yeah that works.
Not that it "works" for the health of the community, just works to keep the political group(s) afloat.
But re: The Monte Plan Commission thing, why Plan specifically? What directions will his presence likely move future decisions? I'm not a Monte follower but a quick glance at any infrastructure-i-ness he may have previously expressed shows he is pro-Akcess, anti-roundabout and anti-retention pond. IMO a bold move forward that would have injected "freshness" into the commission would have been the appointment of someone with overtly "sustainable" sensibilities. Someone who, as this promised Infrastructure work occurs, could be counted on to be forward-looking. Monte seems old school at best. Oh hell, let's not mince words. The guy has no logic whatsoever, and he's less of an engineer than a 3 year-old with set of beginner Legos.
From his blog - (paraphrasing) "roundabouts are safer because everyone hates them so much no one wants to use them, so naturally there is less traffic going thru them. Less traffic means fewer accidents - whatta no brainer." Gadzooks, he just made that up.
That kind of troglodyte reasoning brings to mind an old phrase regarding the relative sharpness of various items of cutlery in the drawer. Let's take a trip to the museum with saddles on dinosaurs while we're at it.
And he doesn't "believe" in retention ponds. Does not belive in them. Retention ponds are matters of Engineering, not faith. Sooo okay, Esslinger promises a revamp of the infrastructure but his New Guy doesn't Believe in retention ponds. And New Guy scarily also "believes" that Storm water issues are totally unrelated to sanitary sewer issues.
He claims they are in fact "completely separate systems" and he seems to feel yer an idiot to discuss them in concert. Cuz you should just buy a sump pump at Home Depot. Holy moly.
A decision-maker on the Plan Commission, really?
What can I say, other that it's maybe a really bad time to be employed in the Oshkosh Public Works department if these are the "bosses"?
" IMO a bold move forward that would have injected "freshness" into the commission would have been the appointment of someone with overtly "sustainable" sensibilities."
THANK YOU! Someone's thinking.....
"troglodyte reasoning"
Love this. I can see lots of opportunities to use it in the near future. Mind if we coin the phrase?
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