Red Bank‘s new “Master Plan” is currently going through the first phase of community “engagement“. Obviously, this is a problem to formulate unless you’re familiar with the town and that’s understood. But many have remarked on the questionnaire’s questions, regarding them as leading or based on developing dysfunctional current practice rather than going back to the basics of what our community actually needs now, and in the future.
The questions and responses required for “the parking issue” exemplify this… Not only are the questions based on the consultancy’s ignorance that the most recent borough “Parking Study” proved the points the consultants raised to be false, but they also centre on the “how do we make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear” approach, instead of putting the parking issue in the context in of the environment, street safety, etc., and what sort of parking the community actually needs.
To make matters worse any constructive response has to be formulated within a sub-Tweet level 200 characters. Now, having worked on a few projects like this myself over the years, I realise that the people who require more than 200 characters are few, and some are merciless boors, but there is a lot of perception and aspiration for this town out there, by concerned and usually quite knowledgeable people even if it is a task for Big City consultancies and Master Plan committees to read through and, hopefully, take into account
So watch this space... Feel free to comment on the Master Plan here with no character limit. If a particular issue is raised then RBr will start a new thread.
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I’m in complete agreement on the parking issue. Unfortunately, when the consultants met with Public Works & Engineering employees at the borough, they heard the trope that we have a parking shortage. That’s certainly not the last time they’ll hear it, but let’s hope that in the end, the evidence will outweigh the perception.
There’s always hope…
Oops, I see to have posted before I intended.
I also agree that the Master Plan should not just be about fixing current problems. It should be a vision document, with goals and objectives. Certainly, current problems should be considered, but we should be lifting our eyes to the future. I liked that the survey asked what change we’d like to see, though obviously I’m not used to keeping myself to 200 characters. [I’m cynical enough to think that we got a 200-character limit so that the planners could get sound bites (what’s the written equivalent of a sound bite?) for the report.]
I see that the planners intend to have other sessions to get public input, so I’ll reserve judgment on whether the process is sound. But I’m actually encouraged that the second thing the planners did was to ask the public for their thoughts, even in this limited way.
Where did you get that timeline? The timeline linked on RedBankGreen shows only one survey, but two public workshops.
200 characters take about 15 seconds to read out loud. Coincidentally, that is the preferred length of an over-the-air broadcast soundbite or the original length of a TikTok, which suggests the focus of consultants the boro’ engaged from the Big City.
@IsntRat:
“Where did you get that timeline? The timeline linked on RedBankGreen shows only one survey, but two public workshops.”
From Boro Masterplan page:
http://www.redbanknj.org/DocumentCenter/View/12199/Master-Plan-Timeline
From RBG link:
https://dtuzht7vh23w6.cloudfront.net/redbankgreen/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Red-Bank-Master-Plan-timeline.pdf