What's That You Say

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Comfortable Majority ...Not":

The Victoria Street idea is plain foolish.
There is already a parking problem.
Council should stop pandering to development and listen to citizens who have ideas and a pulse to what the public is saying.
They want the center out east so they can help sell houses.

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I went to a conference in St John's Newfoundland  at the time the  cod had disappeared and  before oil was discovered.

 It was before Ontario became a have-not Province and Newfoundland  a have.

St John's Memorial  University  conducted a  project in the community. They went out to various places  with cameras and encouraged people to talk about their perceptions of the problem and offer solutions.

They took the stuff back to the university, shaped it into a film..   They  went back out  and invited the  same participants to come and hear themselves articulate their ideas.

I thought,,,that would be like taking your thoughts out of your head and putting them on the table, in the company of others and  analyzing them for  logic or lack thereof.

The person who wrote the above comment could be doing the same thing about now.

He/she read my post. Dismissed it as foolish. Referred to a parking problem  and Council pandering to development , and wanting the centre out east so they can help sell houses.

He/she wants Council to listen to citizens who have ideas and a pulse to what the public is saying.

My guess would be this person  is not in the habit of putting an argument into writing or considering what others might make of it.
Yet that is the obvious intention.

It's a good intention. But it needs to be refined.First off, if you want to influence me, don't start off by saying my argument is foolish

That's  no way to win friends and influence people.

I am  not persuaded  my post was understood..

I am glad it was read and  a response was forthcoming. I hope others will take up the thread of  the argument and carry it forward.

If we don't start off by  listening, there's not much point in  having the conversation.