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May 12, 2015
Day 130: Emergent Savannah's Town Hall Meeting
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Day 130: Emergent Savannah's Town Hall Meeting:
Hostess City/Captive Community: Tourism in Savannah

A packed to overflowing crowd jammed the meeting space at Sentient Bean on Monday, May 11, to take part in a town hall meeting on Tourism, hosted by Tom Kohler's emerging Emergent Savannah group. Connect Editor Jim Morekis moderated a panel consisting of Joe Marinelli, President of VisitSavannah, Daniel Carey, Historic Savannah Foundation, and Chris Miller, founding father of Creative Coast.

The meeting touched on many topics but failed to broach the subjects that many attendees came to discuss, including the hot topic of Air B&B's. In fact, the earlier meeting I attended with a dozen others on that same subject was disbanded and moved to the Bean so that we could voice our objections to the manner in which the City is enforcing the new codes that restrict/forbid homeowners from renting rooms to guests. There was a low rumble of discontent as the meeting adjourned to the American Legion next door, where more important and livelier conversations were staged.

Beano

All of which brings me to this suggestion: perhaps we should continue to meet in such fashion. Except maybe we should move to a larger and more accommodating space. And maybe we should meet on a weekly basis. The idea is not to replicate what other organizations such as neighborhood and community groups do. The idea is to bring neighborhoods and communities together in a neutral location and discuss common ground. Some participants in last night's event thought they had been captive in a controlled setting where some of the people chosen to ask questions of the panel appeared to have been selected in advance and others warned to maintain their civility, as if protests were anticipated, expected, and avoided. The problem, as one astute observer pointed out to me afterwards, is that the public will show up at public meetings and there's no telling what happens when you pass the mic to a stranger. Many participants walked away with unanswered questions written on index cards, feeling like they'd missed their best chance to express their concerns.

So I say we do it again, move to a bigger site, and hold the kind of town hall meeting that our city council abandoned when they could no longer stem the flow of protests and complaints. Lest all kinds of hail rain down on me for trying to hijack Emergent Savannah's initiative and turn it into a political thing, let us kick around a few ideas here on how we take what happened last night and improve on it.

 

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May 12, 2015

Day 130: Emergent Savannah's Town Hall Meeting:
Hostess City/Captive Community: Tourism in Savannah

A packed to overflowing crowd jammed the meeting space at Sentient Bean on Monday, May 11, to take part in a town hall meeting on Tourism, hosted by Tom Kohler's emerging Emergent Savannah group. Connect Editor Jim Morekis moderated a panel consisting of Joe Marinelli, President of VisitSavannah, Daniel Carey, Historic Savannah Foundation, and Chris Miller, founding father of Creative Coast.

The meeting touched on many topics but failed to broach the subjects that many attendees came to discuss, including the hot topic of Air B&B's. In fact, the earlier meeting I attended with a dozen others on that same subject was disbanded and moved to the Bean so that we could voice our objections to the manner in which the City is enforcing the new codes that restrict/forbid homeowners from renting rooms to guests. There was a low rumble of discontent as the meeting adjourned to the American Legion next door, where more important and livelier conversations were staged.

Beano

All of which brings me to this suggestion: perhaps we should continue to meet in such fashion. Except maybe we should move to a larger and more accommodating space. And maybe we should meet on a weekly basis. The idea is not to replicate what other organizations such as neighborhood and community groups do. The idea is to bring neighborhoods and communities together in a neutral location and discuss common ground. Some participants in last night's event thought they had been captive in a controlled setting where some of the people chosen to ask questions of the panel appeared to have been selected in advance and others warned to maintain their civility, as if protests were anticipated, expected, and avoided. The problem, as one astute observer pointed out to me afterwards, is that the public will show up at public meetings and there's no telling what happens when you pass the mic to a stranger. Many participants walked away with unanswered questions written on index cards, feeling like they'd missed their best chance to express their concerns.

So I say we do it again, move to a bigger site, and hold the kind of town hall meeting that our city council abandoned when they could no longer stem the flow of protests and complaints. Lest all kinds of hail rain down on me for trying to hijack Emergent Savannah's initiative and turn it into a political thing, let us kick around a few ideas here on how we take what happened last night and improve on it.

 

Comments

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