July 13, 2005
Briefly Revisiting The 'Foundational Moment'
Keeping An Eye On The Context
Sometimes this site goes through periods with few items offering reporting from this meeting or that event, which it occurs to us might give the impression that we're slacking. In reality, it's normally the result of attending meetings which don't lend themselves to being written about in and of themselves.
One case in point was Monday's meeting of the ONI Bureau Advisory Committee, which we went to mainly to start getting a sense of how the Bureau Innovation Project, including the Community Visioning Process, is being presented to different groups.
So, while there was nothing particuarly pressing or compelling about this meeting in terms of generating a post here, it does represent the sort of thing we do that never gets seen here. From here on out, we may from time to time make mention of some of the things at which we spend our time but which don't lead to individual posts about them.
But there is, we've realized, one random point of maybe-interest about this meeting however, which, in the main, consisted of a general explanation by Elizabeth Kennedy-Wong of the Mayor's staff on those espects of the BIP which relate in some fashion to the Office of Neighborhood Involvement.
It seems that the Mayor's office has been sending around our June 13 item about the (at that time anyway) unnoticed context of many of the moves Potter has been making. So while the epiphany we had last month about what we termed a "foundational moment" doesn't yet seem to have picked up any steam outside of City Hall, people on the inside apparently view it as an accurate assessment.
We don't say that as some sort of strut, but rather to urge people to (re)read the piece if they want to have a grasp on how all the disparate parts of the Mayor's adminstration are meant to fit together.
Whatever one thinks of the notion of the "foundational moment" (and even we're still unsure of our own opinion), it does appear to be how those on the inside see things. If those responsible for implementing Potter's initiatives see our June 13 piece as relevant enough to be circulating, then we imagine that those following Potter's initiatives -- or who want to participate in or influence them -- also should probably understand just what's going on here.