![]() ![]() They took their cues from labor and business, and-instead of expecting the government to look out for them-lobbied in the name of the public. American cities still display the scars of highways that razed marginalized communities many remember the indignities of urban renewal, a mid-century federal policy aimed at city revitalization that researchers at the University of Richmond estimate displaced roughly 300,000 people.Īs the historian Paul Sabin describes in his book Public Citizens, while people watched government officials fail to adequately care for the general interest, neighborhood groups and nonprofit organizations proliferated to combat the influence of corporations and hold the government accountable. Granted, Big Government doesn’t have the best track record of respecting legitimate grievances about massive infrastructure projects. But the process is fundamentally flawed: It’s biased toward the status quo and privileges a small group of residents who for reasons that range from the sympathetic to the selfish don’t want to allow projects that are broadly useful. ![]() After all, providing input shouldn’t just happen at the ballot box, or so the thinking goes. The existing community-input system purports to improve upon this process by offering a platform where anyone can show up and make their voice heard. is suffering from a nearly 3.8-million-home shortage and has failed to build sufficient mass transit, and why renewable energy is lacking in even the most progressive states.ĭemocracy is at its best when the views and needs of the people are accurately transmitted to their representatives, the representatives act, and voters express their approval or disapproval in the next election. To put a fine point on it: Deference to community input is a big part of why the U.S. ET on April 29, 2022.ĭevelopment projects in the United States are subject to a process I like to call “whoever yells the loudest and longest wins.” Some refer to this as participatory democracy.Īcross the country, angry residents and neighborhood associations have the power to delay, reshape, and even halt entirely the construction of vital infrastructure. The Citizens' Voice is the oldest newspaper formed by striking workers in the nation.Updated at 6:00 p.m. Several of the original strikers from 1978 still work for the newspaper. That year, the company formed the Northeast Pennsylvania News Alliance, a news-sharing agreement between Times-Shamrock's newspapers and several local radio and TV stations. In 2000, the newspaper was sold to Scranton-based Times-Shamrock Communications. The Citizens' Voice added a Sunday edition in 1993. The Citizens' Voice, Inc., was formed to manage the newspaper. Established on October 9 of that year, The Citizens' Voice was initially a "strike newspaper" published by the local Newspaper Guild, but quickly grew to become a direct competitor to the Times Leader.Īfter 11 years, the Newspaper Guild turned control of The Citizens' Voice over to the original striking employees. The newspaper was founded in 1978 by striking employees of the Wilkes-Barre Publishing Company, which published the Times Leader. Its 2005 circulation was 32,862, mostly Luzerne County residents. The Citizens' Voice is a compact newspaper published daily in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. ![]()
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