Jan 9 was the second of the Bay Area's Winter 2012 Public Workshops held in Santa Rosa, county seat of Sonoma County, California. The workshops are part of the One Bay Area planning process for the 9-county Bay Area to develop a 'sustainable community strategy' as called for by state law SB 375 in order to reduce greenhouse gases that result from driving.
"A vocal group of about 20 tea party activists interrupted the speakers and audience with charges that the government can't be trusted," writes Julie Johnson.
"We're here to try to keep people from violating the law that says you can't disrupt a public meeting," Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Terry Anderson said, after police were called on an unfounded charge that a chair had been thrown and struck an attendee.
"Anderson helped facilitate the meeting for a while and took people into the hall when they refused to let others speak.
Many comments show people don't understand who holds power over land use decisions, said John Goodwin, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission."
Thanks to MTC-ABAG Library
Comments
Tea Party Disses Regional Planning in the Name of Democracy
I attended the third of the One Bay Area regional planning meetings in Marin County last week, and experienced the same disruptive and intimidating tactics employed by Bay Area Patriots (the Tea Party) and other Anti-Agenda 21 (climate change deniers) groups. While they shouted over presenters and completely dominated break-out groups with persistent questions, they demanded democracy. I couldn't help but think back to history lessons in grammar school, trying to understand how normal Germans and Italians allowed brown/black shirts to bring fascism to the masses with the same tactics of disruption/intimidation.
Having said that, the staff of ABAG and MTC didn't do themselves any favors with the process design, which provided very little up-front information about growth trends and the need for a more urbanized solution, and which were unable to answer even the most basic questions.