{"id":2931,"date":"2012-05-23T12:45:24","date_gmt":"2012-05-23T16:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/?p=2931"},"modified":"2012-05-23T13:54:42","modified_gmt":"2012-05-23T17:54:42","slug":"creativity-squelchers-and-savannahs-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2012\/05\/23\/creativity-squelchers-and-savannahs-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Creativity, Squelchers, and Savannah&#8217;s future"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"e26b170012445c56d240655bdd03f7bf\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: left; margin: 10px 10px 10px 0;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-5595881567027133\";\r\n\/* Medium Rectangle *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"8584504377\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 300;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 250;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>In my City Talk column yesterday &#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/savannahnow.com\/exchange\/2012-05-22\/public-art-gives-chance-community-involvement\" target=\"_blank\">Public art gives chance for community engagement<\/a> &#8212; I mentioned Janes Jacobs&#8217; use of the word &#8220;squelchers&#8221; while focusing on a handful of loud public objections to the recently removed &#8220;Before I Die&#8221; installation off Waters Avenue.<\/p>\n<p>I put <a href=\"http:\/\/m.savannahnow.com\/news\/2012-05-15\/i-die-prompts-savannah-change-mural-approval\" target=\"_blank\">those few objections<\/a> into the broader context of Savannah&#8217;s history of letting a very small number of objectors have a great deal of control over civic decisions they know amazingly little about:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A few squeaky wheels nearly killed the much-needed rezoning of Thomas Square, which was finally adopted in 2005.<\/p>\n<p>A few years ago, there were fears that permitting wine service at a downtown caf\u00c3\u00a9 would turn the neighborhood into St. Patrick\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Day every day. A handful of worried folks pushed design modifications that severely limited the quality of the stage in Forsyth Park.<\/p>\n<p>I could go on and on \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and on and on \u00e2\u20ac\u201d with similar examples.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I wrote about the design pressures on the stage in Forsyth in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2012\/05\/06\/good-intentions-conflicting-agendas-bad-design\/\" target=\"_blank\">Good intentions + Conflicting agendas = Bad design<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s Richard Florida from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.creativeclass.com\/rfcgdb\/articles\/the%20great%20creative%20class%20debate.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Revenge of the Squelchers&#8221;<\/a>: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>What distinguishes thriving cities from those that stagnate and decline is a group of people [Jane Jacobs] calls the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153squelchers.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Squelchers, she explains, are those political, business, and civic leaders that divert human creative energy by posing roadblocks and saying \u00e2\u20ac\u0153no\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to new ideas. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In his Savannah Morning News column today &#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/savannahnow.com\/exchange\/2012-05-23\/jake-hodesh-are-we-regulating-ourselves-corner\" target=\"_blank\">Are we regulating ourselves into a corner?<\/a> &#8212; Creative Coast director Jake Hodesh mentions some examples of squelchers at work:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 A battle over public art along the Waters Avenue corridor and how the complaints of a few can influence the opportunities and visions of many.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Regulations plaguing an aspiring quadracycle entrepreneur and how government regulation could cause the demise of her business.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Arguments against a $26 million-plus development along Victory Drive and how the ongoing battle could cause future developers to think twice about investing in Savannah. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Jake frames the column largely by thinking about needless regulation, but I&#8217;d add that those regulations and extra layers of bureaucracy are a direct result of a very small number of people who object loudly to the new, often irrationally, and who are given far too much power in decision-making.<\/p>\n<p>Jake appropriately juxtaposes those examples with the entrepreneurial spirit at last Friday&#8217;s TEDxCreativeCoast and notes that Savannah&#8217;s prospects will be limited by such public battles that could frighten off investment and creativity. <\/p>\n<p>The Savannah metro area has lost 2700 payrolls jobs since April 2011 and we&#8217;re still far off the 2007 peak of employment. <\/p>\n<p>We are just shooting ourselves in both feet if we continue to do business as usual.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e26b170012445c56d240655bdd03f7bf\" data-index=\"4\" style=\"float: none; margin:4px 0 4px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-5595881567027133\";\r\n\/* Another large rectangle *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"0042810896\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 336;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 280;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;What distinguishes thriving cities from those that stagnate and decline is a group of people [Jane Jacobs] calls the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153squelchers.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Squelchers, she explains, are those political, business, and civic leaders that divert human creative energy by posing roadblocks and saying \u00e2\u20ac\u0153no\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to new ideas.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2012\/05\/23\/creativity-squelchers-and-savannahs-future\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[8],"tags":[215,372,45,371,36,358],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1gN9R-Lh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2931"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2931\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}