WEBVTT 00:00:12.162 --> 00:00:18.463 - Civility has from almost from the beginning of the mayor's formation and thinking about the Safe City 00:00:18.463 --> 00:00:25.134 - Task Force, civility has almost from the very beginning been a part of that. The mayor, I think, recognized 00:00:25.134 --> 00:00:31.806 - very early on that the perception of how safe a community is and the perception of how secure its residents 00:00:31.806 --> 00:00:38.230 - feel, its members feel, has a lot to do with the quality of the interaction that those residents, those 00:00:38.230 --> 00:00:41.566 - members of that community have on a day-to-day basis. 00:00:41.986 --> 00:00:47.975 - that when you have tense relationships between people, when altercations are common, whether they're 00:00:47.975 --> 00:00:53.965 - on the street or in traffic incidents, when people do not believe that their interactions with their 00:00:53.965 --> 00:00:59.954 - fellow citizens are on a very friendly basis, that leads to a perception, often a reality, that that 00:00:59.954 --> 00:01:06.121 - community is not a safe one, that it is not one where people can depend on each other, can rely on each 00:01:06.121 --> 00:01:09.086 - other for support, people begin to feel alienated 00:01:12.386 --> 00:01:19.118 - social capital, the idea that people can currently trust each other, that a community will respond to 00:01:19.118 --> 00:01:25.850 - the needs of its citizens, and that people can go about their lives in safety and security. When that 00:01:25.850 --> 00:01:32.516 - social capital breaks down, there tend to become many more concerns about crime, about safety issues 00:01:32.516 --> 00:01:38.654 - in general. We also happen in the work of this committee to sort of catch a wave nationally. 00:01:39.010 --> 00:01:45.544 - If you read almost any news magazine and some other journals of opinion, you probably know that civility 00:01:45.544 --> 00:01:51.891 - has become almost a buzzword nationally. The open shot may have been fired last spring, last March or 00:01:51.891 --> 00:01:58.424 - April, just about a year ago, when US News did a cover story called America's Uncivil Wars. And we quote 00:01:58.424 --> 00:02:04.709 - a little bit from that article, the preamble to our report. The article made the point that based on 00:02:04.709 --> 00:02:07.198 - a poll and based on lots of other data, 00:02:07.458 --> 00:02:13.368 - People are increasingly concerned about what's seen as a rising level of rudeness and coarseness in 00:02:13.368 --> 00:02:19.278 - our society. And this is at all levels. It's seen as being in the media and in the relations in our 00:02:19.278 --> 00:02:25.780 - political system. All we have to do is follow the news somewhat closely out of Congress and out of Washington 00:02:25.780 --> 00:02:31.690 - to know that there seems to be a complete abdication of the idea of civil behavior, civil discourse 00:02:31.690 --> 00:02:32.990 - in national politics. 00:02:33.282 --> 00:02:39.766 - but it also goes down to the level of the street as well, that people believe in their interactions 00:02:39.766 --> 00:02:46.379 - on the street, in our schools, in our communities, that people are just more rude to each other, that 00:02:46.379 --> 00:02:53.058 - they're more quick to anger, that they're less willing to sit down and resolve issues and problems and 00:02:53.058 --> 00:02:59.866 - disagreements through debate and discussion. Our society seems to place a premium on personal expression 00:02:59.866 --> 00:03:02.654 - and self-expression and sort of being loud 00:03:03.330 --> 00:03:09.447 - if you listen to top radio that comes as no surprise to you, and not much of a premium on settling issues 00:03:09.447 --> 00:03:15.275 - in a quiet way through compromise and discussion. And you may have heard a couple of months ago, the 00:03:15.275 --> 00:03:21.104 - president of the University of Pennsylvania appointed a national commission on civility. If you do a 00:03:21.104 --> 00:03:27.105 - quick database search, as Jay Hoffman did, through magazines and periodical literature, there have been 00:03:27.105 --> 00:03:32.126 - literally dozens and dozens of articles talking about this issue, often very high-line 00:03:33.282 --> 00:03:39.401 - And so one of the things we were concerned about is to not go too far off in that direction, to not 00:03:39.401 --> 00:03:45.642 - make the report of our committee sort of scholarly tone about civility and bemoaning the breakdown of 00:03:45.642 --> 00:03:51.882 - American democracy and so forth. I think we were very aware right from the beginning that whatever we 00:03:51.882 --> 00:03:58.001 - did had to translate into things that city government can realistically do, can realistically get a 00:03:58.001 --> 00:04:02.590 - handle on where it will be recognized as having an important role to play. 00:04:03.138 --> 00:04:09.112 - I think we agonized for a bit, a number of members of the committee who have been on this committee 00:04:09.112 --> 00:04:15.265 - are here. We agonized a bit about just the nebulousness of our task. How do you improve civility? What 00:04:15.265 --> 00:04:21.358 - do you do to get people to be nicer to each other, to treat each other in a more civil way to improve 00:04:21.358 --> 00:04:27.750 - the perception of right and moving to that dimension? What we came up with are a series of recommendations 00:04:27.750 --> 00:04:31.454 - that really calls for the city government to create a certain 00:04:32.674 --> 00:04:38.069 - We say in preamble to our report that we're wary of being perceived as a group of elite members of the 00:04:38.069 --> 00:04:43.465 - community telling the rest of the community how it should behave. Why don't you get your act in order? 00:04:43.465 --> 00:04:48.703 - Why don't you volunteer more? Why don't you cooperate more? Why don't you get more involved in your 00:04:48.703 --> 00:04:54.203 - community? Why don't you stop talking so coarsely? We didn't want to be perceived that way. We recognize 00:04:54.203 --> 00:04:59.441 - that there are limitations to what our group, to what city government can do. But one of the things 00:04:59.441 --> 00:05:02.270 - that government can do is to create a climate, to set 00:05:02.402 --> 00:05:09.143 - in both subtle and overt ways, expectations for how members of that community should behave, should 00:05:09.143 --> 00:05:15.883 - conduct themselves. The kinds of behavior that that community values, and government can model that 00:05:15.883 --> 00:05:22.759 - sort of behavior as well. And so I would direct your attention to the primary recommendations that we 00:05:22.759 --> 00:05:29.499 - made. I think our single most important recommendation has to do with the idea of a media campaign. 00:05:29.499 --> 00:05:31.454 - I assume these are in order. 00:05:35.266 --> 00:05:41.663 - And this is something that we talked about, I think, from our first meeting on, we realized that people 00:05:41.663 --> 00:05:47.876 - kept coming back to this idea that the mayor has to use his bowling pulpit, and that other officials 00:05:47.876 --> 00:05:54.520 - and leaders in our community have to use their bowling pulpits. The fact that they have public's attention, 00:05:54.520 --> 00:06:00.732 - the fact that they're called upon to speak to a large variety of groups and to speak with authority, 00:06:00.732 --> 00:06:03.070 - that they need to set out the message 00:06:03.394 --> 00:06:09.008 - that civility is important, that the way people are willing to treat each other is important. And we're 00:06:09.008 --> 00:06:14.567 - really very indebted to Terri Skerven from College Mall and to her colleague Denise Glesing. Is Denise 00:06:14.567 --> 00:06:20.343 - here? Terri, okay. For translating a lot of what we had talked about in our discussions into this specific 00:06:20.343 --> 00:06:25.795 - proposal, this really came from Terri and Denise, a little bit of refinement by Steve Howard and Jay 00:06:25.795 --> 00:06:31.301 - Hoffman and myself. We talked from the beginning of our deliberations about the mayor using his fully 00:06:31.301 --> 00:06:32.542 - public, but also about 00:06:32.706 --> 00:06:38.910 - Using media resources, we define media very broadly to put across this message. We see this, and one 00:06:38.910 --> 00:06:45.236 - of the things I'd really like to do in this meeting today is to refine what we can do in this way. But 00:06:45.236 --> 00:06:51.747 - we can see media to be very broadly, not just television and radio. We've limited access to those things. 00:06:51.747 --> 00:06:58.258 - Brian Carney from WFHB said that he would be very willing to help work with public service announcements, 00:06:58.258 --> 00:06:59.486 - public service ads. 00:06:59.778 --> 00:07:06.619 - other creative ways of radio programming to promote this message. We're hopeful that the HT would agree 00:07:06.619 --> 00:07:13.262 - to run public service ads emphasizing this message of civility. But to create those, we talked about 00:07:13.262 --> 00:07:19.971 - having media competitions that students could participate in and that could be open to all members of 00:07:19.971 --> 00:07:27.075 - the community to design creative posters, things which could be run as public service ads in the newspaper, 00:07:27.075 --> 00:07:29.246 - messages for radio and for BCAT. 00:07:29.570 --> 00:07:35.743 - that would emphasize this message of stability. Some of you may remember a few years ago, IU did a poster 00:07:35.743 --> 00:07:41.684 - campaign through the Commission on Multicultural Understanding, commissioned students, and mainly out 00:07:41.684 --> 00:07:47.682 - of the School of Fine Arts, to do some very creative and very striking posters emphasizing the message 00:07:47.682 --> 00:07:53.681 - that hatred is not something that should be tolerated, that racism is something that affects everyone, 00:07:53.681 --> 00:07:58.398 - that injustice is to people based on religion, sexual orientation, race, gender, 00:07:58.562 --> 00:08:04.420 - really harm a community and really tear it down. You know, some very striking images with slogans, a 00:08:04.420 --> 00:08:10.569 - consistent look to these posters. These were displayed on campus. I think some of them were run as public 00:08:10.569 --> 00:08:16.543 - service ads in the newspaper. That's the kind of thing we have in mind. So we define media as not just 00:08:16.543 --> 00:08:22.402 - a broadcast and a news media, but any form of visual communication or audible communication. Another 00:08:22.402 --> 00:08:27.390 - thing we talked about a lot are the ads of the ad campaigns that are very well known. 00:08:27.810 --> 00:08:33.653 - such as the take a bite out of crime thing, the McGruff thing that you probably all see. There must 00:08:33.653 --> 00:08:39.496 - be out there, or if there aren't, we should try to create a series of posters and messages that can 00:08:39.496 --> 00:08:45.923 - be displayed in the mall and other places where people congregate that emphasize this message in a consistent 00:08:45.923 --> 00:08:49.662 - way, in a way that people identify it as being part of a crime. 00:08:51.554 --> 00:08:57.883 - possibly going all the way up to billboards that could be seen in a community that have a consistent 00:08:57.883 --> 00:09:04.337 - look and a consistent message. So as I say, we define media very broadly. We recognize that that's the 00:09:04.337 --> 00:09:11.041 - way to most pervasively get these messages of civility and public conduct across members of our community. 00:09:11.041 --> 00:09:17.182 - So that's the first recommendation. The second one is for a series of public deliberation forums. 00:09:17.826 --> 00:09:23.068 - We thought at one point about having some sort of a big summit meeting before this meeting about stability 00:09:23.068 --> 00:09:28.065 - issues, having some sort of town meeting where people could come and speak and express their opinions 00:09:28.065 --> 00:09:33.062 - about these issues. I think we ultimately decided that that might not work. That the people who would 00:09:33.062 --> 00:09:37.961 - show up at a meeting like that would tend to be, for lack of a better term, the usual suspects. And 00:09:37.961 --> 00:09:43.056 - that maybe the people who really needed to be there, who really needed to participate in something like 00:09:43.056 --> 00:09:47.710 - that, would not. That they'd be intimidated by that sort of a forum, that sort of a structure. 00:09:48.066 --> 00:09:54.026 - And so thanks to the work of Jay Hoffman, our Lilly fellow, what we came up with was a proposal for 00:09:54.026 --> 00:10:00.285 - a series of smaller group discussions, things that could be facilitated in schools, libraries, churches, 00:10:00.285 --> 00:10:06.364 - other community organizations with an agenda not set by the city government or by the mayor's office, 00:10:06.364 --> 00:10:12.324 - not organized by the mayor's office, but simply facilitated with some materials for discussions and 00:10:12.324 --> 00:10:13.278 - talking points. 00:10:13.890 --> 00:10:19.078 - booklets provided by the city government to these groups who wanted to organize their own discussion 00:10:19.078 --> 00:10:24.626 - groups. These could be almost like the book clubs that a number of community organizations and neighborhood 00:10:24.626 --> 00:10:30.276 - groups and church and school organizations have, where there's a little bit of facilitation, some commonality 00:10:30.276 --> 00:10:35.567 - in the materials that you have made available to you. But after that, it's up to the group to form its 00:10:35.567 --> 00:10:41.012 - own discussion and to take the discussion in the direction it wants to go. These could possibly culminate 00:10:41.012 --> 00:10:42.142 - into a larger meeting 00:10:42.530 --> 00:10:48.328 - at some point in the future to talk about these issues in our community, but we sort of begin from the 00:10:48.328 --> 00:10:54.183 - principle that one of the key things to improving civility is just getting people to talk to each other 00:10:54.183 --> 00:11:00.376 - more, people who don't normally interact with each other to talk about these issues. Our third recommendation 00:11:00.376 --> 00:11:06.174 - is called Neighborhood Association Welcoming Strategy. This I think originated from a meeting in which 00:11:06.174 --> 00:11:12.254 - a number of representatives from the Neighborhood Associations addressed the Safe and Civil City Task Force 00:11:12.514 --> 00:11:19.143 - about some of their concerns and especially Barbara Wolf from the Young Heights Neighborhood Association 00:11:19.143 --> 00:11:25.710 - really put onto the agenda the idea that the state of relations between landlords and tenants and their 00:11:25.710 --> 00:11:32.150 - neighbors is a civility issue. That residents in our neighborhood are concerned about the behavior of 00:11:32.150 --> 00:11:38.716 - student tenants in rental property, about the civility of their behavior and about the quality of their 00:11:38.716 --> 00:11:40.926 - interaction and when they approach 00:11:41.250 --> 00:11:47.284 - The owners of those properties, those properties, those landlords, those owners, often are not as responsive 00:11:47.284 --> 00:11:52.986 - as we would like to see them to be to these issues. This particular recommendation calls upon the city 00:11:52.986 --> 00:11:58.577 - government to publicize a strategy and to give some recommendations to neighbors, to people who live 00:11:58.577 --> 00:12:04.279 - in midst of rental property, these sorts of properties, how to get to know their student tenants. That 00:12:04.279 --> 00:12:08.542 - if you get to know the people who are living with you and in your community, 00:12:08.770 --> 00:12:15.050 - you might be able to form a basis for bringing some of these problems and complaints to their attention 00:12:15.050 --> 00:12:21.451 - if it comes to being a problem, that a little bit of prevention on the front end as introductions getting 00:12:21.451 --> 00:12:28.094 - to know each other can prevent some problems down the end. Now I think this probably could be suitably linked 00:12:28.322 --> 00:12:33.391 - Jay with another recommendation in another section that really specifically addresses the responsibilities 00:12:33.391 --> 00:12:38.365 - and the obligations of landlords. And do you want to say just a little bit about that? Just a very brief 00:12:38.365 --> 00:12:43.197 - comment. This recommendation, for those of you who attended the mitigating at-risk situations meeting 00:12:43.197 --> 00:12:48.171 - this morning, is in direct link. It's the sister recommendation, so to speak, of a recommendation called 00:12:48.171 --> 00:12:53.003 - the, I can't remember the name of it now, but it has to do with the Neighborhood Association and Code 00:12:53.003 --> 00:12:56.414 - Enforcement. And what it wants to do is it tries to integrate landlords 00:12:56.546 --> 00:13:01.315 - taking a more responsible approach into informing their tenants that they expect them one to be good 00:13:01.315 --> 00:13:06.226 - neighbors and two by integrating the city into that the city can then inform landlords when a violation 00:13:06.226 --> 00:13:10.994 - at that property has occurred so that the landlord can in turn inform their tenant that this is just 00:13:10.994 --> 00:13:16.047 - not the appropriate kind of action. So we try to take one a very proactive approach in this recommendation 00:13:16.047 --> 00:13:20.910 - and then a slightly more coercive I guess for lack of a better word approach in the mitigating at-risk 00:13:20.910 --> 00:13:22.846 - situations that committee recommendation 00:13:23.010 --> 00:13:27.836 - And from the neighborhood associations, we'd like you to view those two recommendations together and 00:13:27.836 --> 00:13:32.662 - give us your feedback on that. And if you think it's something that can work. So if you were to read 00:13:32.662 --> 00:13:37.583 - this recommendation by itself, you might say, well, this sounds like the neighborhood associations and 00:13:37.583 --> 00:13:42.409 - the permanent, the long-term residents of a community hadn't put forth all the effort to get to know 00:13:42.409 --> 00:13:47.330 - their student neighbors and so forth. But there is, as Jay says, a parallel recommendation that really 00:13:47.330 --> 00:13:51.774 - does underscore the obligations of landlords to get potential problem situations in the bug. 00:13:52.034 --> 00:13:58.563 - and to take some responsibility for the conduct of the people to whom they rent property. The remaining 00:13:58.563 --> 00:14:05.468 - recommendations have to do with the general raising public awareness of issues and disseminating information, 00:14:05.468 --> 00:14:11.808 - creating a home page and Hoosier Net on the worldwide web that would include stability and diversity 00:14:11.808 --> 00:14:18.148 - information, having the city sponsor or at least more ambitiously participate in a diversity fair of 00:14:18.148 --> 00:14:20.094 - some sort, an event that would 00:14:20.322 --> 00:14:26.872 - emphasize the diversity of our community. And we're indebted to Steve Howard from the Chamber of Commerce 00:14:26.872 --> 00:14:33.422 - for reminding us that appreciating the diversity, that the variety of people, the variety of backgrounds, 00:14:33.422 --> 00:14:39.601 - ethnic, religious, other backgrounds, the members of our community is an important step in civility 00:14:39.601 --> 00:14:46.089 - because so often uncivil behavior takes place in the form of hate speech, in the form of discrimination, 00:14:46.089 --> 00:14:48.190 - in the form of misunderstandings. 00:14:48.578 --> 00:14:53.755 - And just a review of the hate incident reports that the Bloomington Human Rights Commission, 00:14:53.755 --> 00:14:59.377 - which I chair, puts out every six months indicates to you that Bloomington is not a community that's 00:14:59.377 --> 00:15:05.055 - immune to those sorts of problems. So the city taking a more active role in promoting respect for the 00:15:05.055 --> 00:15:10.789 - many cultures that make up our city and make Bloomington what it is, is an important part of improving 00:15:10.789 --> 00:15:17.246 - stability and maintaining stability. And so our recommendations in those two areas haven't really underscored that. 00:15:17.570 --> 00:15:25.076 - making stability videos, airing them on Wittenton Community Access Publisher. A lot of really interesting 00:15:25.076 --> 00:15:32.158 - programs that are being produced by independent filmmakers, things that have run on PBS. You may be 00:15:32.158 --> 00:15:39.523 - familiar with a series called Not In Our Town. In fact, it's re-airing on WTIU tomorrow night at 10.30. 00:15:39.523 --> 00:15:47.454 - It's the story of a community, I want to say Montana, that was hit by some very unfortunate issues of incidents 00:15:47.586 --> 00:15:53.711 - anti-Semitic discrimination. I think it was vandalism done to a menorah that was displayed in a window 00:15:53.711 --> 00:16:00.014 - of a Jewish family. Is that correct? And the person who actually produced this program was in Bloomington 00:16:00.014 --> 00:16:06.318 - speaking on campus a couple of months ago. In response, the community took upon itself. You had hundreds, 00:16:06.318 --> 00:16:12.740 - if not thousands, I think, of homes in that community then displayed menorahs in their windows, essentially 00:16:12.740 --> 00:16:17.438 - in a gesture of solidarity with that community. Really a very moving movement. 00:16:17.538 --> 00:16:23.216 - magazine, and I think it was the September issue, had an article on it. Yeah. And so, yeah. Because 00:16:23.216 --> 00:16:29.064 - I want to say that it was a much broader approach than that, because in addition to the anti-Semitism, 00:16:29.064 --> 00:16:35.082 - there was also an intimidation in a very small black church, because the black population is quite small. 00:16:35.082 --> 00:16:40.760 - Right. And so then all kinds of congregations from other churches came in solidarity with the small 00:16:40.760 --> 00:16:44.734 - black congregation. And there was a Native American kind of incident. 00:16:46.434 --> 00:16:51.732 - The point of these purposes being that there had been some very interesting documentaries and films 00:16:51.732 --> 00:16:57.030 - made about how communities responded to these issues that we would like to see made available if we 00:16:57.030 --> 00:17:02.646 - could get around the copyright issues and other things that are involved to have them made more available 00:17:02.646 --> 00:17:08.155 - and seen more widely by members of our community. And then finally, as appendix to our report, actually 00:17:08.155 --> 00:17:14.142 - there are several appendices or sidebars, a report, a paper called Destination Civility written by Jake Hoffman, 00:17:14.658 --> 00:17:20.848 - talks a lot about these issues in terms of a broader national discourse. There's a report on what's 00:17:20.848 --> 00:17:27.161 - being done in our schools. Time and time again, we came back in our committee to what is happening in 00:17:27.161 --> 00:17:33.413 - the schools. We benefited from the participation of Dr. John Cooper, Susan Bearman, the principal of 00:17:33.413 --> 00:17:39.664 - Luton North High School, and also for some period by Steve Botnchuk, the principal of Harmony School 00:17:39.664 --> 00:17:42.078 - in the deliberations of our committee. 00:17:42.434 --> 00:17:47.761 - I think sometimes we were tempted to say, these problems begin in the schools, and the schools should 00:17:47.761 --> 00:17:52.984 - try to do something to teach people civil behavior. And I think that as a group, we sort of checked 00:17:52.984 --> 00:17:58.258 - ourselves and realized that we didn't want to get into this game of trying to blame all the problems 00:17:58.258 --> 00:18:03.481 - on the schools and put all the responsibility for solving these problems on the schools. But we did 00:18:03.481 --> 00:18:08.704 - need to recognize some of the, in many cases, creative and innovative work schools are doing to try 00:18:08.704 --> 00:18:09.278 - to promote 00:18:09.954 --> 00:18:16.000 - better relationships among students and between students and teachers. And so as an appendix to our 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:22.167 - report, there's a two or three page description of what's going on in each school in the MCCFC system 00:18:22.167 --> 00:18:28.575 - that is relevant to our concerns about civility. And then I guess the final sidebar, it's really actually 00:18:28.575 --> 00:18:34.621 - toward the beginning of the report, is simply a definition of civility that was contributed by Lynn 00:18:34.621 --> 00:18:39.518 - Ostrom, who's on the political science faculty at IU. We decided it was probably 00:18:39.618 --> 00:18:45.422 - important because this is a rather nebulous charge. It means a lot of different things to different 00:18:45.422 --> 00:18:51.225 - people. It's necessary to define our terms a bit. And so near the beginning of the report, about on 00:18:51.225 --> 00:18:57.087 - page seven or eight, I guess it would be, you see a two-third page simply had its civility. And that 00:18:57.087 --> 00:19:02.948 - is the definition of civility that we as a committee decided to adopt. It emphasizes the connections 00:19:02.948 --> 00:19:08.926 - between civility and perceptions of civil behavior toward perceptions of crime and safety, and also to 00:19:09.026 --> 00:19:14.965 - attempts to define this bigger issue we call social capital, that civility is important to expectations, 00:19:14.965 --> 00:19:20.622 - that promises are kept among people in the community and between members of the community and their 00:19:20.622 --> 00:19:26.279 - government and their leaders, that reciprocity is a good strategy to follow in those relationships, 00:19:26.279 --> 00:19:32.105 - and that one will be able to call on one's fellow citizens to provide assistance in times of need. The 00:19:32.105 --> 00:19:38.044 - more we can build up those values and those ideas through civil behavior, the more healthy our community 00:19:38.044 --> 00:19:39.006 - is likely to be. 00:19:40.674 --> 00:19:46.351 - That's a real quick overview, a real thumbnail sketch of what our committee did. We hope that we've 00:19:46.351 --> 00:19:52.311 - at least made some contribution in the context of all of these national commissions and learned journals 00:19:52.311 --> 00:19:58.442 - that are writing and opining about civility. We hope we've made some reasonable and realistic contributions 00:19:58.442 --> 00:20:04.403 - to what our community can do in the sort of environment that city government, which is really ultimately 00:20:04.403 --> 00:20:07.582 - the audience of this report, can do. What I would love, 00:20:07.746 --> 00:20:13.578 - be to hear your general, I guess two or three things, your general reactions to the report and to our 00:20:13.578 --> 00:20:19.354 - recommendations. That would be number one. Two would be what we have overlooked or left out in terms 00:20:19.354 --> 00:20:25.129 - of the literature that the city government can take or facilitate, since that is the group that will 00:20:25.129 --> 00:20:30.904 - have to implement this state and city council's task force report. What we've overlooked, what we've 00:20:30.904 --> 00:20:36.222 - forgotten. And third, to get your ideas about fleshing out the recommendations, particularly 00:20:36.514 --> 00:20:42.712 - What I would continue to think of is our flagship recommendation, and that is for using the media broadly 00:20:42.712 --> 00:20:48.560 - defined in our community to communicate messages about civility. So with that, I would love to hear 00:20:48.560 --> 00:20:54.524 - your feedback and your thoughts. Let me just ask Jay, do you want to add anything? Jay was incredibly 00:20:54.524 --> 00:21:00.371 - useful in drafting many of these recommendations and really doing a lot of the creative work that's 00:21:00.371 --> 00:21:03.646 - the basis for many of these recommendations, as well as 00:21:06.914 --> 00:21:11.752 - Steve, I think you've done a wonderful job of outlining the process of the committee. I really have 00:21:11.752 --> 00:21:16.784 - nothing to add. The fact that I guess I just reiterate one thing that Steve said is one, it's very hard 00:21:16.784 --> 00:21:21.912 - to wrap your hands around what this idea is. We started with one conception back in October when I joined 00:21:21.912 --> 00:21:26.750 - the committee and started discussing it. And I think we really ended up somewhere very different by 00:21:26.750 --> 00:21:31.734 - the time that we ended. And when you're talking about civility, there's one thing that comes out again 00:21:31.734 --> 00:21:36.862 - and again in the report and it's the definition. It's this idea that we're all in the same boat together. 00:21:36.994 --> 00:21:44.203 - and we need to find ways to interact with everybody in that vote. And that's what we're trying to do 00:21:44.203 --> 00:21:51.841 - in this committee, is get the word out that, you know, we need to get along and we need to make an effort. 00:21:51.841 --> 00:21:59.265 - It doesn't come easy. Yes? The Y had started a campaign, which is their basically campaign, and it fits 00:21:59.265 --> 00:22:06.974 - right in as far as I'm concerned. There were like four words, caring, honesty, respect was the first thing. 00:22:07.490 --> 00:22:15.139 - and they used different colors and things like that. Right, right, and then the fourth one I can't remember. 00:22:15.139 --> 00:22:22.296 - But they did call together leaders from 4-H, Boy Scouts, the business community, and things that were 00:22:22.296 --> 00:22:29.384 - mentioned today when Jay was presiding over that meeting. And you know, I mean, there's a good start 00:22:29.384 --> 00:22:34.366 - there already. And I can see, Steve had mentioned it a couple of times 00:22:41.090 --> 00:22:46.631 - partner with them in some way, why could facilitate a discussion group about these issues in line with 00:22:46.631 --> 00:22:52.387 - our second recommendation for these discussion forums for example. There are clearly lots of organizations 00:22:52.387 --> 00:22:57.928 - out there that are concerned about this issue and so I don't know if it's necessary to bring them into 00:22:57.928 --> 00:23:03.362 - some sort of big fold or simply say let a thousand flowers bloom, but they're involved in a campaign 00:23:03.362 --> 00:23:09.118 - which fits their mission and their membership and their needs and that's great, we should acknowledge that 00:23:15.042 --> 00:23:22.313 - Well, I feel that they lost, was it their director that was spearheading this and maybe they had a staff 00:23:22.313 --> 00:23:29.307 - out there because they stopped the meetings. I haven't, you know, it started and then the only thing 00:23:29.307 --> 00:23:36.716 - I see now is the posters. Yeah. I don't know, they may be doing something about it. They aren't continuing 00:23:36.716 --> 00:23:39.486 - like, you know, with the community out. 00:23:55.522 --> 00:24:00.530 - perhaps if we maybe go through the details of, I think, Steve, before we have the first three and maybe 00:24:00.530 --> 00:24:05.443 - four recommendations are clearly our most well thought out. Perhaps if we discuss specifically one at 00:24:05.443 --> 00:24:10.403 - a time some of the more intricate details of what would be required to implement one of these, if it's 00:24:10.403 --> 00:24:15.363 - even feasible or if it defeats the purpose if we're getting about it wrong, that might be very useful. 00:24:15.363 --> 00:24:20.227 - Again, this is a very difficult issue and a lot of uncomfortable moments of silence are things we're 00:24:20.227 --> 00:24:23.550 - used to. We've certainly experienced those in the committee process. 00:24:23.810 --> 00:24:29.811 - I think, too, because we were somewhat frustrated because it's very easy to get off on a rather philosophical 00:24:29.811 --> 00:24:35.538 - and theoretical or just unfocused discussion about how bad it is that people are worried that somebody's 00:24:35.538 --> 00:24:41.103 - going to pull a gun out on you if you cut in front of them on the highway or something like that. All 00:24:41.103 --> 00:24:46.558 - the problems that we were very concerned about. I think I was, anyway, to always bring this down to 00:24:46.558 --> 00:24:51.358 - the level of what can we do in terms of concrete initiatives to improve quality of life 00:24:53.346 --> 00:24:59.256 - Terry, do you want to say anything just by, to emphasize anything or by introduction of the beauty of 00:24:59.256 --> 00:25:05.282 - public relations campaign, you and Denise really sort of took that and ran with it. Put that in writing 00:25:05.282 --> 00:25:08.990 - in a concrete form. I'll give it to you and then you finish it. 00:25:24.866 --> 00:25:32.406 - a real good arena for reaching people. It's a real important message to get across to folks. So we do 00:25:32.406 --> 00:25:40.241 - see many ways that the mall can help spread this ability word as that campaign is developed. It certainly 00:25:40.241 --> 00:25:47.633 - is a crossroads for the community. Yes. Well, I guess I'm thinking of, we'll talk about some things 00:25:47.633 --> 00:25:50.590 - we're talking about. I think we need to 00:26:01.218 --> 00:26:08.593 - I kind of miss that here. Daycares. The grade schools are doing some things, but I guess I want to reach 00:26:08.593 --> 00:26:15.827 - out to more of the community and some of the smaller kids who are involved. Just everyday manners that 00:26:15.827 --> 00:26:22.078 - they're missing nowadays. What are some, the first question I would ask is what are some 00:26:44.738 --> 00:26:51.233 - Is there a way that the mayor's office can facilitate getting something going along those lines, I guess? 00:26:51.233 --> 00:26:57.483 - Well, Parks and Recs are one thing. That could be a focus of one of their programs. I know they go to 00:26:57.483 --> 00:27:03.672 - a lot of housing things, and that could be a program that they focus on. The Human Rights Commission 00:27:03.672 --> 00:27:09.922 - each year. You have camps, youth camps, that could be a focus in your youth camps. Such as the Walnut 00:27:09.922 --> 00:27:14.334 - City Camp and Parks and Rec camps. There's a conference held every year 00:27:14.754 --> 00:27:30.667 - The other angle, if you're trying to get a home with the people doing childcare, go through the City 00:27:30.667 --> 00:27:43.902 - of Wilmington, the Community and Family Resources Department, because they maintain 00:27:45.506 --> 00:27:52.336 - program and then the food program. The food program providers that are participating in that are required 00:27:52.336 --> 00:27:58.972 - to do monthly training meetings. So you've got a resource there to train the providers to how to teach 00:27:58.972 --> 00:28:05.479 - this to the children. And then certainly in my extended day programs I can't do it. The Human Rights 00:28:05.479 --> 00:28:11.987 - Commission each year sponsors an essay contest geared at a couple of different levels of the schools 00:28:11.987 --> 00:28:13.662 - and this year our general 00:28:13.762 --> 00:28:19.952 - the theme tied in with this work was civility, and I think for the elementary and middle school kids, 00:28:19.952 --> 00:28:26.021 - you can use the term civility, I forget exactly how we phrase it, but sort of thinking about how we 00:28:26.021 --> 00:28:32.151 - treat each other, and just being nice to each other, something like that. And I know that several of 00:28:32.151 --> 00:28:38.220 - my fellow commissioners, certain judges, in that our award ceremony's gonna be at May 1st, I've not 00:28:38.220 --> 00:28:42.590 - read the essays yet, I've not seen them, but we decided to make our own 00:28:44.930 --> 00:28:53.905 - I was thinking in terms of customer service and businesses. We have visitors come to visit our family 00:28:53.905 --> 00:29:02.967 - here in Blooms and they always say when I take them shopping anywhere what a friendly place it is that 00:29:02.967 --> 00:29:12.734 - when they come from New York or Chicago or some place like that you know the waitresses aren't as friendly and 00:29:14.274 --> 00:29:22.409 - cashiers aren't as friendly. And if we can just continue to promote that in New England, if every business, 00:29:22.409 --> 00:29:30.093 - if every not-for-profit, if every family thought of ways that they could be friendly and nice and how 00:29:30.093 --> 00:29:37.776 - they can accommodate their customers in many different ways. And we each have our own group of people 00:29:37.776 --> 00:29:44.254 - that we serve in many ways in our lives. And if we just think about how we want to be 00:29:45.826 --> 00:29:51.086 - that and just make it just go out like a wave that we would have a very civil community. If I could 00:29:51.086 --> 00:29:56.766 - follow up on that, you really hit it on the head. We've talked a lot about it this morning about grassroots 00:29:56.766 --> 00:30:02.184 - movements and the importance of starting from the ground up. The most important thing everyone in this 00:30:02.184 --> 00:30:07.496 - room could do today when they leave is go out and tell someone, I live in Bloomington, Indiana. It's 00:30:07.496 --> 00:30:13.018 - a safe and civil community and start spreading the word. It starts with us. So I think we also recognize 00:30:13.018 --> 00:30:15.806 - that this kind of thing is very cyclical, that if we 00:30:16.066 --> 00:30:21.713 - If people in those customer service responsibilities are that way, probably a lot of that has to do 00:30:21.713 --> 00:30:27.529 - with the fact that they themselves are treated that way, that they have maybe a lower level of tension 00:30:27.529 --> 00:30:33.572 - and stress than people living in New York or Chicago, because Bloomington is in general a safer community. 00:30:33.572 --> 00:30:39.275 - It's perceived as just a community with a higher quality of life. And that leads people to be better 00:30:39.275 --> 00:30:44.414 - to each other in their interactions. And the quality of those interactions then feeds that 00:30:44.866 --> 00:30:51.421 - called social capital, and it becomes a positive cycle. Steve, does the chamber do anything in the way 00:30:51.421 --> 00:30:57.911 - of advocacy or customer service training for local businesses along those lines? No, I don't think we 00:30:57.911 --> 00:31:04.911 - have. We could. For our community development, that certainly could be an initiative. There's some subtleties 00:31:04.911 --> 00:31:11.339 - here that you need to think about, though. I'm reminded, and I think it has to do with the diversity 00:31:11.339 --> 00:31:13.566 - issue. It may be similar to people 00:31:48.450 --> 00:31:56.300 - not just be nice, it's recognize that nice is perceived in different ways. That's why we included the 00:31:56.300 --> 00:32:04.535 - term diversity, which has become kind of a misunderstood or buzzword in and of itself, but why we included 00:32:04.535 --> 00:32:12.308 - recognition of those non-discrimination and diversity issues in the purview of our committee. That's 00:32:12.308 --> 00:32:16.926 - a perfect crystallization. For those of you who don't know, 00:32:17.154 --> 00:32:24.978 - an African-American faculty member at IU who directed the Afro-American Choral Ensemble. And he looks 00:32:24.978 --> 00:32:32.726 - different. He's an unusual looking person, I think. That might have been it more than anything else, 00:32:32.726 --> 00:32:40.473 - but I don't know. So George, I think you're right. There's something we could do in that area. Those 00:32:40.473 --> 00:32:47.070 - of you who are in agencies, businesses, all of your professional lives, are you aware 00:32:47.906 --> 00:32:54.169 - poster campaigns or public service announcements or series of coordinated messages that your group makes 00:32:54.169 --> 00:33:00.253 - available that are already out there. I think Terry did a little bit of looking. We sort of said that 00:33:00.253 --> 00:33:06.338 - there must be some national group like the ad council or something like that that has a campaign just 00:33:06.338 --> 00:33:11.945 - like the McGruff take a bite out of crime. There must be something like that about stability. 00:33:11.945 --> 00:33:16.478 - If there is, we haven't found it. And maybe we need to create it ourselves. 00:33:16.962 --> 00:33:22.861 - materials, PSAs, other things out there that you're aware of that we can make use of. Not nationally 00:33:22.861 --> 00:33:28.877 - for all ages, but at least in my program there's posters we use for children. Well the best resources, 00:33:28.877 --> 00:33:34.893 - and it's like Skacy and I'll quit talking in acronyms, it's the National Association for the Education 00:33:34.893 --> 00:33:40.734 - of Young Children and the Children's Defense Fund is another excellent place, but again the message 00:33:47.170 --> 00:33:54.884 - These materials can be purchased by local groups. There may be overlap here with the youth. Should we 00:33:54.884 --> 00:34:02.446 - start piling more things on the Youth Commission's job description? Well, I would let Gaffney speak 00:34:02.446 --> 00:34:10.387 - to that. I would just say that one thing that we didn't have time to discuss, our committee deliberation 00:34:10.387 --> 00:34:12.958 - ended and the work is never done. 00:34:13.186 --> 00:34:18.691 - was when we got the survey results back from the school as to far as what they were doing to promote 00:34:18.691 --> 00:34:24.306 - civility within the school system, I think there's some possibility there that we might be able to tap 00:34:24.306 --> 00:34:29.757 - into that and expand upon it, make it a bigger deal, say we want a proof of what you're doing, this 00:34:29.757 --> 00:34:35.208 - is what the other schools are doing, let's try to get more of it, get some excitement building, and 00:34:35.208 --> 00:34:40.877 - by then you'll get some adults involved and we'll come up with some ideas for you and I, the old folks, 00:34:40.877 --> 00:34:43.166 - older folks. Your old folks. Yeah, right. 00:34:45.986 --> 00:34:52.563 - The community is so rich in creativity and artistic capability. There are a lot of examples, a lot of 00:34:52.563 --> 00:34:59.075 - opportunities to do things. Because the one that occurs to me is every year we have a contest to see 00:34:59.075 --> 00:35:05.587 - what will be on the front cover of the business directory of the chamber. And there's always a theme 00:35:05.587 --> 00:35:11.454 - that's put out. And there's no reason at all the theme for next year couldn't be civility. 00:35:27.586 --> 00:35:33.506 - medium that's out there that disseminates the message. Does this idea of some sort of a contest have 00:35:33.506 --> 00:35:39.484 - potential? I mean, we tend to do that a lot, I suppose. I don't know if it's an overused idea or not. 00:35:39.484 --> 00:35:45.404 - To my mind, it wouldn't have to be limited. It probably shouldn't be limited to schools. But rather, 00:35:45.404 --> 00:35:51.676 - anyone in our community who has visual artistic talent, media production talent, I guess this is something 00:35:51.676 --> 00:35:54.782 - ultimately the mayor's office would have to sponsor. 00:35:55.330 --> 00:36:01.524 - office or commission set up to implement the work of the state and civil city task force, it would be 00:36:01.524 --> 00:36:07.596 - something that they would sponsor. And there would have to be some money and some prize, I suppose, 00:36:07.596 --> 00:36:13.973 - involved in addition to the recognition. But to commission people to create in a competitive way posters 00:36:13.973 --> 00:36:20.288 - and PSAs and other media that could be used, hopefully, to provide a consistent message. Does that idea 00:36:20.288 --> 00:36:24.478 - have potential? Does anybody have any strong feelings for or against 00:36:24.578 --> 00:36:31.939 - that approach of grassroots creation of these sorts of materials and messages. There's just continuing 00:36:31.939 --> 00:36:39.085 - opportunities to do that. Another example would be every year the limited voice listens to opinions 00:36:39.085 --> 00:36:46.446 - about what the best pizza is. We could ask them who's the most polite wait person in town or who's the 00:36:46.446 --> 00:36:47.518 - nicest citizen 00:37:09.858 --> 00:37:17.006 - Let them get together and figure out how to collect and disseminate messages about civility and diversity. 00:37:17.006 --> 00:37:23.953 - A little business community involved. How else would they do that? I'm just curious, just to flesh that 00:37:23.953 --> 00:37:30.967 - out a little bit. That they would actually sponsor something, since they control the machines that print 00:37:30.967 --> 00:37:37.246 - all this stuff, they could easily disseminate it. Tell me. I think that the elementary school 00:38:00.194 --> 00:38:07.778 - I remember when the city government was in the old building, weren't there periodically sort of art 00:38:07.778 --> 00:38:15.439 - displays around the common council chambers geared toward a theme? Yes, there was. I always had some 00:38:15.439 --> 00:38:23.099 - theme. I don't remember who was in charge of that, but I think that should be introduced. What about 00:38:23.099 --> 00:38:27.422 - this idea that the city actually have an official motto? 00:38:28.706 --> 00:38:34.513 - So is there any official Bloomington motto or slogan for that? I'm looking to the members of the city 00:38:34.513 --> 00:38:40.378 - council who are here with us. We have sort of floated around this idea. This goes beyond the stability 00:38:40.378 --> 00:38:46.128 - committee, but I think we've been one of the key committees that's pushed the idea of having on city 00:38:46.128 --> 00:38:51.993 - letterhead, on signs, the entrance to the city, Bloomington a safe and civil community. There was even 00:38:51.993 --> 00:38:57.743 - at one point someone came up with some sort of artwork or a little logo that could be used with that 00:38:57.743 --> 00:38:58.654 - sort of slogan. 00:38:59.042 --> 00:39:05.940 - Are we in agreement that that's both a compelling enough and an encompassing enough issue that that's 00:39:05.940 --> 00:39:12.703 - a message that a majority of members of our community can rally around the idea of a safe and civil 00:39:12.703 --> 00:39:19.534 - city or a safe and civil community to elevate that to a slogan, to city letterhead, to city signage, 00:39:19.534 --> 00:39:26.432 - all this kind of thing. Do you have problems with that? I think it's a wonderful idea, except it puts 00:39:26.432 --> 00:39:28.190 - you at considerable risk. 00:39:38.306 --> 00:39:43.595 - brave thing to do because you push yourself, you make yourself vulnerable to community, you claim to 00:39:43.595 --> 00:39:48.884 - be that, and then something happens that clearly is not. I think it works the other way. Where's the 00:39:48.884 --> 00:39:54.383 - potential for ridicule? Go ahead. Although that's certainly a risk, part of the idea behind this getting 00:39:54.383 --> 00:39:59.724 - the word out is that when you create the expectation that this is going to be a safe and civil place, 00:39:59.724 --> 00:40:05.065 - that whether or not you are safe and civil yourself, you might conform to these norms. Now that's not 00:40:05.065 --> 00:40:07.998 - to say that everyone acts rationally and you won't have 00:40:08.578 --> 00:40:13.526 - random acts of violence. But what you might see, and what would be interesting to see a study done, 00:40:13.526 --> 00:40:18.524 - we certainly have people at IU who could do those, is to see if we create an expectation that we are 00:40:18.524 --> 00:40:23.472 - going to be safe, and we are going to be civil, and we tell everybody, and we write it every place, 00:40:23.472 --> 00:40:28.569 - and it becomes a norm, not a law, that maybe people will say, hmm, this isn't the place where you beat 00:40:28.569 --> 00:40:33.517 - up people, and this isn't the place where you give people the bird, and whatever. The model doesn't 00:40:33.517 --> 00:40:37.822 - necessarily need to claim that we are something, but maybe depict that we're striving. 00:40:40.194 --> 00:40:45.877 - And this ties into another insight from one of the other committees, Dan Sherman's committee. Is that 00:40:45.877 --> 00:40:51.616 - mitigating at-risk situations? Safety of the environment. In the Fuller report, which you'll see after 00:40:51.616 --> 00:40:57.188 - the task force has fully finished its work, there's the insight about what's called a broken window 00:40:57.188 --> 00:41:02.871 - theory. It's common sense that you're in an area where trash is not collected, where there are broken 00:41:02.871 --> 00:41:08.499 - windows, where property falls into a dilapidated state. That sends messages to people as to what the 00:41:08.499 --> 00:41:09.502 - expectations are. 00:41:09.762 --> 00:41:15.296 - and what the safety of that physical environment is. And so a motto emphasizing safety and stability 00:41:15.296 --> 00:41:20.830 - that this community is self-confident enough to declare that it is a safe and civil community works, 00:41:20.830 --> 00:41:26.638 - as Jay said, to send the opposite message, that it promotes an image and a perception of order and safety 00:41:26.638 --> 00:41:32.173 - in the community, which you hope becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. And I think there is an element 00:41:32.173 --> 00:41:36.830 - to this. You've got to stick your neck out a little bit. I agree with what Jay says. 00:41:45.858 --> 00:41:52.044 - far to have the motto, then it ought to be followed up with every single agency or department of the 00:41:52.044 --> 00:41:58.169 - city having a mission statement and a set of goals and objectives and action steps for how they are 00:41:58.169 --> 00:42:04.294 - contributing to the establishment of the state and the city, so that we don't end up with some sort 00:42:04.294 --> 00:42:10.481 - of lip service. Sure. I think just the existence of this overall task force in this meeting today is 00:42:10.481 --> 00:42:14.462 - a start toward that. It certainly shows, I think, the commitment 00:42:15.266 --> 00:42:21.657 - on a very large macro level to these ideals, and not diversity, the recommendations. And actually, I 00:42:21.657 --> 00:42:28.301 - would add to that, not just city departments, but the interfaith council, you know, what are the various 00:42:28.301 --> 00:42:35.199 - congregations doing with regard to this issue? I just want to say, before we put it on anybody's letterhead, 00:42:35.199 --> 00:42:41.653 - I would rather see us tell a lot of stories about how we're working to be a safe and simple city, and 00:42:41.653 --> 00:42:43.678 - maybe this would be a long-term 00:42:44.482 --> 00:42:51.365 - could eventually put it on. But I think when we get all this media stuff going and we start pointing 00:42:51.365 --> 00:42:58.315 - at different people that are doing things and different organizations and departments within the city 00:42:58.315 --> 00:43:05.198 - and can give statistics of how we've gone so long without having a murder or whatever, then we could 00:43:05.198 --> 00:43:12.080 - say, these are examples of how we're safe and civil city. I like the word working, striving, working 00:43:12.080 --> 00:43:12.830 - for a safe 00:43:19.202 --> 00:43:25.921 - I'd like to just hang it up there and shoot for it. You bet. Just say we are one. I think the compromise 00:43:25.921 --> 00:43:32.448 - of the personal safety commission at Ivy faced a similar issue. You don't want to send a message that 00:43:32.448 --> 00:43:39.167 - it's unsafe. And so I think the compromise, Toby, you may be familiar with this, is toward an even safer 00:43:39.167 --> 00:43:45.374 - campus, is the name of the publication. It was like, toward an even more safe and civil setting. 00:43:52.290 --> 00:43:58.366 - or give you the idea, they get the message across, but it isn't real, real blunt. I'm not saying one 00:43:58.366 --> 00:44:04.383 - way or another in terms of whether the letterheads in the first city should say, second civil city. 00:44:04.383 --> 00:44:10.399 - I have to frankly admit I'm a bit frustrated because I'm, and I haven't read everything, so I don't 00:44:10.399 --> 00:44:16.836 - know exactly what the definition of civility is. You know, I get it that it's mutual respect and courtesy, 00:44:16.836 --> 00:44:21.950 - and for me it would also be tolerance. But then I think when we get into things like 00:44:22.082 --> 00:44:29.927 - lightness and niceness and stuff like that. There's so many different definitions of what that is, and 00:44:29.927 --> 00:44:37.848 - I don't know what we're talking about when we talk about being nice to each other, being polite to each 00:44:37.848 --> 00:44:44.094 - other. It seems to me that we need to have some really broad views. For instance, 00:44:53.698 --> 00:44:59.562 - What is civility? Because... I'm showing my own lack of knowledge of what the subcommittee of our commission 00:44:59.562 --> 00:45:04.942 - did. I believe that some guidelines were given out to the teachers about these essays, for example, 00:45:04.942 --> 00:45:10.323 - that didn't tell you exactly what they said. I know for me, in terms of doing city business, when I 00:45:10.323 --> 00:45:15.864 - think about why do I regulate or put a stop sign or something like that, we live in a civilization and 00:45:15.864 --> 00:45:20.222 - we have to figure out ways to get along with each other. And part of it is, say, 00:45:27.106 --> 00:45:33.578 - And I do feel as though there's a real attack on regulatory government going on, just to relate it in 00:45:33.578 --> 00:45:40.114 - terms of what cities can do. So for me, that's an issue where civility really breaks down. Respect for 00:45:40.114 --> 00:45:46.522 - the law. Respect for the law, respect for the functions of government, what governments actually are 00:45:46.522 --> 00:45:53.502 - trying to achieve. It's a collective view of how people should get along with each other to a certain extent. 00:45:58.786 --> 00:46:05.140 - to narrow out that word tolerance. If you're going to define civility, I think tolerance should be in 00:46:05.140 --> 00:46:11.494 - there too. Because a lot of times when people's customs are very, very different, so their politeness 00:46:11.494 --> 00:46:17.786 - to each other are very, very different. But if there's an overriding feature of tolerance, then that 00:46:17.786 --> 00:46:24.389 - maintains the civility. So. Had to certainly hit on the key thing that frustrated our committee, I think, 00:46:24.389 --> 00:46:25.822 - for about nine months. 00:46:32.226 --> 00:46:38.283 - We're all struck at just sort of how satisfying Lynn's definition was, the way she described it in a 00:46:38.283 --> 00:46:44.339 - relatively Greek space, what we mean by civility, which is in the report. It means, as you say, lots 00:46:44.339 --> 00:46:50.636 - of different things to different people. Yet there does seem to be this perception among a lot of people 00:46:50.636 --> 00:46:56.753 - that society is less polite, more coarse, that our political dialogue and debate are more acrimonious 00:46:56.753 --> 00:47:01.790 - and more bearish. The me generation. We're trying to move out of the me generation. 00:47:12.098 --> 00:47:18.207 - I'm going to defer to Jay because Jay is more familiar with Lynn's work and has been a student of Lynn's. 00:47:18.207 --> 00:47:24.085 - All of Lynn's work is based on this very bullet point, so it's not surprising to see it in here. What 00:47:24.085 --> 00:47:30.079 - Lynn means is that we interact with each other more than once. If I am nice to you today, then I should 00:47:30.079 --> 00:47:35.957 - be nice to you tomorrow, and again, and again, and again. Whereas if I'm just trying to get something 00:47:35.957 --> 00:47:40.510 - from you and I burn our bridge today, I might have to cross it again tomorrow. 00:47:41.026 --> 00:47:46.654 - And so a long-term strategy would be one where you and I decide to get along today and we stick to it, 00:47:46.654 --> 00:47:52.283 - rather than I burn a bridge whenever it's convenient. That's not a good strategy to follow. And that's 00:47:52.283 --> 00:47:57.747 - what creates a lack of community, alienation, and these kind of things. And Pat, I think we finally 00:47:57.747 --> 00:48:03.758 - just sort of came to the conclusion that we were never going to come up with one all-encompassing definition. 00:48:03.758 --> 00:48:09.222 - So the best we could do would be to come up with some initiatives and that there's enough agreement 00:48:09.222 --> 00:48:10.206 - on what an ad can 00:48:10.626 --> 00:48:16.010 - look like, or just repeating this idea of civil behavior. That was worth doing for its own sake. 00:48:16.010 --> 00:48:21.672 - And also, government is creating an environment where these issues can be discussed, where people can 00:48:21.672 --> 00:48:27.223 - talk about them, where the forums come in. And so we're never going to define this as an issue. But 00:48:27.223 --> 00:48:32.774 - everybody seems to be talking about some buzzwords. So people must have at some level some sense of 00:48:32.774 --> 00:48:36.382 - what we're talking about. So let's just let 1,000 flowers bloom. 00:48:50.722 --> 00:48:56.617 - it is to be a human, to relate in a civil manner with each other, rather than saying, for instance, 00:48:56.617 --> 00:49:02.689 - and not to pick on Shrine North Middle School, but you walk into the school and there's a poster there 00:49:02.689 --> 00:49:08.585 - about, you know, if you become a drug addict, you'll, you'll, this will happen to you or something. 00:49:08.585 --> 00:49:14.716 - And I just always looked at that and I thought, how much greater if there was a great poster there that 00:49:14.716 --> 00:49:19.550 - would make the kids live up to a higher expectation, rather than a fear driving a 00:49:20.674 --> 00:49:30.945 - I mean, I don't think that we necessarily need to say things in such a blunt way. We can find a way 00:49:30.945 --> 00:49:41.525 - to inspire those people. I'm just frustrated because he's been trying to say something. Oh, I'm sorry. 00:49:41.525 --> 00:49:46.558 - Well, I agree with what you're saying very much. 00:49:51.618 --> 00:49:52.254 - They'll have some. 00:50:24.450 --> 00:50:32.379 - I don't think we ought to get into the paralysis by analysis here either. For the parents in the room, 00:50:32.379 --> 00:50:40.154 - if we got a couple three-year-olds playing on the floor and one was pushing or hitting or something, 00:50:40.154 --> 00:50:48.082 - what would we all say? Be nice. We'd say, be nice to your brother, Susie. Right? Chris would say that. 00:50:48.082 --> 00:50:53.086 - And we'd all get a concept. I think we all sort of get the idea. 00:50:54.146 --> 00:51:00.316 - And I know you can take it from that into deep and dark recesses of the academic mind and trying to 00:51:00.316 --> 00:51:06.486 - identify what exactly that means. But I think most of us on some sort of utility level know what it 00:51:06.486 --> 00:51:12.841 - means to be nice. Well, I know in this day and age, I know some parents would say, Johnny wasn't doing 00:51:12.841 --> 00:51:19.073 - anything wrong. Well, and then others might say, hey, hit your sister back. Well, I think that maybe 00:51:19.073 --> 00:51:19.998 - we always have 00:51:24.002 --> 00:51:30.393 - However, we end up defining similarity, that we accept that there will be conflict and tension. But 00:51:30.393 --> 00:51:36.847 - it's one of those things where almost anything, as long as doing something is probably going to make 00:51:36.847 --> 00:51:43.685 - some improvement and some positive impact, even if you don't have the ultimate master plan or the ultimate 00:51:43.685 --> 00:51:48.286 - definition, just doing something toward this general goal is not likely 00:51:53.506 --> 00:51:59.422 - Yeah, I think there is a, designing an immediate campaign too, I think that there's a diminishing return 00:51:59.422 --> 00:52:05.057 - in trying to come up with the ultimate definition of civility, whereas telling stories of civility, 00:52:05.057 --> 00:52:10.804 - seeing the column in the real times, there'll be a lot more consensus on yes, that is an example that 00:52:10.804 --> 00:52:16.438 - we can all get behind, whether it fits the definition we've been able to define in the last year or 00:52:16.438 --> 00:52:22.242 - not of civility becomes beside the point, whereas we can immediately begin to tell stories, and that's 00:52:22.242 --> 00:52:22.974 - where we've, 00:52:23.746 --> 00:52:32.379 - involved a sense of what is civil. Sometimes it's- I have an example. It's a recent H.T. article about 00:52:32.379 --> 00:52:41.012 - if you do something stupid as a driver, how to acknowledge your stupidity to the other person. So it's 00:52:41.012 --> 00:52:49.394 - a good shot. I didn't put that one forward. How do you do it? Yeah, right. You don't use the middle 00:52:49.394 --> 00:52:51.070 - finger on one hand. 00:52:53.186 --> 00:52:58.542 - I think as much as we don't want to get too tied down in analysis and all that, it is important to look 00:52:58.542 --> 00:53:04.104 - at some of the root causes, anonymity, that adults have in their cars, for example, and lack of supervision 00:53:04.104 --> 00:53:09.253 - the kids have. I know my kids, the first time they went into a totally uncivil environment was when 00:53:09.253 --> 00:53:14.558 - they got on the school bus, right? And all of a sudden, I'm like, cussed up and cussed down. First day 00:53:14.558 --> 00:53:19.759 - of school, second day of school, third day of school. Next thing I know, I was driving. And got them 00:53:19.759 --> 00:53:22.334 - back on the bus eventually, and then I'm driving. 00:53:23.138 --> 00:53:29.640 - because of all the abuse they're taking. For a couple years, my son rode, when he got old enough, rode 00:53:29.640 --> 00:53:36.079 - his bike a mile every day. He didn't want to be on a school bus. It was too rough. He wasn't into it. 00:53:36.079 --> 00:53:42.518 - And I think that we can't expect... Well, you can stand on that example. Let's say we come to a point 00:53:42.518 --> 00:53:49.020 - in this community where we think maybe we need cameras on the buses. Then maybe we should rethink that 00:53:49.020 --> 00:53:51.166 - and say, no, maybe we need adults 00:53:53.186 --> 00:53:58.917 - driver and somebody else. So we don't have anonymity and that lack of supervision. So I think a lot 00:53:58.917 --> 00:54:04.877 - of our decisions need to be based upon not having people, children when they're unsupervised, and we're 00:54:04.877 --> 00:54:10.780 - doing a lot of that through the after school program, Wendy's program. But we have lots of holes, lots 00:54:10.780 --> 00:54:16.511 - of places where we're really not doing it. And I know you were in the youth programs committee this 00:54:16.511 --> 00:54:21.726 - morning, and I guess the more we talk about this, the more I'm seeing a lot of connections 00:54:28.322 --> 00:54:35.365 - But again, I think so much of this just has to occur in a decentralized way. I mean, our report ultimately 00:54:35.365 --> 00:54:41.948 - is concerned, as I said, with what city government and the mayor's administration can realistically 00:54:41.948 --> 00:54:48.925 - do. That's not an issue that the mayor can probably have a lot of impact on. But we can somehow encourage 00:54:48.925 --> 00:54:55.574 - parents and the school corporation to come up with some dialogue and to come up with a solution, not 00:54:55.574 --> 00:54:57.022 - just jump into a rash 00:54:59.330 --> 00:55:06.482 - Yeah, I was just thinking, I'm not sure I have the quote right, but Rodney King's quote, can we all 00:55:06.482 --> 00:55:13.634 - just get along, is a nice simple way of saying it. Yeah, absolutely. And as far as publicizing, the 00:55:13.634 --> 00:55:20.857 - Human Rights Commission issues reports about hate crimes in the community, and maybe we need to just 00:55:20.857 --> 00:55:27.294 - try to, those tell a negative story, but maybe those do provide just an extent of wake up 00:55:33.218 --> 00:55:40.181 - of incidents occur. And when people learn about that, hopefully you hope the effect it has is that people 00:55:40.181 --> 00:55:46.816 - get angry and want to do something about it. Because they do believe that Bloomington is the kind of 00:55:46.816 --> 00:55:54.042 - place where ultimately those kinds of things should not happen. Yeah? Do you just say civil rights commission 00:55:54.042 --> 00:56:00.808 - sent a report, an annual report, to the HD? Yeah. I don't think there's an HD representative here. Our 00:56:00.808 --> 00:56:02.910 - experience with the HD is like, 00:56:03.010 --> 00:56:09.153 - everyone's experience with media. We send a copy of the hate crimes report with a press release. And 00:56:09.153 --> 00:56:15.539 - it comes out every six months. There are times when no notice is taken of it whatsoever. There are times 00:56:15.539 --> 00:56:21.620 - when it's on the front of the region section. It's, like most news judgment decisions, dependent on 00:56:21.620 --> 00:56:27.946 - sort of capricious. It depends on how much news there is that day. It depends if the press release gets 00:56:27.946 --> 00:56:31.838 - handed to the right person whose imagination is captured by it. 00:56:32.578 --> 00:56:38.049 - his judgment as I said I was always going to be capricious and so we can't rely on that necessarily. 00:56:38.049 --> 00:56:43.302 - We don't want to sensationalize it. We don't want to make such a big issue of it that it becomes 00:56:43.302 --> 00:56:48.881 - sensationalized. I think communication is very important and the city I think is, I don't know how far 00:56:48.881 --> 00:56:50.398 - they've gone on encouraging 00:57:12.226 --> 00:57:27.282 - That's actually a very good segue Steve. We should probably try to solicit some feedback on 00:57:27.282 --> 00:57:42.174 - other recommendations that are related to the media campaign because I think that the next 00:57:42.690 --> 00:57:47.146 - well, almost all the next recommendations are ways to get this idea of civility out in alternative ways 00:57:47.146 --> 00:57:51.773 - other than the media. And the very next one is, how do we get small groups of people talking about civility 00:57:51.773 --> 00:57:56.143 - together, and then we take members from those groups and send them to another group and compare notes 00:57:56.143 --> 00:58:00.641 - and see what they came up with, and then take that to the mayor and let him know what they came up with, 00:58:00.641 --> 00:58:05.140 - and then start all over again, back to the smaller groups and keep it as a process that's going. Because 00:58:05.140 --> 00:58:09.553 - if we talk about civility today, you and I, and we leave and decide to be civil, by Wednesday we might 00:58:09.553 --> 00:58:10.238 - have forgotten. 00:58:10.754 --> 00:58:18.077 - And it's something that's ongoing. It's not something that we saw this year. Yeah. I just want to make 00:58:18.077 --> 00:58:25.259 - a couple of points. I think, first of all, in a general sense, I think the city administration needs 00:58:25.259 --> 00:58:32.582 - to be very careful how they approach this. A lot of the uncivil type political and type of discussions 00:58:32.582 --> 00:58:38.910 - that go around for the city to spend tax dollars on and be nice to one another campaign, 00:58:39.362 --> 00:58:46.669 - is only going to kind of open themselves up to more of the same kind of uncivil sort of discourse that 00:58:46.669 --> 00:58:53.834 - comes along. It's a great idea for the city to come out and promote and help elicit civility amongst 00:58:53.834 --> 00:59:00.361 - the citizenry. But I think we need to be real careful about not being too trite about this, 00:59:00.361 --> 00:59:06.462 - and very specific, because I see big billboards asking, you know, keep us tacked off. 00:59:06.658 --> 00:59:14.405 - The challenge is to create a climate where when people see over-the-line behavior or rhetoric that citizens, 00:59:14.405 --> 00:59:21.725 - any citizen, feels that they can call that person or that organization on it. I don't agree with Brad. 00:59:21.725 --> 00:59:28.832 - I think that confrontation does not really increase uncivility. I think that I've seen good debates 00:59:28.832 --> 00:59:31.390 - going on that have been very civil. 00:59:39.554 --> 00:59:46.584 - Yeah, it struck me as interesting that back in the inventory of school skills that are covered that 00:59:46.584 --> 00:59:53.966 - conflict resolution shows up in a number of places, but it's something that I think that a lot of people 00:59:53.966 --> 01:00:01.559 - would like to be trained in. The neighborhood associations, I think, are trying to make conflict resolution 01:00:01.559 --> 01:00:05.566 - part of what we show the members and that kind of stuff. 01:00:06.242 --> 01:00:12.033 - And I would love to see that be an initiative out of this group, is to have some training module in 01:00:12.033 --> 01:00:17.707 - conflict resolution that's available to school kids, to government organizations, to neighborhood 01:00:17.707 --> 01:00:23.787 - associations. It's a skill that is teachable, whereas civility is a big, fluffy cloud of stuff. Conflict 01:00:23.787 --> 01:00:29.694 - resolution is a specific translation of what we're talking about. I'd love to have a training package 01:00:29.694 --> 01:00:35.774 - available in conflict resolution. And that ties into my point. Tony, actually, I think we agree on that. 01:00:36.418 --> 01:00:42.608 - I see unless what goes on is pretty specific and pretty focused, it could lead itself into a negative 01:00:42.608 --> 01:00:48.799 - impact. And certainly no one in this room, no one involved in this long process wants it to be. Under 01:00:48.799 --> 01:00:55.353 - this general idea that we're talking about here today, it has to have to be concrete, specific initiatives. 01:00:55.353 --> 01:01:01.847 - And people can feel that they are advancing the cause of civility by doing a constant resolution workshop, 01:01:01.847 --> 01:01:05.246 - or by doing a politeness module for kids of white, some 01:01:05.922 --> 01:01:11.595 - And I had just a quick idea is that maybe there could be a volunteer organization out of this group 01:01:11.595 --> 01:01:16.983 - of people who are so interested in it that maybe once a month did secret shopping around areas 01:01:16.983 --> 01:01:22.769 - of Bloomington, not just retail stores or whatever. If you see someone who's been nice to somebody or 01:01:22.769 --> 01:01:28.499 - writes a letter to the editor that has a different opinion to something that's written in a concise, 01:01:28.499 --> 01:01:34.455 - civil way instead of name-calling and finger pointing, that maybe once a month there can be the mayor's, 01:01:34.455 --> 01:01:35.646 - say, civil committee 01:01:37.794 --> 01:01:44.316 - The story of the month. The story of the month, or certificates given out to 10 people who have been 01:01:44.316 --> 01:01:50.774 - exemplified in the civility of the city. I was wondering about that. Maybe we already have too many 01:01:50.774 --> 01:01:57.425 - award programs in the community, but should there be... Never recognize people. Actually, we have that 01:01:57.425 --> 01:01:58.846 - very idea on page 18. 01:01:58.946 --> 01:02:05.371 - It's a proposal whereby we recommend that the mayor's office and members of this committee get together 01:02:05.371 --> 01:02:11.672 - and continue to flush out what this concept is and to try to identify not the places in the community 01:02:11.672 --> 01:02:18.097 - that are uncivil, but those that are civil and give them some gold stars and give them some recognition 01:02:18.097 --> 01:02:24.460 - and give other people something to shoot for. Yeah. Besides having a strong social service background, 01:02:24.460 --> 01:02:28.414 - I also have a strong PR background. And I know we or one cannot 01:02:28.930 --> 01:02:36.206 - or at this time get a concise definition. But if you're going to spend whoever's budget it comes out 01:02:36.206 --> 01:02:43.410 - of, if you want an impact, you have to be as clear as possible, even if it's an image, whether it's 01:02:43.410 --> 01:02:50.974 - a theme, like I'm thinking when we were talking about diversity, like the Bennington theme or something. 01:02:53.346 --> 01:03:01.260 - I mean, there are other examples, or a pants example of using a Martin Luther King quote or a Gandhi 01:03:01.260 --> 01:03:09.252 - quote or something. It could be a series of different things, but it's... A consistent message. Yeah, 01:03:09.252 --> 01:03:16.774 - a consistent message or try to define it as much as possible without... Clarity. Clarity. Yeah, 01:03:16.774 --> 01:03:22.494 - thank you. More clarity. Because I know if I read something that's like, 01:03:23.906 --> 01:03:31.031 - You know, it has to be clear if I'm going to react or act. Yeah. It can't be this sort of fuzzy. Yeah. 01:03:31.031 --> 01:03:38.088 - Fuzzy. About 10 minutes ago, or maybe a little less, Tony jumped across item three on my list to four 01:03:38.088 --> 01:03:45.213 - neighborhood associations. And I was afraid we wouldn't get there, because I'm not going to get there. 01:03:45.213 --> 01:03:52.062 - Just a minute. Because I want to say what I think is so important about neighborhood associations. 01:03:53.058 --> 01:03:59.050 - Neighborhood associations don't exist only to correct people's problems. I get not quite as many calls 01:03:59.050 --> 01:04:04.925 - as John Fernandez, but I'm not paid to be president of my association as much as he's paid the mayor 01:04:04.925 --> 01:04:10.976 - of the city. But I get a lot of calls about conflict. And one of the things you can do to shortcut some 01:04:10.976 --> 01:04:17.026 - of that is get acquainted with your neighbors when they first move in. Take the initiative, go and say, 01:04:17.026 --> 01:04:21.854 - I'm involved with a neighborhood association. Here's our meeting dates, lead life. 01:04:23.714 --> 01:04:31.451 - waiting hours for your neighbor to contact you about some problem. Because I think if you get to know 01:04:31.451 --> 01:04:39.112 - people, you reduce some of this hostility or uncivil conduct or response. If I knew you really well, 01:04:39.112 --> 01:04:46.774 - before we had it, I had a conflict, I would be approaching you a lot different. Had that happened in 01:04:46.774 --> 01:04:52.766 - my neighborhood less than six months ago, where a man continued to park his RV 01:04:53.922 --> 01:05:00.314 - back of he had a boat-in-trailer pick-up truck and car in his own driveway so in order to party his 01:05:00.314 --> 01:05:06.770 - 27-foot RV he had to park in front of his neighbors lot and part of the house and I got drug in this 01:05:06.770 --> 01:05:13.289 - because the one day was trying to sell a house and he said I'll never be able to sell a house long as 01:05:13.289 --> 01:05:20.001 - his RVs in front of mine and so I went back and forth between these two individuals and I finally talked 01:05:20.001 --> 01:05:22.302 - to the one man who was the offender 01:05:23.650 --> 01:05:30.223 - I said, in your heart, Harold, in your heart, don't you really just think this is wrong if it were happening 01:05:30.223 --> 01:05:36.495 - to you, if your neighbor on the east were parking your car? And he must have thought about that because 01:05:36.495 --> 01:05:42.706 - he paved two strips on the side of his house, concrete, where he pulled the RV off the street, or what 01:05:42.706 --> 01:05:46.686 - it's supposed to be, parked it next to his house on his property. 01:05:53.378 --> 01:05:59.338 - to know our neighbors. We use that phrase, I'll get to know your neighbors. But we don't really practice 01:05:59.338 --> 01:06:05.014 - that. And I think there's so much to this thing of really making an effort. You have to be a little 01:06:05.014 --> 01:06:10.690 - more outgoing, perhaps. And you have to take some initiative here. I do that probably too much. I'm 01:06:10.690 --> 01:06:16.423 - probably too, and sometimes that will fly back in your face because neighbors know them. They say, I 01:06:16.423 --> 01:06:22.270 - don't care who you are, out. But I think on balance, it pays to get acquainted with your neighborhood. 01:06:30.626 --> 01:06:36.374 - That was where I wanted to take that decision, because my next question is going to be asking you and 01:06:36.374 --> 01:06:42.009 - Larry. I mean, does this report do you some good? I guess, from the standpoint of a mayor in a city 01:06:42.009 --> 01:06:47.813 - task force like this, the question we have to ask is, what can be done, other than hoping and praying, 01:06:47.813 --> 01:06:53.729 - to ensure that people like you and Larry and your fellow Neighborhood Association presidents, that there 01:06:53.729 --> 01:06:59.646 - are more people like you, and that there are people who take your place when you're done doing this job? 01:07:04.546 --> 01:07:12.051 - I mean, people react individually, differently to your, but I think I have a really great member of 01:07:12.051 --> 01:07:19.632 - the association where I live, and we have a, not me, not just me, we have a lot of people who really 01:07:19.632 --> 01:07:27.437 - care about where they live. Unfortunately, a lot of older people, senior citizens, and I can check real 01:07:27.437 --> 01:07:32.766 - bitchy ways to see if they're dying or not, but we have a large number 01:07:40.642 --> 01:07:46.564 - encourage people. You have to go and say hello and I like the flowers in the front yard. Before that 01:07:46.564 --> 01:07:52.428 - person calls and says we got too many cats running loose. Is it safe to say that we're in agreement 01:07:52.428 --> 01:07:58.409 - that the neighborhood associations are sort of basic building blocks have to be basic building blocks 01:07:58.409 --> 01:08:04.390 - of an initiative like this and so then what we need to focus on is what can we do to strengthen those 01:08:04.390 --> 01:08:08.670 - organizations and ensure their health. Jim's excessively bashful I think 01:08:30.786 --> 01:08:36.653 - And you can also do it by holding up people as examples in HD stores, feature stores, and so forth. 01:08:36.653 --> 01:08:42.989 - I don't think it happens out of a whole plot. I think it takes a catalyst, and it's usually some individual 01:08:42.989 --> 01:08:48.856 - who's just coming to see how it happened with YouTube. It's sort of publicly recognizing that work, 01:08:48.856 --> 01:08:54.958 - a way to get other people to step into those roles. Well, that establishes the expectation that in this 01:08:54.958 --> 01:09:00.766 - neighborhood there must be some human being that would have the time and the energy and the skills 01:09:04.098 --> 01:09:10.483 - down the street. Let me lighten this just 30 seconds or less about the most uncivil act I ever had about 01:09:10.483 --> 01:09:16.686 - 10 years ago when Kirkwood started to cross this street toward what is now the new library corner and 01:09:16.686 --> 01:09:22.950 - a woman with a baby on board when that was so hot almost ran over me. I mean that's the most I've ever 01:09:22.950 --> 01:09:29.214 - came to get hit by a car. I stepped out she gave me this dirty look and then that last thing I saw was 01:09:38.818 --> 01:09:47.479 - I just wanted to say that while I think it's really important, it is much going in the grassroots level 01:09:47.479 --> 01:09:56.306 - as possible. Neighborhood associations are loosely organized. And so you want to be careful about placing 01:09:56.306 --> 01:10:05.050 - too much responsibility on that kind of an organization and making sure that what you provide is support 01:10:05.050 --> 01:10:08.798 - at some level that is more organized. Right. 01:10:09.346 --> 01:10:14.138 - certainly recognize. And I would hope that the welcoming strategy that we lay out, and although that's 01:10:14.138 --> 01:10:19.256 - primarily a strategy aimed at this, the student neighborhoods, we realized that was just fine to a particular 01:10:19.256 --> 01:10:23.909 - need that the goal of that strategy wasn't to be the end all be all, but if that strategy can spark 01:10:23.909 --> 01:10:28.654 - ideas that we could integrate with other neighbors, it's just a platform. If we can send one brochure 01:10:28.654 --> 01:10:33.307 - out, we know that there are hundreds of smart people out there. They'll come up with something even 01:10:33.307 --> 01:10:38.238 - better and they'll get it going on their own. We're just hoping to provide that spark. And I think that's 01:10:38.238 --> 01:10:39.262 - an excellent comment. 01:10:41.506 --> 01:10:48.026 - neighborhood associations have been really strengthened in the last three or four years as a council 01:10:48.026 --> 01:10:54.482 - of neighborhoods it's true it is loosely organized but Cincinnati for instance some of their zoning 01:10:54.482 --> 01:11:01.131 - and planning changes have to be approved by neighborhood associations before they can actually go into 01:11:01.131 --> 01:11:07.006 - effect so and that isn't the way it is here of course but I mean you know there's a lot of 01:11:13.410 --> 01:11:23.265 - may or certainly put a lot of strength, simply by including neighborhood associations in these surveys, 01:11:23.265 --> 01:11:32.836 - and also by allowing the associations to copy the newsletters through the city. There's that kind of 01:11:32.836 --> 01:11:43.070 - support for associations, which I think can only help. It's a tremendous grassroots resource for everybody. 01:11:43.170 --> 01:11:49.152 - Someone mentioned a training program of some sort. I think the council of the Neighborhood Association 01:11:49.152 --> 01:11:55.017 - would be a great place to start. Conflict prevention, I think that Mark was talking about. If it got 01:11:55.017 --> 01:12:00.824 - to Kona, the council of the Neighborhood Association, then it can go from there out into all of the 01:12:00.824 --> 01:12:06.922 - Neighborhood Association. And I can't see why anyone would be against it. John or Patrick, tell me this, 01:12:06.922 --> 01:12:11.742 - you know, the city administration, are there people right now employed by the city 01:12:12.290 --> 01:12:19.682 - Resources capacity or a training capacity to do that kind of workshop I I know we've got people at IU 01:12:19.682 --> 01:12:27.074 - in physical planned and in training and so forth who who do Workshops on conflict resolution. I can't 01:12:27.074 --> 01:12:34.683 - mention people The community family resources group from time to time sponsors those kind of initiatives 01:12:34.683 --> 01:12:36.350 - or other organizations 01:12:49.378 --> 01:12:56.856 - Again, I think that the first weekend in June, we're going to have our first neighborhood issues forum. 01:12:56.856 --> 01:13:04.261 - And from that, I think we can have an infrastructure to go back and help the neighborhood associations 01:13:04.261 --> 01:13:11.451 - communicate success stories, things that they've tried and haven't worked, and be a real network of 01:13:11.451 --> 01:13:15.262 - ideas to strengthen some of the newer organizations. 01:13:19.170 --> 01:13:25.828 - to develop materials about a welcoming strategy and so forth. It would be wonderful to have those. I 01:13:25.828 --> 01:13:32.486 - think the housing and neighborhood development department is a good place to start and then they can 01:13:32.486 --> 01:13:39.145 - work interdepartmentally with the community and family resources people to help do some of the board 01:13:39.145 --> 01:13:46.462 - training or conflict resolution training, et cetera. Steve, were you trying to jump in earlier? Just a minute. 01:13:49.570 --> 01:13:55.501 - is something we talked about in this process. I don't think it was identified in this report. But that 01:13:55.501 --> 01:14:01.431 - is the idea of providing opportunities for social interaction without some sort of agenda. And I think 01:14:01.431 --> 01:14:07.362 - where it came from was some organization called One Atlanta. I think it's One Atlanta. Do you remember 01:14:07.362 --> 01:14:13.177 - that or know anything about it? The idea is there was apparently a tension between the black and the 01:14:13.177 --> 01:14:18.014 - white community. And instead of getting together discussing race, they got together 01:14:27.010 --> 01:14:33.086 - came an opportunity for social intercourse. And then from that came something that I understand. It 01:14:33.086 --> 01:14:38.494 - wasn't this tense thing where we sit across the table and talk about black-white issues. 01:14:55.202 --> 01:15:03.203 - There's a recommendation in the Enhancing the Safety Environment group that suggests a geographic information 01:15:03.203 --> 01:15:10.548 - system that shows throughout the city and neighborhoods and blocks and so on, crimes and statistics. 01:15:10.548 --> 01:15:18.549 - And it strikes me that that would also be a very good thing to take to a session of neighborhood associations 01:15:18.549 --> 01:15:24.222 - is to review that and use that as a means, I think, for stimulating activity. 01:15:27.042 --> 01:15:32.411 - Actually, the Human Rights Commission has talked about Barbara McKinney. I think it is in the process 01:15:32.411 --> 01:15:37.886 - of developing a similar thing for where hate has occurred in the community as well. One thing I haven't 01:15:37.886 --> 01:15:43.203 - heard to my relief, but I'm wondering about your thoughts about this, is this an elitist initiative? 01:15:43.203 --> 01:15:48.730 - Now, maybe that's all because we're part of the elite in the community. But there was a very interesting 01:15:48.730 --> 01:15:54.047 - article I gave to members of the commission that appeared in The Nation magazine, which sort of took 01:15:54.047 --> 01:15:56.574 - a debunking attitude toward this whole national 01:15:56.898 --> 01:16:02.248 - of civility saying this is really political and social and cultural elites talking down to everyone 01:16:02.248 --> 01:16:07.866 - else and before they tell people how, before they tell the rabble how to behave, they ought to get their 01:16:07.866 --> 01:16:13.269 - own act in order in their own political and financial and sexual scandals in order before they start 01:16:13.269 --> 01:16:18.673 - telling other people how to behave. Are we at risk of that kind of perception? I think that's really 01:16:18.673 --> 01:16:24.130 - an unfair and silly kind of put in charge. I really think it's a silly approach. I mean, all you have 01:16:24.130 --> 01:16:26.430 - to do is look at the situation like we had 01:16:27.330 --> 01:16:33.296 - Last year, where the two young kids from Ellitsville, I believe it was, were on Route 67 and got into 01:16:33.296 --> 01:16:39.437 - a civility, really, argument with a guy in another car. And the guy stopped, they pulled around in front 01:16:39.437 --> 01:16:45.461 - of him, stopped, walked back, the guy shot him, killed him. I mean, that's a pretty serious issue. And 01:16:45.461 --> 01:16:51.310 - I think taking the kind of approach that this magazine takes. I mean, I guess the kinds of things I 01:16:51.310 --> 01:16:54.878 - hear us talking about are kind of grassroots, everyday life, 01:16:55.170 --> 01:17:01.258 - enough kinds of things that they don't make us vulnerable to that charge. But I still saw a number of 01:17:01.258 --> 01:17:07.345 - people nods or very enthusiastic. Well, no, I'm just saying that I have read those critiques and more 01:17:07.345 --> 01:17:13.671 - than just the one that existed there. And I don't think that they should be dismissed lightly. And that's 01:17:13.671 --> 01:17:20.117 - why I raised the issue that if the idea of promoting civility is to diminish legitimate claims on resources 01:17:20.117 --> 01:17:22.206 - where you don't like the way those 01:17:24.578 --> 01:17:29.806 - then you run into that trouble of just solidifying the status quo using the word civility instead of 01:17:29.806 --> 01:17:35.292 - something else. And I think it's something to be aware of. And that's why I said when we start to develop 01:17:35.292 --> 01:17:40.675 - our thinking about this and our statements about this, that we remain clear that this doesn't mean that 01:17:40.675 --> 01:17:45.954 - there will not be tension and conflict. That's fine. I'd just say that when we started, we brought in 01:17:45.954 --> 01:17:51.233 - civility into this discussion in the first place, we saw it as having a direct relationship to public 01:17:51.233 --> 01:17:54.494 - safety. I mean, that's a word. We've talked about it in pretty 01:17:56.738 --> 01:18:06.807 - I think we also need to be clear, you brought up a good point, that if we're gonna talk about civility, 01:18:06.807 --> 01:18:17.360 - whether certain principles, that it shouldn't be moralistic, because then we're no better than the religious 01:18:17.360 --> 01:18:26.654 - right wing or other fanatical groups at all. Or the situation with Crestmont is a prime example 01:18:26.882 --> 01:18:34.966 - like getting involved with the Tenants Association, you know, they want the perception to change. And 01:18:34.966 --> 01:18:43.367 - then the next thing you know, the two families on the side of the Family Center are playing like Hatfield 01:18:43.367 --> 01:18:51.293 - and McCoys with the shootout, you know, so. And I don't know, you know, are we gonna be like Dudley 01:18:51.293 --> 01:18:56.286 - Do-Right to save, or Mighty Mouse to save the day, or address, 01:18:56.514 --> 01:19:02.861 - some of these issues to make people more aware, like the way that it used to be. Steve, can I address 01:19:02.861 --> 01:19:09.209 - that? Yeah. The literature gets very complex in that, and I've spent much more time than I ever would 01:19:09.209 --> 01:19:15.556 - have dreamed of last August, when I started this, examining that very issue. And let me just tell you 01:19:15.556 --> 01:19:21.841 - a little story about what it says, because I think it's very interesting, it's very relevant to this 01:19:21.841 --> 01:19:24.766 - discussion as far as civility is our decision, 01:19:24.962 --> 01:19:29.694 - to talk about civility in an elitist attitude. Is that the way it will be perceived? And the literature 01:19:29.694 --> 01:19:34.243 - says that people who will hold that attitude saying that you're being an elitist and you're telling 01:19:34.243 --> 01:19:38.884 - me that I'm not civil are the people who are really saying, this isn't my problem. And that is at the 01:19:38.884 --> 01:19:43.798 - heart of civility is when we start not taking responsibility for the fact that the homeless is our problem. 01:19:43.798 --> 01:19:48.348 - And when people aren't nice in our community, it is our problem. Maybe it's not us who are the ones 01:19:48.348 --> 01:19:52.670 - being in civil, but it's still our problem that we need to take responsibility as a collective 01:19:52.802 --> 01:20:00.266 - If it takes the elite people to push this forward and get a role on it, the literature says, hey, more 01:20:00.266 --> 01:20:07.657 - power to you. Try to get at the grassroots level going. It takes leaders to make this work. Oh, sure. 01:20:07.657 --> 01:20:14.976 - There are always people that are going to point the finger. But I mean, that's the- This is John. Go 01:20:14.976 --> 01:20:22.078 - ahead and back, John. Hi. Well, I was. I think it's really important not to shirk responsibility. 01:20:22.978 --> 01:20:29.906 - about two children who decide to dissolve their vehicular conflict by shooting each other. Somewhere 01:20:29.906 --> 01:20:37.040 - along the line, responsibility for something was not, was shirked. They weren't taught something that's 01:20:37.040 --> 01:20:44.517 - somewhere along the line. I'm not talking about schools necessarily at all. But that's why I'm uncomfortable 01:20:44.517 --> 01:20:51.582 - with us just talking about civility and talking about nice and talking about polite and not being more 01:20:52.354 --> 01:20:57.643 - about what do we mean by that? Because there are certain areas that I do feel very comfortable being 01:20:57.643 --> 01:21:03.245 - involved with and saying, this is the way it's done. And then there's other areas that I'm not comfortable 01:21:03.245 --> 01:21:08.481 - at all trying to tell people how they should be. That's why I like it to be really much more clear. 01:21:08.481 --> 01:21:13.927 - And then we can feel real comfortable saying, this is our jurisdiction. We're not being the latest here 01:21:13.927 --> 01:21:19.163 - at all. And I'm very uncomfortable thinking of myself as an elitist group at all. Leadership, maybe 01:21:19.163 --> 01:21:21.310 - I hope there are times I take leadership 01:21:25.666 --> 01:21:33.331 - But I think if we are more clear on what it is that is our jurisdiction, then it's just, you know, to 01:21:33.331 --> 01:21:41.371 - not make decisions about that and try to affect that is shirking responsibility. Just make a final comment 01:21:41.371 --> 01:21:49.487 - here. I know we need to break up. When you look at the breadth of the proposals involved with this subject, 01:21:49.487 --> 01:21:55.198 - it seems that it's a darn good start. And we ought not be afraid of a label 01:21:55.778 --> 01:22:02.782 - As Dr. Bonner was saying, when we started this discussion about involving an element of this program 01:22:02.782 --> 01:22:09.856 - to include this whole discussion, we were very clear from the beginning that we weren't sure where we 01:22:09.856 --> 01:22:16.999 - were going with it. But something told us in our hearts that this is something you can talk about. And 01:22:16.999 --> 01:22:24.350 - you see it throughout society, and Wilmington's not immune. And the reason I wanted to address this issue 01:22:25.474 --> 01:22:34.309 - does have a direct relationship with public safety. And it seems to me that a society that doesn't respond 01:22:34.309 --> 01:22:42.566 - to problems associated with respect, dignity, fairness, is on the verge of some major public safety 01:22:42.566 --> 01:22:51.484 - problems. As a community, we ought to say to people that we believe in democracy, we believe in dissension, 01:22:51.484 --> 01:22:54.622 - and we think that that's an important 01:22:54.914 --> 01:23:03.498 - of how we operate, but when people cross the line and can't make the distinction between policy, legitimate 01:23:03.498 --> 01:23:11.764 - policy arguments and personality attacks, I think we should call them on it. Because I'm of the opinion 01:23:11.764 --> 01:23:19.712 - that if we tolerate verbal violence, we're just that much closer to tolerate physical violence. And 01:23:19.712 --> 01:23:22.494 - we ought to say that that's wrong. 01:23:22.978 --> 01:23:28.881 - And that's not how we want to operate in our community. That's why we involved it. And I think that 01:23:28.881 --> 01:23:34.903 - the range of ideas that we have here are a good start. There's some landmines along the way. You have 01:23:34.903 --> 01:23:41.396 - to be careful about how you discuss the issues. But it's a discussion I think we have to have as a community. 01:23:41.396 --> 01:23:47.300 - Because one of the essential characteristics of Bloomington that you hear over and over and over is 01:23:47.300 --> 01:23:51.550 - that there is a sense of community. And that's why it's a special play. 01:23:51.778 --> 01:24:00.729 - Part of that sense of community is the friendliness, the genuine compassion and caring. If we get away 01:24:00.729 --> 01:24:09.593 - from that and we become almost apathetic about attacks on people, verbal attacks, stereotype attacks, 01:24:09.593 --> 01:24:18.283 - et cetera, we're really, I think, gonna lose that special quality and we ought to talk about it and 01:24:18.283 --> 01:24:20.542 - reaffirm it as a positive 01:24:23.554 --> 01:24:31.186 - And all of this, I mean, stems from a sort of decentralization. I think there's not going to be a stability 01:24:31.186 --> 01:24:38.252 - commission, I don't think. Anyway, there's not going to be a stability czar. This is decentralized. 01:24:38.252 --> 01:24:45.389 - We'll give out S's in use for citizenship. E's are a few. But what we simply want to do, I come back 01:24:45.389 --> 01:24:52.455 - to what I said at the beginning, that we hope that our report creates an environment that the mayor 01:24:52.455 --> 01:24:53.374 - and whatever 01:24:53.794 --> 01:24:59.237 - form this continuation of the Safe and Civil City initiative takes will create an environment where 01:24:59.237 --> 01:25:04.898 - neighborhood associations and people who work with youth and the Chamber of Commerce and everybody else 01:25:04.898 --> 01:25:10.504 - will, in their own way, contribute to in schools, especially schools, will contribute to this and make 01:25:10.504 --> 01:25:15.947 - their own little contribution. This doesn't have to be centrally controlled. We don't have to agree 01:25:15.947 --> 01:25:21.118 - on one definition. I think, though, that we all, at some level, understand the kinds of issues 01:25:23.138 --> 01:25:30.215 - create that environment that empowers people to make that difference. One thing I really find interesting, 01:25:30.215 --> 01:25:37.159 - when we first raised this issue, I thought, well, this may be a crazy idea. I told them, this may really 01:25:37.159 --> 01:25:43.972 - be nutty, but it seems we've got to talk about it. What surprised me was the number of people who came 01:25:43.972 --> 01:25:50.718 - forward and said, absolutely yes. The number of people on our commission and elsewhere said, yeah, we 01:25:50.718 --> 01:25:51.710 - have something 01:25:52.578 --> 01:25:57.904 - So I think a lot of people intuitively felt that it's an issue that needs to be dealt with. It resonates 01:25:57.904 --> 01:26:03.027 - with me. And I thought John's very good statement, but I incorporate that in the report. So Steve, I 01:26:03.027 --> 01:26:08.099 - think the first task in the spirit of that retreat was how somebody made the point that you need to 01:26:08.099 --> 01:26:13.222 - get people away from their work environments and just get them to interact as people. I guess it was 01:26:13.222 --> 01:26:18.396 - you who said just get people to interact socially. So I think the first thing that needs to happen is 01:26:18.396 --> 01:26:22.302 - we need to retreat with members of the city planning department and positive 01:26:22.402 --> 01:26:30.140 - progress to go out to Bradford Woods and do team building exercises and get to know each other. Maybe 01:26:30.140 --> 01:26:37.726 - that can be one of the last initiatives. Thanks very much. Gotta thank Luke. I've smacked him right 01:26:37.726 --> 01:26:41.822 - in there for an hour and a half. He's got every word.