There's a new economic development plan floating around for our nation's capital city, and it's prompted one comment that apparently could be about Anywhere, USA:

Dorothy, below, writes about the mayor's five-year economic development strategy, which was written largely without the input of District residents. This follows the usual pattern of government planning — zoning revisions, libraries, school closings, etc. — in which residents of DC neighborhoods are an afterthought, brought in at the last minute after the plans have already been developed. Residents are then presented with the finished plans at highly structured public meetings, at which the government officials present them and residents are given a few minutes to consider them, after which their comments are barely tolerated. After all, the experts have already met and made their recommendations; why should the government officials have to waste their time listening to the uninformed opinions of NIMBY naysayers, who just don’t want their neighborhoods improved by the experts, developers, and officials who already know what’s best for them? After all, the residents are nothing but complainers, and their opinions of what happens in their neighborhoods have no weight except that they happen to live there and pay taxes there. If they don't like what has been planned for them, they're standing in the way of progress and the future, and they should just move elsewhere.

Uncanny parallels to Portland, that's for sure. Talk to the hand.