Is anyone else perplexed at the "closed door" policy of our city government?

At the last public meeting, it was announced that the Sasaki proposals would be placed on the city's web site along with discussion forums, feedback forms, etc. so that the citizens of Charleston would be able to influence the upcoming two designs of consulting firm Sasaki Associates. We were told that this would happen "in a week or two." This was also reported in the newspaper the following day.

Now (two months later) there is still absolutely nothing on the city web site about the proposals - no information, no way to provide feedback - NOTHING. What is even more amazing is the fact that the city has been made a very generous offer (both in person and via e-mail) to use this www.CharlestonWaterfrontNow.org web site without any cost to the city (i.e.: the taxpayers) and they have been totally unresponsive to that offer.

In the meantime, an upcoming meeting for Sept. 29 has been scheduled to present the two final design concepts of Sasaki Associates - concepts which were essentially made behind closed doors and without the benefit of public comment/influence during the last 2 months.

We must demand better service from our city leaders.

Well, the city finally posted something Riverfront-related on their web site. They waited until the day before the September 29 public meeting, then slapped together a new Riverfront page on their web site that is not only limited in content and information, but is quite frankly an embarassment to the city of Charleston. It is truly unfortunate for those of us who care about the city's image that the city chose to implement such a plain, non-interactive, and unprofessional-looking web page (at taxpayer expense) rather than use this web site (which has been offered to them free-of-charge) to foster public discussion. It is obvious that their web designer (an out-of-town company according to their site) was rushed to put up something prior to the public meeting.

At least the city can claim that they posted something on their web site for the public to see. Let's be realistic - there is no way the city web page (posted yesterday) served the stated purpose of gathering public feedback for inclusion into Sasaki's plans which were presented tonight.

Personally, I think that everyone who visits this web site to get information on the Charleston Waterfront development should call, write, or e-mail our city leaders and demand that they use this CharlestonWaterfrontNow.org web site for public information release and discussion. Not only was this site developed by a professional Charleston-based, tax-paying web development business, but it is truly a community site with working discussion forums, far more relevant and complete content, and it doesn't cost the taxpayers anything. It would be a simple act for the city to place a link on their site to direct visitors looking for riverfront development to this site - much like they already do for the Regatta site and other city-related activity sites.

Let's demand that our city leaders showcase the BEST of Charleston in all aspects of their work and public communications.