Crime Rationalization

In the crime rationalization supporting the downtown rezoning amendments, Community Development Services (CDS) emphasizes the token gestures to public participation where the public could comment on decisions already made by CDS within a restrictive framework limited to proposals by developers. Placing legal notices in the Bellingham Herald that no one reads and holding open houses during workday work hours where there is no two-way community discussion after the fact is termed "robust" public participation by CDS. CDS director Alex Wenger and his boss City Manager Mike Harmon would like us to quibble over this rationalization rather than focus on the crimes the city committed in the process. 

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