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Interesting study in Social Media. Last night, the City of Healdsburg approved a 2 block street closure to provide pedestrian space and tables for outdoor dining. I was a vocal advocate of this idea (I wish the closure was larger). The process was "interesting" 1/
The idea came up 7 or so weeks ago, and went before City Council 5 weeks ago. At that meeting - a resolution allowing staff to proceed with street closures was voted down 2-3. 2/
Healdsburg has a Facebook group that's pretty notorious - very NextDoor-ish, a lot of trolling and some interesting grumpy characters. Early discussions on this topic had a lot of noise, led in part by a merchant who opposed any closure because you know PARKING 3/
Over time, as I noted myself getting into heated discussions, I decided for my sanity's sake to start blocking the dumbest characters, my block finger getting heavier and heavier over time. This stopped me from trying to teach the pigs to sing, as it were. 4/
One thing I noticed as I started to block more and more of the notorious characters was this. When someone else posted on the group - I would see there were 150+ comments but I could only see 40-50% of the comments, many of which were rebuttals to the crazies. 5/
More interesting was this. When *I* posted a lead thread, the discussion was more focused, civil, and informative. Why? The crazies never even see the thread because they were *blocked* 6/
So back to the street closure. In late June, the Council voted down the measure 2-3, with instruction to staff to come back with a more specific plan. Groan. The worst part - *both* July Council meetings were cancelled for Summer recess. A 6 week minimum delay 7/
I hatched a plan. I surfed a few more message threads and extended my block - especially of anyone who was opposed to the street closure because PARKING except for the one specific merchant who was being obstructionist. 8/
I then went to the group and posted a manifesto, explicitly tagging the City Council members and pointing out how kicking the can down the road was a 6 week slip because of cancelled meetings. I linked to photos of successful closures elsewhere. 9/
Because of the blocks I deployed - opponents never saw the post. The comment thread was unanimous (minus one - the merchant) in support. As the comments increased, the choir got louder in their disbelief we hadn't gotten this thing going yet. 10/
While the angry mob complains that "you are being in an echo chamber" - the exact purpose was to *create* an echo chamber. Because I had TAGGED the City Council - three of whom are up for re-election. All they saw - because of my blocks - was increasing crescendo of support 11/
Upshot - the City Council called a SPECIAL meeting for just this agenda item in order to pull in the possibility of a street closure. I again put up a topline post to publicize the meeting and encourage public comment - again not seen by those I had blocked. 12/
A plan was given by staff - a one way closure, a two way closure, and a two way closure that extended two blocks. Council engaged, added some good improvements, included some ideas from public comment, and passed the measure 4-0 /fin
