Bringing things back to Street Level

It’s been well over a year since I posted in my blog. It started as an electronic version of my column printed in the Coles County Leader. After the Leader went out of print, contributions greatly dwindled. Once I ran for council, I stopped altogether.

It would be impossible to resurrect Street Level to its former level. As a sitting member of the Mattoon City Council, it would be counter productive to attack the other members on the council who disagree with my positions. I don’t think such actions would bring me closer to achieving my goals. This is a position I wrote about in November of 2007 (http://stlevel.blogspot.com/2007/11/working-with-city-not-against.html)

I do however feel the need to explain my positions and accept feedback. In the year that I have served on the council, one of the most frustrating things is getting my voice heard. I don’t want to say the press has been unfair as much as it has been incomplete. There have been important debates at council meetings that have not gotten one word of print.

One goal the city is working on is to start a newsletter; a form of media that the city controls and can include much more information than what gets printed in the paper. I have received requests to post my positions and reach out to the community as well. And since my ideas often differ than those of the majority, it is probably a good idea to release my own information. For now, I choose this format over the youtube video suggested.

I ran on open government and thus far, have no achieved that goal. I have found this harder than I imagined.  Hopefully, this column in conjunction with a Facebook group will help in attaining that objective.

One thing that concerns me about starting this is the sheer lack of time I have to keep it up. Like many other of my projects, I fear this will dwindle or perhaps never really get started again. Well, no one will probably be reading it anyway.

Chris Rankin

Mattoon City Commissioner