PARD's Mission

Below is PARD's Mission Statement as taken from their web site.

“We as citizens of Pullman and the wider Palouse are farmers, professionals, business people, teachers, students, retirees, wage workers and homemakers dedicated to preserving and improving the best qualities of our regional community. We join together in the Pullman Alliance for Responsible Development to:

-Help ensure that development decisions in this region reflect and respect the rights of working people to a living wage
-Protect and encourage local businesses
-Maintain unique qualities of the town and the region
-Improve the quality of life for residential neighborhoods
-Seek environmental and economic sustainability
-And uphold principles of fairness and social justice for all the diverse members of the citizenry

In pursuit of these values we will use a variety of democratic means including, but not limited to, lobbying government officials, letter writing campaigns, public education, petitions and initiatives, support for changes in local ordinances, litigation, and when necessary boycotts, demonstrations and other forms of non-violent direct action. We believe the current political structures in place in Pullman and elsewhere on the Palouse could be far more open to democratic debate and decision making by the citizens. We are dedicated to achieving greater governmental accountability and responsibility.”

After reading over the Mission Statement I found I was struck by a few things. First, and to quote, "We believe the current political structures in place in Pullman and elsewhere on the Palouse could be far more open to democratic debate and decision making by the citizens. We are dedicated to achieving greater governmental accountability and responsibility." I agree that the Palouse citizenery needs to be able to participate in decision making processes and help achieve greater governmental accountability. However, PARD itself does not believe it has to follow that process. As of today, no one has seen the mythical list of names and no evidence of whether or not they are all Pullman residents against Wal-Mart or like in the case of my mother-in-law who was asked to sign the petition and was told it didn't matter whether she was from out of town or not. Also, I'm not real sure where the "Hosick" petition fits into this process. Not telling potential signers of a petition your true motives doesn't sound very open and above board.

Democratic means such as petitions for changing government behavior is a tried a true method of changing government behavior. I just have a problem with it when the Judy Krueger's of the world combine signing up voters for an election with a petition drive. It is more like a fear-mongering rally versus a true effort to ensure everyone has a fair chance to take part in our democratic processes.

Three of their hot points resonated deeply within me. "Protect and encourage local businesses." Based upon Jerry Grieblings complaint, which the Daily News and the Evergreen have yet to investigate, and other blog commenters, PARD seems to think protecting and encouraging local businesses is synonomous with covert petition operations and a "we know better than you" attitude.

"Seek environmental and economic sustainability." Again, I'm quite confused by what they mean. I guess by sending all our tax dollars to Moscow, Lewiston, and Spokane we keep the elitist PARD members happy and the rest of us desperately seeking to keep our city and county economically sustainable.

"Improve the quality of life for residential neighborhoods." I think everyone wants this. As I drove to the hospital this morning I tried to imagine myself driving through the neighborhoods surrounding Franklin Elementary and Lincoln Middle School instead of the easy drive I had on Grand Avenue to Bishop Boulevard. For the life of me, why would I want to drive through neighborhoods where I have to make extra stops at stop signs and make several more turns to get to the hospital. PARD, if you want something to truly worry about, think of Safeway's new gas station. The storm water runoff issue should be sending shivers down your spines let alone the concern of having underground tanks of a flammable liquid so close to LMS and FES.