I guess I'll be going to the Citizens Summit...

Since I see how bad the city can be in terms of execution of strategies and implementation plans for such policy areas as:

· Creating positive youth development strategies;
· Increasing job and employment opportunities;
· Revamping the District's public library system;
· Providing more affordable housing options;

I have never been big on attending this Summit, and in fact I never have. I sent out notice about the meeting to some neighborhood e-lists with a question on why should I go, and here is one response, which convinced me to attend:

I went to the last one and thought it was great because:

* It's a great opportunity to network because you get to meet and talk to a lot of community activists from around the city. At my table last year were the Chiefof Police, David Bowers (who was running against Mendelson but just pulled out), and a bunch of greatneighborhood activists -- along with a wacko or two. :)

* It's a place to educate other DC residents about the things that you care about and start a dialog.

* You get to see the policy options that the city's considering early enough that you might be able to shape or change them after the summit.

* From a policymaking standpoint it's absolutely fascinating -- there are several thousand citizens sitting around and discussing their city and their lives. I've never seen anything else like it. Plus,last time they use some interesting techniques to get folks to think about the tradeoffs in policymaking, such as giving each table a budget and asking them to choose between different policy options, which makes folks realize that policymaking is hard since you're always robbing Peter to pay Paul.

That's my two cents.