It’s sad how much our local governments main job is to try and freeze everything in place and prevent change.
That's not really what the local government's main job is supposed to be. Local government is supposed to be a venue for regular people to participate in the kinds of everyday decisions that affect their lives. But then it ends up mainly representing local property owners and developers who are its most interested (in the sense of stake or investment, not curiosity) constituents. It is these special interests who try their hardest, not necessarily to prevent change, but to protect and grow their investments.
> Local government is supposed to be a venue for regular people to participate in the kinds of everyday decisions that affect their lives.
Because it takes time and energy to sit through public hearings, something most people working manual labor or evening/night jobs with variable schedules don’t have (i.e. lower income/wealth people with few investments).
Plus, future people don't have a say. If something you do could help 400 new people live a happy life if they moved there, but it angers the 40 people who already live there, you're never going to get the popular vote of the 40 people who are there because future people can't be counted.
That's not really what the local government's main job is supposed to be. Local government is supposed to be a venue for regular people to participate in the kinds of everyday decisions that affect their lives. But then it ends up mainly representing local property owners and developers who are its most interested (in the sense of stake or investment, not curiosity) constituents. It is these special interests who try their hardest, not necessarily to prevent change, but to protect and grow their investments.