"With the debate on the verge of violence- or worse, of being turned over to committee" - Tom Robbins

Item 13b on tomorrow's City Council Agenda earns this quote from Tom Robbins.  (Side note- I waited too long to reread Still Life With Woodpecker.  There are so many memorable quotes and good chuckles in its pages that make me tempted to do an quotes column just like Bill Simmons.)

Five pieces of property will be added to the Montvale Historic District if the City Council votes in favor.  Two weeks ago they voted 9-2 to advertise the expansion with Councilors Clancy and Eddy dissenting.  I'm not sure if a vote to advertise will guarantee a vote to adopt the changes.  I hope not.  Liz Todd is one of the owners of 1 Montvale, and her plea for help was posted on Nicole's blog back in December.

I find it interesting that Mr. Crowley (savior of the New Year's Firework Display!) can use his seat on the Historical Commission to influence affairs in his neighborhood.  Having a personal interest in the outcome should be reason enough to recuse himself from the Historical Commission vote.  That hasn't happened in the two sagas regarding the 'historic' tennis court (well documented here on Wormtown Taxi.)

I hope that the City Council recognizes that the current expansion has no reason to come before them and soundly rejects the expansion.  I doubt they will, so I will end with another fantastic Tom Robbins quote:

"Tunnel vision is a disease in which perception is restricted by ignorance and distorted by vested interest.  Tunnel vision is caused by an optic fungus that multiplies when the brain is less energetic than the ego.  It is complicated by exposure to politics.  When a good idea is run through the filters and compressors of ordinary tunnel vision, it not only comes out reduced in scale and value but in its new dogmatic configuration produces effects the opposite of those for which it originally was intended."