Richard Rasala, is a Newton resident and a retired Professor and Associate Dean in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern.
Newton Zoning Documents
I have created the following website called Newton Zoning Documents in order to make it easier to find and read the data files about the current Zoning Redesign process:
https://web.northeastern.edu/rasala/newton_zoning_docs/
Background:
In order to try to understand the Zoning Redesign process, I began to look into the posted zoning related documents on the city web site.
I realized immediately that:
* The city council and planning department are doing an awesome volume of work.
* There are many posted documents and most of the files are combinations of multiple PDFs that are often more than 50 pages in total.
* I could not keep track of what information was where.
Since I have the tools to build web sites, I decided to build a site that would:
* extract all of the components of the combined PDF files
* label and link these component files individually
The above web site is the result.
This site is a pure data site and I express no personal opinions. If this site is helpful to others in Newton then that is good.
I plan to update this site as new files are posted on the city web site. My email address is at the top of the web page. I welcome any suggestions for improvements.
Thank you Richard.
Our planning department should be responsible for this, and our City Council should have insisted they do this!
This is awesome, it also confirms that this whole zoning process is impossible for the ‘average’ resident to follow and understand. Most of the councilors already have their “agenda” regardless of what residents think.
The city should be mandated to release a 2 page summary with every change and give references to supporting documents.
Thanks Richard. Your work on this topic goes to a larger point.
I have found that document organization is one of the major impediments to following projects in Newton (and many other locations). The City tends to organize information by meeting, not by topic or project. Only the bigger projects tend to get broken out by project, and in the case of zoning it doesn’t seem to be complete. That makes it very hard for people to get all the information about the handful of specific projects that matter to them.
Bugek’s comment about change summaries (changelogs in the software development world) is also important and has been incorporated into some planning efforts. They help keep people up to date on the flow of decision-making. That should extend to extra features like email notification for interested people when information is added about a topic or project.
This is a fundamental issue that would go a long way to helping the public learn about projects and contribute meaningfully, efficiently, and constructively.
It would be great to engage a local university as part of a civic information architecture project.
Thank you Richard.
This brings to mind the time the Mass shifted from Latin to English and we gained a better understanding as to what the “mystery was all about. I already sense how this may change the whole dynamics of how we perceive, organize and interpret this information.
Deo Gratias.
Richard is due copious kudos for contributing to each and all of us, simply because there was/is an unmet need and he could. I, for one, greatly appreciate both that his Civic Participation isn’t Issue Advocacy, and that he has delivered a finished solution to the problem he saw. IMHO, that is a “value” Newton’s residents might want to emulate to a greater degree than we already do.
Richard rightly saw that the municipal corporation (the City of Newton Massachusetts) is functionally imperfect. Simon is correct, and yet presumes that the City’s operating executives have the wherewithal to do any better than the way we’ve always done it. If a Mayor isn’t inclined to demand operational improvements to how the corporation functions, the “Chief Operating Officer” ought to be earnest enough to leave the place in better condition that when s/he arrived. Process redesign, government improvement projects, “institutional visioning” ought to be part of every administration and not because the Council happens to be saying so. It is an executive function.
An unnaturally good response by the current administration would be to embrace and adopt Richard’s approach and work as a piece. And to make it easily accessible on the City’s website. “Unnatural” because, as with many institutions, ours can capriciously exhibit NIH complaints and a speed to the wind of a ULCC supertanker rather than a Lighting.
As a second act in Civic Participation, maybe one or some of the attorneys living here can similarly (i.e., not Issue Advocacy) give of themselves and skills for the good of the community.
Thank you!
I’d guess some of the issue with the city site s complying with records retention and open meeting rules. If you classify it by meeting, you’ve met the bar. If you classify it by topic, you nare ed to get a serious document management system and then link it back to the meeting. So it’s more work and more $.
I have posted the documents leading up to the upcoming ZAP meeting at 7 PM on Monday, 9/14.
This includes the agenda documents and substantial memos by Councilors Albright, Baker, Bowman, Laredo, and Wright.
The 9/14 meeting appears to be very important.