"The most progressive era...ever"

This week's announced retirement by long-term city attorney Jordan Ball brought with it a statement from city manager Gary Person, Ball's departure represents the end of an era. The 22 year run by Ball, according to Person, will be seen as, "the most progressive eras of our community's lifetime."

Interesting choice of word, "progressive." One of the definitions at Dictionary.com defines progressive as
pro·gres·sive   
[pruh-gres-iv] Show IPA
–adjective
1.
favoring or advocating progress,  change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are, especially in political matters: a progressive mayor.
2.
making progress  toward better conditions; employing or advocating more enlightened or liberal ideas, new or experimental methods, etc.: a progressive community.
3.
characterized by such progress,  or by continuous improvement.

So what is the problem? We all want things to improve, don't we?

You would be a fool to say no to that question. The rub comes from which side of the political spectrum you come from. Liberals and their ilk see progress as the path by which more people are, "helped" along the path of life. This help, of course is provided by the government, and the government funds this through taxes, fees and other mechanisms designed to separate you from your earning powder.

Progressives believe that it is important to ensure people have certain basic necessities. The biggest problem for progressives is to figure out how they can help more people. Over time their definitions the use to qualify people expand to allow more people to take advantage of their help and people begin to take advantage of their progress.

It would be wrong to say that all progress is bad. Used in moderation, just like red meat, a little bit of help can go a long way. The problem with political progressives such as Gary Person, and his retiring puppy Jordan Ball, is that they seek to create a future that is inherently more expensive to maintain. Just like social security and medicare, that continue to expand their draw in excess of monies taken in, seeking ways to deploy street construction, techniques costing half a million dollars a block is cost prohibitive when expanded to the level needed to get the city streets back in order.

This is of course, just one example. The construction of $250,000 homes in Prairie Winds while calling it affordable housing is non-sensensical. But if you factor in the 30,000 free ride that was built in to the pricing model with the tax increment financing plan, these "affordable" homes are quite the steal.

I wish Jordan a quiet life as he transitions out of the public eye. I miss things like his 20 minute speech on what consnltitues the definition of gifts at council meetings. I won't miss his misguided interpretations of state laws on the identity of cars width flat tires.

Make no mistake about it, Gary Person and his new in-the-pocket consortium of Gaston, Nienhueser, and Hiett will assuredly seek to find someone just as progressive, if not more so. They need your money to clean up and stepfordize Sidney.

Congratulations on your retirement Jordan. We have certainly earned it!