View more news videos at: http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/video.
The lawmaker said he doesn’t trust the policymakers. The policymaker said: That’s no excuse to give up on trying new ideas. The budget watchdog listened, then weighed in: He’s skeptical, but ultimately he’d cast a reluctant “yes” vote.
The topic: Whether New Haven should create a stormwater authority and send homeowners $50 annual bills for the cost of handling the rain that runs off their roofs.
Even as snow dominates New Haven’s consciousness these days, rain has also been on people’s minds. New Haven’s been debating the stormwater idea intensely as the Board of Aldermen prepares to vote on whether to OK the DeStefano administration’s plan to create the program. (For previous stories and extensive reader debate, click here, here, and here.)
The debate was supposed to continue Monday night at a second installment of a public hearing at City Hall. That hearing was postponed. Instead, the debate took place at Bru Cafe and then on the air Monday, on WVIT/NBC Connecticut Channel 30 news.
It was a test of a new idea for debating pressing New Haven issues. We call it “New Haven’s Talking.” Let us know what you think of the idea and how to make it work well.
Channel 30 and the Independent are exploring teaming up on these mini-debates. We’ll pick a topic that has generated interesting reader discussion in the comments section of Independent articles. Then we’ll invite participants in those debates to Bru to continue the discussion in a moderated format. Channel 30’s camera crew records and edits the discussion. WVIT airs the one-and a half minute version on TV. A longer edited version then appears on the WVIT and Independent websites for people who want to watch more. WVIT’s Dan Lee and Jason Ryan shot the 20-minute exchange; Lee then edited it down.
In the case of the stormwater debate, the short version (click on play arrow at the top of the story to watch) aimed to capture the basic facts and arguments: How the billing process would work. How the city argues it would help clean Long Island Sound (by offering incentives for big institutions to stop sending polluted runoff into sewers); and spread the cost of treating stormwater more fairly in a tough budget to big not-for-profits like Yale. How critics fear the system would create a new “tax” that would keep growing and add bureaucratic costs.
View more news videos at: http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/video.
The long version (click on play arrow) enabled people to see a prominent critic, West Rock Alderman Darnell Goldson, challenge the plan’s architect, City Administrative Rob Smuts, directly on the question. (Back and forth gets going around the 6‑minute point.) The longer version also included citizen budget watchdog Jeffrey Kerekes’ nuanced take after hearing both sides. And Smuts responded to questions read aloud from Independent comment threads (including one at the 7‑minute mark).
The question: Does this work? Can we bring Independent-style debate to TV? Will anyone watch even eight minutes of well-shot and edited debate on a website?
Please check out the two versions then let us know in the comments section what you think of the basic idea and how we can do this better.
That's it, I'm following my wife's directions and immediately going on a diet.
Great project Paul, I can't wait to see future discussions/debates on issues that concern New Haveners.