Well, Cornell Universities decided to put in a small parking lot (143 spaces) and depending on who you ask, its not really needed anyway, but there you are. Naturally the lot is going on some wild area that locals probably never noticed until the lot was planned (about three years ago). There have been everything from sit ins to law suits and now the lot is attempting to proceed. Pickets, including a former mayor and lots of students and faculty sat in front of bull dozers and got tickets.
In the end, the compromise was that the lot would be built, but that the demonstrators would be able to form a committee to help make Cornell more environmentally friendly. Read about it here and here
If someone mentions a whale or spotted owl, those on the other side can be easily painted as evil. The truth of the matter seldom has anything to do with it.
In this case, this has been going on for three years, and at each step of the way, the environmental group has lost but kept going. The groups, it seems, have been reticent in compromise. Now, it seems to me, everyone wins. The university gets its parking lot, and the protesters get to have meetings, complain, and perhaps get some changes in the way the U looks at the environment. In this way, they give up a little parking lot, but gain a say in policy.
What more can anyone want. Its just too bad that this couldn’t have happened three years ago. Think of the time, energy, and money that could have been saved. The concept of win-win. Works every time.
Plus the evil parking industry may not have been caught like a deer in the environmental headlights.
JVH
