Mistakes Made - "All in the name of Progress"

On Friday, August 25, 2017, Missouri Preservation announced its MISSOURI’S 2017 HISTORIC “PLACES IN PERIL” which included another sequel appearance of the Harry S Truman National Historic Landmark District.  It’s like the sequel for a National Lampoon’s version of “Independence Day” and “Ground Hog’s Day.”  At least this time the Mayor acknowledged the announcement and stated that “there have been mistakes made” but then followed by “all in the name of progress.”  Maybe that is why they also needed to keep reminding themselves with all those billboards proclaiming “REAL PROGRESS” so we would have visual aides to actually point to something real, a billboard (?).  So, yes, the City Council and the Mayor are successful with billboards.  The application to Missouri Preservation cites the demo of two homes near the Truman Home (blog entry 8-21-09),  Landmark District gerrymandering and confusion (blog entry 9-29-10), the neglect and abandonment of the circa 1910 City Hall (blog entries 6-17-10 and 6-20-10), poor planning processes for the brand new Market Square Townhouses (which have already suffered from poor construction and façade failures), the neglect and abandonment of the circa-1895 First Baptist Church, the mismanagement of the Palmer School by district officials (blog entries 8-10-09, 10-11-09, 5-25-11, and 11-27-13), poor planning in placing duplexes that impact the Truman District and the National Trail, poor planning and ineffective traffic control for the redevelopment of Heritage House, the continued institutional exodus from the Landmark District and Square area including the Truman Library Institute, and just the basics of lack of leadership, lack of stakeholder participation, unaccountability of developers, and dysfunctional natural nature of city government.  “Mistakes were made” seems to be the understatement of the year.  The Examiner article, which presented more questions than answers, goes on to quote the Mayor who states that solutions are already “embedded in our strategic plan and our comprehensive plan” which no one has seen yet.  So if you believe the Mayor, you can point to those billboards again and say, “That’s real progress!”  Yes, those billboards come in handy!