Sigmund Freud is considered the father of psychoanalysis -- a practice, in part, by which a person's ego is analyzed and motivations are discerned. According to Dr. Freud, the ego will pursue the attainment of something to compensate for something else felt to be missing.
Sigmund Freud assigned to women a desire for compensation, of what was "missing" from them, as penis-envy. The PRU Crew has never bought in to that psychobabble, because we feel very deeply that with what women do have, they can have as many penises as they want. We know this. We know this because offers have been made. And rejected -- even after major effort has been made to explain to them what they're missing. We can only conclude Dr. Freud is completely wrong on this women with penis-envy thing, because people do not reject offers for things they envy and supposedly want.
However, the PRU Crew isn't ready to summarily reject the entirety of Freud's theory of an ego's desire for compensation.
If we go looking for an example of Freud's theory in practice, close to home, we feel it can be found in 7th Ward Alderman Frank Wsol's police station referendum solution -- or Wsolution, as the PRU Crew is preferring to call it.
In an article in today's Journal and Topics, 'Wsol Pitches Idea For Police Referendum Wording', we read that Ald. Wsolution is quoted as saying, "I think I have a solution, and I'm going to be asking the City Manager to put this on the schedule for next Monday." Alderman Wsolution is pitching two referendum questions to the voters of Park Ridge --
1. -- "In adopting a capital project to improve the administrative/public and police facilities at 505 Butler Place, shall the City of Park Ridge require as conditions of issuing any bonds for such improvements that:The annual bond payment will not cause an increase in City taxes/fees or service reductions as of 2008 levels (adjusted for inflation); the total spent, absent interest and operational costs will not exceed $16.5million; the facility improvement will not require new land purchases and the facility improvements will, where economically appropriate,include "green engineering" for the purpose of lowering on-going operational costs."
2. -- "Shall the City of Park Ridge adopt a policy that all non-emergency debt and all non-emergency budget increases above the CPI-U (CPI-U decreases will not apply) shall require voter approval by referendum vote?"
The PRU Crew is wondering what Ald. Wsolution is trying to compensate for -- is this really the best he can do? The PRU Crew has to admit we aren't even sure of what a yes or no answer means for each of those questions, as one of our commenters pointed out yesterday.
We know there are those who feel the condition of the police station is fine and there is no need to address the shortcomings in the facility. The PRU Crew strongly disagrees with that position.
We know there are those who feel we can't afford the expense of an entirely new station. The PRU Crew feels that position has some merit, at this time. But the City of Park Ridge has mucked around about the police station for so long, under much better economic conditions, that we are beginning to feel we may never see a real solution to the problems of the police facility in our lifetime!
The PRU Crew is a fairly uncompromising bunch on nearly every issue. We tend to take a look at things and make a judgement about what we feel is the right course of action.
On the issue of our police facility we feel we could swallow some kind of compromise. We don't know exactly what that is, but we know that the current condition of the station is unacceptable.
We're hoping the politicians can stop their ego compensation games for a little while and get to work on a real solution. We've had just about all we can stand of their dicking around.
January 14, 2009
Is There A Doctor In The House?
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28 comments:
PRU said: "people do not reject offers for things they envy and supposedly want".
Like big new police stations.
I do not envy Glenview or Niles big new police stations and I do not want to pay for a big new police station here in Park Ridge.
PRU, maybe you are right and a compromise is the answer but I haven't heard any compromises offered and I still don't know quite what the things are the police say they need so bad.
Wsol is doing what politicians do. He is trying to fool people into thinking he is the great fiscal conservative, but what he is really doing is throwing out alot of nothing words. If people stop to consider these words they will understand this is nothing but a politician trick to get people to agree to spend money we don't have.
I agree with the PRU. It is high time our elected officials get down to real business and getting to real solutions for the towns problems.
Sigmund Freud was a featured character in the story The Seven Percent Solution!
Frank Wsol, the 7th Ward Wsolution!
Love it!
PRU,
Nobody in government has proven to me that the police department needs anything. They are winning awards and grants every year. They get certified every year. How is the station unacceptable if they are doing all of this out of the current facility?
Anon@1:18 --
We invite you to take the station tour.
Because our officers are getting the job done, despite inferior facilities, is a credit to many of our officers -- not proof that the facilities aren't inferior.
We have stated that a compromise on size and expense is something we agree would be acceptable.
Frank Wsol is offering to referendum questions? All from the comfort of his nice warm council seat. Wow. Gee. Thanks a lot. Lucky us. Two referendum questions!
Too bad Frank Wsol couldn't be bothered with this subject back before Joe Egan and all his volunteers had to go out in the dead of a freezing winter to get signatures. No thanks to Howard Frimark they couldn't even warm up inside a local business while they were doing this effort and then they get harrassed outside in the cold on the PUBLIC PROPERTY at the library.
What the hell is happening in this town??????????
Anonymous at 135,
What is happening in this town is what happens when a mad man has almost total control over the gears of power...something the voters agreed to give him.
A RINO Mayor with a hand-picked majority RINO council...
How's that working for ya...?
Bean, it is not working for me! Our city government is broken!
If we need a police station, we need a new police station...I haven't toured it, and have thankfully, only been in the reception area once. To me that's not the issue. The issue is the amount of money being spent, and the lack of planning for the expense. While we may need a new police station, we also need sewers. All the capital projects should be prioritized. This all seems willy nilly to me. Bunch of morons with milk toast for spines.
As far as penis envy, seems to me it's more common among men than women.
When the idea of a new police station came up years ago, the first thing that should have been done is an evaluation of every square inch of the current space to see how it could be renovated/reconfigured to serve as many of the needs and wants of the police dept. as possible. Then, and only then, should there have been a discussion of adding space, with an ironclad explanation and evaluation of each and every square inch of proposed additional space.
Instead, the City hired a "consultant" for whom there is no such thing as "too much" police station space, and let him Blue Sky a plan for a brand new station. And in order to persuade a skeptical community that we needed the 400% more space that consultant No. 1 recommended, the City hired consultant No. 2, which dutifully said the same thing because it knew who was buttering its bread.
Most sane people, when they set off on the totally wrong foot in the totally wrong direction, return to the beginning and start over. But not our city administration, which chooses to plow straight ahead and never look back.
So even though the people who run our city government may be dead wrong, they're never in doubt.
the "consultant" that did the study, telling us that we need a new police station is also part of a company that is bidding on the project.
did anyone read the articles posted on the Herald-Advocate site today about the Oberwise thing and the library thing?
Howie, Howie, Howie...your pants are on fire. AGAIN.
Bean, the PR gub-mint is not RINO -- it's the logical extension of a scared-of-democracy, top-down, my-way-or-the-highway, benefit-the- few-and-bully-the-many mentality that we endured in Washington for 8 years. And don't even mention smaller government; I may wet my pants laughing. DOn't give the money to those undeserving multitudes producing more and more for less and less. Just give the no-bid gazillions to Halliburton, Blackwater, Cheney et al and pipe down. Look at the much-admired and envied role models. Are they being called to account? Why should our locals? It beggers the imagination -- and the pocket. But don't say it's RINO. It's R as in Reaganomics. There, I said it and I'm glad!
Anonymous @ 2:31 PM nailed it, and it's the envy that has our cops wanting a new police station.
An interesting use of language I noted at the COW meeting: We the people are referred to by City personnel and other important officials as "residents", rather than as "citizens." The connotation of "residents" is more akin to "natives" or "indigenous life forms", as if we are something that this superior race at the front of the room discovered here when their ship landed.
"Citizens" on the other hand, carries with it the uncomfortable baggage of constitutional rights, which apparently we were a little short of last weekend.
I intend to use the term citizen when communicating with the officials who have forgotten who works for whom.
how about "voters" and "taxpayers"?
MWIP and Anonymous at 10:00,
Don Bach has probably shared with the Mayor and his fellow Aldermen that since Illinois wasn't a State when the Constitution was signed, things like Constitutional rights don't apply here in Park Ridge, IL.
You know...similar to what he said in his letter concerning homeless shelter regulations...
>>>"If you read the Wikipedia article about the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment, you will see that the exact phrasing of the clause is, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion...or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"). The most commonly held interpretation of the clause is the Jeffersonian interpretation which defines the clause as "a wall of separation of church and state".
The city is not part of Congress. Since the clause is directed specifically at Congress, it may not apply."<<<
See? The Constitution probably only applies to Congress or those original States who sent suckers to go sign the Constitution.
PRU - Glad to read that you agree that our men and women in blue have severely inadequate facilities.
It's a shame that more citizens don't appreciate the work that these kids do and care not for their needs. I see plenty of ostriches hiding their heads in the sand when it comes to facing this problem.
Nobody has the money for a Glenview Palace but the shanty that PR's finest inhabit currently is shameful.
Mark your calender:
- ORD-REST Mtg
505 city hall
Saturday 1/17 @ 1:30 pm.
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- O'Hare Noise Comp Comm mtg
Rosewood Rest in Rosemont
Feb 6th 8am
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Corporal Citizen,
Let's separate the two issues. Just because people do not support the expenditure of millions of dollars, does not mean that they don't appreciate the police officers and the work that they are doing.
I personally support the officers. Given the state of the city budget, I don't support the 39,000 sq ft palace that was proposed. Why are the politicians even considering a project of this scope when the city cannot currently balance the budget? This is just fiscally irresponsible. We need to pay the bills that we already have, including the salaries of the officers, before we begin buying things that we can't afford. Otherwise, we may have to adopt Mayor Daley's strategy - ask the city employees to take time off without pay. I'd hate to get to the point where we can't afford the officers that we say we value so much because we're buying buildings that we can't afford.
At the COW meeting on Monday, a citizen proposed that the city council find a way to obtain some of the federal economic stimulus money to pay for this project. The federal government wants to spend money on infrastructure and we have a need. Why haven't our politicians been working on this for the past several months?
even though the people who run our city government may be dead wrong, they're never in doubt.
this sounds very familiar. it seems that i've heard about another republican administration for which this description fits.
coughcough**iraqkatrina**cough
anonymous 6:19 said it; it's not a RINO thing, it's a republican thing.
Corporal Citizen January 15, 2009 6:06 AM
"Severely inadequate facilities"? Garbage!
"It's a shame that more citizens don't appreciate the work that these kids do and care not for their needs." Puh-leeeeze! That's the way the press and the politicians talk about our troops in Iraq, not cops on the mean streets of Park Ridge.
"The shanty that PR's finest inhabit currently is shameful"? Not a "shanty" and not "shameful," although it definitely needs work. But "definitely needs work" probably wasn't hyperbolic enough for you.
Renovate the current space, renovate the Courtland house for admin, community service and other low-security activities, declare victory, and go home at something less that $10 million, all in.
Anything mor than that is wasteful.
anonymous at 10:07: AMEN!
I have to agree with Corporal Citizen. Perhaps it is just people going to extremes to make their point, but I have read what can be reasonable perceived as a lack of respect and even anger toward the police in some (not all) of the posts on the blogs.
I am not for spending 16 mil but I do think there is a reasonable middle ground that improves the facilities and is more in line with what the city and "we the people" can afford to spend.
Too often people look at things as either/or instead of looking for other solutions. That has happened on so many issues since I have lived in Park Ridge.
Let's all just dig in our heals and call each other names and take the most extreme version of our position simply to make a point - and then nothing gets accomplished.
Forget the new police station...
...tell me more about what I'm missing....
CC
You claim how many of us have no respect for the police yet you're calling them kids which doesn't make you sound all that respectable and have no bussiness criticizing anyone here.
Anon 8:50 AM - There are no issues to separate. You cannot support our officers and expect them to continue working in the conditions that they do. I am not supporting a Glenview Palace as stated in my previous post. My disappointment is directed towards those citizens that feel like just because the police win awards, it means that they have adequate facilities. One does not beget the other.
If I understand your position correctly, then you are not among those that disappoint me.
Anon 10:07 AM - I've no problem granting the men and women of our emergency services departments the same admiration and respect given to our armed forces. The military is enjoying a renaissance of respect since the early 90s, it's a shame that our police are so vastly under appreciated.
I will readily admit to not being an expert on the needs of police space, but if you look at the departments for surrounding towns (Des Plaines, Morton Grove, Niles, Skokie, Mt. Prospect, Rosement, et al) and then take the tour of the Park Ridge facilities you might warm up to the fact that they are inadequate.
MIKE - It is most assuredly my business to criticize those that hide their head in the sand on the topic of the police station. This is a forum in which to opine and opine I will.
As for calling them kids, well if there is a single member of the Park Ridge police department that is older than I, then I will address them as sir or madam. Until then, I reserve the right to call the kids, "kids".
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