AMERICA, THE OWNER'S MANUAL, MAKING GOVERNMENT WORK FOR YOU -- part 2

AMERICA, THE OWNER'S MANUAL, MAKING GOVERNMENT WORK FOR YOU
BY SENATOR BOB GRAHAM WITH CHRIS HAND

Review By Steve Wright

Preservationists, architects, planners, travelers, photographers and other lovers of Miami Beach's fabled Art Deco district will enjoy Chapter 3 of AMERICA, the Owner's Manual, Making Government work for YOU.

Author Bob Graham reminds us that before Crockett and Tubbs, glitzy condos and gastro pubs, fashion and clubs -- Ocean Drive and the rest of South Beach nearly bit the dust.

The book recounts the 1976 plan to demolish the aging deco district and the iron-willed widow, Barbara Baer Capitman, whose Miami Design Preservation League (MDPL) battle to preserve South Beach and place the 1930s and 1940s Deco structures on the National Register of Historic Places.

While the still-active MDPL and the late Capitman deserve hero status in Miami Beach, Graham carefully points out their wise and unwise strategies. The book is, after all, a manual for effective government interaction.
Using one of his favorite catch-phrases, Graham said "the MDPL did its best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory."

"Given the opportunity to shape Miami Beach's comprehensive plan, the MDPL submitted a historic report that professional planners found confusing and unorganized and never took seriously," the book recounts. "When the city updated its state-required comprehensive plan in June 1978, the proposal did not include historic preservation."

"Then, rather than attempting to work out their differences with the city, the MDPL sought to reverse the omission through sympathetic local newspapers. Miami Beach leaders saw this media strategy as an end run designed to embarrass them, and the reacted angrily. This was a grave development."

"The MDPL would need the city's cooperation and support to implement historic preservation in South Beach. Less than six months before, that cooperation had seemed assured. Now it was in serious peril. "

Graham credits Capitman, who had focused too much on the support of federal and state officials while neglecting to continually grease the local wheels, for stepping into the breach and shepherding the issue toward ultimate approval in 1979.

In less than three years after the Miami Beach Redevelopment Agency announced plans to demolish the Art Deco district, the National Register of Historic places in Washington, D.C. officially designated a one-square-mile area of Miami Beach as a National Historic District.

For the Miami Beach hands-on lesson and dozens of other real-life examples of everyday people using government to better their communities, AMERICA, the Owner's Manual, Making Government work for YOU, is a must read.

http://www.cqpress.com/product/Graham.html

AMERICA, THE OWNER'S MANUAL, MAKING GOVERNMENT WORK FOR YOU

AMERICA, THE OWNER'S MANUAL, MAKING GOVERNMENT WORK FOR YOU
BY SENATOR BOB GRAHAM WITH CHRIS HAND

Review By Steve Wright

Whether this week's election results have you rejoicing, repulsed or retreating -- you cannot relinquish your duty to get more active in government.

Whether you are a old enough to have voted in more presidential elections than you care to admit, or you are a civics student not even old enough yet to cast a vote for township trustee, you can benefit from AMERICA, the Owner's Manual, Making Government work for YOU.

Retired Florida Senator Bob Graham, with assistance from his longtime staffer Chris Hand, wrote the 272-page guidebook for CQ Press (cover price $16.95.)

Graham, a middle of the road Democrat, obviously took great pains to make the straightforward book as non-partisan as a blank sheet of paper.

In these times of cutthroat party politics, the book is refreshingly objective.

The red, white and blue cover is so dull as dishwater, that we feared the pages inside would be a dull, dry and dusty tome assembled by a longtime politician famed for serially journaling his everyday life.

AMERICA, the Owner's Manual, Making Government work for YOU, is anything but arcane and outdated.

The book triumphs by using real-life examples, short paragraphs, clear writing and humor to keep the subject matter lively.

Graham's bottom-line point is that you don't need to be a former presidential cabinet member or a CEO with a seven figure budget for lobbyists to make an impact on government.

Each chapter is filled with examples of how everyday people made an impact on government decision making. In every success story, the key was hard work and a firm understanding of process.

Graham, in a non-patronizing tone, agonizes over the fact that most Americans don't know who to phone for a simple problem. The book educates folks on how to identify the proper elected and appointed persons to approach about local, state, federal, school district and other issues.

Because the book is advertised as a manual, it does have a "checklist for action" and exercises at the end of each chapter. But do not thing of this as a school book.

The publication is just as valuable in the hands of homeowners' group fighting the city hall's foolish squandering of park land as it is in the mitts of a school kid learning the basics of the Constitution.

AMERICA, the Owner's Manual, Making Government work for YOU demystifies polling, fundraising, campaigning, lobbying, media influencing, issue focusing, coalition building, researching and other building blocks of working with government.

This easy-to-read book is a must for everyone who cares about the future of our nation at the crossroads.

TOMORROW: Preservationists, architects, planners, travelers, photographers and other lovers of Miami Beach's fabled Art Deco district will enjoy Chapter 3 of AMERICA, the Owner's Manual, Making Government work for YOU. Graham reminds us that before Crockett and Tubbs, glitzy condos and gastro pubs, fashion and clubs -- Ocean Drive and the rest of South Beach nearly bit the dust.

http://www.cqpress.com/product/Graham.html