I must be a suck­er for pun­ish­ment, since on Monday night I atten­ded the latest Water­front Devel­op­ment Sub­com­mit­tee meet­ing. Some people would con­sider that the study of loc­al gov­ern­ment con­sulta­tion belongs under gov­ernance or pub­lic policy stud­ies, but I’ve come to real­ise that it’s a branch of psy­cho­path­o­logy. The range of social dys­func­tion, para­noia and anger-man­age­ment issues on dis­play would fill sev­er­al chapters of DSM-IV-TR: and that’s just among the coun­cil­lors. Those in the pub­lic gal­lery are worse, and I include myself as an obvi­ous text­book example of chron­ic mas­ochism.

Nev­er­the­less, it’s the only way to get the latest updates and gos­sip, which I’ve com­bined here with my usu­al oth­er sources (pub­lic notices, real estate advert­ise­ments, unsub­stan­ti­ated rumours, peer­ing through win­dows) to update my pre­vi­ous post on cur­rent and upcom­ing water­front devel­op­ments.

[read more…]