What kind of a party is this?

"I did attend the (Omaha) Midtown Neighborhood Alliance (MNA) meeting on August 26. The following is my impression of the proceedings. It was kind of like being at the tea party in Alice in Wonderland. The current overall disorganization of MNA created a "fly by the seat of our pants" environment at the meeting."

This is a quote from my correspondence with my neighborhood board of directors the day after a meeting by MNA that was used by the MNA officers to ramrod the selection process for "neighborhood representatives" to sit on the redevelopment board for Destination Midtown. Lost on those attending and engaging in such behavior was that such an important decision, that affects all our neighborhood's futures, was to serious a decision to railroad through an unannounced, sparsely attended meeting. I wasn't the first or only person to express that opinion at the meeting. What I witnessed at the meeting, when attendees tried to convey their neighborhood's input, their voices of dissent were shouted down, intimidated or drowned out. Very sad and unprofessional considering that we all were surposed to be on the same side.

MNA was formed to advance the interests of the neighborhoods in the planning process. Three neighborhoods voiced concern that they had not discussed which representatives should be advanced to the Destination Midtown Board and one key neighborhood was not present at all. No nominations were taken nor asked for in advance of the meeting. No deliberation was allowed and no prior thought was given to who in the DM area was most qualified to serve on the DM Board. This was one of the worst manipulations of the democratic process I have ever witnessed. The result was that all the more economically challenged neighborhoods were disenfranchised and left with no representation on the MNA board or the MD board. All those elected to be officers or representatives were upper income people who generally lived in the more gentrified parts of Midtown.

The entire proceedings appeared self servicing and unfair.