I think you’ve helped crystallize the analogy.

It’s not about money. It’s about being smart enough to do it with the resources you’ve got. Sort of the Apollo 13 recovery example.

We need a goal, a timeline and clear-eyed smarts.

There’s a little bit of visioning going on over on southtrenton.org. There’s been analysis on this site and also on ruinsoftrenton. At least some of ideas are there but we need more.

Most importantly we need a “Kennedy” that can inspire and coalesce our own little revitalization NASA – minus the $$$$.

Of course, some say if Apollo 1 hadn’t burned, we never would have beat Kennedy’s deadline, because it took that serious a mistake to shake people out of complacency. And then the failure of Apollo 13 to get to the moon, five years after Apollo 1, was the result of the same sort of QC lapse.

I think if Trenton had the equivalent of the money NASA had in the 60s to solve its problems, it might very well be more successful than NASA had been at getting to the moon. But Trenton doesn’t need the kind of money it takes to get to the moon, it only needs the kind of money it would take to turn its fortunes around. Still, that money isn’t coming any time soon.

How I see the NASA analogy fitting is that those billions of over-budget NASA dollars were going toward a distinct goal. You will note that once we reached the moon, the will to spend money on the project dried up to the point where we only did it 7 times, and most people didn’t even know why we went that many times. Without a clear, widely understood goal, the money and will quickly dried up.

I think you are right, Dan, that analysis and systematization is crucial to success – once a vision of success is established. No such vision exists. Guesswork and negotiated compromise is maybe the best way to ensure that nobody gets what they want. Kennedy’s vision was his own, not the result of a committee. And that’s why it drove people. And he had the ability to inspire, which shouldn’t be overlooked.

I think it’s the lack of a clear goal that prevents investment in the city – the fact that no one has any idea what millions or billions would be spent on, what end product we would have after it were spent – that is the biggest obstacle to progress.

The definitions weren’t the main point of the article. Rather I was attempting to draw a comparison to the space race.

However, that’s no excuse for being sloppy about terms and definitions. Probably not worth re-writing though.

We don’t even have the best minds in Trenton helping, much less the state or the nation.

I’m sorry you’re offended, though I don’t know why you would be. At least you’re trying to take a data based approach to our issues.

However, the facts are the facts. Trenton, has fallen behind NJ and other NJ cities in economic growth (as measured by CPI. It’s population has shrunk and its schools are still in the tank.

It’s hard to make the case that the best minds in the country are at work in Trenton.

Neither Raleigh or Charlotte were ever that.

There are plenty of cities that have “truly” revitalized and others clearly on the course. New York is not the only one. Boston, Providence, DC, Raleigh, Charlotte and the list goes on. UNLESS you’re referring to cities that have extinguished all social ills as “revitalized” … No, there’s none.