[NativeNewYorker]

Joseph is a member of the county board. A self-proclaimed radical, he's also-like Dan Hoffman and former mayor Nichols-a hardworking pragmatist who loves the nitty-gritty details of politics ("90 percent of what we do is not ideological," he says). In the mid-'80s, Joseph worked for OAR as a counselor and a trainer of counselors. Part of the training was work in "deep listening." Four years ago, when a conservative taxpayers' group was hectoring the county board for its alleged free-spending ways, Joseph and fellow progressive board member Eric Lerner decided to listen to their opponents instead of simply struggling against them. They did more; they invited the tax protesters to sit on an advisory committee. "We came to respect each other," says Joseph. "And the protesters discovered they had to grapple with real funding problems instead of abstractions about fiscal responsibility."

From Utne.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Thanks for posting a link to Utne Reader's article that Ithaca is the most "enlightened" town in America. Given that we know what "enlightened" means to readers of Utne, and given Utne's own description of Ithaca this is the official proof that Ithaca, not Berkley, not Madison, etc. IS the OFFICIAL "City of Evil."