Thursday, November 8, 2007

Quality-of-Life-o-Meter

Brainstorming in Planning Lab by a deadline-motivated group of university upperclassmen can put a lot of ideas on paper. That is, of course, a euphemism for the actual process -- relatively few tangents survived through the group-think sessions and into an assigned project.

A “Quality-of-Life Index” should have made it. Mind you, this was not one of my concepts. Now, after several years of perspective, I still wonder why it isn’t in widespread use as a planning tool by enlightened planning departments. An over-simplification: QL Index would track impacts of incremental decisions by governing political bodies on the citizens within their jurisdiction.

Perhaps there is a village square, in a community somewhere, that has a (now digital) Quality-of-Life-o-Meter installed up high on the bell tower, right next to the historic big analog clock
..