COURSEY: This meeting was no tea party

The activists who disrupted a public meeting Monday night in Santa Rosa apparently take issue with the descriptions in the newspaper and on social media sites that characterized them as "tea partiers."

That's fine. Personally, I don't care whether they belong to the tea party or the Occupy movement or the ACLU or the Boy Scouts. I don't like bullies no matter what their affiliation.

And that's the only way to describe these people. Despite that their mantra is that they are being bulldozed by Big Government, they are the ones trying to force their agenda down others' throats.

The psychology of this group is fascinating. Their fantasy-based creed is that America is in the thrall of a United Nations/Socialist/Progressive conspiracy that is using the specter of global climate change to force all citizens to live in high-density slums, ride bicycles and vote for Democrats.

Or Republicans. Or something like that. For background, Google "Agenda 21" and read not just the UN documents, but the stuff from the conspiracy theorists, too. It's an education.

The tactics for resisting this conspiracy were on clear display Monday night: intimidate, disrupt and harass the representatives of the secret government cabal. During a public meeting.

"There was a very deliberate effort to intimidate and bully" the staff and officials of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, said Rohnert Park Mayor Jake Mackenzie. "They were very rude and extremely disruptive. I've never dealt with a group of people at a public meeting who were so disrespectful or out of control."

At one point, a participant at the meeting posted this on Facebook: "SR police are now moderating land use breakout sessions."

That's right – police had to be called to make sure the audience could break into small groups to discuss the subject matter without the meeting turning into a free-for-all.

And what was the subject matter that is so controversial? Planning, of course. The MTC, along with other regional agencies such as the Association of Bay Area Governments, is working on a new 25-year planning document for the Bay Area that focuses on land use, transportation and housing. Read it here.

The goal of this effort is to shape the future growth of the region in a more sustainable pattern, with housing, jobs and transportation development coordinated to allow people to live closer to where they work, and to efficiently use public transportation to move them between work and home.

Or, if you see through the same lens as those who turned out Monday night: Social engineering.

I wasn't at the meeting, but I've heard the arguments. The people who sit on the boards of regional agencies are not elected and don't represent the public. (Most of them are elected city council members or county supervisors appointed by their peers to serve on the regional boards). The planners want us all to live in high-density apartments next to train stations. (But who will live in those many hundreds of thousands of single-family homes that already sprawl across the region?) We're being forced out of our cars and on to buses, trains and bikes. (Last time I looked, the freeway was being widened, and a lot of people actually would like to be able to get around without getting in their cars.)

The fact is that the majority of people in the Bay Area, and particularly in Sonoma County, have said over and over again that they prefer new development to be focused close to city centers and transportation networks, they want to preserve open spaces and they want to expand transportation options.

That's what those evil bureaucrats at MTC are trying to do – just what the public has asked them to do.

Just because a few members of the public are willing to shout louder than the rest doesn't mean we should stop working toward a better future.

At least I hope it doesn't.

Chris Coursey's blog offers a community commentary and forum, from issues of the day to the ingredients of life in Sonoma County.