Covenants catalyze creativity & protect good neighborhoods

[Callipygian]

Once I figure out how to bring this to the Scientific Council for clarification, I will. (will this post be enough?)

A post here isn't enough. Any appeal to the SC should be dropped to an SC member in a notecard. The SC does not oversee the activity of the Chancellor, however, so it is not the body to deal with this. RA is the appropriate place for this to be raised.

Speaking as a citizen I do not feel that the Chancellor has changed any themes or components, but has exercised this section of the Constitution:

Section 2 – Powers of the Chancellor
The Chancellor of CDS shall, subject to the laws of CDS, have the power:
(a) to determine the use to which any and all land in CDS shall be put;...

Since the current issue seems to be use of public lands for event activity that infringes on a citizens enjoyment of their property, a better avenue to examine this might be elsewhere in the Constitution:

Section 3 – Public Oversight
The Chancellor must provide for regular and active citizen participation and public review of any decision concerning land use or the aesthetic or functional environment.

Calli

[Bagheera]

there was a post here by me proposing new legislation to offer a 15-day covenant variance per parcel once every 6 months, but it has disappeared into the ether. (Internet gremlins!) I'll write it again later today when I get some free time

[Ranma Tardis]

Never wrote not to enforce the covenants just that the enforcement is too strict a standard. While we all do not want the CDS to look like mainland it was intended primary as a democratic sim and not historical. The covenants are just too complex and too silly. Looks like time to go over them and change them to be reasonable and enforceable.

I think the CDS needs to return to its roots and be a democratic sims first and not nitpicking rules. It is going to come down to our survival.

[Bagheera]

Ranma, the covenants were revised recently by the sitting RA (a couple terms back, I don't remember exactly when), after a lot of effort and input from the community. I thought they did a good job.

The things I have been pointing out aren't nitpicky details but rather large - not just out of theme but poorly executed - the most recent complaint wasn't JUST the bumper car ride but that it was placed on a 40 x 40 x 0.5 platform that was level on the roadside but dangling/hovering 14 meters in the air at the edge nearest the river.

I have had a number of discussions in-world and it seems people want to a) keep things loose in the saddle theme-wise AND b) get more people to move in to CDS. Personally, I don't think we can have it both ways.

Calli remarked I have started campaigning for Chancellor early. Perhaps I have. I am running on the "Right to Peacefully Enjoy" slogan. My real goal is everyone's happiness and comfort in a way that is fair. An old American saying attributed to Benjamin Franklin is "good fences make good neighbors." I am not looking to build edifice type walls between us, but just help establish the boundaries we have Already Decided On so that people don't look around and say "but why can they do THAT, when I can't?"

Calli, your quote from the Constitution about the Chancellor's powers, (to determine the use to which any and all land in CDS shall be put) I believe, is an incomplete thought. The Chancellor doesn't have absolute power to do whatever they want during their term. What I quoted comes later and reads:

Nothing in this Act shall give the Chancellor of CDS any power to change the overall theme of Neufriestadt or any other sim or administered component of the CDS.

C.S. Lewis wrote "A man persuaded against his will is of the same opinion still."

If the current citizens want to have rules that are just paper tigers and not really followed, then I wish you all the best. I don't think it will work if CDS continues that way. It doesn't seem to be working now. If you want to try it my way, elect me for Chancellor.