Hear Evil, See No Evil

Now I'm all in favor of town hall meetings, feedback sessions, listening tours, whatever you want to call 'em. But this is pretty funny. The notoriously ineffective D.C. Taxicab Commission is holding a round of "community forums" to hear passenger gripes. Here's how the press release sells it:

As the Commission consistently receives complaints about refusals to haul, overcharging, discourteous and unsafe practices among drivers, the lack of dispatch service, and inadequate service for the handicapped, it would like to hear from members of the wider community on their experiences...

In other words, we've heard you--and ignored you. So now we'll hear you again. Gee thanks.

It's time to implement a rule about these sorts of citizen forums. You can't hold them unless you promise that at least one tangible change will come out of them. Of course, one could always debate what's a tangible change. But too often, what follows the listening session is forgetting.