Is It As Simple As That?

It's been more than a month since the last "Seeking Downtown" blog, and I appreciate the regulars checking in during that time. Here's what happened: I hit the wall when I realized that I'm not the only one that doesn't understand the dynamics of building a better community in our beautiful downtown, nobody does! So the few things we are investigating are tangential at best. And the constraint of resources in unbelievable. Nobody–city workers, shopkeepers, downtown marketers–has any reserve to accomplish needed tasks.

It reminds me of my time in a dot.com startup where our very wise founder Paul Brainerd kept reminding us to "don't confuse doing things right with doing the right things."  His second adage always was "and get somebody else to do it when you figure out what the right thing is." This is the only way a startup company of 20 people can compete with industry giants.

When I picked up the threads of my search, I started where we left off: the power of volunteers. There is A LOT of information about volunteers, organizing, community groups, empowerment and more, but mostly descriptive, not proactive. Then, BINGO! I came across the "Visioning Notebook" compiled by Cornell University. Home run out of the park. See what you think....

First, the document includes the best explanation I've seen about the problem. Here goes:  Decisions are tougher; regional or global; require special knowledge and need multiple persons or departments to solve the problem. Decisions are coming faster. Rapid expansion and unanticipated events keep decisionmaker agendas backed up.

At the same time, traditional participation is down. Organizations such as bowling leagues and churches, where conversations used to take place, are down 25 percent in 25 years. Many of us work hard and prefer to enjoy our free time at home in front of the television.  Meanwhile partisanship, factionalism and divisive rhetoric are up. Decision making becomes "us" versus "them." People are frustrated, get angry and emotions run high. Not the best environment for building community or putting the "place" back in downtown.

Is it as simple as that? It just might be. Tomorrow we'll look at Cornell's concept of "CAPACITY BUILDING."

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