Community Meeting

My neighborhood had a meeting last night. We filled the local church with proponents and opponents to a “master plan” for the neighborhood retail district. We live in the kind of neighborhood that is rare in most cities. In the typical American city the retail district has moved to a mall on the edge of the old city. The former neighborhood retail centers have morphed into something that provides services to the area, but not such things as groceries, hardware, drug and liquor. We still have all of that, but it is being threatened.

The story is long and sad, but the short version is we had a landlord who neglected the area. Now we have a new landlord and his cure is not going down well with everyone. And that is okay, because the community should weigh in on the decisions that affect them and be part of the solution. The representative of the developer admitted that input that they received from the community had actually effected and improved the plan as it stood last night.

I’m not going to go into the details of the plan, but here is what I observed. The plan is not a simple proposal. It involves the re-facing of many buildings. It requires the moving of a couple of business, the purchase of a city parking lot and the rezoning of a plot to allow the construction of a high rise condo building. It proposes a goal of preserving and improving the residential nature of the neighborhood while improving the environment for the local businesses. Virtually everyone at the meeting said they supported the goal, but there were factions who were opposed to facets of the developers plan.

The biggest problem is the high rise condo. I would be willing to bet that half the people at the meeting would not have felt the need to attend if that issue were not on the agenda. Another small group would have been there in any case because they appear to be opposed any change. There were a number of people that supported the plan. What was interesting about this group is that except for the guy that was willing to stand up and testify, most of them seem almost embarrassed to stand up and be counted. I think that is because to support the plan is to be on the side of the developer and no one should support the landlord.

I was proud to be part of that group of neighbors. Their attendance was inspiring. I don’t agree with all of my neighbors, but I do applaud their need to be involved. Some form of this plan will be negotiated and implemented. It will be the result of consultation and compromise. It will not be the best solution or the worst, because we never know what may have been better or worse for not having been tried. Most ideas are stuck between the nostalgia of some of the neighbors that wish things would never change and others that have no long term ties to the area that are hungry for major change. As a result no one will be satisfied.