Decatur Strategic Plan – Get Schooled on the Issues
Decatur Metro | September 30, 2010 | 9:21 am
As the next step in the Decatur Strategic Planning process for the next 10 years, the city of Decatur is hosting four “Community Academys” starting next Tuesday, which will take all of our open-ended, hypothetical ideas from the roundtables and pit them against each other in an all-out fight to the death.
- Walkability? Meet bikeability and traffic management!
- Aging in place?? Meet density concerns!
- A well-funded school system and grudgingly accepted higher taxes? Meet the desire for a “diverse” community!
Oh yes, this is where the truly ugly magic happens. For those of you who turned to your reusable, organic vomit bags after all the sky-pie you were forced to consume during the roundtables, this messy – and yet thoroughly productive – exercise IS FOR YOU!
“Yeah, yeah. Shut up man and give us the dates!” OK, OK. From DecaturNext…
- Going Mobile: Managing Transportation Choices • Tuesday, October 5
- Decatur For Life: Aging in Place, Affordability, Diversity • Monday, October 25
- The New Main Street: Economics of the Complete Community • Thursday, November 4
- Getting the Love We Want: Understanding Development Issues • Wednesday, November 17
All sessions are from 7-9p and you should RSVP at 678.553.6584 if you’d like to participate. Need I exaggerate more?
Related Posts:
-
April 16, 2015 Decatur School Board to Ask for $75 Million Bond (1)
-
April 21, 2015 City Commission and School Board To Hold Work Session Next Monday To Discuss $75M Bond (0)
-
April 29, 2015 How Much Will Decatur Water Slide Cost? and Answers To Other Slide-Related Questions (12)
No participation, no whining. It seems like one could have even more impact at these meetings than at the original roundtables.
I agree and wonder how these will “conclude”. Are the priorities taken from whomever has the stronger argument during these discussions or is it still based on the shear number of people that said one thing over another during the roundtables?
Personally I can’t wait to discuss blub-outs at the first meeting!
Blub-outs?
Re decisions: I think that the City of Decatur reserves the right to make any final implementation decisions but they would obviously be wise to appear responsive to the input they’ve received from the community.
Blub-outs, so the argument goes, are good for peds but bad for bikers. There’s no real resolution as far as I can see. I love a good discussion that has no real end.
And I’m not sure that COD wants you to have the impression that they reserve the right to final decisions in this particular document. That’s why there’s 4 million pages to resident comments from the roundtables. Some may disagree with their policies and individual decisions that have been made over the years, but it’s hard to argue that they don’t take the Strategic Plan – and the community input that creates it – VERY seriously.
I don’t disagree about the City taking the strategic plan very seriously. The proof is in the pudding with the last plan. City of Decatur looks completely different from the first time I saw it when it was sort of quaint but also sort of tired, worn, dated, and unappealing at night. I just have yet to meet a government entity that doesn’t reserve the right to make the final decision. The ratio of responsiveness to holding on to authority is particularly good for the City. Current elected and appointed leadership seems to inherently trust their citizens even if they don’t trust every individual on every single issue. That’s in contrast with City Schools of Decatur which I think starts from a position of distrust until it is convinced otherwise. Both have a tough history that they’ve overcome and lots of successes and continuing challenges but the City seems to have come out of it all more open, receptive, and willing to move forward. Am hoping that things like CSD 10 and the DEF will help CSD get to the same place.
Make that CSD 101. CSD 10 is for the delinquents that still miss Westchester.