Yesterday, the Times-Dispatch published a poignant commentary by Varina resident and local writer Nicole Anderson Ellis that got me thinking -- not for the first time -- about the abject inability of the region's political and business leadership to think both collectively and creatively about the future.
Oh, I've seen moments. I've met individuals. And I've been disappointed, frustrated and annoyed by the fits-and-starts that periodically seem to seize regional organizations and influential individuals.
Yet, I still believe that the Richmond region has a future much brighter, more visionary and (yes) more progressive than its current regime seems able to imagine, much less deliver. But it's going to take new leaders -- from a broader spectrum of our community than is currently represented at the table -- to create that future.
Ellis does a marvelous job of describing exactly where one slice of regional leaders continue to fall well short of the standards the community should expect. She writes of a photograph of a field on Osborne Turnpike -- a field, a setting sun, a dead fox:
When it's my turn to speak, I leave the fox out of it. The Planning Commission has made clear it's not its job to care about habitat loss. So I don't mention that ten years ago we heard quail every evening, but last summer we heard one single bob-white call. It was Aug. 28, the sound now so rare and hopeful that I wrote about it in our family almanac.
I don't waste my time explaining to the county my fear that bob whites will vanish from Henrico, not in my daughter's lifetime, but in her childhood.
I've learned, through experience, not to bother discussing our community's values -- preserving beauty, or respect for history, or supporting Henrico's remaining family farmers. I don't mention data showing children in our region get more asthma than the national average, and that each tree lost and each car added makes that problem worse. I don't discuss anything that could be disregarded as sentimental or nostalgic or maternal or naive. Instead, I talk about money.
I'm not alone. For years I've listened to my fellow citizens stand and quote studies showing that each new house costs local governments more in services than the household provides in taxes. More houses mean more work for Henrico police officers, more traffic on area roads, more pressure on local schools, and more stress on infrastructure. And every tax dollar spent on these services is diverted from the county's existent needs, including longed-for school improvements and the revitalization of Nine Mile Road.
Yet county officials keeps courting subdivisions.
And yet, I'm hopeful. When I contrast Ellis' experience -- and that of many others in the region -- with two other stories recounted in state newspapers this past week, what I feel is a sense that the time is now for change to come to Richmond.
"That doesn't play today," he said.
Now, people want to know why a particular firm was chosen to conduct the study, and how they arrived at their conclusion.
Cooperation for regional issues has been a constant challenge in Hampton Roads, an area fractured into separate cities and counties which compete for residents and businesses to generate taxes and pay for services such as schools, police and parks.
Gates, the keynote speaker at the Hampton Roads conference, said in an interview with the Center for Civic Engagement that the lines between government and the governed need to be erased:
One of the lessons that's going to be very clear is, that the old ways of doing business probably aren't going to work anymore and there's lots of conversations about how do we tap into this new cadre of voters and volunteers. The truth is for people in government, campaigns and the nonprofit world, one of the things that probably happened with those folks is their expectations have changed about how they expect to be interacted with. I think it's going put pressure on campaigns, local governments and nonprofit organizations to creatively find ways to change the way they do business internally, because it won't work anymore to say "We're going to have a separate governance structure and then we'll ask volunteers to get involved and help out."
One of absolute things that got changed in this campaign was lines that divided volunteers from policy makers have been absolutely squashed flat and there's now expectation on the part of a lot of people that if they are going to be involved in something, they can help shape it as well. I think it’s going to be an interesting process, to see the nonprofit sector try and move in that direction, to see local government move in that direction, to see campaigns and politics move in that direction.
Meanwhile, across the state in Roanoke (Thanks, Mark), our old friend Richard Florida is gaining some traction:
Yet many of the initiatives described Tuesday were new. For example, the ultimate goal of one would be having a carbon neutral region by 2030. Another, designed to build tolerance among disparate groups, would encourage frank discussion about thorny topics such as race, sexual preference and other hot potato issues.
In fact, optimism seemed to reign during a public presentation in downtown Roanoke that followed a two-day workshop run by the Creative Class Group, an outfit spawned by economic development guru Richard Florida.
One of the things I most appreciated about the Florida-inspired gig in Roanoke is that the initiative was seeded with 30 "creative connectors," individuals selected to be the glue that helps hold together the ideas generated during the workshop.
It's easy to believe that the emerging mindset in Roanoke and Hampton Roads is little different from what I sense is a growing desire for civic engagement to generate change, progress and a better regional future here in Richmond. But in order for civic engagement to have meaning, local politicians and corporate leaders will need to begin treating residents as adults, as partners and as catalysts for change. That doesn't seem to be the case in the Henrico County that Ellis describes:
Sometimes the official message seems to be that land-use issues are too complicated for Henrico citizens to comprehend. But I think we get it. Wise land-use planning ensures intentional, prosperous growth and avoids haphazard sprawl that destroys fertile land, communities, and budgets. Henrico citizens understand that very well.
What we don't understand is the emergent attitude that public opinion should be endured, typed, and ignored. This mind-set is more than insulting; it reflects a dangerous misinterpretation of representative government.
They may need a little push from below.
