Zen and the Art of Community Development
(Reference the classic ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance‘ exploring the metaphysics of quality and values.)
Development -- Envelopment -- Encroachment -- Resentment
A city official once told me that if I didn’t like his idea of community development I should move to another community. In essence, he was telling me that he had the authority, as a community development official, to do whatever he wanted at the expense of my wellbeing.
Arrogance and Authority
Most city governments are set up, unwittingly or by design, under a system of checks and balances. That is, an enfeebled scenario of finger-pointing toward blame or credit. If a development scenario, or any civic scenario, goes sour or is not well received by the public, the city officials at the top of the organization chart blame the planning committee, which is usually made up of citizens with no solid planning experience. If things go well, the top officials and mayor take the credit.
Who We Are
If a city or town has a community development director, that person, hopefully with some planning experience and his head screwed on straight, along with the input of the other community officials and "city fathers", hopefully all with a sense of integrity and social conscience, will set the standard, both aesthetic and economic, for what kind of community we/they want to be. Hopefully, the aesthetic and economic factors will mesh into a desirable blend of whatever that goal is. Public input is always welcome and actually required by law, but seldom acknowledged.
So, do our city officials want to retain the charm and heritage of our downtown environment with smart, controlled development and growth, or do they prefer to follow the money and espouse a slapdash, shoot-from-the-hip approach to “revenue” and open up our beloved downtown and community spaces to anyone who comes along with a stray business idea and an easy path to a short-term profit that usually ends up with an empty store front and urban blight?
Follow the Money
If city officials are not on the same page with their basic concept of just what kind of community they (“we?”) want, then the mercenary developers will be running the town by proxy. Kind of like the tail wagging the dog. This is a dichotomy of logic and thought, not to mention a moral outrage and conflict of interest.
Most of the city officials and their now counterparts and partner developers do not live in the neighborhoods and communities of which they are deciding the fate, and the fate and general wellbeing of the people who live in those neighborhoods and communities. So, how can they relate to the issues and make critical decisions on peoples‘ lives with just a passing glance ...then pass rezone laws?
Benevolence is Dead
In executing a solid, well thought-out community development plan, protection should be paramount. Protection, preservation and maintenance of tradition with an eye toward the future ...a future of protection and preservation. We want to feel safe in our homes and communities, and not live in peril that the city will allow a mercenary developer to build a multi-unit apartment complex in our back yard, or a multi-home development tract across the street.
A solid community development plan will take into account the community schools, senior citizens, libraries, community recreation centers, etc. and preserve, maintain and protect rather than allow small-time local developers to crap in their own nest, so to speak, or corporate developers to exploit the community and its people into urban blight all for the sole purpose of their short-term profit, laying the community as a whole to waste for posterity to deal with.
Individual Responsibility
What kind of a neighbor are you? How will you reflect the kind of community we want to live in? We citizens have the ultimate responsibility and authority by our own social conscience and by our vote for public officials. However, your vote means less than who you are as a person, a neighbor, a citizen and member of the community. By your vote, you are the community, you are the law. Do you respect your neighbor’s privacy and safety, his peace of mind? Do you respect his home and property? Does he yours? It works both ways. Do you respect the general neighborhood environment and surroundings? If you don’t like your neighbor’s trees, his barking dog, his noisy kids, ATV’s ...what do you do? It’s a tough question and situation, people living in close quarters together. Peoples‘ values and lifestyle differ.
Do you enjoy the benefits of your neighbor’s trees or complain that they should come down? Do you rake the few leaves (blow, there are no more rakes) and leave them for the city to pick up in the fall or noisily blow them onto your neighbors property in an act of anger and vengeance, after all, they’re his damn leaves from his damn trees ...then go simmer down until next fall ...or until snow removal time?
Are you the kind of neighbor who threatens “I’ll sue you” before you can think of anything more functional or intelligent to say?
Demography and Geography
If you live “in town” in a neighborhood community, you have to deal with these issues more vigorously. If you live in a developed neighborhood away from the downtown area or the town proper, you have many of these same issues but on a different scale. If you live in an “affluent” area you have other issues to deal with.
Ironically, most of the city officials who plan for the city and community don’t live in the city community areas in which they plan for. Dichotomy, contradiction ...Catch-22?
Epilog
That same city official who told me to move if I didn’t like his idea of my idea of where and how to live said that development is a good thing, to which I agreed. He said that you had to have “developers” in order to develop. I agreed with that too.
I told him that, by the same token, you need to have a virus to start a plague.
There is solid, thoughtful development and there is thoughtless, short-term profit oriented development. The difference is in the character and integrity of the developer.
Our city officials stand between us and them as our only line of defense.
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah.
