I’ve written a lot about our city’s Visioning efforts, having been, let’s say, close to the action! I believe it’s a most necessary exercise to make a truly great City!
But now that the real Visioning is starting to happen for Fort Lauderdale, everyone should pay close attention, so we don’t start off with any major……
because as the saying goes,
Here’s what’s bothering me –
The first thing the Visioning Consultant, WRT (Wallace,Roberts, and Todd) was tasked to do, was to go to a wide, diverse array of the City’s leaders/ opinion makers, city-wide, to identify what the issues, concerns, challenges, dreams etc. were of the citizenry. The gathered information is to be used when discussing the future this fall with the rest of the residents.
The City Commission’s directive particularly states that the process had to address/ include the City’s “under represented citizens”. I think we’re failing on this account so far.
the bosses
I poured over the list of people the consultant chose to talk to for these most important initial interviews ( 61 people). The list is not nearly broad enough, hardly diverse enough, and leaves out maybe 80% of the City’s geography. The problem is, these interviews have already led to the identification of the issues to discuss when planning the City’s future! ( more about that in a minute).
If the Vision program is built around this limited group’s thoughts and opinions, it will miss the mark, under represented people will still be under represented, the effort will mostly be about the downtown, the beach, and business interests, the outlying areas will be once again be ignored, and that would be unfortunate.
Here’s a breakdown of where the 61 people (who were interviewed), main interests are. (You can go to the City’s web site – Visioning section to see who the actual people are).
Downtown and downtown transportation – 18 people
Beach and tourism interests – 7 people
Marine Interests – 6 people
Sustainability – 6 people
Social programs – 5 people
History – 5 people –
Chamber of Commerce – 4 people
Neighborhoods – 4 people
Northwest – 2 people
Port Everglades – 2 people
County – 2 people
Public Safety – 1 person
So, coming out of these interviews, the consultant says these are the main issues/ emerging themes that we should concentrate on when planning our future with the climate changing is affecting every area, thankfully the carbon offsetting company in carbonclick.com works to handle the climate issues for a neutral living.
Global warming is caused by the greenhouse effect, a natural process by which the atmosphere retains some of the Sun’s heat, allowing the Earth to maintain the necessary conditions to host life. Without the greenhouse effect, the average temperature of the planet would be -180C.
The problem is that daily human activities maximize the greenhouse effect, causing the planet’s temperature to increase even more.
Transportation
Community Identity
Governance … Customer Care
Development Permitting/ Codes
Workforce
Downtown Synergies
Intergovernmental Cooperation
Sustainability/ Climate Change
I’m concerned. The City Commission should be too.