Reflections

What IS and what COULD be...

This past weekend was beautiful! So we spent a good part of Saturday at the Greenway. Great views. Flowers along the path. Wildlife could be heard in the breeze. Just an overall good day.  Nothing exciting happened but after, I reflected on all I had seen... What a nice addition to the community. While we rode our bikes, EVERY SIGNLE PERSON that passed us at least said "Hello". 

There were men. There were women. There were children. There were white people. There were black people. There were people from of every color in-between. There were young people. There were old people. There were single people. There were married people. There were walkers holding hands. There were runners keeping pace. There were hardcore bikers clicking away the miles. There were dads teaching their kids how to ride on the path. 

My point is this...

Nowhere else in our community is there such a diverse mix of people who can come together and take advantage of an asset while being so friendly. 

Now, what's next?

Who is going to lead the way to take the next big step? Jeffersonville stepped up with the Walking Bridge and Big 4 Station. Nobody believed it was worth the investment, but look at how it has transformed Jeffersonville. The Ogle Foundation has dedicated untold amounts of money to projects that have helped transform our community as has the Horseshoe Foundation and Community Foundation. Thank you! 

With so much on the horizon for our area, now is not the time to say "That will never work." Now is the time to believe in our future and figure out a way to make it work. Our local cities, towns, and counties have a vision of how they want their community to grow. But they cannot and should not do it alone. 

Partnerships between government and investors can (and maybe should) be the way forward. While investors in a project to have the freedom to do as they want with their project, fitting the vision of a community should be part of the consideration. And while local government should be welcomed to the table, they have to be realistic in their expectations by not holding investors to such high demands that it kills projects. But killing a project that is allowed legally is not the role of government. 

A great example of a recent partnership can be seen in this news piece from July 26th: Click here 

While this developer could have went on to build this neighborhood without input, they recognized the city would like to have a park there, took initiative to approach the city (not the city to the developer) and come up with a mutual beneficial plan. 

Hats off to Mayor Moore and Premier Homes for coming together. This is a great example of what can happen when government and private investor both know their place, don't over step, and let investment happen.

But I digress

Let's be real here. Government does not know how to run a business. Government does not know how to spend your money better than you.

Government's job is to         (....wait for it......say it with me......)          GOVERN.

However, working together with someone who does know how to spend money and run a business to be sure the interests of the community are met is their place. Demanding frivolous investment and spending for pipedreams that prevents a return on investment by private business is NOT where Government should operate. Unfortunately, that's were they operate most of the time without realizing it.

Local government is the worst of all because they truly don't know what they don't know and (at least some of them) let ego's get in the way of understanding that. At least at the state and federal level they have resources available to them to be educated on a topic. Locally, they just go on their merry little way because "I was elected as (insert any random governing office)!" 

Time for some of our local elected officials to wake up understand they cannot govern on principle (some would say PRIDE) alone. Wisdom has to have a place in the equation. Asking someone who is smarter than you about something you know little about is a good trait in a leader.