The speed of light is faster than the speed of sound. That's why so many people look good until you hear them speak.
Aside from elevating one another's blood pressure what are we hoping to accomplish in Norwich to grow our commercial tax base?
That's actually a Zen riddle, of sorts, because, as it is right now, we're doing absolutely nothing.
People prefer a problem that's familiar to a solution that is not.
We in Norwich continue to be less than thrilled at developers with requests for zoning applications that create 'spot zoning' (and we are NOT without real reasons for this unhappiness).
We are angry our charter doesn't allow our City Council, when serving as the Zoning Board of Appeals, to offer or collect community comment beyond the night of a zoning hearing, and we like being angry about this as well.
But, instead of a concerted effort to reassess how we accomplish economic development and community zoning (process and product) (and we have a Commission on the City Plan who've shouted themselves hoarse in trying to accomplish just this), we point fingers at one another. The problem with all that finger-pointing is three fingers on the hand point back at ourselves.
Choose a path to encourage smart growth (= let the Commission on the City Plan advise the City Council? Sounds good to me.) Make it transparent and equitable and then apply it.
If it needs to be tweaked, work on it (and with it) to repair it. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Stop confusing 'busy' with 'productive.' We NEVER have time to get things right the first time, but we always make time to do them over.
Community zoning and economic growth aren't just about property and opportunity-they are about people's lives and increasing the quality of them. It's hard to imagine a greater 'good' for government, at any level, or a greater need for it than right now.
-bill kenny
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