Pizza Cake

I may not be able to tell fortunes like Bruce Springsteen's Madam Marie could, but I predict you can have pizza for dinner next Wednesday evening at Foundry 66 with the City of Norwich's Planning and Neighborhood Services Department if you take part in "A Community Conversation."

The pizza (from 6 to 7:30 PM) is very nearly free-but you will need to share your thoughts and ideas about zoning, be it downtown or wherever it is you live in Norwich with the city's Planning and Zoning Staff. I know, you're pretending to be unsure if you have anything to share but let's be honest, we all have opinions and ideas on the manner and method by which we've been developing the blueprint of the ongoing reinvention of our city. 

When it comes to explaining what we want Norwich to look like both to one another and for those whom we hope to attract to join us here, both zoning maps and text (for ordinances and/or amendments) are really a combination of the Rosetta Stone and a Swiss Army Knife when it comes to creating and developing the language to define us in the years ahead. 

Walk down Broadway and admire the efforts of energetic entrepreneurs who are working hand in glove with a variety of staff from various city agencies and then walk the length of Main Street, in both directions to see how far along that revitalization has come (and how much is yet to begin). Big things, if I read the same newspaper you do, are around the corner, literally and figuratively for Franklin Square. But…

The saying goes, "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted," and I believe we already have all the experience we need to finish rebuilding the Chelsea District and our entire city. Energy and engagement along with a double dollop of hope are essential but none of them, by themselves or together, is a plan and a plan is what we’re being asked to help with. 

This is our moment next Wednesday evening. Of course, bring your appetite but make sure to bring your ears and an open mind to listen and evaluate what we each share with one another as well as the Planning and Zoning Staff and make sure your thoughts are reflected in the plans that will be developed after all the pizza is gone. 

Don't hold back. We need to be relentlessly honest with one another and to speak in clear, unambiguous language that doesn't need a decoder ring or subtitles. Where yes and no are clearly understood. Perhaps most importantly we need to agree that it's okay to disagree without becoming disagreeable. 

We should collaborate to create from the very best individual suggestions and ideas even better communal ideals to drive us forward together. I love a quote from Henry Ford who made quite a name for himself by improving ideas who said,  "Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." 

Make sure to share a pizza your mind next Wednesday night.

-bill kenny