Hope vs. Plan

As Andy famously said to Red in The Shawshank Redemption, "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things" but as experience here on the Big Blue Marble for seven-plus decades has taught me, hope is NOT a plan. 

And, spoiler alert, let's not forget Andy had a plan he used to escape from Shawshank State prison rather than just hope. Because when you get down to it, nothing quite takes the place of having a plan when you're trying to get things done.

It's been busier, in my opinion, this summer across the city in terms of economic development initiatives and activities than in recent memory, and as pleased as that makes me (I chose to live in Norwich, as I too often remind some lifelong residents and constant carpers), to read newspaper accounts of everything from repurposing the YMCA and investing in the Uncas Leap Heritage Park, I still keep bumping into what I call the 'discouraged experts' who have in their years of living here watched a lot of projects get started with great fanfare and then slowly fade away. 

You can find reactions to nearly every news story anywhere on social media often in the form of 'on the other hand' or 'whatabout' critiques sometimes on entirely different and unrelated topics from the original news report and there's a place for constructive, informed criticism as opposed to just more putting the No in Norwich which we do so well because we've done it for so long. 

But timing is everything and in this case, even more than that.
 
There's a state of CT requirement that every municipality must have a ten-year Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD), a roadmap if you will of what the professional planners and economic development experts in concert with our local elected officials and residents exactly like us wish to accomplish to expand the Grand List and enhance the quality of life across our city. 

The POCD must also be updated every decade to reflect changes in conditions, progress made, new goals established, and new challenges to be sought out. Norwich is at the update point right now and everyone who lives and /or works here has or should have, skin in the game and ideas about what can be made better or whole or brand new. 

I love reading every installment of the POCD because it's the story of who we are and how we all came to be here, now. So many people in the same device, and we can decide how this chapter of our story goes.

A great deal of work involving a lot of time and talent has already been invested in defining and updating the POCD, which is on the Planning and Neighborhood Services page on the city's website, online and now is our opportunity to review what's been developed to more fully reflect all of our ideas. If you've always wanted to have a voice, this is the moment to do so.

Too many of us bitch about everything without ever offering suggestions on how to improve anything. Shame on us. The POCD is not a bunch of folks sitting on barstools after a few adult sparklers running their mouths but an aspirational statement of intent and purpose with goals, methods to achieve those goals, and measurement tools to gauge how successfully we are progressing towards achieving them. 

This is how we help define our future. Victims or Victors, you decide. 
-bill kenny