What’s your dream for Richmond? If we built a “Dream Your Richmond” Web site to share it, would anyone come?
I am always interested in what gives a community its fabric and texture. I am intrigued by the variety of flavors and backgrounds of the people I see around me. I love to read the obituaries in the newspaper because even though the obits are records of lives we have lost, they are also reminders of the contributions and zest those who have died gave to their communities.
I live in the far West End (aka “downtown Short Pump”), I work near the Henrico/Richmond line, and every day, as I drive to work on Interstate 64, I muse about the vast numbers of us who use 64 and 295 as our Main Streets to move around the Greater Richmond metropolitan area. I think about how the area has changed, who lives here, where they live, and how it all works.
I think that we all have an opportunity for creating a better Richmond — someplace truly wonderful.
I recently read in the Richmond Times-Dispatch a commentary piece by John Moeser titled “It’s Time for Localities to Stop Acting Like Nation States” about the need to think regionally, pull together and imagine our future.
We have plenty of individuals actively engaged in thinking about our future, what the past means to them, and assessing the current status. But what is lacking is — as John Moeser so eloquently said — a communal future vision of the Richmond area that all of us are actively engaged in creating and are excited about.
Richmond used to be geographically and civicly more intact. But Richmond geographically now means the city, Chesterfield, Henrico and Hanover counties — down to Petersburg and up to Fredericksburg. We have porous borders and incredible fluidity of movement of the population. The trouble is that the local leaders think locally — bound by who votes for them. What they need to factor in is that you and I are not living locally. We live regionally.
Most of us, if asked, have dreams and ideas of what could be, and of what we want for our children and ourselves. We can imagine more than a ballpark, better things than worries over school uniforms.
Think of the exciting ideas just waiting to be heard: the voices of our young people who want to stay here and work, the senior citizens who have time and talent to share, the business people who want to make a difference to name a few.
Richmond has a long history of civic engagement and leadership. It is what made this city a great place to do business, created our institutions of art and culture, and kept the city core intact through the dark of annexation and racial divides.
But time has moved on—and we need to change.
When I look at Richmond, I see a lively, multi-ethnic urban area with key pockets of community engagement, solid business sense and a strong sense that many good things happen all over the place — but without a coherent strategic plan of where we want to go or how to get there.
What we do need is for you — us — to put our collective heads together, agree to engage in civil discussions and create our future.
Enough of the reactionary. Be proactive. Think of yourselves as the developers of the future — and do something about it.
So I challenge you: Dream your dream of Richmond as it could be, write it down, blog it, create the Web site, send a letter to the editor, talk it with your neighbors, friends, colleagues. A little action and dreaming on all our parts can make wonderful things happen.
For my part, I’ll call John Moeser.
Edie Patterson is executive director of the Virginia Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs. She can be reached at epatterson@virginiaalliance.org.
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