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| A destination for all our destinies |
...and we might realize that real service and contribution come more from the choice of a worthy destination than from limiting ourselves to engaging in what we know will work.
- Peter Block, The Answer to How is Yes
A destination for all our destinies
The destination must embrace the common destinies of all who live or will come to live here.
We require a vision for Rochester that encompasses the connections between societal and economic progress. A plan that enhances social as well as economic value. A path of development that understands that markets are defined by societal as well as economic needs.
It’s worth asking what can be done to enrich the destinies of all who now or will come to live and work in Rochester, Minnesota.
- the inaugural post on Viva City, April 30, 2013
At its most recent convening (9/6/13), the DMCC governing board received from an embryonic DMC "economic development agency" (at this time little more than a zygote composed of a board president and an interim executive director) a slide deck containing the development plan overview which is pretty much the current plan for planning the plan.
Though the entire "Statement of Public Purpose" is worth a look, the first DMC goal on a list of five reads:
Create a comprehensive strategic plan with a compelling vision that harnesses the energy and creativity of the entire community.
There was much discussion among the members of the board about this "compelling vision" that it is so very important to the endeavor. No small task to craft a vision sufficiently compelling to harness "the energy and creativity of the entire community". One suspects it will require more than the bodegas and boulevards to which we have been treated thus far. More even than the promise of jobs.
The promise of jobs by itself falls short of "compelling" as do any forecasts of economic growth. These fall short not because they are not important or necessary. On the contrary, it is because jobs and economic growth are necessary that they are not sufficiently compelling to ignite the inspiration or encompass the aspirations of a community. Work is so basic an expectation, so necessary that it rests at the base of our needs like food and shelter. As such, it does not offer a person or a community the sort of far horizon that calls us toward it with a long desire and a high heart.
Instead, in a return to where Viva City begins, "[w]e require a vision for Rochester that encompasses the connections between societal and economic progress. A plan that enhances social as well as economic value. A path of development that understands that markets are defined by societal as well as economic needs."
The economic case for the planning now being planned is pretty clear and well-rehearsed. But, to become "a compelling vision that harnesses the energy and creativity of the entire community" more is required. We require the case for the societal progress and social values that will raise our eyes from the work in front of us toward a better life that beckons from that "city on the hill" that has captured the American imagination for nearly 400 years.
We require the "compelling vision" of a destination for all our destinies. A destination that embraces the common destinies of all who live or will come to live here, harnessing their energy and creativity in service to it and the community it promises.
The economic case for the planning now being planned is pretty clear and well-rehearsed. But, to become "a compelling vision that harnesses the energy and creativity of the entire community" more is required. We require the case for the societal progress and social values that will raise our eyes from the work in front of us toward a better life that beckons from that "city on the hill" that has captured the American imagination for nearly 400 years.
We require the "compelling vision" of a destination for all our destinies. A destination that embraces the common destinies of all who live or will come to live here, harnessing their energy and creativity in service to it and the community it promises.
