What do you do when your computer freezes and the little hour glass or wheel just keeps spinning?

• Do you wait patiently - minute after minute - for it to stop and unfreeze? OR
• Do you immediately force quit your programs and reboot?

Your answer may say more about you then you think.

This gets me thinking about cities, especially those smaller communities who find themselves in a talent war with the big boys.

I understand the need or desire to make current systems work. When community leaders and citizens are faced with all this uncertainty, the desire to maintain the status quo can take over. The default mode is to scale back new investments and cut critical services - some out of necessity, others out of fear. This can also cause city leaders to force new ideas, new values, and new developments into old systems and policies.

A perfect example is the proposed Landmark mixed-use project in West Lafayette, IN . The developer is battling over an “old school” parking policy to bring a much needed $50 million dollar development to the Purdue University campus area. This is a policy that forgets who cities are for: people not cars!

When we see broken systems and policies in our city structures - especially those that hinder our ability to grow - it gives us the opportunity to “raise our game” to begin a new era, a new way of doing things. As a new generation of citizens emerges and new city leaders take office some of this change will be forced. But why wait?

How can your city use the current economic uncertainty to its advantage? While other communities step back, how can you step forward? How can your city become a destination community for young professionals, next generation entrepreneurs, and civic-leaders?

It may mean hitting “reboot” on your current systems and policies and those that do, will win.

 

 

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