Yesterday, Bill Hudson in the Pagosa Daily Post wrote about being called a “naysayer” by the mayor.
I paused to pick over Bill’s paragraph “The problems we face are not going to be solved in Town Council meetings or in PAWSD board meetings or in BOCC meetings. But we can all play our parts, in our own small ways.” It’s a logical statement and one that many of us know to be true.
Different interest groups or separate boards are not going to fix the bigger picture, “each in small little ways”. The politics of separation and division don’t get us there. The problems are awaiting community-wide leadership, vision and a plan.
As Bill notes, “the whole planet is in a struggle.”
Our Pagosa Springs community is facing an awesome array of challenges: insufficient funds which plague County government, the vacant storefronts downtown, the shifting of the commercial heart of town away from the downtown core to the uptown sprawl, the crumbling Town sewer system, the crumbling water systems, lack of jobs and lack of affordable housing. Opportunity to learn is abundant.
Its fascinating -- how will we learn to work together?
I’m trying to be a writer. I’ve enjoyed writing several stories in the Pagosa Daily Post over the past year. But, there is a book inside of me and I’ve been wanting to get it out for a couple of years now. I’ve never written a book and don’t know how.
A good friend wisely pointed me to the classic “Bird by Bird -- Some Instructions on Writing and Life” by Anne Lamott. The title of the book comes from the author’s childhood. Her father was also an author. Anne Lamott’s ten year old brother had put off for three months a major book report on birds which was now due the next morning. The brother was at the kitchen table with piles of unopened books and in tears over the enormity of the task. The father sat down, put his arm around him and said “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”
I love books like this. A story or information that I’m deeply interested in and buried along side of it some operating instructions for life.
Anne Lamott notes that if you are having trouble completing stories as a writer, “it may be that there is nothing at their center about which you care passionately. You need to put yourself at their center; you and what you believe to be true or right. The core, ethical concepts in which you most passionately believe are the language in which you are writing.”
“Telling these truths is your job. You have nothing else to tell us. But needless to say, you can’t tell them in a sentence or a paragraph; the truth doesn’t come out in bumper stickers.”
Further on in the book, Lamott continues with “We are all in danger now and have a new everything to face, and there is no point gathering an audience and demanding its attention unless you have something to say that is important and constructive.”
“The issue now is how to take care of one another. Some of us are interested in any light you might be able to shed on this, and we will pay a great deal extra if you can make us laugh about it.” (Anne Lamott in “Bird by Bird”).
Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, there lived a community of people who worked together for the shared common good. There was a common vision of the best of what their lives could be. There was a vision and leadership to provide for the next generation.
Back here on our planet, for the better part of 5000 years, human beings have been able to operate with a degree of “success” by forming opposing groups of people and destroying the others. It has always been us against them.
In classical Greece, ruling caesars were removed from office by actual assassination. Modern evolution now has us resort to “character assassination” of community leaders that we don’t like.
What if we found out that in July 2008 we could now learn how to empower our leaders? Yes, some of us still think that the solution to every problem is to “throw the bums out”. I’ve tried that approach myself. But self destruction of our own community leadership is not a solution……it is self destruction. Time to learn partnership.
Is it possible to guide and encourage and support our community leaders to build vision and unity? Kind of like shifting from “nay saying” to “way finding”.
My favorite teacher, author and speaker Caroline Myss talks about a higher level of human interaction. “Service through empowering another person changes the situation. Because at this point you have to negotiate power.”
“To be of service to another person, that says,
‘I’m going to empower you now by telling you that you have gifts that you haven’t touched and I am going to help you develop those gifts….because you were born to develop those gifts. I am going to serve you in that way. And I can see that you don’t have the courage to do that. I am going to mentor you. Because I know how to bring that out in you.’”
“Now, that is an act of service a lot of people simply can’t do. It’s too much for them. Their soul does not yet have the stamina to empower or mentor another person. They still have to do power plays because they still don’t know how to survive in the physical world.” (Caroline Myss; YouTube; “Soul Service”)
“Taking responsibility” means I know that, ultimately, in this democracy within which our small town exists, I am in charge. The buck stops here. I take responsibility.
Not that there is anything special with me. All of us are each, individually, in charge of our Pagosa Springs. Or, at least, those of us that say “I am responsible” are in charge of the future.
The old politics of “us versus them” does not work any more. Notice how since we’ve declared a “war” against terrorism that our world has become less safe? Remember the 1980’s when we declared a war against drugs? How did that work out? How about the war on poverty?
What would it take for the leaders of our community to all sit down and agree on a common vision for the future? What would it take for each of us to declare, personally, that we are each the community leader? Yes, I am talking about you.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Mind the Gap
Have you ever noticed how much time we spend listening to the endless chatter inside of our own heads? Think of a time when, just for a moment, you experienced a truly quiet moment -- a moment of peace and stillness with a sense of being at one with the universe.
When you are able to achieve a break in the endless stream of chatter (or noise) in your head and break free into the stillness, even for just a moment, you have found a powerful space called “The Gap”.
In the London Underground public transit, there is a recorded announcement to “Mind the Gap” when you step from the platform onto the train. Similarly, for a moment, let’s pay attention and explore what it means to personally “Mind the Gap” and intentionally achieve a moment of stillness.
The chatter in my head is the most loud and disruptive in reaction to two situations.
In the first situation, around a woman to whom I am attracted, I often go “nuts”. Which is another way of saying that the conversation in my head is particularly loud and all consuming. I suppose that being single only heightens the craziness.
There is the conversation in my head about wanting connection with this attractive person. There is the conversation about how I must do something to accomplish that. Then there is the old recording about how I am not good enough to connect with that person. There are old triggers about my mom from when I was an infant. There is a separate conversation about how I must maintain my center and not get all worked up about this attractive person. All these conversations are occurring at about the same time and, maybe, I might even be trying to engage in a conversation with this person and trying to be present and truly be in the moment with that person.
In other words the noisy chatter in my head means that, essentially, I am a great big mess inside.
The second situation when the chatter in my head is most loud and disruptive is around the topic of money.
I am an entrepreneur. Previously, my business activities have centered around real estate investment and construction remodeling activities which is to say that, right now, my past business experience is of no use for making money in Pagosa Springs. So, I am blessed to wake up every morning with the question “what should I do today”. Some mornings that question looks like a huge blessing and an opportunity. Some mornings that question looks more like panic. As in “OMG! how am I going to generate some income now”.
So, women that I am attracted to and my cash flow situation are the two topics that lead to the loudest and most disruptive conversations in my head. Then there is my interior dialogue about specific family members. And that person in Town with whom I disagree. And that other person who won’t ever talk to me again. And that old girlfriend who is really a newly, old girlfriend. And my desire to get into physical shape again like I used to twenty years ago. And, and, and…..
The question is this -- “Am I my thoughts?”
I have been blessed with many brief and irregular moments where I can experience a gap between my thoughts. Every once in a while I am able to achieve a moment of peace, stillness and quiet even to the point where the conversation in my head stops. If only for a moment.
So, how do we get beyond the noisy chatter in our own heads?
The ancient Toltecs in Mexico referred to the "mitote" as the dream of reality that we make up for ourselves.
In the ancient Hindu religious tradition, the "maya" is the world of illusion which our mind fantasizes is the actual reality occurring around us.
We are not our bodies and we are not our minds. We are the gap in between the thoughts.
Although Rene Descartes assured us is the 1600’s that “I think, therefore I am”, this father of modern western logic actually misleads. The truth is that “I am” -- period. And, in addition, most of the time I can think. It is possible to exist without thinking; even if only for moments at a time.
Don Miguel Ruiz, who is best known as the author of The Four Agreements, teaches that “earthly life is hell. Hell is the combined dream that all humans share. Both individual and collective dreams are actually nightmares. We all contribute to the dream that is characterized by fear. An ultimate healing would mean to waken from the dream and to thereby be liberated from hell.” (Beyond Fear, Ruiz)
All great barstool banter, eh? But let’s see if we can bring it back home and empower ourselves today.
Consider that who you and I are is the gap in between the thinking. We are not the thoughts.
In that momentary experience of the “the gap” we find our true connection to the divine. In that momentary experience of “no thought” there is no “I” or “me”. There is only “everything” and “unity”; the oneness or the divine that some refer to as God.
In those moments of experiencing “the gap” we transcend the myth of separation and division. The myth that I am separate from you does not prove valid within the clear experience of "I am the divine". We all are of the one, of the divine.
Are we different and separate? Do Christians live in a separate “boat” (think mothership earth) from Muslims? Is the fate of the planet of the Jews any different from the fate of the planet of the Muslims?
Wow, man! Let’s keep bringing it back home.
Is the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District a separate group of people from the businesspeople of downtown Pagosa Springs? Are the interests of the Town government different than the interests of the County government? Will the businesspeople of downtown succeed even if the water district does not?
Are each of us separate, unique individuals whose survival is in direct competition with the desire for survival by other people and groups of people around us?
Will taking sides by one group against another group lead to the success and satisfaction of at least one of the groups?
“Our entire network of fearful perceptions, all stemming from that first false belief in our separation from God and one another, is called the ego. The word ego is used differently here than the way in which it is often used in modern psychology. It is being used as the ancient Greeks used it -- as the notion of a small, separated self.” (Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love)
Right, wrong, shame, blame, and guilt all belong to the land of the ego. A strategic Pagosa partnership of the various diverse people of our community can only be formed if we are willing to be beginners at a new type of dialogue based on “building a world that works for everyone with nothing or no one left out”.
Sure that’s an ideal. But are we going to solve our multi-layered Town economic problems with the age-old approach of I am right and you are wrong? I don’t think so.
The key to our economic survival and growth in Pagosa is to learn and practice a new type of conversation between people here. Increased sales tax, new tourism, and sufficient water for future growth are not “separate” topics to be dealt with by “separate” groups who fight to “win” against each other. The oars, the mast, the hull and the galley of the ship must all work together if the boat is going to sail in the direction that we all want it to go.
The old politics of divisiveness haven’t worked too well in Pagosa. Anyone in favor of more divisiveness and further inability to grow our Town wisely?
The only way we are going to re-build our Town after the economic implosion is if we can work together as a unified team: the Town, the County, the water district, the slow-growth folk, the developers and the second home owners. The only way to come together is to begin learning how to have a new conversation different from the “right, wrong, shame, blame and guilt” types of conversations from the past. We need to begin learning to work together as a team and communicating effectively to build the future rather than lament the past.
To begin getting beyond the automatic human tendency for “right, wrong, shame, blame and guilt” we must begin to “mind to gap” and observe that, actually, we are not our thoughts. Therefore we do not need to communicate from the knee-jerk, divisive patterns of old.
Just for fun, here is the 5th Verse of the Tao (via Dr. Wayne Dyer)
from Lao-Tzu in 500 B.C. ancient China.
Heaven and earth are impartial;
they see the 10,000 things as straw dogs.
The sage is not sentimental;
he treats all his people as straw dogs.
The sage is like heaven and earth;
To him none are especially dear,
nor is there anyone he disfavors.
He gives and gives, without condition,
offering his treasures to everyone.
Between heaven and earth
is a space like a bellows;
empty and inexhaustible,
the more it is used, the more it produces.
Hold on to the center.
Man was made to sit quietly and find
the truth within.
When you are able to achieve a break in the endless stream of chatter (or noise) in your head and break free into the stillness, even for just a moment, you have found a powerful space called “The Gap”.
In the London Underground public transit, there is a recorded announcement to “Mind the Gap” when you step from the platform onto the train. Similarly, for a moment, let’s pay attention and explore what it means to personally “Mind the Gap” and intentionally achieve a moment of stillness.
The chatter in my head is the most loud and disruptive in reaction to two situations.
In the first situation, around a woman to whom I am attracted, I often go “nuts”. Which is another way of saying that the conversation in my head is particularly loud and all consuming. I suppose that being single only heightens the craziness.
There is the conversation in my head about wanting connection with this attractive person. There is the conversation about how I must do something to accomplish that. Then there is the old recording about how I am not good enough to connect with that person. There are old triggers about my mom from when I was an infant. There is a separate conversation about how I must maintain my center and not get all worked up about this attractive person. All these conversations are occurring at about the same time and, maybe, I might even be trying to engage in a conversation with this person and trying to be present and truly be in the moment with that person.
In other words the noisy chatter in my head means that, essentially, I am a great big mess inside.
The second situation when the chatter in my head is most loud and disruptive is around the topic of money.
I am an entrepreneur. Previously, my business activities have centered around real estate investment and construction remodeling activities which is to say that, right now, my past business experience is of no use for making money in Pagosa Springs. So, I am blessed to wake up every morning with the question “what should I do today”. Some mornings that question looks like a huge blessing and an opportunity. Some mornings that question looks more like panic. As in “OMG! how am I going to generate some income now”.
So, women that I am attracted to and my cash flow situation are the two topics that lead to the loudest and most disruptive conversations in my head. Then there is my interior dialogue about specific family members. And that person in Town with whom I disagree. And that other person who won’t ever talk to me again. And that old girlfriend who is really a newly, old girlfriend. And my desire to get into physical shape again like I used to twenty years ago. And, and, and…..
The question is this -- “Am I my thoughts?”
I have been blessed with many brief and irregular moments where I can experience a gap between my thoughts. Every once in a while I am able to achieve a moment of peace, stillness and quiet even to the point where the conversation in my head stops. If only for a moment.
So, how do we get beyond the noisy chatter in our own heads?
The ancient Toltecs in Mexico referred to the "mitote" as the dream of reality that we make up for ourselves.
In the ancient Hindu religious tradition, the "maya" is the world of illusion which our mind fantasizes is the actual reality occurring around us.
We are not our bodies and we are not our minds. We are the gap in between the thoughts.
Although Rene Descartes assured us is the 1600’s that “I think, therefore I am”, this father of modern western logic actually misleads. The truth is that “I am” -- period. And, in addition, most of the time I can think. It is possible to exist without thinking; even if only for moments at a time.
Don Miguel Ruiz, who is best known as the author of The Four Agreements, teaches that “earthly life is hell. Hell is the combined dream that all humans share. Both individual and collective dreams are actually nightmares. We all contribute to the dream that is characterized by fear. An ultimate healing would mean to waken from the dream and to thereby be liberated from hell.” (Beyond Fear, Ruiz)
All great barstool banter, eh? But let’s see if we can bring it back home and empower ourselves today.
Consider that who you and I are is the gap in between the thinking. We are not the thoughts.
In that momentary experience of the “the gap” we find our true connection to the divine. In that momentary experience of “no thought” there is no “I” or “me”. There is only “everything” and “unity”; the oneness or the divine that some refer to as God.
In those moments of experiencing “the gap” we transcend the myth of separation and division. The myth that I am separate from you does not prove valid within the clear experience of "I am the divine". We all are of the one, of the divine.
Are we different and separate? Do Christians live in a separate “boat” (think mothership earth) from Muslims? Is the fate of the planet of the Jews any different from the fate of the planet of the Muslims?
Wow, man! Let’s keep bringing it back home.
Is the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District a separate group of people from the businesspeople of downtown Pagosa Springs? Are the interests of the Town government different than the interests of the County government? Will the businesspeople of downtown succeed even if the water district does not?
Are each of us separate, unique individuals whose survival is in direct competition with the desire for survival by other people and groups of people around us?
Will taking sides by one group against another group lead to the success and satisfaction of at least one of the groups?
“Our entire network of fearful perceptions, all stemming from that first false belief in our separation from God and one another, is called the ego. The word ego is used differently here than the way in which it is often used in modern psychology. It is being used as the ancient Greeks used it -- as the notion of a small, separated self.” (Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love)
Right, wrong, shame, blame, and guilt all belong to the land of the ego. A strategic Pagosa partnership of the various diverse people of our community can only be formed if we are willing to be beginners at a new type of dialogue based on “building a world that works for everyone with nothing or no one left out”.
Sure that’s an ideal. But are we going to solve our multi-layered Town economic problems with the age-old approach of I am right and you are wrong? I don’t think so.
The key to our economic survival and growth in Pagosa is to learn and practice a new type of conversation between people here. Increased sales tax, new tourism, and sufficient water for future growth are not “separate” topics to be dealt with by “separate” groups who fight to “win” against each other. The oars, the mast, the hull and the galley of the ship must all work together if the boat is going to sail in the direction that we all want it to go.
The old politics of divisiveness haven’t worked too well in Pagosa. Anyone in favor of more divisiveness and further inability to grow our Town wisely?
The only way we are going to re-build our Town after the economic implosion is if we can work together as a unified team: the Town, the County, the water district, the slow-growth folk, the developers and the second home owners. The only way to come together is to begin learning how to have a new conversation different from the “right, wrong, shame, blame and guilt” types of conversations from the past. We need to begin learning to work together as a team and communicating effectively to build the future rather than lament the past.
To begin getting beyond the automatic human tendency for “right, wrong, shame, blame and guilt” we must begin to “mind to gap” and observe that, actually, we are not our thoughts. Therefore we do not need to communicate from the knee-jerk, divisive patterns of old.
Just for fun, here is the 5th Verse of the Tao (via Dr. Wayne Dyer)
from Lao-Tzu in 500 B.C. ancient China.
Heaven and earth are impartial;
they see the 10,000 things as straw dogs.
The sage is not sentimental;
he treats all his people as straw dogs.
The sage is like heaven and earth;
To him none are especially dear,
nor is there anyone he disfavors.
He gives and gives, without condition,
offering his treasures to everyone.
Between heaven and earth
is a space like a bellows;
empty and inexhaustible,
the more it is used, the more it produces.
Hold on to the center.
Man was made to sit quietly and find
the truth within.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
A Downtown Strategic Partnership
Pagosa Springs has entered economic winter. But, eventually spring will come and the flowers will bloom again.
Time to prepare. What do we want for commercial downtown and how do we get there?
Our Town has changed in the past twelve months. More people attend Town Council meetings. More people are attending County Commissioner meetings. People are showing up at the Water District meetings. Business owners and other stakeholders meet to strategize reviving the local economy. Contractors and developers and land owners meet to strategize an effective partnership with the Town to build for the future. The Town Planning Commission has sat down with the County Planning Commission. The Town leaders talk to the County leaders.
Meanwhile, our downtown commercial core is shrinking, visibly. The number of storefront vacancies will continue to grow. Little new commercial investment can be found. School enrollment is shrinking. People will continue to leave town.
The Downtown Master Plan was just adopted by the Town Council on January 2nd. That document is, to date, the best statement of what we agree that we want for our downtown. The question of “how do we get there” has yet to be worked out.
“Successful implementation of the Downtown Master Plan requires a coordinated effort between public and private entities.” (Chapter 5, Pagosa Springs DMP) We are beginning to see the early stages of the “political quilt weaving” downtown -- a formation of the team --- which will eventually grow downtown towards the vision of the Downtown Master Plan. In a patchwork quilt, scrap pieces are woven together to form a unified whole greater than the sum of its parts.
First and foremost is our growing education of how to work together.
This year, the Town of Pagosa Springs has hosted two economic summits including representatives from: Town, County, water districts, electric association, business owners, media, economic development, open space, etc. These two meetings, with more to come, represent the weaving of a quilt of new possibility. Up until now, the business of our “one town, small county” has occurred in discreet, separate and divided little fiefdoms. Water systems managed here. Town land use planning managed over there. Business planning was done behind that door and marketing for the Town done over behind that door.
By necessity -- economic necessity -- the doors are being opened and the media, active citizenry and top elected officials are beginning to cross-pollinate one “room” to the next. Working together for a common vision requires yet more practice. But the issues of economy, sustainability and viability of our “one town, small county” demand it. Either we come together as a team or downtown will continue to crumble.
On the Town website we can find a document entitled “Community Survey Research Findings” from year 2004 compiled by consultant RRC. Go to the website and check it out for yourself. In summary, the 2004 Survey finds that the Town people want to: 1) preserve their small town character and ambience, 2) preserve its pristine natural environment, and 3) carefully address the very real challenges of growth. The people want to keep downtown for small, independent businesses and direct the chains and franchises outside of the downtown.
The results of that survey later expanded into the collective vision articulated in the Downtown Master Plan:
“In 2020, Downtown Pagosa Springs will become the Center of Town by developing a lively mix of activities that engage people of all generations, income levels and cultural diversity.”
“Visitors and residents alike join together to enjoy activities and features of the Downtown. It remains a distinctly special place with breathtaking views to mountains and valleys beyond, and has an exciting sense of arrival.” (DMP Chapter 3)
We want vibrant, small-town businesses downtown. We want a sense of place for all of us “one town, small county” residents to enjoy. We want visitors to arrive and bring sales tax dollars. And we want them to have a place to arrive to and an experience to return to again and again.
So, we know what we want. Next topic -- how to get there.
We don’t have to look far to find a commercial downtown that does function successfully. The Downtown Durango Partnership “is an umbrella organization and acts as one voice for the Central Business District” to “achieve ongoing vitality for Durango’s historic downtown”. (www.downtowndurango.org) The Downtown Durango Partnership (DDP) represents all the stakeholders including the business-owners, City, County, local economic development agency, residents and special interests like the library, museum and public facilities.
Acting in tandem, Durango Mountain Resort was highlighted in two different issues of Ski Magazine last year as one of the top destinations in the country.
In the last several years, the Durango downtown has become a successful, business-minded operation. The public and the private players have formed a team to draw businesses into the downtown and to treat the entire downtown as a great business enterprise.
The downtown of Durango was once suffering from the huge economic draw of the big-box Walmart and Home Depot to the south of Town. Coincidentally, Pagosa Springs today suffers from the huge economic draw of those very same big boxes and, in addition, from the past lack of effective of Pagosa Springs marketing and from our current lack of a “place to arrive to” downtown.
According to Downtown Idea Exchange, we should ask the question: “Does downtown have a workable business plan? Downtown is as much a business as any it is home to, and so must plan like one.” Some downtowns employ a “Strategic Business Plan”. “As its name implies, the plan is focused on planning for the economic future of downtown, not the district’s overall future.”
Pagosa Springs has already begun growing the business mentality that is crucial for our next phase of growth. The Town Council “commissioned a study to explore the feasibility of an organizational entity that would focus it efforts on downtown revitalization.” (Downtown Development Authority, Feasibility Study for Pagosa Springs, January 2007, RRC Associates) “The adoption of the ‘big box’ ordinance in March 2006 prompted Town Council to consider the impacts that development of large format retailers in other areas of Town would have on the downtown.”
“One goal of the study was to explore the various organizational and legal structures that might include: taxation districts to fund capital improvements with that district; support and promotion for businesses within those districts; special event coordination and promotion; and general ‘branding’ and positioning for Pagosa Springs’ downtown.”
“Support for formation of an entity would require the involvement of downtown business and property owners in concert with the Town.”
According to the Feasibility Study, in January 2007, of the 30% that responded to a survey mailed out to 104 property owners and 84 downtown businesses:
45% would likely vote for establishing a special business district
30% would likely vote against establishing a special business district
and 25% didn’t know.
Since that time, the economy and the short-term business outlook for downtown has deteriorated rapidly. One wonders if a well-articulated and well-organized effort at forming a Downtown Development Authority, now, among downtown business owners and property owners might not be well-received.
The message has to be that all of us who own land, own businesses, live, or work in downtown Pagosa Springs and, also, Town Hall have a vested stake in the economic future of the downtown. Actually, all of the people of our “one town, small county” who depend on business income, jobs, sales tax revenue or diverse lifestyle choices, have a financial stake in the success of the downtown commercial core. The degree to which we build a “must see”, pedestrian-oriented, downtown with a true sense of place for resident and visitor alike -- will permanently define the psychological, social and financial success of our greater “one town, small county”.
Especially if you own or operate a business downtown then the success or failure of your current financial investment is dependent upon the ability of our community of downtown businesses and land owners to join together to add value to their existing investments. The value to be added here is to grow new businesses and jobs, to architecturally create a sense of place downtown and to attract a growing tourist base for their sales-taxable dollars.
In addition, a thriving community must attract future full-time members. At the moment, the full-time membership of our “one town, small county” is shrinking, as are the number of businesses, jobs, and potential sales-tax dollars.
Downtown businesses and related stakeholders will now continue weaving a unified game plan or else crumble. It is time to organize our Business Improvement District, Downtown Development Authority and Downtown Strategic Business Plan. This can all be done under the single community quilt of a “Downtown Pagosa Strategic Partnership“.
The time is at hand to run our “one town, small county” as the large business that it is -- to create the thriving economy fundamental to a sustainable lifestyle here.
No man is an island and no business will prosper alone. The entirety of downtown will become an economic and social success or the entirety will fail.
The time has come for all of the players of our “one town, small county” to unite for the business of growing business downtown. In the spring, the flowers will bloom again.
Time to prepare. What do we want for commercial downtown and how do we get there?
Our Town has changed in the past twelve months. More people attend Town Council meetings. More people are attending County Commissioner meetings. People are showing up at the Water District meetings. Business owners and other stakeholders meet to strategize reviving the local economy. Contractors and developers and land owners meet to strategize an effective partnership with the Town to build for the future. The Town Planning Commission has sat down with the County Planning Commission. The Town leaders talk to the County leaders.
Meanwhile, our downtown commercial core is shrinking, visibly. The number of storefront vacancies will continue to grow. Little new commercial investment can be found. School enrollment is shrinking. People will continue to leave town.
The Downtown Master Plan was just adopted by the Town Council on January 2nd. That document is, to date, the best statement of what we agree that we want for our downtown. The question of “how do we get there” has yet to be worked out.
“Successful implementation of the Downtown Master Plan requires a coordinated effort between public and private entities.” (Chapter 5, Pagosa Springs DMP) We are beginning to see the early stages of the “political quilt weaving” downtown -- a formation of the team --- which will eventually grow downtown towards the vision of the Downtown Master Plan. In a patchwork quilt, scrap pieces are woven together to form a unified whole greater than the sum of its parts.
First and foremost is our growing education of how to work together.
This year, the Town of Pagosa Springs has hosted two economic summits including representatives from: Town, County, water districts, electric association, business owners, media, economic development, open space, etc. These two meetings, with more to come, represent the weaving of a quilt of new possibility. Up until now, the business of our “one town, small county” has occurred in discreet, separate and divided little fiefdoms. Water systems managed here. Town land use planning managed over there. Business planning was done behind that door and marketing for the Town done over behind that door.
By necessity -- economic necessity -- the doors are being opened and the media, active citizenry and top elected officials are beginning to cross-pollinate one “room” to the next. Working together for a common vision requires yet more practice. But the issues of economy, sustainability and viability of our “one town, small county” demand it. Either we come together as a team or downtown will continue to crumble.
On the Town website we can find a document entitled “Community Survey Research Findings” from year 2004 compiled by consultant RRC. Go to the website and check it out for yourself. In summary, the 2004 Survey finds that the Town people want to: 1) preserve their small town character and ambience, 2) preserve its pristine natural environment, and 3) carefully address the very real challenges of growth. The people want to keep downtown for small, independent businesses and direct the chains and franchises outside of the downtown.
The results of that survey later expanded into the collective vision articulated in the Downtown Master Plan:
“In 2020, Downtown Pagosa Springs will become the Center of Town by developing a lively mix of activities that engage people of all generations, income levels and cultural diversity.”
“Visitors and residents alike join together to enjoy activities and features of the Downtown. It remains a distinctly special place with breathtaking views to mountains and valleys beyond, and has an exciting sense of arrival.” (DMP Chapter 3)
We want vibrant, small-town businesses downtown. We want a sense of place for all of us “one town, small county” residents to enjoy. We want visitors to arrive and bring sales tax dollars. And we want them to have a place to arrive to and an experience to return to again and again.
So, we know what we want. Next topic -- how to get there.
We don’t have to look far to find a commercial downtown that does function successfully. The Downtown Durango Partnership “is an umbrella organization and acts as one voice for the Central Business District” to “achieve ongoing vitality for Durango’s historic downtown”. (www.downtowndurango.org) The Downtown Durango Partnership (DDP) represents all the stakeholders including the business-owners, City, County, local economic development agency, residents and special interests like the library, museum and public facilities.
Acting in tandem, Durango Mountain Resort was highlighted in two different issues of Ski Magazine last year as one of the top destinations in the country.
In the last several years, the Durango downtown has become a successful, business-minded operation. The public and the private players have formed a team to draw businesses into the downtown and to treat the entire downtown as a great business enterprise.
The downtown of Durango was once suffering from the huge economic draw of the big-box Walmart and Home Depot to the south of Town. Coincidentally, Pagosa Springs today suffers from the huge economic draw of those very same big boxes and, in addition, from the past lack of effective of Pagosa Springs marketing and from our current lack of a “place to arrive to” downtown.
According to Downtown Idea Exchange, we should ask the question: “Does downtown have a workable business plan? Downtown is as much a business as any it is home to, and so must plan like one.” Some downtowns employ a “Strategic Business Plan”. “As its name implies, the plan is focused on planning for the economic future of downtown, not the district’s overall future.”
Pagosa Springs has already begun growing the business mentality that is crucial for our next phase of growth. The Town Council “commissioned a study to explore the feasibility of an organizational entity that would focus it efforts on downtown revitalization.” (Downtown Development Authority, Feasibility Study for Pagosa Springs, January 2007, RRC Associates) “The adoption of the ‘big box’ ordinance in March 2006 prompted Town Council to consider the impacts that development of large format retailers in other areas of Town would have on the downtown.”
“One goal of the study was to explore the various organizational and legal structures that might include: taxation districts to fund capital improvements with that district; support and promotion for businesses within those districts; special event coordination and promotion; and general ‘branding’ and positioning for Pagosa Springs’ downtown.”
“Support for formation of an entity would require the involvement of downtown business and property owners in concert with the Town.”
According to the Feasibility Study, in January 2007, of the 30% that responded to a survey mailed out to 104 property owners and 84 downtown businesses:
45% would likely vote for establishing a special business district
30% would likely vote against establishing a special business district
and 25% didn’t know.
Since that time, the economy and the short-term business outlook for downtown has deteriorated rapidly. One wonders if a well-articulated and well-organized effort at forming a Downtown Development Authority, now, among downtown business owners and property owners might not be well-received.
The message has to be that all of us who own land, own businesses, live, or work in downtown Pagosa Springs and, also, Town Hall have a vested stake in the economic future of the downtown. Actually, all of the people of our “one town, small county” who depend on business income, jobs, sales tax revenue or diverse lifestyle choices, have a financial stake in the success of the downtown commercial core. The degree to which we build a “must see”, pedestrian-oriented, downtown with a true sense of place for resident and visitor alike -- will permanently define the psychological, social and financial success of our greater “one town, small county”.
Especially if you own or operate a business downtown then the success or failure of your current financial investment is dependent upon the ability of our community of downtown businesses and land owners to join together to add value to their existing investments. The value to be added here is to grow new businesses and jobs, to architecturally create a sense of place downtown and to attract a growing tourist base for their sales-taxable dollars.
In addition, a thriving community must attract future full-time members. At the moment, the full-time membership of our “one town, small county” is shrinking, as are the number of businesses, jobs, and potential sales-tax dollars.
Downtown businesses and related stakeholders will now continue weaving a unified game plan or else crumble. It is time to organize our Business Improvement District, Downtown Development Authority and Downtown Strategic Business Plan. This can all be done under the single community quilt of a “Downtown Pagosa Strategic Partnership“.
The time is at hand to run our “one town, small county” as the large business that it is -- to create the thriving economy fundamental to a sustainable lifestyle here.
No man is an island and no business will prosper alone. The entirety of downtown will become an economic and social success or the entirety will fail.
The time has come for all of the players of our “one town, small county” to unite for the business of growing business downtown. In the spring, the flowers will bloom again.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
County Home Rule petition is circulating now
The County Home Rule Study Committee is now circulating a petition to place Home Rule on the November ballot.
A "yes" vote in November would mean that we, the citizens of the County, would form an eleven member Charter-writing Commission and hold public meetings to begin writing a new County Charter. We would see if we could write a County Charter that would serve us better than the boilerplate rules set forth in the State Constitution.
In June or July 2009, we would get to vote again. Either we would adopt the new charter or we would say "no" we do not like the way the charter is written.
The County Home Rule process is, essentially, an agreement to take a blank piece of paper and see if we, the people, can write a County Charter that would organize County government more effectively than the way the County is run today.
Anyone who tells you that "I don't like Home Rule because......." is assuming that the charter would be written in a particular way when in fact it could be written many different ways. I've heard many people tell me that they don't like Home Rule because "it would give the County Commissioners too much power".
Where did that information come from? If we wanted to, we could have a separate administrative council manage the County and the Board of County Commissioners would only set policy. Not that I recommend that. Probably, a five or seven member Board of County Commissioners would be a good idea for consideration by the Charter-writing Commission.
The point is that County Home Rule is a process where we get a chance to see if the people can come together and write and adopt a new County Home Rule Charter. County Home Rule is a civic process of coming together and discussing how our County should be organized going into the future.
A new County Home Rule charter could give us better County management or worse depending upon how we write the charter. It is up to us to come together and work together to create the new charter.
Everyone agrees that the current County structure seems to not work particularly well. Are we willing to commit ourselves to trying to come together to form a new charter? Remember....nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Please find us to sign the County Home Rule ballot petition to place this question on the November ballot:
"Shall a Home Rule Charter Commission be elected for the purpose of developing a proposed Home Rule charter for Archuleta County, Colorado?"
In November, you would also be able to vote for who sits on that temporary eleven-member County Home Rule Charter-writing Commission.
To sign a petition, call: Teddy Herzog 731-2587, Hank and Norma Busleep 731-3789, and Bev Warburton 731-0343.
A "yes" vote in November would mean that we, the citizens of the County, would form an eleven member Charter-writing Commission and hold public meetings to begin writing a new County Charter. We would see if we could write a County Charter that would serve us better than the boilerplate rules set forth in the State Constitution.
In June or July 2009, we would get to vote again. Either we would adopt the new charter or we would say "no" we do not like the way the charter is written.
The County Home Rule process is, essentially, an agreement to take a blank piece of paper and see if we, the people, can write a County Charter that would organize County government more effectively than the way the County is run today.
Anyone who tells you that "I don't like Home Rule because......." is assuming that the charter would be written in a particular way when in fact it could be written many different ways. I've heard many people tell me that they don't like Home Rule because "it would give the County Commissioners too much power".
Where did that information come from? If we wanted to, we could have a separate administrative council manage the County and the Board of County Commissioners would only set policy. Not that I recommend that. Probably, a five or seven member Board of County Commissioners would be a good idea for consideration by the Charter-writing Commission.
The point is that County Home Rule is a process where we get a chance to see if the people can come together and write and adopt a new County Home Rule Charter. County Home Rule is a civic process of coming together and discussing how our County should be organized going into the future.
A new County Home Rule charter could give us better County management or worse depending upon how we write the charter. It is up to us to come together and work together to create the new charter.
Everyone agrees that the current County structure seems to not work particularly well. Are we willing to commit ourselves to trying to come together to form a new charter? Remember....nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Please find us to sign the County Home Rule ballot petition to place this question on the November ballot:
"Shall a Home Rule Charter Commission be elected for the purpose of developing a proposed Home Rule charter for Archuleta County, Colorado?"
In November, you would also be able to vote for who sits on that temporary eleven-member County Home Rule Charter-writing Commission.
To sign a petition, call: Teddy Herzog 731-2587, Hank and Norma Busleep 731-3789, and Bev Warburton 731-0343.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
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