Civic Revolutionaries

Civic Revolutionaries

One of the major themes throughout this book is the need for more collaboration, coalitions, and alliances at the regional level dealing with major political, economic, social, and environmental problems our metropolitan regions face. One example the book provides for increasing collaboration between regional actors is to create a dialogue to establish “mutual understanding through a process that suspends judgment, reveals assumptions on both sides, and includes diverse perspectives..” A dialogue replaces the inefficient process of debate with a collaborative one that builds trusts and helps to reconcile difference between seemingly competing interests. In San Diego for example, in the 1980’s civic leaders had UCSD set up an organization to spell out all the regions problems and bring the community together to help work at solving the region’s challenges. The San Diego dialogue was noted for helping to build connections that broke down borders between different groups and the shift in focus from individual grievances to community solutions.

One of the problems today is that America’s distrust for their leaders because they view them as ineffectual and removed. There is a need in America to democratize the public planning process and decision-making process. Many times projects, developments, and policy decisions are made without significant public input and participation. This often leads to more problems down the road by not effectively providing for what a community ultimately needs. The Citizens League of the Minneapolis-St. Paul region provides an example of a civic organization that actively involves its citizens to address specific regional and local issues, which has helped create one of the most effective forms of regional government. Through citizen study committees, the League has created a vehicle for local residents to analyze and influence public policies.

Civic Revolutionaries describes something called the Vital Cycle, in which a robust economy creates the conditions for a strong society and a strong society supports a strong economy. The vital cycle is something that can be achieved and maintained by strengthening corporate responsibility to place, finding productive relationships between economy, society, and environment, and by connecting local and regional interests. The better the quality of life is for citizens the more productive to the economy and society they will be. The more productive citizens are the better business and the economy does. Essentially these two, economy and society, create a cycle where one helps the other do better continuously. Business leaders in Chicago have stepped forward to create a regional agenda, Chicago Metropolis 2020, to show their commitment and responsibility to the region. They are promoting Smart Growth to make sure that the Chicago regions remain attractive and thus competitive.

Integrating the three E’s of development (economic, environmental, and social equity) is a major goal the regions need to strive towards to improve