Think about direction, wonder why you have it now...
No, I don't have a flipping clue what Michael Stipe meant by that. But despite that, I have been thinking a lot about direction lately. And I'm convinced that as a community, we're heading in the right one.
Tonight incorporation came home for me. The cute blond and I hosted a community share for our own subdivision. It was a small target, and we weren't sure what to expect. But we had about thirty people come out and share ideas, get answers to questions (including some tough ones), and be a community. Some had already committed, and others were still skeptical. But I think everyone left with more information than they had when they arrived, and we din't have to bring home too many cookies.
If you found this blog from the meeting tonight, or from last night's candidate forum at the Association of Realtors building, welcome. Please consider this your forum. Amid all my rants and raves, your thoughts are welcome.
Tonight was special for me, since the focus was on my home turf. It was exciting to see the community discussing issues importance to us on a micro-local level. But the real telling moment came when my 7 year old daughter came up to me and said she was having a wonderful evening just playing in the park. If you know Santa Anita Park, you know it's not a place where you usually see children playing after dark. But in that moment, there was a glimpse of something very, very right. If we can come together as a community and make this incorporation work, we will have the opportunity to roll up our sleeves and get to work, and make this a place where we don't have to worry if our kids go to the park to play, and stay a little longer than we expected. I'm an emotional guy to begin with, but this gave me real, honest-to-goodness goosebumps.
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Let's see now... there are a couple more meetings coming up that I know of, and probably more that I don't know about. October 6th will be Politics in a Smoke-Filled Room, at Tobacco Road. Two of our council candidates, Bob Stevens and Matt Powers, both retired law enforcement, will meet with anyone who wants to drop by, have a cigar, and talk about the issues. The focus will be on police protection and public safety, but I'm sure other topics will come up.
Thursday, October 14th, will be the Santa Anita Community Forum at Howe Park (in the community center). We are hoping to make this a full debate, but as of yet the opposition hasn't responded with a speaker. If you are reading this and want to speak against cityhood, let Jane know and we'll see what we can do.
I had an interview with a reporter from the Bee today. Looks like a pretty big story is coming up, but I don't know much beyond that. I'll confess that these days, I rarely have time to read the paper, even though I do get it. So if you run across the article, drop me an email and let me know?
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