Are you following our city council race? Four well-intended candidates silhouetted against a community without vision.
At the recent League of Women’s Voters forum our candidates were asked about their vision for Redding. One recited a memorable feel-good vision about what we ought to be. Another aptly noted that our vision IS what we do for citizens. Another offered a financial reality check about our debilitating pension liability.
Each candidate basically answered different questions about our community: What are we? Why are we doing it? How do we do it? It struck me that while each candidate addressed important aspects of any community vision, none could compare their ideas to a clearly established vision of Redding. Why? Because we do not seem to have a clear community vision.
Since the LWV forum I’ve asked a number of local activists and community leaders to explain our community vision, and the answers were basically the same: there really isn’t one.
Without a clear community vision each of us are left to rely upon our personal interpretation of what Redding is or ought to be. In this sense, our community seems to function more like a tapestry of good intentions. I keep thinking of a jigsaw puzzle without a background image. The consequences? Politically speaking, the lack of a clear vision means that our candidates will largely represent and defend their own vision for Redding. More importantly, the lack of a clear vision makes it more difficult to hold our leaders accountable.
Please don’t get me wrong. I love Redding. I love the fact that Redding is teaming with well-intended super-citizens hosting a myriad of interests and ideas for our community.
Without a galvanizing vision, however, our charming “go along to get along” way of things also results in unintended consequences that undermine the best of intentions. We devote countless hours hosting noble auctions, yet we seem to ignore an obvious pension crisis that eagerly encroaches on our economic viability. We spend 10 million dollars on a soccer park, then gladly ignore its maintenance. We say we want to attract new families and small businesses, yet our planning department seems intent on prohibiting development. We loudly complain about a growing vagrant population and rising crime, then expect our leaders to rely upon political work-arounds like measures D and E.
Don’t even get me started on Stillwater.
I think I’d love Redding more if we had a clear community vision. Rather than asking our candidates about their personal vision I want us to tell them what our vision is so they can explain how they are going to support and accentuate it. I want community leadership consistently focused on a clearly defined mission. I want to trust our leadership, not because they are friends or popular champions of a local cause, but because they are accountable to our mission.
So what do you think our vision is? Do you think we need one?
Lewis Chamberlain, Redding
