©2011 Galesburg Broadcasting Co.
| Visioning Session: Bring Back Neighborhood Pride |
In some cases, neighborhoods just aren't what they used to be.
That was part of a discussion during Thursday night's Galesburg Community Visioning Session. The final one in the series as the city re-charts its economic development course focused in part on how the panelists felt there seemed to be a lot of people who either feel negative about the city, or who just feel complacent, and may not really much care about what's good, or bad, about the city.
So how do you improve community pride? Ranee Collura says maybe actually being a neighbor would help. "I don't see people getting out any more and really talking and visiting with their neighbors," Collura said. "I think we've become disconnected and I think that has something to do with it."
But community pride goes beyond more than being neighborly, according to Orpheum Theatre President Kate Francis. Francis and others suggested that pride in ownership is important, too, and if that means giving people incentives to do something good with their properties, then so be it. "We have a facade program for the downtown area, which I hope to see in fruition very soon," Francis said. "But would it be possible to do something like that for the residential area? It's a big risk to give somebody some money and say 'Fix up your home' and then hope that they're going to take care of it, and it's not a sinking proposition."
A number of the ideas generated at last night's session ranged from that, to doing other things to beautify neighborhoods, to creating a sports and recreation complex, and even beginning to embrace all the ethnicities and cultures in the city.
To download audio from Thursday night's visioning session, CLICK HERE.
(Approximately 75 people attended Thursday night's Galesburg Community Visioning Assembly. WGIL News Story and Photo by Will Stevenson.) |
|
| 04 10 09 by Newsroom |
Click here for the WGIL News Archive
Click here for national news
The following provision applies to all visitors (which shall include persons and representatives of legal entities, whether such representatives are persons or digital engines of a kind that crawls, indexes, scrapes, copies, stores or transmits digital content). By accessing this Web site or digital service, you specifically acknowledge and agree that: (i) Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium; (ii) No Associated Press materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and non-commercial use; (iii) The Associated Press will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing; (iv) The Associated Press is an intended third party beneficiary of these terms and conditions and it may exercise all rights and remedies available to it; and (v) The Associated Press reserves the right to audit possible unauthorized commercial use of AP materials or any portion thereof at any time.
