So when you mention regional planning initiatives, like Agenda 360, you are often greeted with a “Here We Go Again.”  In fact, some would contend that our region is suffering from “Here We Go Again Syndrome.” 

Frankly, you’ll find a lot of skeptics in our community.  The nice part about being a skeptic is that you are constantly being proven right or pleasantly surprised.  It’s easy to be a skeptic because it’s easier to be against something than for it. 

Now, as it applies to regional planning efforts, the skepticism in our community is not altogether unwarranted.  From what I’ve been able to figure out, the skeptics are good people who are reacting to a noble legacy of predecessor attempts and promising past efforts at regional planning and reform that have, for one reason or another, not gone as intended.

Unfortunately, sometimes people become so jaded that they reject all participatory processes as a waste of time.  You’ll hear statements like “we don’t need any more meetings” or “we don’t need another plan” or “involving the public just slows things down.”

Yet, if you research these types of initiatives or ask any community that’s done it successfully – they will tell you that the process and the meetings and the planning really does matter.

The bottom line is that getting people involved and asking them to take personal responsibility for finding solutions to their own problems is, and always has been, the best answer to those problems.

For this very reason, a critical component of Agenda 360 is public input.  Enlisting the help of Citizens for Civic Renewal, we conducted over 30 community engagement sessions with a second round of public engagement still to come.  Of all these sessions, one in particular stands out to me.  It was in Over the Rhine.

Now, many of my friends and many of the Agenda 360 volunteers have heard this before, so if you have, please bear with me.  It’s just such a fantastic story and worth repeating. 

At the OTR session, I spoke at length after the meeting with a proud grandmother named Mary.  She said she had lived in OTR for most of her life and that she has seven grandchildren that lived in and around OTR too.  Mary had very specific concerns about our community and spoke passionately about them.  At the end of our talk, I gave her my card and urged her to get in touch with me if she had any additional input.

Well, a few weeks later, I received a letter from Mary.  In the letter she expressed thanks for the work we’re doing on Agenda 360.  She thanked us for coming to see her on her “own turf,” as she called it, and she went on to provide some very pointed comments on the challenges we face in Cincinnati as well as specific recommendations on how Agenda 360 could help address them. 

Now what was great about Mary’s letter was first, that she actually took the time to write it and send it to me; second, that she was taking ownership of the process by suggesting her own solutions; and third, that, despite the challenges we face, Mary said she was hopeful.  She said she had hope for our community because of the work we are doing and hope for her grandchildren specifically.  In fact, Mary referenced the following quote:

“Hope is like a bird that senses the dawn and carefully starts to sing while it is still dark.”

Now what was even better than the quote, which I found inspiring, was the way in which Mary signed her letter.

Tweet tweet.

Mary

It is my hope that the work that we’re doing in our community through efforts like Vision 2015 and Agenda 360 will have us all singing along with Mary.  Please visit www.cincinnati360.com to learn more and get involved.

I have the honor of co-chairing Agenda 360.  To explain it and why I am involved, some personal background might help.

Let me begin with a confession.  I did not go to high school in Cincinnati and I did not come to Cincinnati for a job.  I moved here from Miami, Florida and have had the good fortune to have lived in many exciting places, like Las Vegas, Nashville, San Diego, Washington, D.C., and Boston.  I was not running from the law or part of the witness relocation program.  My moves were all school or work-related.

Having lived in all of these places, I decided to try Cincinnati because I concluded, quite objectively, that it was one of the most livable places in the country.  I will refrain from plugging our amazing arts and music scene.  Nor will I spout off stats about our hospitable business climate and affordable cost-of-living.  Suffice it to say, Cincinnati has most, if not all, of the cultural amenities and business opportunities of any big city, with little of the hassle.

Even Cincinnati’s harshest critics would concede that it has the ingredients for success in a global marketplace, arguably more of those ingredients than some of the regional talent and job magnets that consistently top livability indices.  Yet something here is missing.  Without citing statistics or rankings, we all know that Cincinnati can be better.

Such intuitive insight comes, in part, from our community’s recent struggles.  Fragmentation, whether political, racial, or geographic, has resulted in a form of economic “cannibalism” in which we ended up competing with each other rather than other regions.  These struggles kept us on the sidelines for too long.

But, if you ask around, you will find that we have grown from these struggles.  Many of our civic leaders understand that our success, as a region, does not depend exclusively on the ingredients – what we have or do not have.  Our success will be determined by the recipe we follow – that is how we leverage our assets, deploy our resources, and relate to one another for our collective long-term benefit. 

This new understanding of the global economy, regional competitiveness and the need for collaboration spawned Agenda 360.  To date, nearly 2,000 residents and a diverse volunteer corps of over 400 business, nonprofit and government leaders have participated in Agenda 360, including me – a transplant and concerned citizen who simply wants to make a difference and has the good fortune of living in a place where I can make that contribution with real impact.

The goal of Agenda 360 is simple.  Cincinnati’s future cannot be left to chance.  Thus, we are creating a plan to transform Cincinnati USA into a leading metropolitan region for talent, jobs and economic opportunity for all who call our region home.  Obviously, there’s a lot more to it.  You can learn more and get involved by visiting the Agenda 360 website at www.cincinnati360.com.

I am obsessed with the television show, Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern.  Its host, who looks like Uncle Fester, travels the world in search of, you guessed it, “bizarre foods.”  He is usually guided by locals who reveal the history of the food, while shopping (or hunting) for it, preparing it, and finally eating it in the company of smiling diners.  Somehow, by the end of each segment, just about every dish seems almost palatable. 

I have never had a desire to eat a beating frog heart, a lamb’s eyeball or rotting salamander but those are some of the foods eaten on the show.  Thinking it over, I realize what distinguishes the program from culinary gross out shows like Fear Factor is its focus on local color, custom, and culture.  It tells the story behind the food by connecting with proud residents and interacting with real families, their neighbors and their friends. By building a relationship of sorts with these people, I am almost always lured in and, on occasion, find myself yielding to the most unlikely hunger pangs.

So what’s the connection to Cincinnati?  Well, I can tell you that before I moved here, I never would have found a fried patty of pressed pork shoulder and chopped oats to be appetizing.  I also probably would never have thought to top a plate of spaghetti with meat sauce, spiced with chocolate and cinnamon, onions, and shredded cheddar.  Of course, Goetta and Cincinnati-style chili are two of the first things I share with unsuspecting guests who visit me, usually when their defenses are down (i.e., after the bars close). 

I am convinced that Cincinnati’s charm and appeal lies beyond the reach of casual observers.  It isn’t necessarily found in tourist guides or glossy local magazines.  To appreciate this place we call home, you really must get out of your comfort zone, beyond the stadiums and shopping malls.  You must boldly journey into corners where leisure travelers only dare to tread.  Moreover, you must seek out locals, the residents who go about their day without fanfare.  In short, you must work to find those unique-to-Cincinnati places and people that the media spotlight misses.

Cincinnatians are overwhelmingly modest.  As a result, it is often too difficult to find the real Cincinnati, especially for new hires or recent college graduates who can become siloed within their company or lost while trying to find a niche.  Unfortunately, and despite best efforts, these individuals get frustrated and rather than continuing to search, they retreat to familiar confines or seek out new opportunities in cities that they perceive to be more welcoming than Cincinnati, where the locals find them and the unique, often bizarre, are more aggressively promoted and even celebrated.

If you read Soapbox, you are probably among the converted.  You most likely love this town or, at the very least, you have found your niche and appreciate the nuances of life here.  If so, I think it is incumbent upon you to reach out to those who are less acclimated or passionate about our Queen City.  Modesty can be attractive but, in a day and age of increasing workforce mobility and global competition, strident and vocal hometown pride must instead be our hallmark.