The Future Is In Our Hands

Coming home to Long Island, New York, from visiting my grandmother's house in New Jersey, my dad would sometimes swing through a neighborhood in New York City named Corona. The visit was notable for several reasons. One, we rolled up our windows and locked our doors when we drove down the street where my dad grew up. Two, we bought homemade Italian ice from the Lemon Ice King of Corona, just as my dad did as a boy growing up in this neighborhood. The contradictory feelings (fear and joy) I had within those ten minutes have stayed with me a lifetime and have, perhaps, influenced me greatly in choosing to volunteer as the chair of the sustainability commission to try to make a positive difference in this brand new city we call home.

My friend John lives in Midtown. Two Friday nights ago, there was a knock on his door. When he opened the door, he found three generations of women standing on his porch. The grandmother and mother had grown up in his house and they wanted to know if they could show their child around. John spent an hour or so giving them a tour of the house and talking about "old times." When John told me about this, I thought of my father and how he must have felt when he brought us to his childhood community. I thought of my own children and what they might find here one day in Dunwoody.

And so that brings us here, now, to the very start of Dunwoody's first Comprehensive Plan. The process, to be managed by the consulting group, Pond, that was hired by the City, was kicked off last night at the City Council meeting and will include the formation and recommendations of a steering committee; the input of citizens, businesses, the consultant team and City staff; and revisions and approval by the City Council and mayor. This document is worth perusing. This process is worth considering for your participation.

If ever we had a voice in influencing the future, it is now. In fact, the Pond consultant who did the overview last night did an excellent job of stressing the need for the involvement of a diverse set of voices in our community--not just from the established and emerging leaders in various sub-sections of our City.

As we gather and engage in this conversation, imagining the possibilities of our future as a community, I, for one, will be spending a good deal of time immersing myself deeper in a concept called "transition." Transition Towns are towns that recognize and prepare for a post-peak oil future in their planning. Here are links to:

* A Transition Towns overview
* Transition US
* Transition Georgia

It's fascinating stuff, some of which is easy and some of which requires a fundamental shift in how we view our built environment, our business and education communities, our government services, our community relationships, and our personal contributions.

As we celebrate Earth Day tomorrow, I would like to suggest that "green" is just the start of sustainability. Imagining a very different future, and preparing our City to thrive in that future, is the bigger picture. Because one day, there will be a knock upon our door. And in front of that door will be a very different future than the one my father might have imagined. And whether or not we are prepared to embrace that future will be determined this year, by this Comprehensive Plan.