May the new year bring us all love and joy. This includes the place we call home Cornelius ->Washington County -> Portland Metro-> Oregon, and the U.S.A. as a whole. With the recession behind us ... we face the challenge of what to make of the aftermath ahead of us. Where should the focus be? Where do we turn? What should we do to make 2010 the best year of our lives yet?
I think all US communities need to focus on their own JOBS and SUSTAINABILITY above all else in 2010. The age of the 'Field of Dreams' - If you build it they will come - is over... We grew up too fast too quickly... In Real Estate, Hedged Huge Bests, settings up our entire financial network up for near disaster. Building more homes than the sum of us can really afford to live in. From what I understand now...something similiar happened when the Dot Com bubble burst early on this past decade...people got unrealistic about evaluations of wealth then too...real money flowing around to those not deserving of it.
Now I was just graduating high school in the year 2000, age 17-18. So the way I see the past decade was that it was my FIRST as an Adult. And boy was there a lot to learn from. From terrorist attacks in 2001 in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC followed by two Wars in Iraq and Afghanstan and finishing with the election of the US's First Black President & the unfolding of the Great Recession...housing bubble, etc. There's much to tell my future kids about.
At my age I was touched in different ways, it was my 'digital decade' seeing Apple become a powerful force in Tech. Gone the days of Music & Movie (VHS) cassettes and starting the decline of CDs, enter the MP3's, DVDs, the iPod, and later the iPhone. The Internet entered the scene really flexing its muscles & quite literally CHANGED OUR WORLD as we see it & continues to do so. Amazon.com, Netflix.com, eBay.com, and many others OWE their fortunes to this 'Internet'. GPS was given to the masses...we can now know where exactly we are on this planet of ours -- we can also get where we're going with ease. Science & Technology really took a GIGANTIC Leap forward for our advancement as human beings & intelligent stewards of this earth.
I'm happy to be play my individual, albeit tiny, role as an active user & consumer of all of this past us and with us. We'll have to live with it afterall. I'm a 'member' of Generation Y. We'll have to deal with Tremendous Debts of our Predecessors, experience our Baby Boomer/Generation X parents become 'the elderly', and watch as their health gradually declines. We are a Learned Generation, we are a connected & enabled Generation, we will see this and hopefully many more great things to come from all of us.
Now I did not intend to take such a LARGE tangent from talking about Cornelius...and our advancement...but today more than ever we can't live our lives encapsulated from the rest of the world...it's together that we made our current livelihood possible & it will require us working together to do the same for our future.
BACK TO CORNELIUS...I think from 2010 to 2019...we should Honestly focus on Becoming ACTIVE Stewards of Our Communities, Helping Empower of Local Government, And CLEARLY letting them know we're DON'T JUST FUND THEIR Budgets i.e. jobs & visions but We are their MOST VALUABLE ASSET. Without us tax-payers and residents, there would be no communities. Put simply, IF you want to live a Civilized Life..with home & raising families & growing old in, then one should do their part of Civil Service. The compensation will not be in Dollars and Cents but the Priceless Positive Piece of change you role played in the community - Noone could take that from you. It'll bring more meaning into your life...I guarantee it.
I didn't think too much about it before I started this blog...I thought it would be handy to document my thoughts on my city before WalMart. Because the way I saw it WALMART would be a MILESTONE for Cornelius. Either we fumble it and simply allow THE CORPORATE BAHEEMITH to build a store within our city limits and wait to see what happens next OR do something more strategic. I'm happy to being serving my community as a Planning Commissioner and doing what I can to share my INSIDER KNOWLEDGE of city developments & visions with whomever is interested. And this Blog is my bulletin & sounding board to the world...found by Google Searches...referenced in newspaper articles, etc.
Goodbye for now folks...think Positive...and think how you can bring that Positivity to Cornelius with me this decade ahead.
Regards,
Jose
Reference: Timeline to Development for the Year or So ahead. Stay Tuned for more pictures of the Walmart Development and possibly the homes of Linda Lane.
Cornelius Gazzette - January 2010
