From the Jamestown Post Journal’s April 28, 2010 Editorial:
(http://www.post-journal.com/page/content.detail/id/556573.html?nav=5010)
It is hard to remember any other report that holds as much promise for Jamestown as does the study being handed off next week by the neighborhood planning firm czbLLC.
This remarkably clear-headed document about saving Jamestown’s neighborhoods will be introduced when Jamestown City Council meets for a work session at 6:30 p.m. Monday. You are certainly invited to attend, and so that everyone who is interested – and we hope you are – has a chance to read the 63-page report, we’re posting a pdf file of it with this editorial online at www.post-journal.com. We also includes on today’s editorial page the opening paragraphs of a foreword to the community from the czb firm.
This report resulted from a collaborative effort among public and private partners. The detailed study includes key findings about housing and neighborhoods, the nature of the challenges, how to go forward and procedural recommendations.
For a taste of how dynamically different this study and report are from past efforts, we reach to the concluding passages of the foreword:
” … the report recognizes that none of this discussion will make any difference unless there is both the leadership and a broad-based buy-in to a proactive approach to re-building Jamestown’s neighborhoods.
“In many ways, this is the greatest challenge. How can the complex issues of redevelopment be communicated? Will political and civic leaders be willing to take the risks and the potential criticism that come with innovation?”
The report is deliberately written in a way that should keep it from simply being shelved and forgotten along with dozens of other studies and reports written in past years.
The call for action, notes the foreword, begins on page 34.
“The conclusions suggest possible actions. Some of these actions require re-thinking programs that have been in place for years; other proposed activities challenge the community to take on new tactics. Of course, not everything will be successful; recovering a community doesn’t follow hard and fast rules and formulas. Rather, the proposed innovative efforts must be driven by a shared passion for a community that deserves to be restored to health,” wrote the planners.
Indeed. Charles Buki, a principal in czbLLC, is a huge fan of Jamestown.
“Jamestown is a great small town and it is vital that it be preserved and strengthened as a place of choice for generations to come,” the report says.
This housing study and the recommendations from czb provide a solid guide on how to get started.
