Seeing the big picture

Third-grader Nicholas Orazio likes to ride his bike. But he said he is worried about Missouri’s helmet laws.

“People aren’t wearing helmets much anymore,” Orazio said.

Orazio, his dad and members of the community of all ages shared their concerns and visions for Columbia at Wednesday night’s Exploring the Vision workshop, a public meeting that was part of the Imagine Columbia’s Future visioning process. Participants were encouraged to comment on the progress the 13 citizen topic groups have made since January. Orazio was able to make his comments about bike safety and green space preservation — his two priorities — to the Transportation and Environment groups. Those and the comments from the about 275 participants will guide the topic groups as they revise and finalize their goals and strategies for Columbia’s future.

The evening’s schedule was explained by Gianni Longo, founding principal of ACP-Visioning and Planning, Ltd., who flew to Columbia from New York for the meeting.

“Tonight is the night we are going to unveil the big picture,” Longo told the crowd. “The purpose of tonight’s meeting is not to talk to me, not to talk to the city. It is to talk to each other.”

Each of the 13 topic groups sent a representative to the stage to read the group’s drafted subtopic goals. Audience members were invited to rate each goal on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 meaning not very important for Columbia and 5 meaning very important. The ratings will be returned to each group to guide their future efforts.

After the assembly concluded, members of the citizen topic groups stationed themselves around the room to create what ACP calls a Marketplace of Ideas. Workshop participants toured from table to table, asking questions about the groups’ direction and providing direct feedback on comment cards.

At the transportation table, one issue discussed was the fact that public transportation does not run on Wednesday nights, which may have prohibited many residents from attending the workshop.

“How can you wage input?” said Dawn Zeterberg, who depended on Services from Independent Living for transportation to the workshop.

Transportation Co-Facilitator Kevin Brown said public transportation

was not made available because it was underused at previous meetings.

Renee Graham, public communications officer for Columbia, said she thought transportation was available by request.

“The breakdown could have been in publicizing that to everyone,” Graham said. “We certainly didn’t do as good of a job of getting that information to the people who need it. We can take that feedback and make it better the next time.”

Rita Fleischmann, 50, said she went to the transportation table because a pedestrian-friendly downtown is her No. 1 priority.

“There needs to be a balance between the economy of downtown and having bike lanes,” Fleischmann said. “And I don’t think that’s unreasonable. I really think people need to look to alternative transportation.”

Fleischmann, who said she rides her bike to her job at the Center for Advanced Social Research every day, said that providing safe transportation for bikers in the downtown area would provide “a more holistic perspective” that could counterbalance the consumer mentality she said exists now.

Julie Baka, director of development for KOPN, said jobs for middle-class residents was an issue she did not find addressed by the Economic Development group.

“We need good jobs where people can be paid $17 an hour,” Baka said. She said that the group’s focus on high-tech jobs and the airport may have left average citizens out of the vision.

Her husband, Greg Baka, said he was concerned about the draft strategies presented by the groups. Many suggest forming groups and coalitions or creating research for something.

“They don’t have much vision or action to them,” Greg Baka said about some of the strategies.

“But we’re only halfway through the process,” Julie Baka said. “So we can improve.”

Kee Groshong, 66, commented at the Community Facilities and Services table that underground utilities were part of his vision for Columbia.

“It makes it look more beautiful,” Groshong said. Groshong served as the MU vice chancellor of administrative services, and added that the utilities are buried on MU property.

“You have fewer problems,” he said.

Linda Rootes, president of the North Central Neighborhood Association, said she commented to the Community Character group that she was concerned about their strategy to hold landlords accountable for “substandard” structures.

“Who decides?” Rootes said, adding that it could be “a move to clear too many areas.”

The Marketplace of Ideas also served as an opportunity for members of topic groups to communicate with other topic groups about issues they may have in common.

Overfelt and Brown, co-facilitators for the Development and Transportation groups, agreed that their two groups should collaborate.

“As you look through the goals and strategies, there’s a lot of consistency emerging with groups that haven’t been working together at all,” said Dave Overfelt, a co-facilitator for the Development group. “That indicates that there are some community trends developing.”