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Over the past six-plus years, we’ve had the good fortune to talk and work with some of Lawrence’s longtime neighborhood activists on issues that directly affect the well-being (livability, if you will) of established neighborhoods.
Our intent here is not to lecture or preach. We’ll leave that path to academics, clergy, and/or demagogues. Instead, we want just to make some comments on this observation:
The gray-haired (and no-haired) neighborhood activists of Lawrence want and need a younger generation of neighborhood leaders to come forward.
Applicant qualifications:
- Willing to work long hours for no money.
- Age: no minimum or maximum, though anybody young enough to still be drawing a paycheck would be ideal.
- Willing to disrupt and steal time from the work-family-life balance for neighborhood commitments. The need to follow the various local commission decisions on neighborhood issues is the dirty little secret no good recruiter would talk about.
- Background in local government processes and procedures would be helpful, but lack of background certainly would be no dealbreaker.
The good news is that collectively, the gray geese and ganders have a ton of institutional knowledge. They want to share it. A fair amount of the knowledge is technical background, but more importantly, they know the historical context — they’ve experienced 30 to 40 years or more of local government decisions influencing the evolution of their neighborhoods.
Fact check: We lied. Now is the preaching part. Get involved!
For what it’s worth, here are a few suggestions for how younger generation potential neighborhood leaders might dip their toe in the waters:
- Attend your local neighborhood monthly meeting.
- Come to the Lawrence Association of Neighborhoods (LAN) monthly meeting. It’s generally the third Thursday of the month.
- Check out the Coalition for Collaborative Governance.
Responsibility can be painful, or at least irritating. However, the fact is that next-generation stewardship is critical to maintaining and strengthening the community’s most important resource — established neighborhoods. We hope that you choose to be involved.
— Phil and Peggi Englehart, Pinkney
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Letter to the Times: Wanted – Younger generation neighborhood leaders
