Planning for 2040

Went to a great meeting this morning.  The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning is traveling all over the metropolitan area conducting community meetings to gather input to create a vision and plan for a prosperous region by 2040.  I love this concept, because it implies that no city is an island, and that it will take Naperville and Aurora and Chicago and other surrounding cities working together to develop a thriving region.  East Aurora is not going to become all it can be if the surrounding communities are not also committed to improving it.  And it is totally in their best interest to do that, so I've never understood the idea that each city needs to "fight for itself."  Anyway, disappointingly there were not a lot of people who came out for the meeting on a Saturday morning, but those of us that were there had a great discussion on things such as education, economic development, civic engagement, and immigration.  One of the keys we focused on in all of these areas is that we need to capitalize on and celebrate the beauty if the Hispanic culture and influence that is so predominant in East Aurora.  There are unique business and educational and cultural opportunities we can create here for the entire region if we would look at the assets of the community instead of the flaws.  We even got to talking about the Idea of "The Lighthouse" and people were so excited about the idea of a cultural and community center coming to Aurora. 

I have to say I was not necessarily excited to go to this meeting this morning, but I walked away feeling like it was the best use of two hours I've spent in a long time!