Lakewood at the Crossroads after the YMP

[Gordon Brumm]

I see Lakewood at a crossroads, one road leading to a burst of creative energy and innovation, the other road leading past the same old unimaginative status quo.
The occasion is the completion of the Youth Master Plan process. The next step is formation of a continuing organization to carry through with whatever has been decided or discovered in our previous discussions. So far the situation is fluid; the outcome is undetermined.
A meeting will take place this coming Wednesday to start the ball rolling. Time and place are to be announced.
The Youth Master Plan was initiated by the City (Dottie Buckon’s Department of Human Services in particular), to harness the ideas and energy of the public at large for the benefit of our youth (from 0 to 20 years of age), with the City putting the citizens’ ideas into effect.
In other words, the wedding of creativity and power. A good idea.
But the result hasn’t done justice to the original purpose, because the procedure thrust upon us has betrayed the energy and intelligence of the people participating.
In particular, there have been two instructive faults in the procedure, which I have written about in the Observer: First, the procedure mandated for us was somewhere between silly and useless, as I have written. Second, each of the four committees had to cover several subjects, which allowed too little time to debate any one subject effectively; for example, we were unable to do the necessary fact-finding. This led to a lot of wheel-spinning.
What we were left with – at least in our Education Committee – were the fragments of a plan, plus a lot of good ideas and issues raised and directions identified. We can build on these ideas, issues, and directions – and bring up many new ones – if we create the right kind of organization.

Judging by the faults of the YMP discussions, this is what we need to do as the essence of the ongoing organization: We need to create a number of working groups, each working on one idea and doing so for an indefinite amount of time, gaining understanding in a cumulative fashion until they arrive at a specific program or project to put into effect. Assuming the program or project is feasible, they then will, WITH THE WILLING AND UNQUESTIONING COOPERATION OF THE CITY OR SCHOOL SYSTEM, make that project or program a reality.

Will the continuing organization perform in this way? That is in question. That is what puts us at the crossroads.
As things now stand, we have been presented with a draft of By Laws for the new organization, to be called the Youth Commission. This draft provides for the Commission, to be composed of 19 members, most of them from various city agencies and non-governmental institutions. Of the 19, only four are to be at-large elected representatives, and three are to be youth elected representatives.
The purpose of the Commission, according to these By Laws, is to implement the youth master plan. This will be done through four Action Committees, one for each of the four areas the effort has been divided into (Education, Recreation, Family, Safety and Health).
So these By laws have three major flaws: 1) They call for the implementation of a plan that doesn’t really exist, and if it did exist, it would be too restrictive. 2) The By Laws reverse the proper relation between city agencies et al. and the working groups (or Action Committees) – the arrangement would be top-down, with the representatives of the institutions directing the working groups/Action Committees, instead of working in the service of the working groups/Action Committees to bring their ideas to fruition. 3) The By Laws don’t envision or make any provision for separate working groups working on individual projects, and more important, they make no provision for new ideas and projects bubbling up from the public at large. To me, this looks like a formula for sterile and stodgy stagnation.
(I really wouldn’t count on the institutions of the city to supply creative ideas. The City government seems to be doing a good job on nuts-and-bolts, bricks-and-mortar issues, but it doesn’t show much in the way of imagination or creativity or innovation -- a case in point is the Mayor’s speech to Kiwanis last Tuesday. The same seems to be true for the School Board.)

So that’s the situation. Will we have to be content with an organization that – by all indications – provides nothing much that is new and creative? Or will we get the rush of new energy and new ideas that the citizens of our city can provide, given the proper opportunity?
Will the organization represented by the present By Laws command the stage, forcing the rest of us to melt away? Or will our more dynamic conception somehow be folded into the By Laws as presented, resulting in a worthwhile organization? Or will those of us who believe in imagination and creativity form our own organization – called Lakewood Renaissance, perhaps – and go our own way (hopefully in cooperation with the Youth Commission on occasion)? Only time will tell. And Wednesday’s meeting, perhaps.

[Bill Call]

I see Lakewood at a crossroads, one road leading to a burst of creative energy and innovation, the other road leading past the same old unimaginative status quo.

Lakewood is at the crossroads. We are running out of time to reverse the slow decline in the City's quality of life. While the City is well positioned to prosper in a dangerous housing market it won't prosper without effective management of the City's resources.

Another City commission is the last thing we need.

The whole idea of a Youth Master Plan is so much useless navel gazing. If City officials have time to waste on this then they have too much time on their hands.

[Jim O'Bryan]

I see Lakewood at a crossroads, one road leading to a burst of creative energy and innovation, the other road leading past the same old unimaginative status quo.

Lakewood is at the crossroads. We are running out of time to reverse the slow decline in the City's quality of life. While the City is well positioned to prosper in a dangerous housing market it won't prosper without effective management of the City's resources.

Another City commission is the last thing we need.

The whole idea of a Youth Master Plan is so much useless navel gazing. If City officials have time to waste on this then they have too much time on their hands.

Bill

I think we both agree with the pull quote from Gordon.

While you always push it to management, I tend to through it back to so many committees made up of the same people. The same people that have been driving the Lakewood Bus for the past twenty years, and drove us to where we are now.

When going through meetings debriefs with Gordon, Rick and Dan, I was amazed that after the amount of time spent there were still massive holes in the discussion what alone the missing plan.

Summer Jobs? Nothing help kids more than summer job programs. Keep them busy, teach them work ethics, give them some money that they spend at night keeping them off the street. From what I saw, NO WORK program at all.

Another question to combine threads is how serious is this group about reaching out to kids at all. Curfew, no hoops, less programs seem like the city, and their focal point is house arrest, not engagement.

amazing going into other cities and hearing how progressive Lakewood is.


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[Tom Bullock]

Gordon, thanks for the thoughtful review.

A start is good, and communication between players/stakeholders is also valuable. If more need to be included, hopefully they can be at future meetings.

Are there examples of the more dynamic ideas you can outline here? Several I've heard (to start a growing idea-list):

--outdoor basketball/sports facilities
--extending rec sports programs to older ages, so 15+ teens can play in leagues
--per Jim (and a number of others I've talked to), summer jobs (such as those formerly at Little Links)
--youth centers--The Chat Room is missed by a number of parents I've talked to.

I'm sure there's more ideas.

[Jim O'Bryan]

--per Jim (and a number of others I've talked to), summer jobs (such as those formerly at Little Links)

Tom

I never mentioned Little Links.

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