Winter 2015 January 11 Sunday (Cities Exist to Provide Services to Residents)

34 Degrees this morning  45:38 minutes walking 9 earthquakes  

21 degrees wind chill this morning.  I think it is worse when the windchill is so much lower than the actual temperature. 18 degrees with no wind is much better than 34 degrees with a 16 mph wind!

Expanding on what I  wrote yesterday about “A Tale of Two Cities”, I think it is extremely important for a city to have a culture of “a bias towards the residents” as opposed to a bias towards business.

Of course, business is important, it is essential to any city (especially in this state because cities sales taxes are the lifeblood of the budget) not only for revenues but also for the quality of life.  

However, like anything , “balance” is necessary and when a city becomes an arm of business instead of an arm of residents, the city will eventually wither.

As I said in my journal on my trip to China, one thing I can say about China is the attention to the parks, landscaping etc., although there are serious deficiencies in other areas:

(from my China Journal on the signing of “sustainability agreements” between United States Cities and Chinese Cities:

“ A year ago, Lakeland would have been a perfect signee, this year, Lakeland might as well be in the County.  However, other cities are working on it.  

It has been a very interesting conference, especially a lot of the Chinese presentations with a presentation by Denmark (on bicycle use and trails) and a private company about "nighttime landscapes"  generating the most questions.   

All of the speakers emphasized that “ Cities exist to provide services to residents" and I couldn't agree more.”

It is unfortunate that we live in a city literally spending billions on businesses and public projects, but they can’t take the time to provide services for residents such as adequate recycling, landscaping of streets, or even requiring businesses to provide turn lanes for traffic safety!  

That is probably one reason-and a major reason we will move to an adjacent city when the time comes to move.  We definitely won’t live in this city unless they change their culture to more of a balance between citizens and businesses.  

This is important to me (as perhaps the reader realizes by now).  It is such a waste when a City “leader” doesn’t take the time or effort to consider what services are needed by the residents.

As the city adjacent to our city discovered, if you provide for the residents, the businesses will come.  The reverse is not necessarily true.  

That’s it for now, Sunday, January 11, 2015.