Winter 2015 January 13 Tuesday

23 degrees this morning (11 degrees windchill), 45:48  minute walk, 9 earthquakes

A faithful reader (and my cousin) asked me “If cities exist to provide services to residents, is the same true for states and the federal government?”

Good question, I really hadn’t thought about that.

My first thought was they did, but then I started thinking about about where he lives, Boulder, Colorado, probably one of the best examples of a city providing livability services to residents, and with a long history of doing so.  (I’m not sure if I would like the snow, but I sure would love to live there with all the bike paths, open space etc.).

Actually, after my original responses, I thought some more and I think a key is that a City is much easier to “choose” your city.  Especially if you live in a metropolitan area.  Changing a state and certainly a country is very difficult.

By the same token, it is much easier to change a City, although my experience  of the past few years (well, my life experience), has indicated  to me that a City has a “Culture” like any organization and change can be difficult.  

I have seen cities so drab and flat decrepit that I decided I would never want to be City Manager (or live there).  My first thought was that it was a potential for a great improvement, but then I thought the elected officials and residents may be satisfied with the city “as is”, and that was fine, but I wasn’t about to live there.

I’m not talking “poor”, poor doesn't bother me.  It was  a universal drabness, a lack of care about the environment , old cars parked on lawns, dilapidated houses without any attempt to maintain appearances, junk scattered around, and businesses and institutions which displayed a similar lack of pride.

Obviously I’m not going to name the city, fortunately such cities are few and far between, even neighborhoods like that are few.

However, a city that takes true pride in providing excellent services to residents and being a “resident first” rather than “business first” city is rare, especially a city that has a record of being like that for years, or even generations.  

The City next to us is that type, so if we move, that is the only city we are going to look at moving.  We live in an excellent neighborhood, super location, good neighbors etc, so if we can renew our lease we probably will, but if we have to move, we are going to vote with our feet.

As I mentioned before, I am starting working on my reading “tu it” list.  

The library here is wonderful. I really liked the librarians at Memphis, but the library system here is about five generations ahead of the Memphis library, which was so obsolete it was embarrassing.  

Of course, in Memphis, there is a culture of appointing political hacks, and the Memphis Library isn’t headed by a professional librarian , nor is it part of the culture to support the library.

I was always surprised when Memphis tried to push the Richard Florida concept(attracting young professionals) and a decent library system (as libraries are now in most cities, “information centers”) would have gone a long way towards accomplishing that.  Of course the political crony system didn’t help. 

Nothing against Memphis, I loved Memphis, but, in general, the Library system was way behind the times.  The librarians we dealt with were always wonderful to deal with, but the institution itself was not up to standards.

Again, people vote with their feet and on what is important to them.

That’s it for now, Tuesday, January 13, 2015.