Anniversary

It's May! Time for all the good folks to gather at the Village Green--if only we knew where that was...

So begins my first blog post for Village Green/Town². It made its first appearance on Columbia Patch on May 5th in 2011.

Welcome to The Village Green. According to Wikipedia, a village green “… is traditionally at a central location and provides an open-air meeting place for the people of a village, for example at times of celebration, or for public ceremonies.”  

I am envisioning this space, where I will be sharing my ideas, as a village green of sorts—a place where we have the “customary right to indulge in lawful sports and pastimes.”

Almost daily I read news of Columbia’s villages: calling for participation, creating new visions, or struggling to reach consensus amidst polarizing differences. Just as often I cannot make up my mind whether to be encouraged and frustrated by it all.  So, this will be a place to sort it out with input from you, my fellow villagers.  

In a related entry, town squares are described: “Most town squares are hardscapes suitable for open markets, music concerts, political rallies, and other events that require firm ground. Being centrally located, town squares are usually surrounded by small shops such as bakeries, meat markets, cheese stores, and clothing stores. At their center is often a fountain, well, monument, or statue.”

This sounds appealing to me. I’m wondering if we, as villagers, separated by neighborhood loyalties and generational differences, can come together to make a Town Square for Columbia that is as lively and relevant as a New American City deserves to be.

So where are we today? Are we coming together to make a Town Square?  This original post was written after passage of the Downtown Plan, but before the creation of the Inner Arbor Trust. Much has happened since then. 

Much remains the same:

Almost daily I read news of Columbia’s villages: calling for participation, creating new visions, or struggling to reach consensus amidst polarizing differences. 

Sound familiar?

In the past eight years we have been through a lot together. This space hasn’t always been about Columbia. It expanded into Columbia/HoCo, the school system, overall community topics, local politics, and issues of racial justice. I try to stay local. Sometimes I stray far afield. Sometimes I get personal.

I’m marking eight years today. How should I celebrate? 

And where should I go from here?