|
CCPS History & Guiding Principles CCPS Presentation Presentation of 2003 CCPS event and focus groups and the CCPS Guiding Principles that were derived from them.. Sandy Holder, Director, Community Development Good morning. I'm Sandra Holder, the Director of Community Development Department for the City of Carlsbad. We are excited to be here today with all of you to continue the conversation that was started in 2003 and to take the next steps. Today we'll review the Guiding Principles that came out of the 2003 Conference and then we'll learn how to apply them to a project.
But first, I want to give you a little background about how we got here today. It all started several years ago with the City's purchase of the Farmers Insurance building for a possible Civic Center. As we progressed in our planning for a new Civic Center, we decided to expand our vision to include all of the public facilities and spaces. The scope grew even larger when the City Council invited community members to participate in a learning conference called "Connecting Community, Place, and Spirit". As you just saw in the video, this 2 ½ day conference was the beginning of a very important conversation about not only the Civic Center, but about the future of our community. We designed the event to help us learn and dialogue about what we want in a civic center, but also want we want in a community. Not surprisingly, we were not satisfied with just a building for a city hall -- we needed something special, something to reflect the best about Carlsbad. The 2003 CCPS Learning Conference was a remarkable event, one that has set in motion a wide-ranging community conversation. The important journey that we are taking is much like the one Robert Frost described when he reached a crossroads in his life. "Two roads diverged in a wood, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference". The
Road Not Taken Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, Then took the other, as just as fair, And both that morning equally lay
I shall be telling this with a sigh All of you know that Carlsbad is truly unique and that we do things a little differently here. By doing what we're doing here today, we have decided to take the road less traveled. And, like Robert Frost, I believe that will make all the difference. Peter Block, futurist and author, challenged us to think about what "community" is and what kind of participation we need to make ours vibrant and robust. Community builder John McKnight, professor at Northwestern University and author on community asset building, described building community from the inside out. He suggested building community based on what assets and gifts we have, not what we're missing, and to make it easy for everyone to give their gifts. Architect Michael Freedman talked to us about how to create community through design and how to use "place-making" to encourage people to meet, linger, and interact with each other. He showed images of places for people to mingle and associate that are pedestrian friendly. He showed us how important it is to foster that interaction between people by arranging public spaces that make chance meetings easy. He told us that the magic of the City has three ingredients:
Peter Koestenbaum, author and philosopher, described the importance of exercising our freedom and taking personal responsibility to choose to create wholesome communities. He told us that the power in this nation lies with the people, that it lies with each individual making a commitment to community. During the 2003 event we broke into small groups after each presentation and talked about the concepts we had just learned, then we reported out to the larger group. In those exercises the participants articulated what they wanted Carlsbad to be like in 50 years. We learned that what participants really wanted was not a city hall but a Civic Village with a coastal orientation. It is from those ideas that we derived the Guiding Principles you'll be learning about shortly. Today, we want to make sure that your most important priorities, ideas, and sentiments from 2003 were captured in the Guiding Principles. Cynthia Haas, Economic Development
You should see something that looks like this (Draft Guiding Principles) in your binder. For CCPS slide show click here.
Just what does connecting mean to people in Carlsbad? They and you said that it means "Building Partnerships to support sustainable connections that create a community where people want to live both physically and socially." This lays a solid foundation for building a great community. How will we know when we have been successful? Imagine this: Carlsbad is much more pedestrian friendly, and as a result residents and visitors rely on their feet versus their cars. They are more a part of their environment, not separated from it. There are many great places to gather, interesting an inviting places everywhere. People come together in healthy social settings. Convenient modes of transportation are available. One can finds a variety of ways to get around the city with convenient connections from local to regional transportation. Those who do drive always find parking. Neighborhoods have unique identities. The overall personality of the city is built up from the diversity of its many neighborhoods. There are many ways to become involved and connect together to pursue common goals. We are truly connected and people can give their unique gifts freely. There is easy access to information and it is readily shared, as a way to promote learning, better communication, and stronger relationships. Useful community dialogue is common, and residents are encouraged to talk about important issues in their community. We hope that today will be just that kind of day for you. Mark Steyaert , Manager , Park Development
For CCPS slide show click here. Cynthia gave us the main element of the guiding principles - the connecting part, the gluing, and the verbs. I am going to share with you he nouns, the things: community, place and spirit. The idea behind this is to give you some images that will stick with you as you practice applying these Guiding Principles in the exercises throughout the day.
What is Community? In Carlsbad, we see it as "A sense of caring, commitment, respect and courtesy." This is more personal than the definition in the dictionary. It carries with it a "sense of family" (see pictures from slide presentation). You can't have a strong community without strong families. It can also mean family in the sense of citizenship of City of Carlsbad. When we make policy and build community we need to keep these in mind. Giving your gifts is an important element as well. Here we see images of volunteers at an ice cream social, citizens working on trails, or like you are doing today, citizens participating in creative collaboration. Carlsbad is full of people who have capabilities. You reflect this by giving your time here today. Carlsbad's strength is in its people and their giving nature. Open and useful communication is critical. Every organization, family, and individual needs open and useful communication. I may not be the best example of this myself, but I do know how important it is. The Citizen Academy offers encouragement and tools to help people communicate more easily with the City government. PLACE Community planning provides opportunities for partnership that are the tools that make "Place" happen. This is not about architects and planners, its' about taking the pulse of the community and finding out what they think makes a great community.
Carlsbad needs to be welcoming to all ages, and provide opportunities to bring different age groups together. We have so much to learn from each other. We learned a lot from working with all ages on the skate park! The sense of place is strong when there is integration of arts and culture. Imagine downtown galleries, children's art experiences, learning all going on in the same area. This is the enrichment piece of this whole process. It adds depth to the community. :Honor the environment. The Cannon Road area's open space habitat management plan is part of our strategy to create sustainability across the City. The open space habitat management plan includes protection for our critters and plants all of which are very important elements in making our community sustainable. Spirit The essence of Carlsbad is shared commitment to connections and partnerships that build community. We all want to make this community better in whatever way possible. This takes commitment. Acknowledging our agricultural roots, our lifeline to the past, helps lead us to answers to the future.
Hospitality is an element of community spirit. You are all welcome here, your town is our tow. We greet people from the outside and are hospitable with our own community members. We take pride in our community. I think Carlsbad is proud of its community. That is something we have to continue to grow. This process is all about improving and becoming even more worthy of pride. The CCPS Guiding Principles to help us do that.
Dialogue Joe: You may have heard some music just now. This is a cue that we are moments away from concluding our current activity. Yes, those would be the jungle drums to let you know that you need to wrap up what you are doing. You may have noticed that there are actual drums on the stage here. These metaphorically represent the different messages that are within the community, many different colors and tones just like you. We will be hearing all of those different voices during the day. Our goal is that we evolve from a cacophony to coherent and motivating rhythms. I'd like to get some comments from you about what you discussed at your table. You may have also noticed that we are using different ways to capture your thoughts so we can revisit them later. To my right is Christopher Fuller (www.Griotseye.com) who is a masterful graphic facilitator. Christopher will be turning your words into pictures as we go. These will become part of your documentation after the event. Also, Rita Sterling, from Sterling Insights (www.SterlingInsights.com) is here taking your comments directly into the computer. Lastly, Val Brown and her team are taping the event so we can have a wonderful video product of it. So everyone can hear you when I take your comments, please wait for one of the runners to bring you a microphone. Just hold it under your chin and speak normally. So, let's take a few comments about what you discovered. What did your table talk about? Participant: Participant:
Participant: Participant: Participant: Group Process & Logistics Joe: You can't get there from here, The future is only rational in hindsight. Every person in the room has the answer. The answer for the future of Carlsbad is here. The purpose for today's activities is to stimulate one, several or all of us to remember it and bring it out. The instructions only make sense after you assemble the barbecue.
Transition to Legends Activity & Break Joe: 
|
 |
[click on images to enlarge]
|
