Vision 2030 Work Continues (Metropolitan Report, v3 #2)
June 2002
Vision 2030 Work Continues
Vision 2030 Oversight Committee members Neil M. Shpritz, Executive Director of the BWI Business Partnership, Inc. (center), and Dr. Nancy Grasmick, State Superintendent of Schools (far right), helped craft Vision Statements at a June 5 meeting at BMC (left).
Between April 9 and May 8, the Vision 2030 team conducted a series of seventeen public meetings throughout the Baltimore metropolitan region. More than 500 people attended the meetings, where they saw examples of how growth might occur, and then broke into small, facilitated groups to brainstorm about the region’s future.
Participants were first asked to close their eyes and imagine the future.
"Imagine that you are living in a community where your most cherished ideas, dreams and expectations have been realized . . .
"Imagine what it would be like to be at home. Imagine the neighborhood you’ll be living in. Walk down the street. What do you see? . . .
"What you are visualizing are images of a future that we can achieve . . . Let’s think about the things we need to do to transform you vision into reality. Think big. Think small. Think creatively . . .
"Think about the things that affect the quality of your life. Think about the things that are important to you. . . .
"What can we do to make the Baltimore region the best that it can be in the coming years?"
The group facilitators then went around the room as often as time allowed, asking each person in the group to state an idea. Every idea was recorded. More than 1,800 ideas were collected and entered into a database.
ACP, the Vision 2030 consultant, grouped the ideas by general subject:
- Culture and recreation
- Economic development and employment
- Education
- Environment
- Farmland and agriculture
- Health
- Housing
- Land use
- Neighborhoods and community character
- Parks and open space
- Redevelopment
- Regional issues, leadership and governance
- Safety and crime reduction
- Social issues
- Transportation
On June 5, the Vision 2030 Oversight Committee met at BMC to review the ideas and begin to draft vision statements. The Oversight Committee members worked in small groups, with each group assigned to a particular subject area. The vision statements that resulted will be tested in a telephone survey to be conducted in July of 1,200 randomly selected representative households in the Baltimore region.
The July meeting of the Oversight Committee will be a workshop for strategic planning and benchmarking to help determine next steps. In August, the Oversight Committee will prepare the draft Vision.
Finally, in September everyone who has previously participated in a Vision 2030 activity will be invited to a workshop to review the draft. Comments will be invited, and will be reviewed by the Oversight Committee prior to preparing the "final" Vision.
Vision 2030 will be presented to the general public in a series of public meetings in December.
Prior to the June 5 Oversight Committee meeting, Vision 2030 Project Manager Stoney Fraley chats with Fran Flanigan, Chair of the Patapsco-Back River Tributary Team, while in the background Dan Pontious, Executive Director of the Baltimore Regional Partnership, enjoys coffee with Will Baker, Executive Director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and Dru Schmidt-Perkins, Executive Director of 1,000 Friends of Maryland networks with Frances Turcotte of Anne Arundel Community College.
Posted: July 12, 2002
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Last Updated on Thursday, 12 January 2006 10:20