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EDITORIAL
Bringing the future into focus
Of all the goals and plans to come out of last weekend’s
strategic planning forum, two stand out: the proposal to increase —
or restore — the population of Yellow Springs, and the keen interest
in convincing Antioch University McGregor to stay in the village. In at
least one way, the goals are related in that they would address maintaining
a diverse population of people and businesses, and together, could augment
the community’s economic base.
The key will be for the forum’s participants
and the Community Round Table, which was formed at the conference, to get
the community to rally around these goals. As several people at the conference
noted, the participants did not represent the entire community. Some segments
of Yellow Springs — people under 40, low-income wage-earners and even,
to some extent, people of color — were not widely represented.
Saturday’s forum, “Where We Are and
Where Are We Going,” was sponsored by the Yellow Springs Men’s
Group, which invited 75 leaders to discuss challenges facing the community.
The day’s context was framed by the 2002 “Yellow Springs Cost
of Living Report,” which the Men’s Group published and which
showed that while Yellow Springs’ population is shrinking, it is also
growing older and less diverse.
That kind of data is one of the reasons behind the
forum’s goal to restore Yellow Springs’ population to 4,500,
close to the village’s population in 1970. The village’s population
in 2000 was 3,761, that year’s census found. A group at the forum
focused on housing needs proposed that Yellow Springs grow by building and
rehabbing an estimated 300 housing units over 10 years. The housing group
stressed the need for mixed-use developments, which would provide a variety
of housing types, and, the group believes, would address concerns for maintaining
a diverse community.
While this goal is centered on maintaining a diverse
population base, the effort to sway Antioch McGregor to stay in Yellow Springs
is tied to efforts to maintain, and grow, the community’s economy.
McGregor is searching for a new home to expand its facilities and its programs.
Many people, led by Community Resources, a local community improvement corporation,
are working to convince McGregor that Yellow Springs is the place to achieve
its goals, possibly by anchoring a commerce park here.
Keeping McGregor in Yellow Springs is tied to the
idea, first suggested by Antioch College President Joan Straumanis, to promote
the village as an “education village.” It would be difficult
to brag about being an education center if one of your main higher-learning
institutions left.
These goals, of course, were not the only ideas
generated at the forum, but many of the other action plans — such
as increasing enrollment in the Yellow Springs schools, addressing the need
for more tax revenue and building a commerce park — are linked to
population growth and retaining McGregor.
If the Men’s Group’s forum did anything,
it generated a lot of energy about the future of Yellow Springs, and got
people together to have a dialogue about their hometown. Now after a long,
productive talk, the real work begins. Thanks to the Men’s Group and
Wright State University, which helped organize the day, the community is
in a better position to shape its future.
—Robert Mihalek |
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