Big Dreams for a Big City: Washington, D.C.
By the age of five I was claiming I would be the first female president of the United States of America (watch out Hilary!). While I no longer have presidential or even congressional ambitions, I think most of those closest to me always knew I’d end up in Washington D.C.; though no one thought I’d be working for IBM doing supply chain management. I’ve always wanted to change the world but have always had different routes of getting there—such as being president, to running a non-profit, to running the World Banks, etc. None of those routes ever consisted of working for the private sector. In fact, during an interview for a scholarship award that MSU gives to a graduating senior, I took A LOT of heat for daring to think I can make this world a better place while working for a large corporation. Since I haven’t started the job yet (eeeks Monday!), I can’t claim with certainty that this is the right path, but I think working for IBM will equip me with many tools and skills I need to meet my long-term goal.
But moving to D.C. has inflated my goals and ambitions even more than the large ones I had in high school and in college, as well as paradoxically making them more realistic. Here, multitudes of international connections to individuals and organizations exist. Opportunities to get involved in game-changing politics usually fall in your lap. And maybe most importunately, you are surrounded by other young adults with the same goals, which spur competition to do better than your peers, but also opens windows of collaboration all around you. It’s easy to get lost in the chaos of opportunities and big dream success in a city like D.C. In Lansing, for example, if I had a question about an environmental related project , I only had two go to woman (thanks Payal and Rory) that almost always could help me. If I wanted to get a blog published, my friend Ivy was always there, and so on and so on. Figuring out how to create that web with those pivotal players from scratch in a daunting place like D.C. is intimidating, but I’m hoping not impossible. Without the network of individuals, like I had in Lansing, I know I can’t accomplish even my smallest and shortest-term goals.
Still, I’ve made a vow to myself to not let any opportunities pass me by, especially in my early stages here. It’s a lot easier to come home after a hard day’s work and read a book than it is to go to one of those awkward networking events where you might not know anyone. And while I start the full time job on Monday, I’ve also applied for a board position for a D.C. organization, searched out volunteer activities and tried to figure out how to get involved in the D.C. twitter community. I’m open to hearing any other suggestions for connections and opportunities in this new, big, exciting and still kinda scary community.
Iwo Jima Memorial at night last summer...one of my fav sites in D.C.!
Celebrating the 4th in D.C. last summer!
Lansing and Portland: How important are regional strategic plans?
It was obvious that I was going to love Portland; it was just a question of how much. The city is chalked full of individuals that love coffee, good microbrews and the outdoors… close to my three favorite things. Located centrally downtown, there’s a used book store that takes up a full city block that I spent hours in and would have happily spent hours more. I ate at a small breakfast dinner, an Indian foodcart, a chic vegan restaurant and saw a movie where the served you drinks and food. For my two nights out, I visited an older neighborhood school (Kennedy School) and a John Steinbeck-esque plantation called Edgefield. Finally, all I had to do was type #inpdx into twitter and locals answered my questions about what I should do around town. Instead of preach about why I think Portland is so great, I decided I’d prefer to focus on what is Portland doing to continue to improve.
Something important to understand Portland is that it is primarily comprised of a patchwork of neighborhoods. There’s no centrally planned out navigational system and even I, who is pretty adventurous when it comes to public transit, found it somewhat hard to navigate between neighborhoods. Oftentimes, we ended up driving between neighborhoods, which was kind of a bummer. Another interesting characteristic of Portland is that is actually has a pretty high unemployment and what I would guess would be an even higher underemployment, where degree holding young adults are working for minimum wage at coffee shops. Even Portland’s Economic Development Strategy report cites that “Despite the city’s leadership in sustainable living, Portland lags in creating jobs. With the region’s workforce expected to grow at 2.4% annually – about six times faster than in the nation as a whole, even in the face of job declines – the need for job growth will become even more pressing.”
Currently, Portland seems to be in the process of working on this major strategy of investing in four major sectors: clean tech/sustainable industries, advanced manufacturing, activewear, and software, investing in urban innovation and fostering neighborhood vitality. (Thanks to Semiosis for the easy breakdown.) The plan has an extensive list of strategy partners that support the goals of the report and strategy.
Interesting to me, the Portland strategy reads almost identically to Leap’s, Greater Lansing Next Plan, which was released November 11th, after a 10 month study of regional assets and opportunities by the MSU Land Policy Institute. Like Portland’s plan, LEAP has a series of strategic partners identified as crucial for economic prosperity in the Greater Lansing region.
My concern is what comes next after these wonderfully researched and written out strategic plans? How do you implement broad recommendations like “strengthen and expand our regional mission?” Undoubtedly lots of money goes to creating these great far-sighted plans, but where does the money come from to implement tangible outcomes of these vague goals? Also who brings and coordinates the community that undoubtedly wants to see these broad goals come to being?? While I’d certainly like to see success on both Portland’s and Lansing’s strategic economic development plans, I worry about too broad/ambitious of goals and too much territorial fighting over who is there to achieve those goals. I suppose with any luck, I’ll be proven wrong and both cities will continue to prosper economically, while keeping and achieving even higher quality of living standards. The two cities may be at different starting points, but based on their strategic plans, they are heading towards the same finish line.
