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Health & Fitness

Manchester 2.0 Starts Here, Now, With Us

If we expect things to be different in Manchester, we can't keep doing the same things or counting on the same people. It's time to question the status quo and develop Manchester 2.0.

If you take a step back and look at the big picture, you will see that Manchester has some big challenges ahead. Projects led by Manchester 2020, the Manchester Redevelopment Agency, and the newly formed alone have the potential to reshape future development in town, on Broad Street, and reconfigure our schools respectively. Decisions on  projects like these are being made by the same handful of people year after year from either this party or that party, and the conversations leading up to those decisions don't seem to change. We need to re-think how and where these conversations happen before the deiscions are made, and it's time for you to join in. It's time to develop and implement Manchester 2.0.

We are living in an unprecedented time of how we create, consume and share information. The confluence of social media and the work that needs to happen in Manchester is creating a tremendous opportunity for citizens to reshape the conversations in town hall. The only thing missing is you, and the only thing holding us back is fear. It doesn't matter if it is fear of failure, change, public speaking, rejection, or of people who may think or look differently than you do. We have to overcome our fears, collectively step up, better understand each other, and learn how to collaborate if we expect to move forward in Manchester.

So, how do we get there? I definitely don't have all the answers, but I have some ideas:

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1.) Manchester is changing, it always has and it always will. If we don't embrace the demographic change in Connecticut quickly enough, we will miss out on many opportunities for a sustainable future in our town. Learn from the past and respect it, but don't fear change. The past wasn't always better, and worshiping it can hold us back. We can't bring back the past, but we can pragmatically build upon the best parts of the past that will work for our future.

2.) Are you afraid to do something because you think you don't have the skills? Well, go out there and start learning. Learning doesn't stop when we leave school. If you want to learn more about Manchester, or become a better leader, check out the Manchester Neighborhood Academy. There are also credit-free classes at MCC, or the adult education programs in Manchester. Besides, in the age of $300 laptopsfree Wi-Fi and Google, there are no more excuses for ignorance.

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3.) Maybe you are overwhelmed and may not know how or where to start. Pick something, anything within the scale that you can handle today, and just do it. Find your passion! Join a PTA (you don't have to have kids in a school to join a PTA) and help find ways to improve the school in your neighborhood. Join the East Side Livable Neighborhood Group and help find ways to improve the East Side Neighborhood. Whatever your talent may be, some group out there needs just few hours of your time to make a difference.  Start with one hour per week, and see where it takes you. Is that TV program you watch every week more important than what needs to happen in our town?

4.) Accept the fact that mistakes will be made, that people may be wrong at times, that you may not know what you are doing, and that there will be failures. It's how we learn. (Go back to idea #2) We need to fail faster and in smaller scales so that way we can find what will succeed on the larger scales.  Let's find some crossover in the concepts of rapid prototyping from engineering or rapid application development from software programing and bring them into municipal management.

5.) Become bureaucratically active. In order to change the framework, we have to work within it, or at least figure out where we can work outside of it. I'm not going to candy coat this: this isn't fun unless you are the type who enjoys strategy games like chess, go, Stratego, Risk, etc. The system is set up to make it hard to change, and that isn't necessarily a bad thing. The elephant in the room is that some people in power use this bureaucratic system to make change almost impossible. They are counting on the fact that you will give up. Don't give up!

6.) Join City 2.0 and start sharing ideas, and look for other people to help implement a solution. It's just getting started, and we need to build a critical mass. To learn more about City 2.0, check out this link. I know it looks like it's for big cities, but it can also work for smaller cities like Manchester.

7.) So, what's your idea?  What is your plan of action to achieve your idea, and how are you going to find people to help? The handful of us who are trying to do something will eventually burn out unless you join in. Like it or not, we are all in this together, and it is a continuous process. (hint: there will be a Manchester 2.1, 2.2... 3.0, etc.) If you want something done, stop complaining about it. You have to do it for yourself or find someone else who is already doing something similar and pitch in.

"The future belongs to the few of us still willing to get our hands dirty."

-Roland Reiner Tiangco

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