The following is an account of the VOICE Public Meeting as told by attendee and architect, James Leach. If you were unable to attend the meeting, it provides a complete outline of the meeting and discussion.
My first active participation with VOICE was the January 26th meeting at the Bemis featuring a panel discussion focusing on urban design with a specific emphasis on the MAPA-proposed beltway. I am a Midtowner by choice and an architect by profession and I try to stay informed about urban and environmental design issues in Omaha. I had already read the Reader’s December article “Beltway or Bust” and was firmly anti-beltway before the meeting, but I wanted to learn more and hear other viewpoints.
The meeting opened with the polling of attendees. Results were instantaneously displayed to the group by way of magical electronic devices. Group demographics were registered as well as the big question of level of support for the beltway. Attendees were largely against the beltway with some undecided and a very small number in support.
VOICE assembled a knowledgeable panel and their discussion was enlightening and quite broad. Topics ranged from the historic patterns of development and growth of the city, to encouraging infill development, to developing effective intermodal transportation, to the link between transportation and opportunity, and of course, the beltway. The panel was strongly anti-beltway citing initial expense and long-term costs, de-centralization (of jobs, money, population) from the city’s eastern core, encouraging sprawl and the over-extension of infrastructure. After the discussion, a re-vote on attendees’ support of the beltway suggested that most of the undecideds were swayed to the anti-beltway camp.
To conclude the meeting, attendees were asked to break into small groups and develop “next steps” to be posted and voted on by the membership as a guide for future action. This resulted in few actionable objectives but revealed an interest among attendees in continued exploration of public transportation issues.
Leaving the meeting, I took away the following first impressions:
- VOICE was able to assemble a credible and knowledgeable discussion panel. The inclusion of Willie Barney from Empower Omaha added a hands-on community-oriented perspective that complimented the largely academic/professional group. There was, however, an obvious lack of pro-beltway representation on the panel. By the way, the 7-page executive summary of the MAPA Beltway feasability study (http://www.mapabeltwaystudy.com/Exec_sum.pdf) is well worth the read.
- I was impressed by the group’s obvious concern to accurately represent the concerns and values of its members. A great effort was made to clearly state objectives and I believe the group intends to build consensus and confirm their direction by developing action items to be posted on-line and voted on by members.
- I learned from the insta-polling that the majority of meeting attendees were 30-something residents of midtown or downtown and I gather that this is typical of VOICE membership. There was some concern at the meeting that the group should attempt to broaden its membership to residents of North, South and West Omaha. I believe that VOICE will find success by understanding and embracing the character of its core membership and looking for strategic alliances with groups that share similar concerns but that represent other geographic and demographic groups.
