Casting a wide net

By Robb Murray
The Free Press

January 06, 2006 07:44 am

— Each time Derek Okubo goes to a city or town to help the people draw the road map for their future, well-intentioned people show up to do good work.
Okubo, vice president of the National Civic League, has done this 52 times. And he’s never seen a group like the one he saw at the Midwest Wireless Civic Center Thursday night.
“I’ve never, ever, in those 52 communities, had a turnout of this magnitude,” Okubo told the 175 or so people who attended the first official meeting of the Envision 2020 effort. “You have set the standard for all the communities I’ll work with in the future.”
Envision 2020, an organized effort to give structure to the myriad dreams and wishes area residents have for what this region could be, kicked off in the civic center’s conference room. Sitting around more than a dozen tables were faces both familiar and foreign to the world of public service.
There were city and county officials from both sides of the river, representatives from a handful of colleges, professors and doctors, activists and business owners, college students and senior citizens.
And after Okubo delivered his opening monologue, he told them to work together as a table to come up with a list of issues they believe deserves to be addressed. That was the heart of meeting No. 1, and this is why they came.
“I’m concerned about sprawl,” one woman said. “We keep sprawling out into this beautiful farmland ... And I’m concerned about the lack of green space.”
“How about duplication of services?” another woman wondered. “The Mankato/North Mankato us versus them thing.”
“It’s about job growth,” a businessman said. “But good quality jobs.”
“What about the lack of a real art district, art identity or cultural center is a real problem,” a woman in her 20s says. “You hear that a lot from young people. How are we supposed to integrate into the community?”
“What we lack,” a man across the room says, “is a cohesive focus.”
“We need to encourage our youth to understand the need for non-profits,” a woman says.
“What about strengthening and supporting the communities that surround Mankato,” someone says.
“We have whole new group of immigrants in our community,” a former county board member says. “How are we going to deal with that?”
And finally, “Who are we? What is the image of this community?”
Becky Kunst, one of the younger faces in the crowd, said she came to meeting to check things out. She says she be back for future meetings, and was very impressed by the turnout.
“I’m the younger generation,” said Kunst, who grew up in Mankato and attended Minnesota State University. “I want to see where our community is going in the future.”

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