Ellington

From jfp.ms: A comment on “The JFP Urban Development Manifesto,” by Todd Stauffer

A cogent and timely manifesto for Jackson. While I would not quibble with any of the eight points, I would suggest that a common misreading of statements like "never focus on a large project when a small project will do" might make the inclusion of a ninth point necessary.

First the misreading. Large-scale and long-term planning does not correlate with the scale of individual projects; and yet many people, especially citizens of mid-size cities and towns with limited budgets, conflate the two scales. As a result, those who do not understand the importance of planning and analysis tend to translate meaningful, never-do-a-large-project-when-a-small-one-will-do-type statements as, simultaneously, permission to be short-sighted and an excuse to reject ambitious goals as utopian dreams. Jackson, in my view, should aspire to greatness; and that requires big thinking and lots of planning.

So, I would humbly suggest a ninth point: Dream. Plan. Analyze. Re-plan. Re-analyze. Imagine a sustainable Jackson of the future; then do the difficult work of plotting out the incremental steps that lie between that vision and the city as it exists today.

—jassen