The Greatest Generation - (Great Communities - Part 5)

I spoke with my father this weekend. He lives in Yakima, Washington (Hi Dad) and googled his way onto this blog. (Can I just say, as an aside, that I hate the word blog?!? What an ugly word. Why can't we call it a web journal? Or web diary? BLOG - it just sounds like 3rd grade humor...) :-)

But I digress. In speaking with my father, he mentioned that perhaps I was speaking to the wrong audience in this blog. Perhaps (said he) the web-savvy folks in the world who are interested in this kind of medium are younger and bored with politics. I wonder about that.

The counter at the bottom of the page is a link to another site which tracks where you are, as well as other interesting facts about your visit, like where you were directed from (google search, montbelvieu.net, or whatever) and how long you were here (most of you only spend about a nano second before realizing that this isn't what you thought it would be and move on). It's interesting: there are hits from all over. Does that mean people are interested in planning? On what a City Planner does? Or interested in civic involvement? Who knows? Because I haven't heard back from many people, it is hard for me to gauge. The counter doesn't tell me who visited and why. I would be interested to know.

It is my hope, however, to attract people of all ages to the blog discussion, so that we can all be informed about thoughts that each other are concerned with. Perhaps we can get to know each other a little better. Perhaps we will be given a chance to vent something that otherwise would be too controversial or disconcerting. And perhaps we can learn from each other... (what a concept!)

And that's where I want to wrap this section up. Mont Belvieu is great because there are young families, families with older children, empty-nesters, people moving toward retirement, and those with great amounts of experience to share. One of the people I work with has been in Mont Belvieu since before WWII. The insights that this great citizen can provide are invaluable. How has the town changed? What can we do to help retain the distinctive nature of the City? What are the values and characteristics that must be held on to in order to perpetuate the goodness that's here? Without these people in our community, it would be difficult to answer these questions. With the influx of new development, there will also be an influx of new people and new ideas. Hopefully, we will continue to attract a good mixture of people to the area that will provide a solid base of ideas and values that will help inspire future generations.