Letters to the editor for Friday, April 21, 2017

On building a better community: It’s up to the residents

A “Book Tasting” with wine and snacks, themed “Building a Better Community,” hosted by Friends of the Carson City Library, took place in the Digitorium at the library.

Conversations about projects and possibilities dominated the room.

Capital City Reads April 2017 and library Director Sena Loyd encouraged citizens to read one or more of the books to inform dialogue later in the month.

In “Happy City” by Charles Montgomery, the chapter “Who is the city for?” offers several solutions for typical urban problems many communities face.

“Startup Communities” by Brad Feld provides a road map for entrepreneurial/governmental partnering.

I liked Anthony Townsend’s “Look Before We Leap” guideline in the chapter “Reinventing City Hall” in “Smart Cities.”

“Thank you for Being Late” by Thomas L. Friedman recounts his personal experience. He left St. Louis Park, Minn., in 1973 to pursue his journalistic career. In coming back home in 2016, he found the world had come to Minnesota. He quotes the American unifying phrase: “e pluribus unum — out of many, one.”

If all Carson City residents, our city officers, employees, the Board of Supervisors and all youth would read at least one of the several books promoting “Building a Better Community,” we need not reinvent the wheel. Multitudes of other cities have done that already. Carson City can learn from their creativity and innovation. Local smarts added into the mix can uniquely build our community into a place where thriving in safety, employment and delightful cultural experiences is totally available to each one of us.

“What is the city, but the people?” — William Shakespeare

Linda Bellegray

Carson City