Take What You Want…

An old Spanish proverb says “Take what you want and pay for it”, and this proverb keeps coming to mind as I consider the impact of the many changes facing the Central community.
    While I do have opinions on each of these issues, I’ll try not to share them today.  Instead, I just want us all to consider the things we say we want, and what we will ultimately have to pay to get them.
    I’ll lead with traffic, because we are already in payment mode for wanting improved traffic flow in Central.  By the end of the summer we will have endured the obstacles of construction for the Central Thruway and two roundabouts.  We took what we wanted and are almost through paying for it through temporary inconvenience.
    Connectivity is the policy of requiring new neighborhoods and developments to build side streets that connect to existing neighborhoods to help keep traffic off of the main roadways and to improve police, EMT and Firefighter response times.  The other consideration is that connectivity will certainly increase traffic to some extent in existing neighborhoods.  So if what we want is the quietest possible subdivisions, we can take that, but the price is more congestion on major roads and less options for emergency response.
    Central has a Master Plan, developed with much study and many opportunities for public input.  This is a zoning plan for what Central is intended to look like in the future.  Almost every month there are zoning changes proposed that do not follow the Master Plan, and thus do not help to shape the future layout of Central according to that plan.  If what we want is to make exceptions to the Master Plan, sometimes for very compelling reasons, remember that we pay for it by setting precedents that we must live with, and by compromising the Master Plan vision of what Central can look like in the future.
    Safety is important to everyone, and Central is arguably a very safe place to live.  We primarily have the EBR Sheriff’s Office to thank for those many years of safe living.  Central elected officials have recently begun investing in funding a larger Central Police Department.  Additional police protection can be secured through funding additional patrols by the EBR Sheriff’s Office or by continuing to increase the funding of the Central Police Department.  So if Central wants more police protection, it is there for the taking, but remember that we pay for it with our tax dollars.
    “Take what you want and pay for it” can be applied to public schools, economic development, city center, new housing developments, and much more.  In each case Central can take whatever it wants, but we will have to pay for it.  I am hopeful that Central’s voters, and then Central’s elected officials, will make wise choices and take only those things whose price tag we can justify.  That would be Good News for a Great City.