Group Exploring Cool City Opportunities
Bay City Cool City Advisory Committee getting serious about being Cool
March 11, 2005
By: Stephen Kent
Cool City Advisory Committee hosts evening social hour / fact finder
In August, 2004 Bay City was selected by Governor Granholm as a "Cool City" grant recipient bringing $100,000 to the city to seed the funds needed to develop a "Waterfall Park" at the site of the old Third Street Bridge downtown.
Getting the grant took some dedicated work by a group of people in both the public and private sectors. Once the grant was landed, work began to raise the additional funds needed and to begin work on the park.
But the Waterfall Park is not the end of the story. The award is intended to be a springboard to achieve the Governor's vision which is to bring new people to the state and to give young people reasons to stay in Michigan and it's Cool Cities. Receiving the grant had that effect in Bay City as a number of people began thinking about other opportunities to attract young people to the city by identifying the resources, activities, and life style they want.
A "Cool City Advisory Committee" started at City Hall and was quicklyexpanded to include private citizens. Emphasis was given to attracting young people to participate. The ideas generated excitement in the group and a sub-committee began working to gather ideas and explore ways to make things happen with the resources at hand.
"Just like Bay City, our Cool City Advisory Committee is evolving" said Alan LaFave, Committee Chairman. "Currently we're in a research phase trying to identify what the people of Bay City really want. Once we get that type of information we better advise City leaders, civic groups and organizations, as well as business owners and investors looking for ideas for community projects or developments".
The first objective was to get ideas from the community. Two informal social gathering were organized and held at downtown restaurants. People got together to meet the committee and share ideas. The events were publicized by wordof mouth only with committee members asking friends to come. Both events were well attended and have encouraged the committee to organize more such events in the near future and to publicize them to the entire community.
"Creating a triangular connection between ideas, institutions and citizens can bring about a higher rate of change in a more efficient manner", said LaFave. The committee created a survey to help collect hard data identifying life style, community, housing, employment and other preferences as well as general demographic information. The survey has been distributed in paper form and is available on-line at MyBayCity.com as the
Cool City Survey. Survey participants who provide their e-mail address will receive e-mail announcements of future Cool City events as well as other community events.
For additional information contact the Cool City Advisory Committee:
e-mail: BayCityCoolCity@yahoo.com
Share your thoughts! Take the
Cool City Survey. Everyone's ideas are welcome.
Cool City Advisory Committee Social Gathering