By Mayor  Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

One of the most challenging aspects of democratic government is that most good things take such a long time. It’s taken years to roll out 311 and integrate performance management into every aspect of city government.  It took six years to develop and implement a comprehensive restructuring and upgrading of our Police Department.  It took four years to get the state legislature to give us the ability to control our employee and retiree health insurance costs by simplifying local access to the Group Insurance Commission.  It took  years to design and build the Argenziano School at Lincoln Park (though, thankfully, that project came in on time and under budget in 2007).

In so many areas, Somerville has come a long way – at Assembly Square, in planning and construction of the Green Line Extension, in the redevelopment of Union Square, the rebuilding of the East Somerville Community School and dozens of other major initiatives.  We’ve made visible progress in all these areas and on so much else – but there is still so much left to do.

It’s unavoidable: most of the big things in life take time.  And no matter how much we try to impose deadlines, manage efficiently or just plain hustle, sometimes we have to embrace a long-term, careful, systematic, inclusive and deliberate approach.  That’s especially true when we’re trying to achieve consensus and give the entire community a chance to have its say.

Still, the results are usually worth the wait.

We started the citywide SomerVision comprehensive planning effort back in 2009 as a way to define a shared strategic vision for planning and development that could carry us all the way to 2030.  Through over fifty public meetings and countless drafts of value statements and action agendas, we sought to harness the collective wisdom of our entire community to provide a set of basic goals, principles and policies that would give us a roadmap to a better future for our city and all of its people.

This week, the product of all that effort goes to our Board of Aldermen for discussion and deliberation.  The City’s Comprehensive Plan is ready for review, and it tells a truly inspiring story about where Somerville comes from, where it is, and where it’s headed.

After it goes to the Board, we’ll post it to the City’s website: I urge you to take a look.
In the meantime, it’s not too soon to highlight some of the major goals we’ve set for ourselves for the next 20 years.  Here are some of our ambitious targets:
•    30,000 new jobs “as part of a responsible plan to create opportunity for all Somerville workers and entrepreneurs;”
•    125 new acres of publicly-accessible open space “as part of a realistic plan to provide high-quality and well-programmed community spaces;”
•    6,000 new housing units, 1,200 of which will be permanently designated as affordable housing
•    50% of new trips via transit, bike or walking “as part of an equitable plan for access and circulation to and through the city;”
•    85% of new development in transformative areas such as Assembly Square, Innerbelt and Brickbottom “as part of a predictable land use plan that protects neighborhood character”
The important thing to remember about all these numbers is that they didn’t come out of thin air: each goal is the result of careful analysis; each is feasible (although none are easy); each one complements the other – they are mutually supportive.

Best of all, each is deeply rooted in a vision of the kind of city that our residents have told us they want as a place to live, work, play, build a career and raise a family. They are also deeply rooted in our shared commitment to the values of diversity, community, health, education, heritage, enterprise, accessibility, sustainability, quality of life and mutual responsibility.

Our SomerVision Comprehensive Plan 2010-2030 has been worth the time and effort of the hundreds of residents, officials, business and community leaders, planners and specialists who have contributed to its completion over the past 3+ years.  It provides a guide that allows us to govern today with an eye on tomorrow and a yardstick by which to measure our progress.

From time to time, we all need to be reminded of a quote attributed to the British writer John Galsworthy: “If you don’t think about the future, you can’t have one.”

Well, thanks to SomerVision, we have – and we do.