Community Building Programs

2011 saw the advent of a Speaker’s Bureau Series through the Community Building/Sustainability Service Bureau. The Speaker’s Series featured experts on retail/commercial development, increasing usage of bicycles and pedestrian ways, and walkable communities. All of the speakers were well received and provided a great deal of food for thought about different types of land uses and moving from fossil fuel based travel to alternative means of transport such as walking or biking.

As stated many times, the physical face of Columbia along with normal population and demographic characteristics in Columbia will change significantly. Change is hard to accept for a great many people even in the most subtle of forms. Therefore, it is important that CA continue to offer community building functions that provide information and the basis for the beginning of change in the community.

The video in this post provides information concerning the need to expand community-building programs.
CA partnered with the Howard Hughes Corporation and the Villages to bring speakers to the community who could speak of change and the need to plan. These partnerships should continue so that the residents of Columbia can better understand how their lives might change with the future.



Primary Focus Points:

• Continue expert speakers series
• Community input
• Continuing research on area demographics
• Monitoring various change factors

“A scholar who loves comfort is not fit to be called a scholar”.
- Confucius, Analects