Since the last election, an important conversation has been developing at Council meetings.
Council members and residents have been asking, in different ways: As Boca continues to evolve, what kind of community do we want it to be?
The City isn’t starting from scratch. We have a strategic plan, a comprehensive plan, extensive data and established priorities. Our professional staff has already done much of the work.
What I think we need now is to update that work via more Community Conversations — creating a unified direction that guides what we do now, next year, five years from now and beyond. We need to hear from our residents, our business and organization leaders, and community-minded developers. By gathering that consensus, we’re putting Boca First across the board.
And Live, Work and Play can’t just be a phrase.
People throughout Boca should have the opportunity to live here and work here — with businesses and jobs that meet the needs of people at different stages of their lives and careers.
That’s economic development. But it also connects to growth, housing, traffic and infrastructure.
Our neighborhoods, parks, public safety, quality of life and financial responsibility are part of that same picture.
Putting Boca First
Instead of considering each major decision primarily on its own, let’s also ask how it fits into the larger picture.
Our staff knows the plans and data better than anyone. Ask them to bring that information together, identify where revisions or new ideas are needed, and begin translating it into specific actions.
We have about nine months before Council’s strategic planning session next spring.
Make this a regular ten-minute item at every Council workshop. No long PowerPoints. What’s been accomplished? What’s next? What ideas are emerging?
That lets Council and the public follow the work and comment as it develops.
By spring, we should have a refined strategic direction and a task list — things we can begin doing now, priorities for the coming year, and longer-term initiatives moving in the same direction.
Put Boca First in the decisions we make today for today and the generations that follow us.