In the coming years, the City of Anaheim is going to face a power vacuum. Much of the senior city staff that has seen Anaheim through the last thirty years has recently retired. Curt Pringle, who has been a strong leader for the city, is termed out of the mayor’s office in 2010. At this point, there doesn’t appear to be anybody waiting in the wings to step in and take the reigns of leadership, to guide Anaheim to a better future. The goal of Anaheim 2060 is to, in part, help fill that vacuum by putting forth a vision of what Anaheim could and should be fifty years from now.
Leading up to the 2008 City Council election, I asked each of the candidates what their vision of Anaheim was for 50 years from now. This question was largely dismissed since many of Anaheim’s current residents won’t be living here in fifty years, but I will be. I’m a life long Anaheim resident, I’ve been here for 28 years so far and I expect to be here for at least another 50 (hopefully longer). And, even if I’m gone for whatever reason, I expect that my family will still be living in Anaheim fifty years hence.
Because of these expectations for me and my family, I find it important to take the long view of city planning and policies. The residents of Anaheim need to have a long-term goal of where they see the city and a roadmap to get there. Without this goal and roadmap, all we will do as a city is band-aid our current problems without looking at them more holistically. These band-aided solutions might serve us well in the short-term, but without addressing the underlying causes of our problems they won’t work to systemically improve our city over the long run. We need to ensure that our solutions to today’s problems serve to better tomorrow’s future.
Anaheim 2060 will put forth that vision of tomorrow’s Anaheim and provide a roadmap on how to get there. Along the way, we will examine the city’s current plans, policies and proposals to ensure they are meeting the long-term needs of Anaheim’s residents.
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