Members of the Bowling Green community had the opportunity to participate in a call-to-action meeting on Saturday.
The Bowling Green Save Our Neighborhoods Group (BG SONG) facilitated the meeting at the Bowling Green Community Center.
The meeting’s group of participants agreed on four big challenges that the BG community currently faces.
“We need to revitalize the existing housing we have in BG, we need to understand our needs and capabilities for public transport, we have to prepare for climate change, and we need to find a way to create new housing within the city,” said David Drain, BG SONG at-large board member. “Two-thirds of the meeting participants signed up to be a member of one or more of the four action teams. Teams will meet to decide on actions that can be taken in the next six to twelve months to begin to solve these problems.”
The purpose of the meeting was to collaborate with fellow community members, creating hopeful ideas into key actions in service of more healthy, sustainable, and inclusive housing within BG.
“The meeting went remarkably well. We had great attendance from a deep cross-section of city residents. In spite of some obvious differences of opinion, the tone of the meeting was civil and cooperative. We took a very complex problem, that of inclusive community improvement, and as a group, agreed on four facets of it that we will work to improve right now,” Drain said. “People’s time was well-used. We got a lot done in a very short time due to the expert facilitation by two BGSU graduate students in the executive masters of organization development and change program. The proximity of BGSU and the willingness of their faculty and students to help the community is a huge advantage most cities our size do not have.”
Drain said those who participated in the meeting look forward to a bright future.
“In the future, I look forward to BG being a vibrant small city where everyone has a decent place to live; where we can get to wherever we need in spite of age, income, or other transportation challenges,” Drain said. “I also look forward to the capacity to create new housing for faculty, students, and other workers that will convince them BG is the best place they want to live.”
