Proactive Community planning
One of the biggest concerns individuals have voiced to me is the lack of a coherent plan for the development in the 49th Ward. Currently, development seems to be something that is just allowed to happen to us and community input, when allowed for, is often at the end of a decision-making process. Instead, we should be developing a plan for what we want to see happen in the ward for the next 5, 10, and 15 years. We should be the ones starting conversations with local builders and developers saying “this is what we want/need - how can we work together to achieve this?” Community driven zoning has worked in other wards and will work here as well.