Back in 2006, Columbia’s then Assistant City Manager Paula Hertwig-Hopkins launched a community-wide effort to create a visioning document for Columbia’s future. The task was dubbed “Imagine Columbia’s Future” and brought together more than 300 citizens for a collaborative attempt to paint a picture of what Columbia might look like 20 or 30 years into the future. The prevailing wisdom, at the time, was that if local citizens could come to a general consensus on what they wanted Columbia to become, it would be easier for the city to pursue the steps it would take to get us there. After a nearly five-year effort, the final report was placed on a shelf somewhere in city hall, where it did nothing but gather dust for the better part of 20 years.
Key components of this visioning effort focused on the revitalization of downtown Columbia, creating a strategy for meeting the city’s energy needs and creating cost- efficient methods for meeting Columbia’s growing housing crisis. As much as Columbia has grown and prospered over these last two decades, it seems remarkable to me that the issues that haunt our city today were clearly identified 19 years ago by city leaders and citizens alike. The city’s failure to take action on many of the recommendations outlined in the report has cost our community.
Downtown Columbia seems to show the greatest signs of neglect from the lack of planning by city leaders. Much of The District’s 50 square blocks suffer from an invasion of homeless individuals and panhandlers who make visiting the area feel like a risky proposition. The exodus of locally owned shops and boutiques in exchange for a proliferation of tattoo parlors, vape shops and vacant storefronts has made a once-charming shopping district feel like a warzone. Widely publicized reports of late-night mob-like gatherings where fights erupt and gunshots are fired only add to the public’s perception that our downtown has given way to the ills of society. City planners have always told us that a city dies from the inside out.
The long-forgotten visioning study also addressed the city’s need for increased energy capacity to support Columbia’s anticipated growth. Fast forward 20 years and we discover elected officials naively pushing an unrealistic agenda for a reliance on alternative energy sources like wind power and solar. In the meantime, experts have long warned of extreme inadequacies in our electric grid and city council members have kicked that can down the road on at least six occasions. At issue is the aging infrastructure of our grid and our ability to transfer energy from outside sources during peak demand periods. As we enter an era where artificial intelligence is driving innovation and technological advances, our city can barely afford to keep the lights on, let alone take advantage of these rising opportunities.
In 2006, community leaders knew we had a looming housing crisis. Even back then, there were strong concerns about workforce housing and the affordability of existing housing stock. The subsequent crash of the housing industry in 2007-08 only exacerbated the situation. Nonetheless, increases in city building regulations, permit fees and a complete lack of flexibility in zoning ordinances have resulted in a full-fledged crisis.
I believe Columbia is at a major turning point. We can continue to slide into a declined state where we surrender the core of our community to lawlessness and chaos. We can also choose to ignore the looming crisis of our crumbling infrastructure and continue to allow the legislative malfeasance that prevents us from addressing the dire need for affordable housing and safe neighborhoods. We can continue to elect mayors and city council members who would rather focus on pollinator habitats, transgender rights and climate action rather than dealing with our most critical issues.
If the truth were to be told, the greatest hope for Columbia’s future is tied to what’s happening on the University of Missouri campus. Thanks to the leadership of Mun Choi, we will have a second research reactor at some point in the next 10 years that can change the trajectory of our city. On the other side of campus, breakthrough research in artificial intelligence and health sciences holds great promise for technology transfer and enhanced economic development in our community.
My greatest fear is that the lawlessness in downtown Columbia and the vagrancy in our local parks and trail systems will one day result in the unfortunate death of a university student. When that happens, a national spotlight will shine on Columbia and cast a shadow on the university, which is not only our largest economic driver but also the greatest hope for Columbia’s future. We will look back and ask ourselves why we didn’t do more to prevent this.
Our city’s current leadership lacks vision and the sense of urgency to fix what’s wrong. Things aren’t likely to change until more of us decide to get involved and hold leaders to a higher standard. There’s never been a more important time to create a brand new vision for Columbia.
