Community Building Takes Off
By Greg L | 17 March 2008 | Manassas Park, Manassas City, Prince William County | 8 Comments
Manassas City Councilman Andy Harrover’s effort to build and implement a vision for the future in Manassas City is but one of a number of efforts that seem to be springing up lately in the community, as residents demonstrate an increasing dedication to making their communities better rather than simply relying on their elected officials to do their work for them. While “Manassas Next” looks at ways to create a sustainable plan for economic development and community revitalization in Manassas, the number of neighborhood watch groups in Prince William County is exploding, and a fascinating effort out in Woodbridge in the Marumsco Hills area to improve that area has taken off and is already making a significant impact.
One thing that has become very apparent in Prince William County and Manassas is that citizens can seize control over the destiny over their own neighborhoods, and increasingly are making the effort to do so. This bodes well for the community, because local government is never as effective in serving their citizens as when the greatest number of citizens are engaged. Whether it’s something as daunting a task as creating a vision for economic development, or as seemingly mundane as participating in a neighborhood watch, getting involved makes a huge difference. That difference is being made right now.
Now if only something like this could take root in Manassas Park. I’ve never seen a locality in my life where citizens are so entirely convinced that their voices do not matter, and that engaging is a complete waste of time. That cycle of despair must be broken if Manassas Park is ever to survive as an independent political entity in Virginia.
UPDATE: The MJM has finally picked up on this story, four days later. Here it is.
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8 Comments
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Thanks for linking this Greg. The website for the effort is www.manassasnext.com if anyone cares to take a look…
Way to go Manassas Next!
Thanks for the good PR for Manassas and an opportunity to demonstrate that we’re not all Pumpkins!
The Youtube link is not working for me, so I only know what I’m reading here. As I have been involved in similar efforts elsewhere, I will be interested in following the progress of Manassas Next. Is there any discussion of how to reach out and include the immigrant residents?
I’m sure the Manassas Next folks welcome input from the entire community, and the link for that website is above. The Prince William County Police Department definitely welcomes members of the immigrant community to participate in neighborhood watch programs as well. Their website has details.
The City council has a work session tomorrow night on Manassas Next so I’ve been in a bit of hurry to get the website done and it seems like I’ve left off some important info…:)
Manassas Next is really just an idea that I started with in October. It is my attempt to answer the question, “What’s the next big thing?” To this end Manassas Next is, I hope, a vehicle for ideas that will become a legislative agenda.
I’ve gotten great feedback and help from government folks and the business community in developing the ideas and tomorrow night is really when the Council will take it up in public session.
My hope is that in the near future Manassas Next becomes an agenda for the whole City and not just Andy Harrover and a few others.
Kudos to Councilman Harrover for having the courage to share his positive vision!
We have spent the past several years talking about the future but focusing on cheap taxes today. Based on the many posts on BVBL, it seems like many are ready for a change. (seems to be a popular saying in politics these days).
Make Manassas a desireable place to live and my house will hold value even this troubled economy. The real challenge in my opinion, are the citizens of Manassas ready to come out and actively support the vision for a positive change if it costs them? I for one am!
I am with you long time. This is a very positive move Mr. Harrover is making. I wish we could get more comments from the readers, I guess this is too positive for the readers of BVBL.
Great presentation by Andy Harrover last night at the Budget Work Session. He focused on what is the next “Big Thing” — what is it that Manassas City Council should support, do, build for the future? He focused on 5 areas — schools, economic development, vision, housing and efficient government . He spoke about the schools having a more comprehensive science and technology education, about investing in econ. development and initiating the sector plans. For FY09 he suggested putting in the budget $100K for econ. development and $375K for the Battle Street Streetscape project. Members of the Manassas Business Council were in attendance at this session.
This is a very positive development. And it is exciting to be working for a better Manassas.
My words of caution:
(1) We should not automatically think that raising the real estate tax rate is the only way to fund these projects. Remember the median annual household income in Manassas is still around $75K and paying higher taxes is still a burden for these families.
(2) When the economy improves again and, especially as the sector plan and other projects are developed, we should have in place tougher regulations against overcrowding and against the City hiring contractors who use illegal alien labor or else we will repeat the battles of the last few years that many would care to forget.