Colonial Manor Redevelopment Visioning: "We are people who just passionately want to create stronger and better neighborhoods and help build a better community together."

"If it wasn't an election year it would have passed 9-0 ... this opportunity is gone." Anyone got a Kleenex?

As Team Gahan continues to pout, the grassroots activists behind Colonial Manor Redevelopment Visioning continue to work. The report below was filed at Facebook.

At this point, shouldn't City Hall and the Democrats be resolving to be a part of the solution, rather than staging election-year temper tantrums?

Hello, everybody!

It has been an extremely busy past month for our Colonial Manor Redevelopment Citizens Coalition. So, time for an update.

We have gathered and curated an ever-growing collection of community feedback and taken an expanded look at our marketing data. We have held conversations with the Colonial Manor owner in California and his representation locally. And, we have spent many hours identifying and initiating one-on-one conversations with locally-owned businesses and organizations that may be thinking of expanding, considering new or additional locations, or just starting up.

We have worked to match our listening data and demographics up with businesses and organizations that may be a really good match for redeveloped and renovated space. Plus, we've been working hard to build some strategic partnerships between businesses, helping some of them figure out how they could perhaps mutually support and strengthen each other in a space like that.

Last week, we brought just a few of those businesses and organizations together with an owner's representative to begin to explore some possibilities, discuss needs and vision, and take a quick survey of some potential funding sources and options for support.

NOW---we want to broaden our vision and potential partners! If you have a local retail or service business, a cafe or restaurant, or are a not-for-profit seeking to make an increased impact in serving our community---and may be interested in exploring a renewed Colonial Manor---we would love to draw you into our exciting conversation.

Our aim as volunteers is to support, encourage, and assist the owner in any way we can with building a new day for the center and, in turn, enhancing the quality of life for our local neighborhoods. Have some ideas? Want to get together with some of us and talk? Interested in volunteering? Just send us a message and let's do some dreaming and help some of our local businesses and organizations perhaps make some extraordinary things happen.

Thanks to all who have continued to be encouragers, helpers, and sources of learning for us. We aren't real estate developers. We have no ownership interests in that development. We are just a growing group of ordinary, everyday people (with other jobs!), big hearts, relentless energy, diverse skills and talents, and what we believe is a bit of a gift for listening and matching people/businesses with our neighborhoods and our community's needs.

We are people who just passionately want to create stronger and better neighborhoods and help build a better community together. Please continue to support us in any way you can as we continue the journey.