Last Thursday I attended a discussion/brainstorming meeting with several notable players in the city's/state's renewal. We had people in politics, in non-profits, government agencies, consulting firms, developers, business people, and more. I have to say that I love these things. I love to network. I love to put a face with a name, and expand my understanding of how things work in our city and who to talk to to move our initiatives further along.

This meeting was for "Downtowns of Promise", a program created by the state of Michigan for seven cities in the state. At my table was a rep from a local foundation we have approached for grant funding, Margaret from Habitat for Humanity, two Downtown Development Authority people, and another woman who I did not find out where she was from. Each table listed out priorities for the next five years, things that are vital to downtown's continued revitalization, barriers for revitalization and more.

I have to say that I felt like we accomplished way more in these 2.5 hours than we did in the hour or so at the city meeting I went to on neighborhood action a few months back. That meeting left me feeling furstrated at the lack of coordination and tangible goals for the city.

At he end of the meeting, I was able to speek with a woman from MSHDA (Michigan State Housing Development Authority) who I had met briefly at an Americops/Habitat Meeting last spring. I knew she would remember me because she stopped her self mid sentence to compliment my tattoos. Anyway, she is going to help us hopefully find some funding towards our co-op house for the ignite team.

The consulting group hired is going to keep us in the planning loop and I look forward to being involved in the development of the downtown area.