The Fix: Creating a Long-Term Plan to Achieve Results

By Paul McGhee

Paul McGhee's plan for establishing long term visions for Cincinnati.

"The Fix" is my name for a long-term plan that should be adopted by City Hall with the purpose of directing our vision for the Queen City. Local government has a responsibility to act with a region's lasting future in mind, and The Fix is a strategy for living up to that idea.

This may seem shocking, but I have no desire to push my own platform points into the details of The Fix. This is not my gimmick for pushing my own pet projects; instead, I understand that any useful long-term plan needs to accommodate the multi-partisan politics characterizing both our city's leadership and citizenry. What is most important to me is that our city develop a plan, a long term vision for the future, and my campaign promise is to work actively in developing The Fix.

When I have talked about this idea in the communities, I have most often heard two questions -- which I would like to address right now. Firstly, people want to know how we can have a long-term plan like this if the future is uncertain; in other words, how can we have a plan if the plan might change? And secondly, people have asked how I propose to insure that The Fix really contains a multi-partisan perspective, and how I will stop others (or myself) from using it as leverage for pushing partisan policies.

All plans need to be built on the understanding of change and flexibility. For example, let's say that one aspect of the plan assumes a major corporation will still be in town ten years from now. Obviously, if that corporation moves, the part of the plan dealing with that issue would need to be revised. However, changes to the plan should be of that sort -- necessary revisions due to major changes. What should remain consistent is the vision, the ideal of the Queen City towards which this plan works. This vision will direct City Hall in its approach to policy.

Right now, we take a piecemeal approach to planning. Recently, we have heard what will happen to fountain square in the next year or so. How does this revision of fountain square fit into a ten year vision for that section of the city? The city doesn't have a long-term plan, and it should. We need The Fix.

The details of this vision should involve all stake-holders whenever possible. Actually, I would like the ideas to have a grassroots approach. I think The Fix is a natural compliment to my proposal for a Community Congress: The Fix could really benefit from city-wide citizen input. We need input from all stakeholders, including the neighborhoods, and businesses.

It will take some time to develop the details -- remember, this is not a typical band-aid approach to city politics -- but after a start-up investment of time and brainpower The Fix could offer our city the long-term vision it lacks.

When elected to City Council, I promise to work actively for establishing The Fix.