When Adam and I were coming back from dinner with friends this weekend, we were chatting about what it takes to help revitalize a city and whether getting involved with those efforts can really have a long-term impact. We concluded that yes, getting involved does have an impact. And it may take years, but even the smallest positive contribution will have an impact. A handful of small positive changes collectively make a stronger community. I was going to blog about our baby steps philosophy, but forgot as I was nursing a wee bit of a champagne hangover. I was reminded again today.

I am a long-time runner and I just returned from a 6-week forced hiatus due to a mean bronchial infection. (It is Adam’s belief that perhaps I wouldn’t have had bronchitis if I would have stopped running when I was sick in the first place. But we’re not here to talk about my stubbornness. We’re here to talk about baby steps.) As I was running today, I was grateful that the weather had been warm enough that the roads were clear and I didn’t need to wear those strap-on coil things that keep me from slipping on the snow and ice. Those will make anyone feel slow and old. And I was grateful that it was snowing lots of big fluffy flakes instead of pelting rain. Other than that, it sucked. It’s like starting over. And I have never been the fastest. I ran long distance in track. My trademark is not sprinting. My trademark is keeping going and going when others have gotten bored, showered and gone home to have dinner. So I just kept going today, in spite of the suckiness of the set back of starting anew. And I thought “Little by little, day by day, I will get my mojo back. Just keep going.” Baby steps.

When we jumped into re-energizing RocVille recently, we found it hard to keep baby steps in mind. I wanted the template to be perfect and to wait until I had just the perfect thing to write about. Adam reminded me that we are doing this in our spare time and that we need to do it little by little. He gave the template a facelift and we started writing. We still have no comments section. Adam recently had a multi-layered e-mail exchange with a woman who couldn’t log into the site. (Because the log-in button didn’t take you to the log-in; a minor oversight on our part.) My posts aren’t brilliant. But we are writing and trying to drum up some excitement for all of us, in big and small ways, to become agents of change in this city. Baby steps.

Even the smallest of impacts can have a ripple effect. Smile at someone at the bus stop and they will do the same to the people they see. Get involved in your neighborhood watch to make your neighborhood safer. Start a community garden to give the people in your neighborhood a place to learn, participate and do something good. Does PAETEC constructing their corporate headquarters on the Midtown site alone revitalize downtown? No, but it WILL bring employment as the headquarters is built. And it WILL bring PAETEC employees to the downtown area. (For those pessimists who say “It’s only 100 jobs.” I say to you, “100 is better than none.” Baby steps, my friends.) They will park, eat, shop and go to the theater. More businesses will pop up to provide services to those people. And this is how the ripple effect all starts. Baby steps. Bravo to the city and CEO Arunas Chesonis for making the project a reality.
Let’s keep going.