I feel that Cupertino is like a child trying by trial and error to finds its way.  It is a city without a Mission, Purpose or Vision.  There is no theme by which to guide the city towards the future.  It’s not just the City but its citizens.  So the citizens and City do what is expedient at the time to deal with any given situation.  That in part is why City Council frequently has discussions into the wee early morning.  The root cause of such lengthy meetings is because council members are confused and pulled from all directions without a clue what is best for the community because the community itself does not know what it wants.  If the city had a much clearer picture of the future for this community and a vision and principles by which to guidance city council, meetings would be much shorter and issues dealing with such things as Growth far less contentious.  But we are all on this small boat floundering around without sails or a rudder at the mercy of the waves and winds.

Having a Vision and guiding principle by which to grow sustainable is the primary purpose of the blog.  It provides a path that serves to give the city a rudder by which to sail when the wind blow, a Vision of what the future might be like and principles to guide city council in making decisions.  This Vision might be right, partly right, or entirely wrong, but for lack of anything better I feel it is the best one, really the only one, currently available.  But a conversation needs to be started to see if there are any other viable ideas.  Smart Growth defines what a sustainable city should be.  This can be used as a basis for discussions.

As long as there is no long-term vision the city will continue to struggle with every short-term issue involving growth or city planning.  If the city makes a mistake there may be major consequences difficult to correct such as traffic congestion and the quality of life for its residents.  The city is facing such a decision now regarding a dramatic expansion of office space next to the new Apple 2 Campus.  If the city make the wrong decision the city may be stuck with unprecedented traffic congestion that may ultimately cause businesses to fail or move out.  Had the city had a long-term Vision and a set of principles by which to work with this decision would be much easier to resolve.

Related post:  Heated Conflict between City Government and Residents