The Studer Community Institute launches its latest initiative, CivicCon, on Sept. 26.
“We asked Christian Wagley to go out and find the top eight or 10 urban planners in the United States and ask them to come to Pensacola over the next 10 months,” said Quint Studer. “Civicon stands for ‘Civic Conversations.'”
The first speaker will be Chuck Marohn, founder of Strong Towns and the top choice on the Institute’s short list of speakers. His topic is “Is Pensacola a Strong City?”
“Chuck really challenges cities,” said Studer. “He says, you know, in the early days, cities grew slowly and incrementally, because they didn’t have the dollars to grow quicker. Well with cities being able to bond things and get in such debt, they will get excited because they can get cash. But then they build things but then they can’t sustain them. And then that gets them into trouble.”
One such city is Lafayette, La. that, according to Studer, “had a lot of cash, did a lot of things, but then their tax dollars can’t support what they built.”
He believes that no other city in the country has brought in the top urban planners and had them talk about growth and development every six weeks, as the Studer Community Institute plans to do.
Studer said, “We’ve been very fortunate that the Pensacola News journal’s partnering with Studer Community Institute on this to really bring it out and get the people’s attention. It ties perfectly into the Studer Community’s mission to improve quality of life.
CivicCon will be held on Sept. 26 at the Pensacola Little Theatre, 400 S. Jefferson St. The doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the presentation begins at 6 p.m. For more details, visit studeri.org