HINDSIGHT: A LOOK AT VISION 2000

Riverboat passengers stopping in Cape Girardeau for shopping and sightseeing, construction crews working to widen and repair city streets and volunteers planting flowers and tending rosebushes share a common thread.

All of them -- downtown development, better streets and landscaping and beautification -- were part of a strategic planning effort in Cape Girardeau that began in 1988.

Vision 2000 can't take credit for all the city's improvements over the past 12 years but it certainly helped them along, officials say.

It began a strategic planning effort that helped lead Cape Girardeau into the new century. Nineteen of the 25 strategies in the plan were accomplished and others are in progress.

More people heading to the polls at election time, programs that keep kids in school and out of trouble, more jobs and businesses moving into Cape Girardeau, wider streets, better parking and more tourism on the Mississippi Riverfront and downtown area were just some of the elements in the long-range plan for Cape Girardeau.

But did the plan work? Is Cape Girardeau any better today than it was in 1988?

Vision 2000 might not have accomplished all 25 of its objectives for improving Cape Girardeau, but city leaders say the plan did help point the city in the right direction as it planned for the future.

Now Vision 2000, the group that drafted the plan, has completed 75 percent of its work and is preparing to give support to the city's newest planning effort. Vision 2020 is a citywide strategic planning effort designed to carry on the work of Vision 2000 and help lead Cape Girardeau into its next phase.

Events are planned later this week to highlight the work of Vision 2000 and celebrate its accomplishments before turning the efforts over to Vision 2020.

A week-long series beginning in today's edition will examine the work of Vision 2000 and how the group's efforts improved the city. It will look at each of four areas emphasized in the plan -- business, industry and jobs; education; planning and zoning; and community spirit -- examining how goals were set, if they were met, and what lies ahead for Cape Girardeau.

No one can truly be sure what might have happened if a strategic plan for the city weren't in place, but the work likely wouldn't have happened as quickly as it did, said the city's mayor.

Al Spradling III said the plan likely would have been drafted but the Vision 2000 effort "made it much simpler and made it come to the forefront quicker than it normally would have."

Vision 2000 opened "some avenues where people started becoming more aware of the community," Spradling said.

Creating community interest and involvement was Vision 2000's greatest feats, said one of the group's key organizers.

Melvin Gateley, who supported Vision 2000 from its beginning in 1987, said its greatest accomplishment was acting as sounding board for public meetings.

Throughout its 14-year history, Vision 2000 has sponsored hundreds of public meetings to address both city and school issues and brainstorming sessions to talk about ways to improve Cape Girardeau.

"People found out that they could speak and we would listen," Gateley said. The meetings were open to all city residents.

Vision 2000 began in 1987 as an idea formed by a group of residents who were concerned that the city plan for future development and growth as the 21st century approached.

Vision 2000 began as a 10-member steering committee appointed by the City Council later that year. More volunteers were added and subcommittees created along the way to address specific areas of the planning effort. More than 100 people, each of whom worked on a Vision 2000 committee, are being invited back to Cape Girardeau for a reunion Sept. 29.

A parade and awards banquet are set for Sept. 30. The parade will follow a route along Broadway, exactly like the route used in a kick-off parade in 1988.

Vision 2000 has sought public support for its planning efforts. At the beginning stages, residents were asked to offer suggestions for how to improve the city.

Town hall meetings addressed topics to be included in the plan, while others simply were held to get ideas and feedback.

By 1988, a plan was adopted and a Community Relations Council selected to help make sure the plan's goals were met.

Since then, most of the objectives have been met. The others are in progress and will continue through Vision 2020 efforts.

Gateley said Vision 2000 committee members never wanted the plan to be something "that would be put on the shelf and be forgotten."

"It was a very visible and workable plan," he said, adding that the organizers had confidence that the plan would be accomplished.

Copies of the plan were available at City Hall and the Cape Girardeau Public Library. Now it can be viewed online at the city's Web site.

Anyone interested in marching in the parade or attending the banquet can call City Hall at 334-1212 or Melvin Gateley at 334-1303.

On the Web:

Vision 2000

www.showme.net/capecity/comdev/vision2k.htm

Vision 2020

www.showme.net/capecity/comdev/vision2020/finalplan.htm

Coming Monday: How do you measure community spirit and encourage residents to participate in government?

What were the Vision 2000 goals?

Community spirit

Goal 1: Increase citizen interest and participation in the community.

Goal 2: Foster cooperation between citizens and city government, encourage responsiveness to vital community issues that will enhance area-wide community pride.

Education

Goal 3: Cape Girardeau will provide a system of education that encourages each citizen to develop his/her full intellectual capacity from childhood through adulthood, constantly learning as he/she grows and changes.

Business/Industry/Jobs

Goal 4: Fulfill the needs of existing, relocating and start-up businesses throughout the area.

Planning and Zoning

Goal 5: Citizens will be aware of long-range plans for city development and will actively participate in addressing future needs and issues such as annexation, land use, and public use areas, to ensure a well-planned, maintained and attractive physical environment.

Goal 6: Improve the quality of planning and zoning for the city of Cape Girardeau.

Goal 7: A comprehensive flood and storm water plan will be developed and implemented.

Goal 8: Cape Girardeau will be a community with smooth traffic flow, adequate parking and well-maintained streets.

Goal 9: Redevelop the historic district to include the riverfront and surrounding areas.

Source: Vision 2000 plan