Transportation, housing, kids should be city’s focus in 2020

What should be Central Florida’s New Year’s Resolutions?

Whether it’s losing a few pounds, starting a new exercise routine, or even working on your finances, we often use the changing of the calendar year to commit to resolve those areas that we know need to be addressed. But why don’t we do this as a community? With this in mind, I want to propose a list for Central Florida’s 2020 New Year’s resolutions with that same focus: areas we have delayed too long, needing solutions this year.

Fix our woeful transportation. Take one look in the mirror at our transportation options and it’s clear that we are in bad shape. Transportation might be one of our most perplexing issues plaguing our region because knows it needs solutions yet wants to pay the price for the fix.

Osceola County recently struck down possible funding to fix their inadequate road system which doesn’t bode well for the new ballot initiative Orange County leaders hope to get approved in 2020.

The bottom line is this: we can pay now to fix our regional transportation needs or pay even more later in quality of life, economic impact, and all of our sanities. It’s time to finally “hit the gym” and invest in transportation to create the infrastructure of our successful future.

Don’t let homelessness grow out of control. We have made some progress on this resolution in previous years, but like any good diet it is easy to lose your way one Krispy Kreme doughnut at a time.

It only takes a quick look at the streets of cities around America, especially on the West Coast, to see what we will look like if we don’t keep working to solve this, even if just one person at a time.

Leaders will need to shepherd renewed resources needed for continued success housing the chronically homeless and implement new options to address panhandling and those living in public spaces. Taking care of the “least among us” is a resolution that our moral fabric cannot allow us to break this year.

Address affordable housing. This community resolution is similar to the decision to get your personal finances in order; we often don’t address issues like this, where results don’t happen overnight. You have to have a long-term plan and work step-bystep towards your big financial goals and need similar community resolve to combat our affordable housing shortage.

But new help could be on the way. Recently released plans from local government

HOME DELIVERY RATES and a bold strategy being worked on behind the scenes by business leaders and philanthropy offer our first glimmer of hope that we might have a collective strategy to finally address this crisis.

So the question is not “can we create the goal?”, but sticking with it and following through with the resolution for the long haul. It is time to make sure everyone can afford to both work and live here in Central Florida.

Don’t forget the children. Our list of resolutions would not be complete without a fresh commitment to the needs of children in our region. It’s a tough truth to swallow: even in the best economy we have seen in most of our lifetimes, almost half of our children struggle in poverty, have inadequate educational opportunities, and live in homes filled with abuse and addiction. The opioid crisis alone now touches tens of thousands of our Central Florida families either directly or indirectly every day.

A coordinated leadership effort is needed to create a bold new plan to address the needs of our youngest residents. Our track record on social issues is clear; Unless we get diverse leaders to the table, starting with the business and faith communities, we will never have the firepower to make big changes and create the resources to positively impact our kids in need.

Simply put, the government cannot get this done alone. Children around the world come to visit us and create memories, our community needs to prioritize the needs of our own hometown “little ones” as well next year.

There are many more issues that we could add to our collective list of resolutions, but these represent what I believe could have the greatest impact on all of us and our region’s future in the years to come. Let’s ask our leaders to address these issues and commit to resolve for them good in the year 2020.

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