What the Heck Is Going On In Boerne Texas?

The short story: the Boerne (BUR nee) city council approved a rough draft of a loop that would encircle the 8500-person town 25 miles north of San Antonio. The objective is to alleviate traffic problems and to position the city best for future growth. Buy the property for the road now while land prices are nearly unaffordable instead of later when they’re ridiculous beyond words.

Suddenly (Boom!) a local blog-http://www.boernetownhall.com/-is created to talk about local issues, from politics-to-restaurants. Then another pops up--http://www.boernetogether.org—designed generally to fight sprawl and unplanned growth, and specifically deal with the question of the loop.

Ya gotta understand: Boerne is an old German-rooted berg which has become a bedroom community for San Antonio professionals. With an 82% Bush voting record in November’s election, this is NOT considered a liberal town. But wait! Also in that election was approved a 6 Million dollar bond issue to buy land to develop parks so Kendall County will have more greenspace. Mmm…and let’s not forget: Boerne’s Cibolo Nature Center is one of the premiere natural areas in the state, and its new 1.5 million dollar near state-of-the-art nature center is nearing completion.

So Boerne’s far harder to define than just to say it’s just conservative or just liberal.

The aforementioned http://www.boernetogether.org/ secured the Bear Moon—a local better-than-Starbucks bakery/coffee bistro—for an evening meeting to rouse the rabble. The 100 people that who showed up spilled out onto the sidewalks. A passionate couple of dozen people got up to speak, and the shared conclusion was that the people needed to become more knowledgeable, and to attend City Council meetings. So...did they?

Next city council meeting 90 show up, spilling out into the hallway. City council determined they need a new master plan and commit to getting one written. They also will form an advisory committee, including 2 members appointed by boernetogether.

City council has heard the people speak!

This is the way people can affect the direction their cities are going. I offer up this local tale as an object lesson. If it can happen in little ol' Boerne, I see no reason why this “Think Globally/Act Locally” scenario couldn’t play out in YOUR town. All it takes is some belief, some will, a web site, and a good cause. The world is out there to make better or worse; the choice is yours.