13: A City For All | Mayor Wade Troxell | Fort Collins, CO
Welcome to The Real Brian Show! We are excited to welcome Mayor Wade Troxell of Fort Collins, CO this week to talk about his vision of making Fort Collins a city for all. He takes a collective, rather than factioned, approach to acceptance and...
Welcome to The Real Brian Show! We are excited to welcome Mayor Wade Troxell of Fort Collins, CO this week to talk about his vision of making Fort Collins a city for all. He takes a collective, rather than factioned, approach to acceptance and encourages the recognition of all people groups.
In This Episode
- Mayor for a Day to Mayor
- Mr Troxell’s background and pursuit of robotics
- It’s the people who make this city great
- A City for All
- Having respect and listening to each other to accomplish more
A City for All
Do you know the name of your mayor? I don’t. Well, I did after I Googled it. It’s interesting, though, in thinking about my perception of community based on the degree of involvement I have. After visiting Fort Collins myself, last summer, and seeing how it truly is one of the best places to live, it’s a little underwhelming to return to my suburban Minnesota home, look around, and wonder who in the world is running this place.
Our reluctance, lack of interest, or lack of time that prevents us from getting involved in local politics may be an underlying problem in why communities suffer. When different people groups seek public recognition from their elected officials, a focus is taken off of community and instead isolated to a faction of that community. Rather than dismissing a people group, or undervaluing the diversity in a community, Mr Troxell’s approach is remarkably inclusive.
Fort Collins recognizes that a community is made of of co-creators, of individuals who must work together in order to produce an atmosphere of inclusion. Opening the door for someone else or opening a small business to serve the community doesn’t require the acknowledgement of a people group. There is an opportunity to encourage members of a community, united under this banner of a city for all, to work toward building something that isn’t founded on inclusion at the exclusion of others.
Ready to get involved in local politics yet? Fort Collins has been working toward something big and cool for a long time, it may take some elbow grease to see the same results in your own community. In this era of the U.S., when so much hate is being thrown back and forth, we could do with a lot more folks like Mayor Wade Troxell who sees the potential in the co-creators living and working around him.
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