Visioning Nanaimo is about becoming: developing a vision for our community and making it real. This objective has existed since this website was created. But like any process of development, the form it takes has changed, sometimes becoming more narrowly focussed, sometimes less.

At the outset, the website’s content consisted of only my own columns produced somewhat irregularly on a variety of topics. These columns are still a key feature, although now they are found in a subdirectory of Opinion/Analysis in the dropdown Posts menu in the upper menu bar.

That dropdown menu has also expanded to include a second content category, Other Viewpoints, which combines my own and others’ writing. Items in this category (and its subcategories) contain links to original articles and columns written by other authors that I come across online and that I think are relevant information when considering any issue.

Each item is prefaced by a paragraph of my own interpretive analysis as to why I believe the article to be relevant and noteworthy for Visioning Nanaimo readers, and how I think the content applies to developing equitable, inclusive cities and communities – the website’s goal for our own city. Reading about similar concerns elsewhere provides local readers anywhere with a larger, often global context for solutions and so each analysis is followed by a link to the original item cited.

To make it easier to find items on particular subjects, content in Other Viewpoints is categorized under five subject headings: All Things Economic, Community, Human Impacts, Politics and Governance, Taking Action. These can be accessed via the drop down menu under Posts/Other Views. As might be expected, some articles may be cited in more than one category. Article topics, like life issues, tend to overlap.

Two other points are also worth mentioning.

First, although Visioning Nanaimo was originally created to serve a particular community, Nanaimo, BC, Canada, it now acknowledges that the world is filled with other “Nanaimos”, local communities situated elsewhere, both inside and outside Canada, and that much of the content posted here may be equally relevant for them. In this sense, “Nanaimo” is more than one specific place on Canada’s West Coast. More broadly, it can be regarded as a metaphor for “local.”

Second, although the website implies a strictly “local” focus, it also acknowledges the inseparable, bi-directional connections between local and global. The impacts of global factors are experienced locally; global factors are a summation of local impacts. Thinking globally while acting locally, therefore, is crucial, since the actions taken locally have global implications, which in turn return to impact individual locales. As in almost everything, mindfulness in decision-making and implementation is paramount.

The upper menu bar also contains a link to the website’s Subscription page. Readers who subscribe receive email notifications of newly posted columns written by myself and periodic compilations of posts to Other Viewpoints. When you subscribe, your contact information is stored securely and will not be used for any other purpose. Lastly, you can reach me at any time by using the online Contact Form, and I will respond, if required, as soon as I am able.

My hope is that you will find the content of Visioning Nanaimo interesting and useful. If you do, I also hope that you’ll pass it and/or the website address on to others you know who might also find it relevant. After all, down on the bottom line, sharing is what community is about.

Best regards,

Don