I've been thinking back on Bloomington's history lately. I came to Bloomington when I was in the fifth grade. We lived on East 11th Street. I walked to my neighborhood grade school. Got so does it in neighborhood grocery and donuts at a neighborhood bakery. The school is closed, bakery grocery, gone. We moved to Prospect Hill, where I walked to a neighborhood school. Got so does it in neighborhood grocery. The groceries gone. School is closed. I walked to a junior high school. Also gone. Burned down. The suburbs were booming. The west side was dying. This was the middle of the age of demolition in Bloomington. Two years ago, the school system chose to build a new neighborhood school instead of building the school on the bypass. The Fairview School decision was a milestone to signal how far we've come in 40 years. The recent opening of the Beeline Trail marked another milestone in the remarkable revitalization of the west side of Bloomington. My own journey started in neighborhood politics when our homes in Prospect Hill were threatened. They were threatened with demolition to create a third street corridor. This was a period when everything was open to being torn down. I learned how working together could save our neighborhood. I learned that there are more important values in development and so-called progress. Those were neighborhood, community, and history. After years of working as a citizen activist, I ran for the city council eight years ago, and I've kept on trying to make our city better. We as a community have lived through this age of preservation where we all work to save the city. I've participated in those battles to save our downtown in historic neighborhood over the years. I built a business doing that. I worked in politics as well to save historic Bloomington. I must say Bloomington has never looked better. We've been living in the age of restoration as we've started to put our town back together with new construction and a new appreciation for our old city. We've also learned that the historic pre-oil age pattern of the city that we preserved was interestingly the most modern of forms. That it had a new name, new urbanism. Walkability, higher density, mixed use are the way of the future and the past. We've learned that quality of life is really the key to everything. When the quality of life is high, people want to live here. They want to vacation here. They want to retire here. If we're doing things right, the young want to stay here. They'll make their businesses here. They'll participate in government to help keep Bloomington the special place it is. But history doesn't stop. We've recently entered a new age, the age of sustainability. The old houses and buildings all need to be made more energy efficient. Transit needs to be expanded. Bike and pedestrian infrastructure continues to need improvement. This is all part of new urbanism and making our city more sustainable. This is all part of rediscovering our old city and finding old ways and new to deal with the coming challenges. So what do we do now? What comes next? How will we address the complex problems of an unknown future? First, let's look back to see how we got from the demolition age to the beautiful city we have. When I restore and remodel a house, there are a thousand little projects that have to be done. Each one is small and manageable, and every day there's another set of problems to be solved. Working on our city is very much like that. Looking back, there were thousands of small decisions made by committees, commissions, councils, planning departments, mayors, and citizens. There were hundreds of business decisions made to build here to restore a storefront, to open a business here or expand one. Judging by the success of the town, the decisions the last 30 years have been by and large the right ones. The next four years are going to be just like that. Decisions big and small to be made. Some we know about, some will surprise us. Some will be easy. Some may be hard even agonizing. We have ideas about directions we need to go. I'm working with council members on recycling for apartment buildings, expanding our sidewalk system, adding a new bike boulevard. The purchase of the IU property next to City Hall is a great opportunity for economic development. Finishing the B line and the switch yard park will improve the city further. We'll make decisions, and all we can do is use our experience and our best judgment to make the right ones. Making, making, someday made. This is how progress happens, one decision at a time. I would be honored to have the privilege of being the person who helps make these choices for our community.