Jeff Siegler is a writer, speaker, and consultant concerned with the powerful role place plays in our lives. He is the founder of the civic pride consulting firm, Revitalize, or Die. After obtaining his Masters in Urban Planning from Virginia Commonwealth University, Jeff went to work on Main Street, first as a downtown manager and later as the Ohio Main Street State Coordinator. Jeff and his wife Amber and their four kids call Pittsburgh home.
Jeff will be presenting on "Civic Pride & Civic Apathy."
Thousands of communities have been devastated by the effects of apathy and unless we do something drastic, the problem is only going to get worse. Apathy destroys everything it touches and cannot be mitigated with planning or money. Residents' lack of care and concern cannot be fixed by continuing down the same path. We have to take a new approach and help restore people’s relationship to their town.
Only in fostering a sense of civic pride can we begin to beat back the effects of apathy. We have to bring people together, restore beauty, foster affection and give people more meaning. By taking a small scale, simple and incremental approach, we can begin to replace apathy with pride. The key is getting to work. There is no silver bullet needed and no one is going to come along and fix it for us. We simply have to do our part, every resident, every day, taking part in making the community just a little bit better. When everyone participates, we can all have something truly special, a community we can be proud of.
