Forward Thinking / Imagined Possibilities

The Oakland Press

Forward thinking can create a better Pontiac

Thursday, November 20, 2008 5:12 AM EST
By The Oakland Press

In “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” by Lewis Carroll, the Queen remarks, “It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.” Residents who've been around Pontiac for any length of time remember when it was a vibrant city. If residents, like the Queen, work our memory forward, it can be that way again.

The possibilities are endless. Let’s start with the schools.

According to recently released studies, the Pontiac School District has enough facilities for 20,000 students, but only 6,700 students to use them.

There are choices to make: One is to keep studying the problem but do nothing. We have seen that is option doesn't solve anything.

A second option is to use one-third of each building for teaching students. However, you still have to heat the whole building, not just the one-third that is being used.

The third option is to use one-third of the buildings and let the other two-thirds of them sit idle. To some extent, that's what's being done now and may continue to be done in the future. But even vacant buildings need to be maintained so they don't deteriorate further.

Or, people could be creative and make their memories work forward. They could think of other uses for the school buildings. The possibilities are endless — limited only by their own imaginations (forward memories).

Here are some possibilities: Turn Webster School or other singlestory, vacant district building into an assisted living or senior housing facility. Provide for those who need a little assistance with the demands of daily living. Or the buildings could be made into mixeduse housing facilities with the more ablebodied residents helping the less able.

Another possibility is to turn Washington Junior High and other two story, vacant buildings into combination community centers and residential facilities. The ground floor could be used for recreational and tutoring/study programs and the upper floor for multi-age residential units. Having senior citizens and young, single parent families living together in one building can work for the betterment of both groups. The seniors could provide child care, story telling and tutoring for the youngsters while the single parent works. The youngsters could help the seniors with tasks that have become burdensome for someone with limited mobility.

Or, how about turning one or more school buildings into research laboratories. Partner with Oakland County's Emerging Sectors program to provide space for companies who are looking for facilities.

Also, the school district could work with Oakland University, Oakland Community College and Baker College to provide classroom space. It's less expensive to use an existing building than to build a whole new one.

For any use of Pontiac’s school buildings to be successful, the City of Pontiac must be open to adaptive use of them and not be overly restrictive with zoning rules and regulations.

In addition, the school district should retain ownership of the buildings and lease them on a long-term basis to generate continuing income for educating Pontiac’s young people.

How about some ideas from individuals or groups? It's just a matter of working their memory forward to create an even better Pontiac.