Create Portsmouth Now!

I can tell you what it is and I can tell you what it isn't.

It is a movement in Portsmouth. It was created on High Street in Portsmouth on a Sunday morning among a group of people just talking about the future of Portsmouth.

Design by Niki Park 

It is about people, neighborhoods and community.

It is about a city that dwells in the shadow of its sister city across the water.

It is about a city whose future is in the hands of the young, the old and the concerned. It is about everyone in Portsmouth, in every neighborhood, from Olde Towne and Port Norfolk to Churchland and Cradock.

It is not exclusive; it is inclusive.

It is not just about Olde Towne; it is about all of Portsmouth.

No consultant created this message, this brand or this movement. No one was paid buckets of money to start this discussion or create this feeling.

It isn't about a collaboratory. It isn't about a trend. It isn't fancy illustrations or figures showered upon politicians and city officials.

It is about a community. It is about and for people and started by people in the community, beginning at a coffee shop in the dead of summer.

It evolved.

Create Portsmouth Now! Isn't so much a tag line and a brand as it is about a feeling, as it should be. Rather than copy and paste a brand on Portsmouth, a group of people created something new.

Create Portsmouth Now! Is Michael and Melissa Hill, Nicole, Ava and John Park, Patrice Beale and others...

Create Portsmouth Now! Is not one person; it is many, willing and able to make a change where change is needed.

Portsmouth City Council should take note. They should listen to these people because these people have ideas and concepts that could propel Portsmouth forward into a future of its own instead of a future modeled on another city.

Will City Council listen? Will they consider the ideas and changes proposed by this group, which is growing and evolving?

Portsmouth City Officials took one step forward: they hired Chuck Rigney, the assistant director of Development for the city of Norfolk.

Rigney will bring with him experience, a willingness to listen and a capacity to try new ideas within the parameters of city government.

Perhaps he will help Create Portsmouth Now!

It's time.