Right Now with Kevin Teater
- What I’m Listening to – My dog snoring beside me
- What I’m Reading – Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson
- What I’m Watching – The Mandalorian
- What I’m Doing – Building a new blog series (beavertonperspective.com)
Scratching the Surface
The depth of community leadership
This was hard. My first vote as a new Planning Commissioner was upon me.
In short, a car dealership wanted to demolish one repair station in the middle of the property and construct a larger sales center on one corner as well as a different repair station on the opposite corner.
Simple. Or, so I’d hoped.
I had prepared for this moment by spending hours upon hours studying and reviewing the development proposal application, and yet going into the meeting, I still did not know how I was going to vote.
I take these decisions seriously. I want to invest everything I have into this community. And you know what’s beautiful about this?
I am not the only one.
My city is filled with leaders who are pouring their hearts into their city. Many of these people will never receive the attention or recognition they truly deserve.
I recently started a blog series so that I can meet, interview, and highlight many of these people and their stories in my city. It’s called Beaverton Perspective, and you should check it out and follow along!
There are people like Neel Jain, a high school student who organizes food deliveries for seniors during a pandemic. There’s Sunita Garg, who helps seniors of Indian descent make their home here. And don’t even get me started on Naskah Zada, who educates people here on issues pertaining to the Middle East.
This is just scratching the surface in Beaverton.
I want to learn more about my fellow community leaders, and then I want to support them more effectively.
Who is leading in your community? What can you do to help them carry the weight on their shoulders?
Kevin Teater is the executive director of the Beaverton (Oregon) Downtown Association, founder of Beaverton Perspective, and ELGL member since 2017.