The city of Columbia will host its first-ever community summit on Saturday. Residents can learn about key city services, ask questions and share feedback on potential improvements. The summit is free and will take place at City Hall between 9 a.m. and noon.
Rikki Ascani, community engagement director at transportation advocacy group Local Motion, said she wants to hear more about how residents will get around Columbia in the future.
“For me, definitely looking at what their community engagement goals look like, and also what their transportation goals look like as a community,” Askani said. “There have been a lot of recent either studies or consultants hired for reworking of policies, and so I think it would be really interesting to see, like, what the movement is on those and what are the next steps.”
The community summit is an opportunity for Columbia residents to share their priorities with city leaders. Among other topics, the city is looking for feedback on its public health department, the Office of Violence Prevention and what kinds of businesses and industries residents want to see more of.
“We're trying to focus more on getting residents engaged in different initiatives like our budget,” said Sydney Olsen, a member of the summit’s planning committee. “And so this is an opportunity for people to actually come vote on things, come show us on a map where they want to see things.”
Booths will be organized around Columbia's five strategic goals, but any topic is open for discussion.
The city plans to compile feedback received from the event, and then use it to help craft its 2026 budget. It may also be used to make updates to the existing strategic plan.
