Sad news: Nick Bollman, the founder of the California Center for Regional Leadership, died suddenly October 27. Nick was the man who imagined how politically paralyzed modern California should recognize and celebrate its distinct regions, from the San Francisco Bay Area to the Central Valley, the Sierra Nevada to San Diego/Baja California. I was privileged to speak at a “Civic Entrepreneurial Summit” Nick organized in Santa Barbara in 1997, watching how he brought leaders of the disparate regions together and gave them a sense of their common interests in a Golden State future built on the base of confident, strategically-oriented regions. The CCRL effort blossomed through his inspiration. Nick was a pioneer in making the concept of consciously-led and motivated modern “citistates” a reality.
Nick had a home in Key West, Florida, where he decided to “retire” after his California work. Of course Nick plunged right back into civic leadership work. In early October he e-mailed me: ” I’m a Senior Fellow now at The Funders Network with Ben Starrett, and also a Senior Fellow with Jim Murley at his Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions at FAU, and living in Florida. California seems to be getting along fine without me.”
Nick in fact began to counsel Florida’s new governor, Charles Crist, whom he described to me as “not only a leader of the ‘new, new South’ but of the ‘new, new GOP’ (the ‘Arnold wing’).” Among other things, Nick noted, “Crist has really come out strong on climate change and actually ‘gets’ the climate-transportation-land use connection. Mark my words: climate change will drive the next generation of growth management policy for Florida (which needs some updating from the historic 1985 growth legislation that John De Grove and Jim Murley helped shepherd into place).”
Nick’s life, like that of John Gardner and other great civic entrepreneurs, sets a high standard for all who follow. A well-deserved tribute to him came in a Sacramento Bee editorial.