Matthew Lewis is thirty years old. Lauri, I would guess, maybe, forty. Doesn't look forty but knows her stuff like nobody else. Matt is the Planning and Development Director for the City of Hutto. Lauri is the Chief Financial Officer. 
 
The rest of the team, except for me, hasn't seen thirty years. 
 
Impressive. And scary. The new world is here now and I'm the old man. 
 
The youngsters, the lot of them, gave the old man respect and perhaps a nod of reverence but truthfully, I remain blown away by the exuberant intelligence of these New Ones. I am humbled by their immediate command of so much interconnected knowledge, their seemingly indifferent and yet intimate use of the many modern devices to access such informational wealth. They revel in it. They swim in it. They surf it.
 
What's really cool is that these nerdy but no-way nerdy New Ones ARE COOL. Matt, Laurie, Dan, Scot, Mike, Will, Jeff, Micah, Ed. They care. They give a damn. They don't think about changing the world. They are the new world and its making.
 
They like eating in places where it feels good to eat. They like parks and understand their critical nature to the urban fabric. They understand what urban fabric is!
 
They know what CITY is. They know that community is where it's at. These New Ones don't give a flying rat's bass-ackwards glance as to what was, except those places around the globe that vibrate, celebrate humanity. 
 
They are openly, unapologetically into NOW and they get the fact that we're where we are as a planet because "The Art of Un-sustainable Greed Based Development is Dead."
 
These New Ones rock. 
 
And this old man is proud to be part of their team. Now that's intelligent humility.
 
Over this past weekend, about eight mostly young people, crammed together in a small room stuck in a non-descript strip mall to conduct a planning and design charrette. The City of Hutto provided bagels, cream cheese, breakfast burritos, Easter special chocolates and a big bowl of M&M's. Everything required. 
 
They didn't bill us for it either. Amazing. A City that gives a shinola. Hutto attracts good development because these "kids" get it. They care enough to make it happen.
 
The Owner/Developer was there as well. Jonathan. He's 30 years old. Smart. Quick. Dedicated. Son of his parents/partners who trust him growing into the business. Another young person. A conscious creator.
 
Surrounded by young people. 
 
I love it.
 
In two days, employing the "Smart Code", a development code, based on Traditional Neighborhood Design, we master-planned eighty acres, designed two hundred thousand square feet of super-prime, perfect mom and pop retail space, 235 dwelling units from retail topped apartments to single family homes, a park, community gardens, water and waste water schematics, everything required to walk into the next City Council meeting and walk out with all the entitlements, all the zoning, all the approvals, all the what-it-takes-to-make-it-happen. In just two days! 
 
Top it all off with some half-a-million dollars OFF the building permits, years of incentive tax abatements and most mind blowing of all, the master plan came together over a weekend of inter-generational laughter, smiles, M&M's with a "can-do, we-want-to-grow-this-city-right and consciously", positive attitude.
 
Amazing.
 
In most cities this would take a year or more and would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. And, you would have to fight like hell to do the right thing, so entrenched in habitual mediocrity the norm remains.
 
The Norm Dorm. Old school. Dead school.
 
So, the world's going to hell in a hand basket, is it?
 
I don't think so. 
 
Young people are carrying the basket now. 
 
They are wonderful and powerful and crazy as hell and smart and open, for the moment at least, to let an old fart lead them, play with them, share with them, create with them.
 
It is a better world from this perspective.
 
Don't be afraid of change. It's here.