Let's hope signs of confidence just a start

Nothing begets confidence like confidence.

We've been in a collective clench for so long as businesses enormous and small have gone bankrupt or closed, jobs have been stripped away, 401(k)s have been drained of hope for retirement and gas has inched back up to $3 a gallon.

It will take something more than an economist or two's best guess to assure us that, yes, this recession too shall pass.

We all know how we've cut back, and the effects it's had. For instance, our collective reluctance to purchase new cars - whether the product of hoarding acorns or a simple lack of money - has paralyzed the already weakened auto industry, toppling a pair of generations-old stalwarts.

It's hard to break the stockpiling cycle.

Local governments have also cut back. Facing budgetary shortfalls with drops in sales tax and development-related fees and projecting smaller collections from property taxes, they have trimmed as well: jobs, services, hours.

Wouldn't it be nice to see someone planning for the future rather than just bracing for it?

Well, we're starting to see it happen in local governments - who are making bold plans for a brighter future - and we hope it's contagious.

Here are some notable recent examples:

• The Huntley village board is talking to two design firms with the goal of designing a new downtown concept plan, an assessment of parking and roads, and possible funding sources for a long-term revitalization project, where funding could include a special taxing district, grants, federal stimulus money, donations and capital funding from the village.

• Arlington Heights officials are eagerly awaiting the construction of the Star Line rail line through the southern end of town. They want to see hotels, condos and office buildings as tall as 25 stories, parks and cultural areas on 85 acres in an area east of Arlington Heights Road, north of the Jane Addams Tollway and south of Algonquin Road to capitalize on having a station there. The idea is to build another downtown. The idea has already passed muster with the plan commission and is headed to the village board in July.

• At Elgin Community College, they're busy putting plans for a new nursing school and law enforcement training facility into action, thanks to a $178 million construction referendum voters agreed to in April.

• In the Naperville Park District, commissioners are working up a new comprehensive plan, creating a vision for what developments should take place in the next five years or so.

We've spent too much time watching half-finished subdivisions sit fallow, businesses covered in plywood.

There's nothing like bricks and mortar and a healthy dose of dreaming for a future that will exist to bring the rest of us out of our funk.

Let's hope there are others out there willing to dream to keep the momentum.