Middletown's Vitals

Comment/Analysis

Last month's discussion of how we should vote (at large versus districts) prompted thoughts - in my twisted mind anyway - about population distribution in Middletown. Most of our council-folk hail from the newer outlying ('suburban' and 'rural', to use the PCD terms) neighborhoods in town - at least, based on the addresses listed on the 'common council' page on the city website (I'm not sure how accurate or up-to-date this page is and would be happy to hear comments on this or, of course, any other aspect of this post). Two or at most three live within or fairly close to the older 'urban' core of the city, depending on how you define 'urban'. The question of how our councilmember distribution stacks up against the distribution of people in Middletown led me to ask Bill Warner, Director of the city's Planning, Conservation, and Development Department (PCD), whether his office had any maps of town that show current population density and distribution. It turns out that this can be visually represented with the GIS software, and Bill provided an interesting map which I have reproduced above (with permission). I still haven't figured out what it all means, especially in the context of voting and council representation, but it sure is pretty. I've had a long-standing interest in Middletown's historical demography, so this map is serious eye-candy for me (thanks Bill, and thanks for answering all my questions about the map).

The 'urban', 'suburban', and 'rural' areas of the city, as defined in the current draft Plan of Conserv-ation and Develop-ment, may be seen in this map (Map A from the 'Plan'). (You may need to click on the map itself to get the text to appear legibly.) Note that the text in the map refers to 'planning tools to promote sustainable development'. Such planning tools include bike paths, the purchase and preservation of open space in rural areas, the increase (within reasonable limits) of population density in the downtown, enhanced pedestrianization, alternative transportation, etc. Bill Warner noted in a follow-up email that the city has been successful in preserving open space, developing the downtown commercial potential, and in allowing increased density where infrastructure (sewer lines, roads, electricity, etc.) exists.

On how to read the density map, Bill Warner pointed out that it is only as good as the data, and the data come from the 2000 census. According to the draft 'Plan of Conservation and Development' (see both chapter 2 on 'Population', esp. section 2.3, and chapter 8 on the 'Addressing the Urban Dilemma'), the 2000 census indicated a precipitous decline in population in the core census tracks of the city between 1990 and 2000. How accurate is this decline? I recall from conversations a few years ago that there had been questions raised about the accuracy of the 2000 census count in the downtown, particularly in the area between Wesleyan University and Main Street. Doubts revolved around the timing of the count and whether students were away during the census operations or were not included in the count for definitional reasons. In any case, according to the discussion in chapter 2 of the draft 'Plan', while the overall population of Middletown increased by 6.5% between 1990 and 2000, the downtown or 'urban' census tracts 5411, 5415 and 5416 have lost, on average, 35% of their populations. The biggest decline was in 5416, which lost about half of its population (from about 2700 to 1300 people). Meanwhile Westfield (census tract 5414) saw the greatest increase, at 15% (from about 6700 to 7700). (Note that these population number estimates by me are based on an 'eyeballing' of the bar charts in the draft 'Plan'; the exact percentages are from the 'Plan' itself).

For those policy wonks among you, the census tracts 5411, 5415, and 5416 refer to:

5411 - most of the 'North End' and the Miller-Bridge area
5415 - Wesleyan University, a little of the 'Village District' and the 'North End', and the area down to Bretton Road
5416 - the downtown, a little of the 'North End', and the eastern portion of the 'Village District'.

Census tract 5417, which is also included in the 'urban' area on the map above and pockets of which are also identified in the 'Addressing the Urban Dilemma' chapter as posing key challenges, is bounded by William Street and the river to the north, Eastern Drive on the east, and Mill Street on the south - essentially the old 'South Farms' village. (This is the census tract that I live in, though I'm on the boundary of 5415 too.)

Having a tough time keeping all this straight? Me too. These images may help:


Census Tract 5411











Census Tract 5415












Census Tract 5416












Census Tract 5417












Is your house or apartment not in one of these tracts? Not to worry. The federal government is here to help. You can map your census tract courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau.

As readers will have noted, the 'Plan of Conservation and Development' is currently being re-drafted. If anyone is interested - and frankly, everyone should be, since the 'Plan' will essentially inform spending decisions in a variety of city departments over the coming decade(s) - there are plenty of opportunities to learn more and express your thoughts. The entire draft is up on the PCD webpage. And the portions of the 'Plan' will be presented and discussed at several upcoming meetings, including two this week:

Design Review and Preservation Board-
Wednesday, March 11, 2009, 5:30 PM, B-20
&
Planning and Zoning Commission-
Wednesday, March 11, 2009, 7:00 PM, Room 208 [correction, 3/08/09: the 'Plan' is on the agenda and the P&Z commission welcomes public comment, but the full agenda suggests it will not be 'presented' as such. If any P&Z commissioner could clarify this in the comments section, that would be great.]

The agenda for each meeting is listed on the PCD webpage and on the right column of the Middletown Eye, under 'This Week: Meetings and Events'. The Design Review and Preservation Board meeting looks to be particularly interesting. You can view the extra-detailed agenda at the DRPB blog (kudos to Michiel Wackers).

In addition, P&Z Commissioner Catherine Johnson has organized a series of 'input sessions' at Russell Library over the coming months. They are scheduled for 6:30 pm in the Hubbard Room, Russell Library:

March 18 Wednesday [correction 3/08/09: was rescheduled for the 19th, but changed back to the 18th]
April 16 Thursday
May 21 Thursday
June 17 Wednesday

So, fellow readers, we have no excuse. Opportunities abound to shape the future of our fair city. We must show up to one or more of these meetings, learn about the challenges facing Middletown, and add our voices to the mix.

Comment: Remembering 'Urban Renewal' in a Time of 'Change'

Longtime residents of Middletown will remember the old City Hall on Main Street, pictured here in 1910 (this image is from ebay via Wikipedia, but the original photograph from 1910 can be seen at CT History Online; search 'Middletown' and 'Municipal'). This grand structure, along with many others around the downtown, was torn down to make way for 'urban renewal' in the 1950s. In fact, the 'urban renewal' mentality of 'out with the old, in with the new' continued right through to the 1980s and beyond, and even persists into the present albeit in a muted form. This is one of the many lessons learned from a briefing document recently authored by Michiel Wackers of the city's Planning, Conservation, and Development office, 'Redevelopment in Middletown, Connecticut' (December 2008, revised January 2009), available on the city website.

Wackers' retrospective report should be required reading for all Middletown residents, especially those taking part in the 'community conversations' tomorrow. It's not long -- only thirteen pages. But it packs quite a punch. The list of historic structures demolished in the name of 'slum clearing' and 'revitalization' is chastening. What made it possible? The availability of a massive cash infusion from the federal government was a big part of the equation. But so were misguided policy assumptions. And, of course, our ever-increasing addiction to the automobile played a key role, aided and abetted by another, greater mountain of federal funding.

The lesson for those who are eager to get their hands on the public-works 'stimulus' money soon to be emanating from the Obama administration? Be careful what you wish for.

I should note that Wackers' report is agnostic on the quality of the various 'urban renewal' projects over the years. His conclusions pertain to lessons about the nature of the process rather than whether the results were good or bad. This is entirely appropriate. The balanced tone of the report allows, indeed encourages, members of the public to draw their own conclusions. As will be obvious to readers, my conclusions are largely negative, which is why I have labeled this post a 'comment'. But, again, I urge readers to study the document for themselves.

My 'favorite' quote is the one by former mayor Stephen K. Bailey, justifying the demolition of old City Hall: 'large chunks of plaster [were falling] down on the heads of the just and unjust alike' (p. 3). (This and several other choice observations come from Liz Warner's excellent Pictorial History of Middletown, but Wackers also sprinkles in copious quotations -- sometimes deliciously ironic -- from The Hartford Courant, as well as numerous dollar figures from the city's Redevelopment Agency files).

What is it about crumbling plaster that scares people? Bailey apparently associated it with the view from his office window: 'The Mayor’s office in the Old City Hall … was on the fourth floor overlooking the dilapidation between Main Street and the River. The scene was a daily depressant … I had made fire inspections with Frank Dunn, and had seen and smelled the dismal overcrowding. I had cruised the area at 2:00 a.m. with Johnny Pomfret [Middletown’s Chief of Police] … and had seen and had picked up derelicts and drunks … I knew that the concentration of our urban pathology was within the four blocks that I could see from my office window. I knew that slums were cancerous.'

It is hard to read this quote without cringing. Bailey looked out the window. The view depressed him. He had toured those buildings, and they and the people in them smelled bad. He 'knew' that slums were cancerous. So he tore them down, along with the building with the crumbling plaster that afforded him the view. Then he left Middletown (see below).

What Bailey didn't know was that he was the tip of a public-policy wedge that would lead to another and perhaps more entrenched kind of metastasizing cancer, much more expensive to correct: suburban sprawl.

Bailey's quote is from his 1971 address to the Chamber of Commerce, also to be found in Warner's Pictorial History (I think the earlier quote about plaster is too, but I can't find Warner's book in my clutter). Bailey was mayor in 1952-54 before going on to greater things. Is it possible that Bailey was seeking in his 1971 address to explain to his audience -- and perhaps to himself -- how he and others could have chosen to destroy such a noble structure? (Liz, if you're out there, would you care to comment? Or Michiel?) In any case, that many in town soon came to regret the demolition of the old City Hall is evident from the fact that the current police station on Main Street, built in the late 1990s, incorporates several design features from the old building.

Parenthetically: Stephen Bailey was on the Government Department faculty at Wesleyan from 1946 to '54. His last two years at Wesleyan University, 1952-54, coincided with his term as mayor. He then went on to direct the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton. Bailey's career puts me in mind of the question asked by John Milardo, 'what has Wesleyan done for Middletown?', about which I wrote last week. Clearly one thing Wesleyan has done, or rather one prominent member of the faculty has done, is take a leading part in the destruction of the historic urban fabric of the city. Of course, the symbiosis between Wesleyan and Middletown over nearly two centuries cannot be reduced to one individual, or even a few decades of misguided policy. Truth be told, just about everyone in town (save John Reynolds and the good folks at the Greater Middletown Historic Preservation Trust) was drinking the 'urban renewal' cool-aid, and that cool-aid had a lasting effect. How else to explain the fact that, as Wackers notes in his report, Wesleyan was a willing institutional partner in 'urban renewal' projects as late as the 1970s, including the one that created the 'High Rise' apartment-cum-dormitory on William Street.

Tom Condon's recent op-ed in The Hartford Courant began with a question: 'Does it not feel as if the first half of the 21st century will be spent correcting the mistakes of the last half of the 20th?' I hope he's right: that we will be correcting the mistakes, that we won't simply be compounding them. In any case, it's possible that a lot of federal cash is going to be heading toward Connecticut's decaying urban infrastructure. Middletown has proven adept at getting its municipal fingers on a fair portion of that kind of cash in the past, the most recent example being the federal Department of Transportation money to improve the city's downtown parking. Given the sordid tale of redevelopment in Wackers' report, it's not clear that we are nearly as good at spending those dollars with any degree of common sense.

[Full disclosure: I'm married to a member of the current, much defanged, Redevelopment Commission (the Common Council wrested authority away from the Agency in 1984 and turned it into an 'advisory' commission -- see p. 7).]

News on improvements for City website

This from Michiel Wackers at Middletown City Hall:

Thanks for the input from your Monday July 7, 2008 Middletown Eye piece, "Recruiting Citizen Reporters". I was able to put the helpful critique at the end of the article to use on our department website. I would have commented sooner, but I was in the hospital with double pneumonia.

Improving the entire website has been an on going effort, by all departments. The Mayor's Office has recent had an analysis of the all the City's websites and the functions that they current serve the public and what departments would like to do for the public via the website. The City has a proposal for a complete redesign, but funding is the big question this year. I'd be happy to pass on a hardcopy for a citizen review of the proposal, just send me an address to mail you copy.

I will be trying to implement some of your recommendations. I've currently redone the meetings of the week to be centrally located on the department webpage with agenda and public hearing notices. This past spring our department has purchased a digital audio recorder and will be seeing if posting audio files is feasible. The big thing that may preventing posting to the website is the size of the files generated from meetings.

Minutes will be posted 7 days after the meeting starting on or before October 1, 2008, to comply with the new Public Act 08-3. In the past some committees wanted only official minutes to be posted, which happens only after they are approved by motion of the committee.

I would love to post applications, maps and other information to the website concerning applications before committees. Currently, we only have the capacity to scan documents no larger that 8.5"x11". We only have that capacity now, because I brought a digial scanner from home that I was no longer using.

I will admit that our department website is far from perfect and myself and staff our all self taught. We have through our limited abilities produced a website with agendas, minutes, legal notices and other documents going back to 2003. I been working on uploading all the digital versions of agendas and minutes that we have. Some committees now have documents going back to 1999. I would love to digitize agendas and minutes that we have in storage, possibly allowing people to look back decades. I've also have at various times tried to set up an access database that would allow the public to search applications, but linking the data to our offline database has been where my expertise has shown its limits.

The fact that departments have independent websites has happened out of individual efforts trying to better serve the public with timely information. Since the City does not have full-time web staff, updating the website can be cumbersome and is not done on the regular basis that we would like. Our department website is updated multiple times through out the week and we have posted over 3,000 digital files to the web.

For a history of how the City's website has evolved and our department's website has eveolved go to http://www.archive.org/index.php

Keep up the good work in providing the public another source of news and opinion.

Feel free to contact me on any issues that you and your readers are interested in. I'd be happy to provide whatever input that I may be able to.

Michiel Wackers, AICP
Deputy Director of Planning, Conservation and Development
City of Middletown

Inside Information

If you are the type of person who loves to have their finger on the pulse of what's happening in local government (or if you are just the type of person who hates surprises), then I'd recommend that you sign up for Michiel Wackers' electronic newsletter about the activities of the city's Department of Planning, Conservation and Development.

These frequent and handy emails list the agendas for any upcoming meetings related to economic development, planning and zoning, design review and preservation, redevelopment and the conservation commission, and whatever ad hoc committees come our way, such as the parking study committee. If you like to keep an eye on things that might affect your neighborhood, it's an easy way to be informed and then call out the troops if necessary.

You can probably get on the list by dropping Michiel an email at michiel.wackers@cityofmiddletown.com. Tell him we sent you!

Here's a copy of the most recent edition:


Middletown Planning, Conservation & Development Newsletter- June 20, 2008

PROPOSED UPDATE FOR THE 1990 PLAN OF CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT
The Planning and Zoning Commission has spent the last two years reviewing the 1990 Plan of Conservation and Development and examining issues affecting the future of Middletown.

Out of this review, a proposed update has been developed and is now available for review by the public. The Commission encourages the public to review the document and submit comments.

The update can be found at: http://www.middletownplanning.com/pocd/pocdupdate.html

Questions or comments can be sent to bill.warner@cityofmiddletown.com




MEETINGS OF THE WEEK

Planning and Zoning Commission - Agenda Summary
Wednesday, June 25, 2008 –7:00 pm – Council Chambers
- End of the cul-de-sac on Jackson Street - construct thirty-eight (38) multi-family dwelling units - Jackson Commons, LLC/Steven A. Rocco, Architect

- 666 Congdon Street West - two (2) lot resubdivision - G. Robert & Jean Newman
- East Main Street - Request for Location Approval for sale of used cars - GP Auto Sales & Service/Gino Pulvirenti
- Proposed update of Plan of Conservation and Development Chapters 1-5 Current Conditions
- Fairchild Road - four (4) lot resubdivision - Stephen G. and Barbara Borrelli/George Smilas, Bennett & Smilas Engineering, Inc.

- 56 Warwich Street – Change of use of Polish National Home to a church / bible study – Jennifer A. Gagosz



RECENT COMMISSION ACTIONS (Unofficial results)

No Actions to report


You can find agendas, minutes and legal notices at www.middletownplanning.com