More Community Conversation

Melissa Pionzio from the Hartford Courant did a great job covering yesterday evening's Community Conversation at Russell Library. Phil Pessina was the facilitator, and you can read all about it in her blog.

I covered the earlier conversation at noon at the Library -- and so I know it's not easy to keep track of all the comments and controversy. I really appreciate how thorough she was in reporting what people were saying.

Thanks Melissa!

A Thought Provoking Conversation

After giving all of us at the Wadsworth Mansion Middletown Conversation  this evening a quick lesson on the history of the inaugural speech, Elvin Lim said our new president "did not give a speech that will be written on monuments." The Wesleyan University government professor and speaker for the evening thought President Obama consciously chose prose over poetry, giving up eloquence and feel good moments to be critical of the last administration and to set the stage for change. Professor Lim said that Barak Obama showed in his speech today his great ambition, his extreme confidence and his agenda to truly change the relationship between the people and their government.

This third “Party with Purpose” and fundraiser for the Middlesex Community Foundation was a thought provoking evening with delightful wines provided by our local Connecticut vineyard, Chamard, as well as a very fine selection of finger foods. Many at this event were going off to other conversations later tonight and I’m sure Professor Lim provided much for them think about and to inject into the next discussions.  I know my husband and I noted that our Wes U pundit was much better than the ones they often put on TV.   

"The price and the promise of citizenship"

As Barack Obama called on us to embrace the "price and the promise of citizenship", I sat with several dozen of my fellow Middletown residents in the Hubbard Room at Russell Library, watching the events in DC on a big screen.

We clapped for Aretha. We were mesmerized by "Simple Gifts." We rose as a group while Obama took the oath. And then we listened.

It was clear from the occasional uh-huh's and amen's that his message resonated with this group -- especially the idea that we should believe in our power to come together and create change -- and it's time to get up and start working on that right now!

As the lights came up, the Community Conversation got underway while people snacked on sandwiches (donated by the Realto Cafe on Rapallo Avenue). I was pleasantly surprised to see a diverse crowd that included more than the usual suspects (although we were there too!) Susan Bysiewicz, the CT Secretary of the State and longtime Middletown resident facilitated, and the event was organized by a local committee led by Lisa Santangelo and Ron Klattenberg.

Art Meyers from Russell Library promises that a fuller report will be available, but I'll mention a few themes that came up over and over.

Programs that help people should be a top priority, especially for children, with calls for better integration between the different resources that are out there. Julius Thomas, a new Middletown resident, spoke eloquently about the need for us to not be so excited about the new administration that we underestimate how much individual work it will take to change things. He called for making families a priority, especially educating and supporting men who need to "step up and be fathers". (I noticed Donna Marino handing him a card, no doubt recruiting him in her work as the Parent Resource Coordinator for the Middletown schools.)

Another priority was the environment and the potential for new energy technologies. Katchen Coley worried that the stimulus packages will be targeted to "shovel-ready" projects, which means that any "green" or alternative energy projects will be ineligible, just because they are not as far along with their planning. Instead we will fund the same old bridge-and-road projects that got us into this mess in the first place. Susan Bysiewicz mentioned that Congressman Joe Courtney has written to Obama to ask him to target the stimulus for retrofitting schools with energy efficient systems -- which would both improve the environment and lower costs for local school districts. Matt Lesser, our new State Rep from Middletown, talked about the pressure that the state legislature faces in trying to plug the $6 billion hole in the state budget -- they get proposals to cut programs for saving farmland or creating alternative energy sources. Those are the very things we should be supporting.
Transparency in government was a problem for many in the room, with calls for better media coverage, better use of the web to make public documents available, and more responsiveness from local officials. Marilyn Mills noted that of all the places she has lived, Middletown is the most "closed", particularly when local officials and commissioners don't attempt to answer questions that are raised by residents when they are asked in public meetings. Judith Brown pointed to the problems caused by our short, 2-year terms for local elected officials, and the system of electing at-large council members, instead district or ward representatives.



This event owes much of its success to Susan's expertise as facilitator. As each person offered their ideas for our city, she thanked people for their involvement or offered ideas about how they could find other people who wanted to work on the same problem, or even programs that were already in place on those issues. I saw her quietly deflect a request to silence a particularly controversial speaker from the Green Party, which allowed the debate to reach a deeper level as a number of later speakers debated his points on their merits.


Spending an hour or so listening to my fellow citizens offer their ideas for Middletown was a fitting way to spend the after-glow of Obama's speech. As poet Elizabeth Alexander read at the end of the ceremony, let's give a "Praise song for the hand-lettered signs. The figuring it out at the kitchen tables." That's just what we were doing at our Community Conversation today.

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).]

North End's Community Conversation

Last night at the Green Street Art Center, North End residents and stakeholders gathered to discuss issues facing Middletown and our community in a community conversation.

As one of many conversations being held around town inspired by the upcoming inauguration of Barack Obama, we discussed the need for a community policing model, ways to build the North End's image, education in the North End and Middletown as a whole, job development and even a renewed sewing club.

On Inauguration day, January 20th, Community conversations will be held across Middletown. There will be two conversations held at Russel Library at 12pm and 6pm on inauguration day. This is a great opportunity to make the North End's voice heard. To check times and places for other community conversations go to: www.middletowncommunityconversations.blogspot.com

Community Coversations Planning Continues

On Saturday morning a group of 25 planners, hosts and facilitators met on Saturday morning to continue planning for a series of conversations around the city on the day Barack Obama is sworn in as president.

These conversations are designed to get community members to engage in conversations about ways in which Middletown can become a better place to live.

The Community Coversations will be hosted by a number of Middletown organizations, and locations throughout the city. Currently there are at least 14 locations. Some, like the discussions at the Russell Library will be open to the public, while others will consist of members of specific groups like Rotary.

A complete schedule of events will be published in the Eye the weekend before the inauguration, and a dedicated website is being created to provide information about the Community Conversations.

Planning continues for Community Conversations

Planners met Saturday morning at Russell Library to firm up plans for a community-wide conversation about change using the inauguration of Barack Obama as catalyst for these discussion.

The Eye printed the original announcement here.

More than twenty groups are planning conversations at noon, following a viewing of the inaugual address by Obama, and again at 6 pm. A listing of locations for public and group conversations will be available after a meeting of meeting hosts next Saturday morning at Russell Library.

The goal of these events is to stimulate community conversation on topic of importance, to stimulate public involvement in change, and to create plans and strategy for achieving change.