Broad Street, Make It "Shovel Ready"

A recent letter to Senator Handley, Representatives Thompson and Barry, Mayor Spaduccini, the Board of Directors and General Manager Shanley:

I would like to take this opportunity to advocate for the Broad Street Streetscape and Revitalization project to be number one on Manchester's "Shovel Ready" list. This area of Manchester has been studied, discussed and hotly debated since I became a resident of Manchester in 2002, if not longer. Action on this area of Manchester looked promising with the 2003 report from the Parkade/Broad Street Revitalization Steering Committee, and then again in 2005 with the Conceptual Design Report from BL Companies. Even a citizen lead effort on one portion of Broad Street, the now infamous Manchester Parkade, made an attempt to move on this vital area in our town. All have fallen short of what is possible.

When I first read of Obama's Economic Stimulus Plan for infrastructure projects, my first thought was of Broad Street and the Parkade. I believe that this area of Manchester, and Connecticut for that matter, has the potential to fulfill many needs and ideas in today's commercial and political climate. Whatever buzzwords that you choose, be it Smart Growth, New Urbanism, or Green Building, Manchester has an opportunity like no other inner-ring suburb of Hartford. With medium to high density, multi-use zoning, along with public and private redevelopment, Manchester would have the ability to attract and retain Connecticut's college graduates with businesses, housing and activities to suit their needs. With redevelopement on Broad Street, our town would also be able to attract young families, and active seniors. In your positions I am sure that you are privy to, or have been briefed on, a great deal of information on these subjects. I do not wish to repeat them in the interest of brevity.

Please forgive my bluntness, but the section of Broad Street from Center Street to West Middle Turnpike, measuring a mere two-thirds of a mile, is a commercial cancer that is slowly eating away at the heart of Manchester. I am sure that there are many other projects that may be closer to "shovel ready," or easier politically. I beseech you to not pick the low-hanging fruit, but to shoot for the moon and put your full combined weight behind this area of our town. Please, do not let another five years or even a decade go buy on this. Bring together Manchester, CRCOG and state agencies to get these projects off the drawing board and make it a reality. Take Manchester's working class roots and make it an example of what is possible.

Merry Christmas

Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at
Christmas-time.

-Laura Ingalls Wilder

Peace and good tidings from my family to yours during this holiday season.

Independent ≠ Indecisive

I choose to be unaffiliated. I choose to not bridle myself to a party line. I refuse labels, avoid pigeon-holes, and otherwise try to steer clear of anything that would allow a neat and tidy package to be wrapped around my thoughts, opinions or allow people to assume “where I am coming from.” As soon as someone assumes something about me, I'm concerned that they are no longer listening to what I have to say without coloring it with a prepackaged and presumptive label. I'm a reasonably intelligent citizen, not a demographic.

If you are a registered political party member, do you believe that those who are not are somehow indecisive, fence sitting, weather vanes waiting to see which way the wind will blow? If so, why? Shouldn't you be more concerned that you are surrounded by people who mostly agree with you? It's easy to have an opinion if everyone around you agrees with you.

The media loves to label people. Look at local articles from the Hartford Courant or the Journal Inquirer written about events surrounding BOD or BOE meetings and hot political issues. It usually follows this form:

Issue X is supported by This Party, and opposed by That Party. Director Umpty Squat may have a valid position on Issue X and is quoted in the paper: “I feel that because of these very well thought out and logical reasons, I cannot support this issue,” says Director Squat, a That Party member.

There it is at the end, the party label. As if to say, “oh... of course he opposes it, he is a member of That Party.” What if you are a member of This Party and you agree with the reasoning of Director Squat? Does that mean that you can't publicly agree and vote with him on Issue X because he is a member of That Party?

I am often encouraged by the writings of, and books about the founding fathers of our republic. Their acumen should be known by more than just the learned, or people who have an interest in history or government. I think most people would be amazed at how relevant their wisdom is, even after more than two hundred years. One of my reasons for being unabashedly unaffiliated is George Washington's open letter to the people of the United States published in most of the country's newspapers at the conclusion of his second presidential term in 1796.

In one of the subjects of this farewell letter, President Washington warned the American people, “in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party.” He went on to write that partisanship, “serves always to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration. It agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms,” and that political parties also, “kindles the animosity of one part against another.”

I ask you, doesn't that sound like the status quo at all political levels of municipal, state and federal government? Making mountains out of mole hills to distract us. Lighting fires of animosities against each other, and then fervently fanning the flames. Without looking through the lens of a political party can make some things I read in the paper, or on local message boards seem outright ridiculous. Especially after seeing that this has been going on for centuries.

Please, I ask those who are of the opinion that unaffiliated voters are indecisive to not confuse party loyalty with integrity. They are not the same thing.

I leave you with a final thought from F. Scott Fitzgerald:

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”

I Manage To Find The Time...

AP study finds $1.6B went to bailed-out bank execs...

Ok, the main subject of the article linked above is infuriating enough, but here is what put a bur under my saddle:

"Goldman Sachs' tab for leased cars and drivers ran as high as $233,000 per executive. The firm told its shareholders this year that financial counseling and chauffeurs are important in giving executives more time to focus on their jobs."

Wow, I have to focus on my job and give my company 100% for at least eight hours a day (most days it's nine hours), and drive myself to and from work, and do my share of household chores, and be a father, and be a husband, and still be expected wake up and do it all over again the next day, and the day after that. Most days I'm happy to be able to put in a hard day's work. All this and Phil Gramm has the nerve to call us the whiners!?

Priorities

You have to have priorities in life. Here are mine in order

1. My Family
   a. Those under the roof of my house
   b. Those related by blood
   c. Those related by relationship (Marriage, Civil Union, Domestic Partnership or whatever.)
2. Friends
3. Career
4. Feeding my mind, body and soul
5. Improvement / care of domicile
6. Civic involvement

As you can see, the priority that this blog falls into is at the bottom of the list. So the question is, do I continue to keep this blog? Write to it only when I can, or when something going on in Town Hall or the Lincoln Center Hearing Room sticks in my craw?

I can understand why people in the past have resigned from civic duty. It is a second career. You cannot be a decent spouse, parent, employee and civil servant all at the same time unless you intend on having no time for sleep or the enjoyment of activities to feed and care for you mind, body and soul.

So, what is really important in life? Is it refuting message board gas bags and risk becoming one myself, or keeping track of my priorities? I think that question has an easy answer.

In an effort to at least remain relevant, my writings here will be more spontaneous, and off the cuff. I read something recently:

"Perfectionist striving can paralyze constructive action. Do something; you can always apologise tomorrow." - Jim Burgin

A Witness To History

Someday, I will be telling my children, "I was there when..."

All during the day yesterday, from when I awoke, to waiting in line in the early morning to vote at the Mahoney Recreation Center, to listening to the radio on the way home from work and then watching the returns on the election coverage provided by PBS, I felt that I was a part of and a witness to history being made. Last night, I stayed awake while most had already gone to bed. After the announcement of victory had been made, I had to hear President Elect Barack Obama's speech as it was given live. I only wish I could have been in Grant Park to feel the elctricty that must have been in the air.

As I worte earlier this year, Barack Obama gave me a sense of hope that we desperately needed as a country. The opening comments of his speech last night spoke directly to what I believe:

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

Who ever you voted for yesterday, I pray that everyone can believe in yesterday's answer.

Someday, when my children are learning US history in high school, I will be giving them a little bit of extra credit homework of my own. I want them to read these two speeches by Barack Obama. I believe that at least one of them will be tought in history classes fifty or one hundred years from now.

A More Perfect Union - March 18, 2008
Yes, We Can - November 4, 2008

I look forward to teaching my children about yesterday. Teaching them about the dream of our forefathers, why we are all so lucky to be citizens of such a great republic, and that my vote yesterday was to pass along my hopes and dreams to them as they grow up in this world that we are all creating for them.

Yesterday gave me my answer. Yes, we are all in this together.

I'm Mad As Hell!

"I don’t have to tell you things are bad, everybody knows things are bad: It’s a depression! Everybody’s out of work, or scared of losing their job; the dollar buys a nickel’s worth; banks are going bust; shop-keepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the street; nobody anywhere seems to know what to do and there’s no end to it! We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. We sit watching our TVs whilst some local newscaster tells us that “today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes” as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be! We know things are bad, worse than bad: they’re crazy! It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out anymore! We sit in the house and slowly the world we’re living in is getting smaller and all we say is “please, at least leave us alone in our living-rooms - let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won’t say anything! Just leave us alone!” Well I’m not going to leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don’t want you to protest, I don’t want you to riot, I don’t want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write, I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street – all I know is that first you’ve got to get mad! You’ve got to say “I’m a human being goddammit! My life has value!” So, I want you to get up now, I want all of you to get up out of your chairs! I want you to get up right now, and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!"

-From the character Howard Beale in the 1976 film Network.