That Joni Mitchell is one bright person.....

Something about 'paved paradise and relocated a national pharmacy chain store.' It sounded a LOT better when she sang it than when I typed it and come to think of it, I'm not sure I even nailed the original lyrics.

The Norwich City Council, less than ten days away from a possible "Extreme Makeover" on Election Day, 6 November, is holding a special meeting tomorrow night at 7:30 to return to a previous meeting's discussion and decide (perhaps) on long-term (actually, five years with the first three guaranteed) extended support for the Norwich Community Development Corporation which serves as the agency for economic development in the city of Norwich. Except when it doesn't.

I had thought the Mayor of Norwich, by charter, was 'a catalyst' for economic development or maybe I was thinking of the Redevelopment Agency, or Rose City Renaissance or APED, or the aforementioned NCDC or three or four other well-meaning organizations. Or all of them.

Something about 'too many cooks' and what they do to a broth comes to mind.
Ironically, we actually have some wonderful places to dine in downtown Norwich.

We just don't seem to have the foot traffic for those businesses to flourish at the level and degree that rewards their hard work and effort. Maybe if we can get everyone who owns (or thinks they own) a piece of the responsibility for economic development (forgot all about the City Council! DOH!) to dine just once a week at the establishments we already have in downtown, those businesses could breathe a little easier.

To be honest, we can't always count on crowds of citizens coming to City Council meetings (the 'other' big item on the agenda is relocating the Council meeting of 19 November which will be about the partitioning of a traditional residential zone into a commercial retail district (because we don't have enough national pharmacies and coffee shops in Norwich)) to propel downtown development, but unless and until we have better ideas, or more elaborate PowerPoint presentations of old ideas (and you can bet the one being prepared for the 19 November Council meeting will be a humdinger), we'll have our current level of success or lack of.

What I find confusing about the proposed venue for the 19 November meeting is that it is actually smaller and less equipped than the current Council chmabers to host the large number of residents this meeting is expected to attract (suggest destroying a neighborhood that has existed for close to three generations and people will turn out; we're funny that way).

Meanwhile, the City of Norwich owns a 6,600 seat stadium, home of a Double A baseball team, that would seem to have the space and accommodations to be the ideal venue for just such a hearing.
And having that many people show up at Dodd Stadium might gladden the heart of one of the ball team's biggest fans who is also the attorney whose client's proposal for commercial redevelopment in a residential neighborhood is the reason for the special Council meeting in the first place. He, working in cooperation with NCDC, helped build the ballpark.
"And we go round and round and round in The Circle Game."
-bill kenny