Wow

I wrote what follows for Tuesday, October 16, 2007. 

The 'spot zoning' commented upon below, is now an argument among well-meaning parties about a parcel for possible commercial development very close to what we call the Norwichtown Burying Ground which is not all that far (in terms of distance or philosophy)  from where the earlier argument played out over a decade ago.

This time it involves historical preservation concerns but to my eyes also a quietly unacknowledged record of elitism mixed with racism because we sure didn't care for a very long time (decades and decades) about the poor and forgotten folks who might have been interred beyond that same burying ground's walls when we built a bank, some houses, and a small scale shopping mall in the same area. Weird how events have a habit of repeating themselves. 

At the time I called this:

Speed of Light Meets the Speed of Sound

The speed of light is faster than the speed of sound. That's why so many people look good until you hear them speak.

Aside from elevating one another's blood pressure what are we hoping to accomplish in Norwich to grow our commercial tax base? That's actually a Zen riddle, of sorts, because, as it is right now, we're doing absolutely nothing.

People prefer a problem that's familiar to a solution that is not.

We in Norwich continue to be less than thrilled at developers with requests for zoning applications that create 'spot zoning' (and we are NOT without real reasons for this unhappiness).

We are angry our charter doesn't allow our City Council, when serving as the Zoning Board of Appeals, to offer or collect community comment beyond the night of a zoning hearing, and we like being angry about this as well.

But, instead of a concerted effort to reassess how we accomplish economic development and community zoning (process and product) (and we have a Commission on the City Plan who've shouted themselves hoarse in trying to accomplish just this), we point fingers at one another. The problem with all that finger-pointing is three fingers on the hand point back at ourselves.

Choose a path to encourage smart, sustainable growth (= let the Commission on the City Plan advise the City Council? Sounds good to me.) Make it transparent and equitable and respectful of and for everyone and then apply it.

If it needs to be tweaked, work on it (and with it) to repair it. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Stop confusing 'busy' with 'productive.' We NEVER have time to get things right the first time, but we always make time to do them over.

Community zoning and economic growth aren't just about property and opportunity-they are about people's lives and increasing the quality of them. 

It's hard to imagine a greater 'good' for any form of government at any level, or a greater need for it than right now.

-bill kenny