Past (Im)perfect

We're fond of history around here, but we're in danger of who we once were preventing us from becoming who we could be.

I've lived here for nearly thirty years (and, yes, I did hear that 'too long' all the way in the back) which, for many people I meet, is no more than an eye blink and I've heard a lot of the 'back in the day' stories about Franklin Square, the sea captains who built houses on Laurel Hill, the Sears and Roebuck store  and those halcyon downtown Thursday nights so hectic that small children clung tightly to a parent's hand lest they find themselves in the street and swept away possibly forever. 

These stories, I like to think of them as parables, always have a sepia tinge to them and a soft-focus in terms of detail. They always bring a smile to the face of the person telling me the tale, which doesn't so much conclude as just stop. Leaving us in the here and now and present-day where not one of those storytellers seems to know what happened, how, or why to Norwich.

In their reckoning, people woke up and suddenly downtown was a ghost town-the stores were all gone and so, too, were the people who shopped in them. We seem to forget that adapt and overcome is as true for cities as it is for individuals and the alternative is never pleasant.

I bring this up because we're days away from the next installment of back-in-the-day nostalgia starting mere moments after the City Manager unveils his proposed municipal budget at Monday night's City Council meeting. 

Almost two decades ago we modified our charter and redesigned and reconfigured our City Council and as one of the folks who helped make that happen, I'm still proud of what we did and for what I believe all that change has helped lead us to. 

The goal was, and is, progress, not perfection, and when I walk the same streets that were dead and dusted thirty years ago, I encounter plenty of people who, like me, weren’t born here but have chosen to be here now and who are getting on with their lives.

We didn't live in Norwich in the 1960s (or whatever decade you're most fond of) and at the risk of upsetting those unhappy with where we are, most of us don’t mourn or miss it. Because we didn’t live it then doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be mindful of and respect Norwich’s history but it's 2021 and time to stop using a memory of what we think we once were as an excuse to keep us from becoming who we need to be. 

The City Council and Manager are working to invest our finite tax dollars to provide the best opportunity for each of us and if they're doing it right there's going to be some stress and some strain as we grow up and into what we need for the Norwich we keep telling one another we want to build.

The first step towards that next Norwich starts Monday night at 7:30, when, as a city, we'll continue to make history. What kind, as always, is up to us. 
-bill kenny