It Takes a Village, People

We’re funny folks, we Norwicheans (or do you prefer Rose City Residents?), and I don’t mean humorous. 

Half of us (or more) are angry that ‘nothing changes’ (but we never offer you any examples that would define either word) while the other half of us are angry that ‘everything changes’ (see the previous disclaimer for absence of definitions). 

And then there’s the third half of us (third half? Yeah, I know, math has never been our strong suit) who are madder than heqq at the other two halves for always being negative about everything or being naively optimistic about everything (which seems to cover all the bases). 

How else to explain the reaction precipitated Wednesday by the announcement the City of Norwich is now the (proud?) owner of the former YMCA building which has sat abandoned and abused since its abrupt closure over a decade ago. 

Then, as now, in a city where we would bitch if you hanged us with a new rope, we had an outpouring of outrage and indignation almost evenly divided between those who wanted ‘the city’ to do ‘something with the Y’ and those who saw any effort by Norwich’s elected and appointed leaders to do anything vaguely resembling leadership as unwarranted and unwelcome. But look at us now; the Village People would be so proud.

Talk about bringing folks together even if, and most especially because, we cannot agree on what to do much less what to do next, you’d have to go some to top the idea of taking on the rescue and revival of the YMCA (or maybe its razing). 

Everyone has stories about how their kids (or sometimes it was the parents of) learned to swim there, or if it’s where someone else used to shoot hoops on Thursday nights while folks went shopping downtown. The YMCA was for its time a community center and in any number of reinvented forms now would make our city more attractive. 

And standing, as it does, at a gateway to our downtown, you’d think we’d rally around some creative thinking especially if, as is being posited, reclamation/remediation/demolition costs could be borne by American Rescue Plan money that Norwich is forecast to receive.  

A lot of us keep pointing out the city’s less than glory-covered history of private property acquisition (looking at you, Reid and Hughes building as just a most recent example) and I concede there’s a lot of planning still to be done before we ever get to the action and execution part of the project but can we stop finding fault with every effort to improve Norwich like somebody, somewhere, was awarding prizes for the best reason why we can’t/won’t do something?

I applaud the City Manager and the City Council for the effort, even if I’m a little fuzzy on a lot of the specifics (I’m fuzzy on a lot of stuff, so I’m not overly anxious), and encourage and exhort anyone and everyone with an opinion about this decision to not rush to judgment.  

This is the kind of initiative, as someone who’s been told for thirty years he’s not from here, that always reminds me of how often we put the “No” in Norwich. The worst part is we are each the reason why we keep doing that.
-bill kenny