Don't Just Do Something, Stand There!

I like to think of myself as open-minded, and I’ll assume you do, too. 

We are, as a species, the result of constant changes, too many to count over untold millennia, and yet many of us are less than comfortable with the notion of change when it happens in our own lives. 

We prefer problems that are familiar to solutions that are not. 

I’m reasonable, sort of. If I don't have to change how I do a single thing in my life I am comfortable telling myself I, too. believe in change. I should be embarrassed about being so set in my ways, but instead, I live here in Norwich and fit right in. 

Do you remember when the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) intending to improve traffic safety on “Crash Alley” proposed creating six roundabouts within a mile and a half on Route 82? Kinda like Oprah: ’You get a roundabout,’ and ‘You get a roundabout!’

It was well-intentioned but it threatened disruption and in some instances, closure of businesses in the path of those roundabouts. 

There were few people (aside from affected businesses) at their 2022 presentation but very quickly lots of lawn signs with "No Six Roundabouts" appeared across Norwich. I wondered why the roundabout on those signs seemed British and not American (traffic traveling in the wrong direction). But what I most wondered about were people saying 'no' without offering anything resembling alternate ideas of any kind on how to make Route 82 safer for everyone to travel. 

We get a do-over, or I’d like to think a do-better, with another public information meeting tomorrow night, at the Kelly STEAM Magnet Middle School on "Safety Improvements on Route 82 (Phase 1)." There is an open forum for discussions with DOT officials starting at six with their formal presentation at seven and a question-and-answer session following the presentation. 

You may be surprised traffic safety enhancements for Route 82 are still an issue, but you shouldn’t be. You cannot expect a change if you don't make one and we certainly didn’t make any. 

All we did last time was put the ‘no’ in Norwich very loudly.  

A lot of people (whom I hadn’t seen at the first presentation) were active on social media platforms and offered comments and suggestions on what to do about traffic and the situation on Route 82. Some of those ideas were anatomically impossible but others seemed to me to be worth saying aloud to other people in a venue like tomorrow evening’s presentation. Of course, you have to show up to speak up. 

We tell one another we're flexible and open to innovative ideas until someone offers one, and then not so much. Nothing is impossible for the person who doesn't have to do it, but let's face it, in the universe of challenges facing Norwich, making Route 82 safer for everyone is low-hanging fruit. 

If we can't agree on a solution for that, how in the world do we hope to revive downtown, repurpose all the brownfields, build a new public safety building/police station, define the need, location, and configuration of another business park, end the animus between the paid and volunteer fire departments, or a dozen other issues confronting us? 

No is not a magic word like Abracadabra and it fixes nothing.

I'll bring my open mind to tomorrow night's meeting. I hope you’ll do the same. 
-bill kenny