Stuck Between Stations

I’m impressed at election time with how signs for candidates appear on lawns and vacant lots across Norwich, much like wildflowers after a spring rain. Between the signs for supporting “Working for Norwich’ and ‘Making Norwich More Affordable,’ I almost can’t see the most prevalent lawn sign of all, For Sale signs on residences and commercial buildings.

My taxes increased by three hundred dollars a month last fiscal year due to re-evaluation and nearly one hundred more a month this year, which revealed two things. We don’t have enough money for any Board of Education to fund our schools to enable our children to compete in the Information Age, and we have negative commercial growth, dooming us to repeat this cycle endlessly.

Tomorrow night at six in NFA’s Slater Museum will be a debate among (I assume) three mayoral candidates, followed by a debate among City Council candidates. There's still time to submit questions at info.lwvsect@gmail.com.

Make the candidates articulate their vision for attracting and revitalizing our commercial and industrial sectors; how they will create spaces and places in our historic downtown that attract new residents, and artisan businesses to populate and reinvigorate our abandoned buildings, with specific targets, goals, and milestones so that we can assess our progress.

Ask them if they support a higher assessed value of a commercial building based on its potential, rather than its current use, resulting in a higher rate and collection of property taxes and mitigation of blight. If not, why not? And if so, how would they implement it? 

Roundabouts seem to be a solution that nobody likes, so what's theirs? How would they mitigate/alleviate traffic flow on Route 82?

Would they support a mill rate stabilization fund, and how would they finance it?

Do they support enhancing and enlarging the collaboration and cooperation between the paid firefighters and the volunteer companies? If not, why not; if yes, how would they facilitate and expedite that interaction?

What do they see as Norwich’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats when marketing our city to new businesses, industries, and families looking for a new home?

And don't let ANY of the candidates leave the stage before they answer the questions fully.

If you don't choose, you lose. And not voting is still a choice. We, the voters, hold the growth of our city in our hands with our ballots. We hear the same bullshite every election. It's like we're stuck between stations. Change channels and make informed choices, maybe for the first time in decades.
-bill kenny