Just Let Go, Release, the Animosity
I've just bumped into one of the movers and planners in our town. At the moment the town is in the throes of divided opinions. Years ago a large technology company had settled in town. In time they built numerous buildings for their ever increasing business operations.
Unfortunately the tides changed and their company went through a time of downsizing and eventually they simply moved out of town and left the buildings.
In time someone purchased the land-- and the unoccupied buildings. The buyer never really seemed intent on pursuing any plan.For years they sat on the site without doing anything productive.
The town, after a few years ,created a zoning plan that included housing, small stores, open space,and a larger footprint for a hoped for grocery store. Years went by. The recession appeared. In time the owner of the property sold to a large real estate company. This is a company that has built large scale malls and smaller malls.
Then the rumors began. We heard that the developers wanted rezoning to allow for big box stores. Then a number of people began to complain about places like Walmart or Targets.
So the developer opted to downsize the size of the large box stores and increased the number of apartments. All these changes required the town to vote on a rezoning proposal.
People have divided themselves into groups- and some of what is happening is ugly.
Some folks think that there will be too many homes with the increased school enrollment breaking the back of schools. Others think that we need more people in town in order to drive down tax assessments.
Some people love the idea of a place that will attract people to come to town, while other people worry about our present downtown area.
For every opinion on one side there's another on the other side. And folks aren't simply holding an opinion, there are fractions demonizing the other point of view.
Looking at the entire situation in a semi-detached manner would require us to put an end to texting, meeting on the soccer field, expending energy on telephone calls, and clandestine meetings on street corners, grocery lines, and in coffee houses.
Since that's unlikely to happen I expect many of us are going to wonder why these disagreements often work up to dissonance between them and us.
Isn't them really us and us really them?
I don't know what will happen, but I'll be at the Special Town Meeting and cast my vote.
There will be folks on both sides of the aisle and some rhetoric will be politely ugly.
Perhaps people feel abandoned. Perhaps they feel isolated. Perhaps we're just a microcosm of the larger world out there.
Unfortunately the tides changed and their company went through a time of downsizing and eventually they simply moved out of town and left the buildings.
In time someone purchased the land-- and the unoccupied buildings. The buyer never really seemed intent on pursuing any plan.For years they sat on the site without doing anything productive.
The town, after a few years ,created a zoning plan that included housing, small stores, open space,and a larger footprint for a hoped for grocery store. Years went by. The recession appeared. In time the owner of the property sold to a large real estate company. This is a company that has built large scale malls and smaller malls.
Then the rumors began. We heard that the developers wanted rezoning to allow for big box stores. Then a number of people began to complain about places like Walmart or Targets.
So the developer opted to downsize the size of the large box stores and increased the number of apartments. All these changes required the town to vote on a rezoning proposal.
People have divided themselves into groups- and some of what is happening is ugly.
Some folks think that there will be too many homes with the increased school enrollment breaking the back of schools. Others think that we need more people in town in order to drive down tax assessments.
Some people love the idea of a place that will attract people to come to town, while other people worry about our present downtown area.
For every opinion on one side there's another on the other side. And folks aren't simply holding an opinion, there are fractions demonizing the other point of view.
Looking at the entire situation in a semi-detached manner would require us to put an end to texting, meeting on the soccer field, expending energy on telephone calls, and clandestine meetings on street corners, grocery lines, and in coffee houses.
Since that's unlikely to happen I expect many of us are going to wonder why these disagreements often work up to dissonance between them and us.
Isn't them really us and us really them?
I don't know what will happen, but I'll be at the Special Town Meeting and cast my vote.
There will be folks on both sides of the aisle and some rhetoric will be politely ugly.
Perhaps people feel abandoned. Perhaps they feel isolated. Perhaps we're just a microcosm of the larger world out there.
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