Impatience

Eagle Street, North Adams, Massachusetts. Photo by Paul Guillotte / North Adams Transcript

This article from the North Adams Transcript, "Eagle Street redux: Merchants, city officials have generated various visions over the decades" says that "Ideas on what to do with Eagle Street in North Adams have cropped up on a regular basis over the past 80 years or so. Past city fathers had discussed turning it into a park; today, advocates are trying to find ways to rejuvenate it as a shopping and dining destination."

Certainly this puts the success and failure of various commercial district revitalization efforts in perspective--80 years!

From time to time I wonder if the way I bristle at things is partly due to impatience. Change takes time and perhaps at times we look at things in too short increments, not seeing from a longer term perspective.

Even so, I don't think that I'm necessarily wrong.

I just sent a post to themail newsletter at DC Watch and in part it comments on transit planning in Maryland. Completely unrelated to my post, there is an advocacy group spearheaded by Len Sullivan that comments on a wide variety of happenings in the District. The group is based in Maryland. NARPAC studies are promoted primarily through themail, which is why I'm thinking about it.

While I don't usually agree with his pro-commuter no subsidy for DC perspective (+ he has a hard time letting go of certain assumptions and ideas, some of which don't make sense), the group, NARPAC, which stands for "National Association to Restore Pride in America's Capital" always has interesting analyses.

Even so, I'm thinking that DC citizens need to create a group called something like "National Association to Restore Sense in Maryland State Governance" with a particular focus on regional planning and transportation planning and policy. Plus, I wasn't happy with how the Maryland Department of Transportation handled recent matters at the Port of Baltimore, etc.

One of the things that NARSMSG could advocate for would be a commuter tax for Maryland residents working in DC...

Index Keywords: urban-revitalization