Steven P. BarrettHOW TO WRECK, OR PROTECT, A SMALL TOWN'S CENTER
July 30th 2008 15:38
By Steven Barrett
Don't worry, this isn't another story about Wal-Mart sucking up the commercial heart of yet another small town. Not that Wal-Mart couldn't stand to get yet another lesson for sucking the lifeblood out of another small town's heart and soul, but this is different. Very different.
For those readers who grew up in small towns in the US, Canada, Austrailia and Europe, and elsewhere, you probably remember where your particular "informat town hall" was really located -- and not necessarily in "Town Hall."
Amherst, MA, my family's (original) "home town" had several "informal town halls:" the former Louis' Grocery Store, Hasting's office supply and newspaper store, and the Post Office. Hasting's still serves as a friendly gathering spot since so many academics stop in to pick up their daily New York Times, Wall Street Journals, Boston Globes, Springfield, (MA) Union News and the oldest continuously published paper in the free world, the Daily Hampshire Gazette. (Too bad the Gazette's becoming as horizontally monopolistic as it's becoming more establishment-oriented, thus catering to the tastes of an already solidly entrenchedacademically elitist crowd. Even the Washington Post is more ideologically balanced.)
The Post Office, however, remains, but in a more diminished capacity. However, it was almost entirely yanked from its location in the town's center business district. Most of the main operations were shifted to a new facility on a commercially zoned road running alongside Amherst's western border with Hadley. Cry not for Amherst residents since the town has a very narrow shape and runs along the spine of a chain of small hills going from north to south and the new central office was shifted only a mile away, and reachable by at least one free bus line. Tsk, tsk. But let's face it, closing a post office is like shutting down a barber shop, favorite local coffee shop or pastry shoppe: it's the place where the locals love to schmooze and hash out out local politics, ball games, you name it.
And there'll be hell to pay if you ever (even accidently) cross that "open meeting law" line. Besides enraged women, hell hath no more fury than the proverbially local town watchdog on open meeting laws and such.
Contrast what the well-pampered townsfolk of Amherst have to "put up with" with the residents of Ripton, VT or for that matter, many, many residents in thousands of locales throughout places that are far more rural than Ripton. How did little Ripton cross my eyes? I saw an op-ed column about the little town facing the prospect of losing its Post Office. Emotionally, it's hard to disagree with them. But let's face it, if Ripton, Amherst and all other small towns already have town halls, do they need a new one paid for by citizens in states and towns far removed from them? Of course I'm sure some compromise can be reached, even with a local convenience store acting as the new "P.O." if need be.
At least Ripton's residents have a much more substantial beef with the USPS than cushy college towns like Amherst. If Ripton loses it's P.O., its residents have a much longer trek to make and in some awfully snowy conditions during winter time.
Moreover, towns like Amherst, with niche markets, artsy fartsy stores, etc., will never have to face the fearful prospects of what happens to small towns when their local P.O.'s are completely moved miles away. Nor did Amherst merchants lose a dime to the big boxes and postal business that went to a commercial district on the edge of town.
It's just that Amherst residents, with their Porker in Congress, John Olver, seem to forget; that keeping even a small downsized and residual USPS presence in an expensive area takes badly needed funds for the USPS to use for residents in all the Ripton Vermonts from New England to the Pacific shores. And you don't need a Ph.D in government planning to figure this scenario out.
Call this a "Tale of two villes and lost "town halls." I'd rather see the USPS protect the real small towns and let the fatcat collegetowns and suburban toney villes fend for themselves. After all, their residents have long left it for the lesser fortunate people and towns to do likewise.
Don't worry, this isn't another story about Wal-Mart sucking up the commercial heart of yet another small town. Not that Wal-Mart couldn't stand to get yet another lesson for sucking the lifeblood out of another small town's heart and soul, but this is different. Very different.
For those readers who grew up in small towns in the US, Canada, Austrailia and Europe, and elsewhere, you probably remember where your particular "informat town hall" was really located -- and not necessarily in "Town Hall."
Amherst, MA, my family's (original) "home town" had several "informal town halls:" the former Louis' Grocery Store, Hasting's office supply and newspaper store, and the Post Office. Hasting's still serves as a friendly gathering spot since so many academics stop in to pick up their daily New York Times, Wall Street Journals, Boston Globes, Springfield, (MA) Union News and the oldest continuously published paper in the free world, the Daily Hampshire Gazette. (Too bad the Gazette's becoming as horizontally monopolistic as it's becoming more establishment-oriented, thus catering to the tastes of an already solidly entrenchedacademically elitist crowd. Even the Washington Post is more ideologically balanced.)
The Post Office, however, remains, but in a more diminished capacity. However, it was almost entirely yanked from its location in the town's center business district. Most of the main operations were shifted to a new facility on a commercially zoned road running alongside Amherst's western border with Hadley. Cry not for Amherst residents since the town has a very narrow shape and runs along the spine of a chain of small hills going from north to south and the new central office was shifted only a mile away, and reachable by at least one free bus line. Tsk, tsk. But let's face it, closing a post office is like shutting down a barber shop, favorite local coffee shop or pastry shoppe: it's the place where the locals love to schmooze and hash out out local politics, ball games, you name it.
And there'll be hell to pay if you ever (even accidently) cross that "open meeting law" line. Besides enraged women, hell hath no more fury than the proverbially local town watchdog on open meeting laws and such.
Contrast what the well-pampered townsfolk of Amherst have to "put up with" with the residents of Ripton, VT or for that matter, many, many residents in thousands of locales throughout places that are far more rural than Ripton. How did little Ripton cross my eyes? I saw an op-ed column about the little town facing the prospect of losing its Post Office. Emotionally, it's hard to disagree with them. But let's face it, if Ripton, Amherst and all other small towns already have town halls, do they need a new one paid for by citizens in states and towns far removed from them? Of course I'm sure some compromise can be reached, even with a local convenience store acting as the new "P.O." if need be.
At least Ripton's residents have a much more substantial beef with the USPS than cushy college towns like Amherst. If Ripton loses it's P.O., its residents have a much longer trek to make and in some awfully snowy conditions during winter time.
Moreover, towns like Amherst, with niche markets, artsy fartsy stores, etc., will never have to face the fearful prospects of what happens to small towns when their local P.O.'s are completely moved miles away. Nor did Amherst merchants lose a dime to the big boxes and postal business that went to a commercial district on the edge of town.
It's just that Amherst residents, with their Porker in Congress, John Olver, seem to forget; that keeping even a small downsized and residual USPS presence in an expensive area takes badly needed funds for the USPS to use for residents in all the Ripton Vermonts from New England to the Pacific shores. And you don't need a Ph.D in government planning to figure this scenario out.
Call this a "Tale of two villes and lost "town halls." I'd rather see the USPS protect the real small towns and let the fatcat collegetowns and suburban toney villes fend for themselves. After all, their residents have long left it for the lesser fortunate people and towns to do likewise.
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Comment by S.L.
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Comment by Anonymous
(Only in New England!) L O L ! And we wonder why our clocks are cleaned and heads are handed back to us by the rest of the world.
I tried like hell to find pics of the old P.O. on No. Pleasant St. but no luck. Oh well. But at least it's still standing!