Bellows Falls looks like the place where Anglo-America went to die, Troy is Albany’s Northampton and not its Holyoke, and “Union Grove” looks a little bit “made by hand” already.
Instead of last year’s Madrid-Toledo-Segovia experience this year afforded my wife and me the opportunity to take just 4 days to do our adult vacationing. We only discovered that a chance to go away for just the two of us would exist some 72 hours in advance so we threw together plans based on only two fixed items: a showing of The Wizard of Oz in a classic opera house/movie theater, and an exhibition of nudes from the Prado museum at The Clark.
In retrospect the primary organizing principle of this vacation was my podcast listening habits.
I only knew of the showing of The Wizard of Oz through KMO’s C-Realm podcast and decided that it, the movie showing, might be a nice opportunity for a little change of pace for us. Movies lie at the heart of my wife’s identity; some members of her family have been in the business of moving pictures since the Great Depression, and sharing her knowledge and love of film with me has been a counterpoint to me sharing my love of cities with her. I was also interested in Bellows Falls because I knew that KMO had decided to move there from New York City, despite some reluctance, because it embodies in some ways the type of resilient community that could be better suited to life in a changing world in the coming century.
While not all of the themes running through the C-Realm podcast are of interest to me, I lack whatever gene makes new agey stuff and “woo” in any way intriguing, I do enjoy his interest in Peak Oil, Climate Change, Limits to Growth, and Apocalypticism. As with many of my favorite thinkers he has decided to hunker down in or near a small town in the Northeast. Bellows Falls sits on rail and water transportation links, and is surrounded by a great deal of small scale agriculture, not to mention acres and acres of land lying fallow, and has the walkable core of a traditional town.
The people at the Opera House for the show reminded me not so much of the America of my youth, but of what would have seemed to me a Brigadoon version of America even in my youth. If you cobblestoned the Main Street and transformed a few key buildings into Tudor or Tuscan style edifices tourists would devour this place whole, but it’s much too authentic for that.
By the time the movie let out the sidewalks were all but rolled up, the nice Italian restaurant was empty, and my wife and I were left to talk with the movie buff who had sponsored that night’s near sell out showing of The Wizard of Oz. My wife already knew most of the details of the making of the film, but I knew only that Buddy Ebsen was originally cast as the Tin Man only to be unable to perform due to some issue with the make up.
I can tell that Bellows Falls is home to exactly the kind of people that don’t give a damn what I think. Good for them! It looks a place where the expectations are as practical as the storefronts. I can see this being a solid community in which to put down roots in uncertain times.
On the way from Bellows Falls to Troy, I set GoogleMaps to take us through Greenwich, New York; home of James Howard Kunstler and the setting for his World Made by Hand novels. We stopped by the public library, my wife in search of a public restroom, and I in search of Kunstler’s fiction. Three of the four volumes were on the shelves. I am about to start the third, A History of the Future, and was curious to see how well this prophet was received in his adoptive hometown. It looks every bit the struggling town he has mentioned time and time again on his podcast, but looks somewhat less forlorn than I pictured it. It became apparent many years ago that the urban-suburban argument no longer interested JHK, and he was choosing “door number three” as it were. I’ve been left like a fan of a musician who insists on recording ever changing eclectic tracks all the while I just want to hear his classic oldies.
More on Kunstler when I finish The Harrows of Spring.
In Troy I was reminded of the importance of what linguists call “register“. My interest in Troy was awakened by James Howard Kunstler’s former co-host on the Kunstlercast Duncan Crary. Duncan would constantly put Kunstler’s commentary into context using his adopted hometown of Troy, New York. The impression I got was of a city playing the same role to Albany as Holyoke does to Springfield: a smaller, struggling, formerly industrial city living in the shadow of a much larger neighbor. A day in Troy was enough to realize that it was no such thing, if anything it was much closer to playing the role of Albany’s Northampton: the smaller, whiter, more affluent city in close enough proximity to its larger neighbor that it made that city’s revitalization all the more difficult as it provided a simpler and safer urbanity right next door that any green shoots in Albany would need to compete with.
Hell, if anything Troy kicks Northampton’s ass. Troy is block after block of renovated, revitalized XIX century urbanity infused with art houses, wine bars, bistros, farmer’s markets, theater groups, and college bookstores. Yes, Troy has black people, Hispanic ones too, poor ones even, but it’s clear to me that ever thinking of it as at all similar to Holyoke, never mind Springfield, was ridiculous.
Getting back to “register”, the only thing that I can imagine is that Duncan’s prep school friends speak poorly of it because its tapas bars don’t compare favorably to the ones on Ibiza.
Troy is amazing. If Springfield ever, in my lifetime, reached the level of vitality, energy, and success that Troy has today, I would die a happy man.
I would add that those places feel like they do because the hyphenated-classes do not proportionally outnumber by each other or the tax payers, as is the case in Springfield. Like you, I would die a happy man if Springfield became a vibrant, diverse working un-Northampton place like Troy-or better, Norfolk, Virginia (you have an open invitation).
Here in Norfolk, 50% black, several colleges, lots of Navy and Merchant Marine, vibrant, urban gentrification, vis-à-vis Troy/Portland/Portsmouth/Providence, Richmond, etc. We have numerous half way houses, homeless shelters intermixed with wine bars and cafés. Plasterers and plumbers are celebrated as artisans because people continue to keep up their restored turn of the century homes.
When people feel outnumbered-especially green people (race blind people who are self-sufficient and successful regardless of education) they choose, let’s see…Longmeadow.
When my wife and I were picking out our list of cities to live in-pre-children, Portland, Portsmouth, Providence, Wilmington, Washington, Balto, Norfolk were the port cities we considered but liberal government and social favoritism toward the hyphenated classes ultimately kept us here in Norfolk where decisions seemed to have been made for the betterment of all-Norfolk now has light rail Steve.
Perhaps, Springfield could learn how to follow the path to prosperity from Providence or Norfolk ? Then again, Norfolk puts high end condos and retail on the street side of parking garages.
Norfolk is nice. But, it is important to note that the federal government is the only reason that city is what it is. As the home of the worlds largest Naval Station and the associated industry that goes with that it benefits from mountains of federal dollars that rain down on it annually.
According to city data over 300,000 jobs in Norfolk are directly connected to the military there. Imagine Springfield or Buffalo with that much in federal $!
Exactly. Over 40% of their economy is directly based on federal spending. Not unlike many southern and western metros.
With regard to my celebration of Norfolk, true there is much federal spending. And while the statistic 300000 are direct it is more like indirect result of Government spending. Anyone who remembers the heyday of the Springfield Armory’s influence in Springfield can draw similarities.
OK, is that any different than the “one mill” towns that once dotted our region? Especially the paper mills.
Here is my point, can the small urban centers draw the critical mass of people who create a vibrancy?
We manufacture college degrees in Massachusetts at a disproportional rate compared to most other parts of the country. Much of the capital for that production in “outside” money, yet we manufacture many of these degrees in rural/near rural areas. The very least Massachusetts could do is bring the academic infrastructure into the urban centers-then you would have government (state) funds spent closer in.
Norfolk may have been an unfair comparison, fair enough on that.
Those are good questions. Certainly Troy demonstrates how having universities in the core of the city can help create dynamism. The UMASS downtown idea was a good one, but it’s in the ONE building with on site parking ergo no energizing impact downtown!
The stats were 60,000 military jobs, an equivalent number of civilian jobs, and then the rest were the jobs “directly connected” to those.
Yes the closure of the armory and the diminution of Westover gave Springfield a wake up call nearly 50 years ago. How would Norfolk respond to a similar circumstance? What about so many other southern cities where military spending IS the economy?
Scary to think given the violent culture which exists there already. Even with its current economic success Norfolk has a murder rate substantially higher than Springfield…and the metropolitan rate is many times that of western Mass…in the good times…
So take away Norfolk’s diet of government money and Springfield’s diet of disproportional demographics and perhaps you get a city more like Greenfield or Bellows Falls (never seen it). If you go back and read Robert Kirkman’s critique of Plato and his city (http://www.metroethics.com/2012/02/self-sufficiency.html) would that mean you now have a “lean” Springfield-I think in the end it is Springfield I want to see succeed here. Springfield without the socio-demographic drama. Springfield without the NOHO self-righteousness. Springfield without the Boston arrogance.
In the end Steve, what Springfield needs, in my opinion, are more people like you. I am not giving up hope and intend to keep the family home.
Hope springs eternal!
Glad to hear you liked Bellows Falls better than I did. I went through there on a bike trip to meet a friend farther north in VT last summer, and I was surprised to find it a lot more down at heels than I expected. There were a lot of thin, hungry/angry looking guys hanging out on corners and in front of convenience stores. Nearby Springfield looked a bit more promising, but ultimately the trip made me more pessimistic than I had been about what the economic future of these places will be. Discounting Kunstleresque apocalypse in which we all become farmers and small scale machinists again, I wonder. Springfield, VT used to be a remarkable center of invention and technology that was like a smaller version of Springfield, MA, and I saw a huge mill complex in Springfield that was being renovated by the city government into a combination arts space/health care center. This is somehow sadly representative of how completely at a a loss local municipalities are. In the end something will happen, I don’t know what. I hope something good. I’m glad Troy looks great. Maybe Johnny Sanphilippo is right and our small urban centers will come back. I hope so! Thanks for the thoughtful report.
It was one night at one movie. You may be right on that one. I wonder how KMO feels about it.
“Discounting Kunstleresque apocalypse in which we all become farmers and small scale machinists again”
Can you point me in this direction-I would like to read about this.
Maybe I’m mischaracterizing Kunstler’s work; it’s been years since I read him. But if you’re curious you could poke around at kunstler.com (he’s an engaging writer, and his eyesores of the month are entertaining. I think he’s written a few novels about the near future, the first maybe called “world made by hand” or something.
Thank you. Very cool perspective-liked his stuff. Appreciate you responding.
World Made by Hand
The Witch of Hebron
A History of the Future
The Harrows of Spring