[RP TownTalk] Wachovia Project

[Lou King]

Thanks David, that should have been "coffee shop", or shoppe to keep 
with the historical preferences of some. Of course our memory of that 
gathering place is clouded with tobacco smoke, especially "then" in this 
part of the country.

David Lingua wrote:
> Lou,
> ... By the way, what's a coffe ship 
That does lead me to my response to Heather, some of which may be in an 
earlier post.  Not to be taken wrong or to be considered as a personal 
affront, Heather's post is really just an opening I am going to step 
into.  For prospective let me layout some background here. 1) I'm not 
glad about McDonald's either. A good 1/3 of the trash in my yard is 
rappers from there, but I suppose that is more about the people that go 
there than the chain. 2) My house in RP is the third house I own/have 
owned that was built before 1908. (I'm a slow learner.)  3) As we speak, 
sort of, I am painting my house three colors. Counting two shades of 
green, it's four colors and I am restoring the porch railing and 
balustrade based on some c. 1906-08 photos from the historical society.

We do need to be careful how we remember the past. Those same photos 
that I am using to restore the porch also show that the house was 
painted a vary plain two tones; white and brown based on my paint scrapings.

History is funny, it depends on when and who is doing the remembering. 
Most (many) people remember High School fondly. On the other hand, I was 
a geek, a bit of a social and economic outsider. I have a much different 
view of those "wonderful" HS days.  This little mining town in the 
Rockies where I am has a similar problem.  My uncle lives on Empire St. 
because in the 30's when the red light district was being cleaned up and 
gentrified, the Johnny come latelies (or my likely the Jennifer come 
latelies) changed the name of "their" end of Blair St. They did not want 
to live on "Notorious" Blair St. Or should that be "Infamous" Blair St. 
which was where the red lights were.   Now, of course the bars and 
tourist traps play up their buildings Blair Street history.  The 
historical society is restoring a head stone that reads in part "born in 
Wails died on a pool table."  Now the only pool table is at the American 
Legion and any one that dies on that table will most likely die of old 
age not "lead."

Riverdale Park is not different. The "big house" in town was not served 
and maintained by want we would now call union labor. Although, during 
Lincoln's era it may have been. (I'm sorry).  The local tea/coffee house 
was filled with pipe and cigar smoke and surely did not welcome anyone 
in a dress, except in order to serve and in some places not even then.

Gerald King's (not related) painting includes the mural so again which 
town history are we talking about. I note that Gerald took some poetic 
license and included a "pleasant" number of cars on E-W Hw and Rt 1 and 
pedestrians.   I'm not sure I recognize all those buildings.  Yes,  
there is the shoe repair on the end next to where the second hand store 
was ( I do miss the changing window displays on the way to the Post 
Office). But I don't see the dilapidated cleaners or the church in the 
bakery building that hasn't sold bread in living memory. My point is 
Gerald took some license with history, as we all do.

Once you start taking liberties with history all bets are off. Even if 
the number of cars in the painting were ever correct, things change. Now 
you take your life in your hands when you walk across that "pleasant" 
intersection.  When you have a selective memory about the "good old 
days" it becomes a matter of opinion. No one I can relate to is 
suggesting we go back to the child labor or labor conditions in general 
that go along with a nice Victorian walkable town. - And that from 
someone who considers himself so conservative that I don't even know if 
my left turn signal works because I never turn Left.

Back to the Wachovia.  Things change and so should the battles. There 
are places in the southern part of this country that are a backwater 
primarily because they were still fighting the civil war in 1960. 
Figuratively, the same thing can happen to RP. It was a dumb idea to 
have two drug stores 100 yards. apart. We won that battle. The bank is 
their plan "B". I see that the bank is going to happen, "grate" seer 
that I am. But I am also glad the town has Archer (his post 13 Jun), 
Roland (his post 14 Jun) and others that have the position, time and/or 
energy to get the best they can for the town.

As was noted in an unsigned posting, the bank is a long term commitment. 
But why worry about booting them out when something better comes along. 
By then maybe Jamal (sp) will be ready to move on town center.  Or in 
the near term work at getting the "right business" in the building that 
Giant is leaving on the other side of town. Or getting the "right" kind 
of development on Dunn's corner.  I am not suggesting a passive 
approach. Don't wait for a developer to finely discover the "right" 
answer. Be proactive. There have been lots of good ideas posted here. Of 
course the town's economic development plans and activities are the most 
effective way to affect developers. But that takes people and time, and 
that means money, tax money.  And we are back to the budget, and tax 
rates and by the way the revenue the Wachovia will provide in the near 
term and during that long term commitment.

Lou