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Volume 115, Number 85 - Tuesday, January 5, 1999
Because Main Street Defines Middletown
by John Friedlander
Why do I write so much about Main Street? Middletown has lots of neighborhoods, why do I concentrate so much on just one of them?
Because Main Street is unique, and special. It is one of only a few neighborhoods that could only be in Middletown. Sadly, far too many of our housing subdivisions (I hesitate to even call some of them neighborhoods) could just as well be in any other city in Connecticut -- or any other state for that matter.
Not our Main Street. No other street has as many locally-owned businesses. No other street in Middletown has as many distinctive pre-World War II buildings -- solidly built, with elegance and style, and family names carved in stone on the front. No other street has as much banking, government, dining, retail, social and worship gravity. No other street takes as many steps to cross.
Main Street in Middletown is a metaphor within a metaphor. Main Street USA, and Middletown USA both mean pretty much the same thing: heartland. Salt of the earth. Strong stock. The place in America where the rubber hits the road -- where poetry and reality intersect and the work of our nation gets done.
The problem is, Main Streets all over America have fallen apart. Abandoned by shoppers who prefer the "convenience" of driving to vast parking deserts around faceless malls, once vital downtown shopping districts have become centers of neglect. Considered worthless by developers keen on big box development in affluent suburbs, Main Streets across the nation have become ghostly shells of former glory, inhabited only by those too slow or too poor to escape. The cost for this tragedy is nearly incalculable. We all suffer when we can't feel proud of our hometown.
"I remember when I was a teenager, Main Street was exciting!" Vittorio Lancia grew up helping his Dad tend a Victory Garden in Long River Village. Now he lives in Portland, but he calls Middletown home. "There were three different movie theaters, and all the kids would come down and cruise Main Street. I even remember the trolley tracks along Main Street, from back before the car companies put the trolleys out of business. These days people go to the malls instead of coming downtown. It's too bad."
Vittorio reminded me that the movie "Dawn of the Dead," the 1978 sequel to the campy horror 1968 classic "Night Of The Living Dead," has an entire cast of zombies roaming the halls of a mall instead of the streets of the original small town. How appropriate.
But Vittorio agrees with me that our Main Street never got as bad as many others, and it's getting better all the time.
Why do I write about Main Street? Because other than a few blocks near Main, every other major road is just a road out of town, filled with places to drive through or drive past, and no places to walk around and enjoy, or sit and grow roots. In contrast, Main Street is a far friendlier place to be. It has places to walk, places to socialize, places to sit and watch the day go by, and it is packed with businesses named, owned and operated by our neighbors.
Think about it: what comes to mind first when you think of South Main Street? McDonald's? KFC? Friendly's? Tru-Value Hardware? Or perhaps endless parking lots surrounding businesses you'd never think of walking to?
How about Washington Street? McDonald's? Wendy's? Caldor? Blockbuster Video? Staples? Friendly's? Dunkin Donuts? More parking lots? A street filled with rushing traffic and no sidewalks?
In a very unscientific process, I counted businesses on Main Street, then on Washington Street from Main Street south toward Meriden, and on South Main from Warwick Street to Durham. On Washington Street, about 40% of the businesses are national or large regional brands. On South Main the count drops to 32%. In contrast, on Main Street only 11% of the businesses wear non-local brands. It's clear where the soul of Middletown business lives.
Why am I so in love with locally-owned businesses? Because they have a stake in doing the right thing for their neighbors. Because they spend their profits locally, thus keeping the local economy turning. In contrast, chain stores' profits leave the city, and don't do anything positive for Middletown. Money we spend on services or products with nationally-recognized brand names goes to boost the value of stockholder portfolios distributed around the world. The only time we see that money again is when it pays for advertisements we see in magazines or on TV, exhorting us to send more of our money out of town.
Don't get me wrong -- there's nothing inherently bad about having a mix of businesses throughout our fair city. But storefront for storefront, Main Street businesses do more to make Middletown unique and distinctive than all the nationally-known brand name stores spread out over the rest of town. A big-box discount chain looks pretty much the same wherever it sits. But there's only one Amato's Toy Store. Dunkin's donuts taste the same from coast to coast, but there's only one Ruby's Eatery.
There's a Bruce Springsteen song called "My Hometown," in which a dad encourages his young son to take a good look around as they drive through town. "This is your hometown," Dad tells his son.
Next time you're out and about town, take a good look around. How much of what you see can only be found here in Middletown? How much of the rest makes you smile and feel proud of where you live? When we think about what makes Middletown home, Main Street is near the top of the list.
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