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Volume 114, Number 367 - Tuesday, December 1, 1998


We need to be careful about Middletown's growth
by John Friedlander

Excuse me while I brush away the last scraps of leftover turkey and refocus on the topic at hand: Middletown.

During the holiday week, I read an interesting book you might know of: The Geography of Nowhere, by James Howard Kunstler. He writes about how our cities have gone down the tubes while we've been asleep at the wheel of the bus we call "progress."

As I read, I couldn't stop thinking about Middletown, and comparing it to the cities Kunstler describes in his book. I realized just how many blessings Middletown has -- blessings we should notice, and be thankful for.

  • We've got a vital, walkable main street, with on-street parking all the way from Saint John's Church at the north end to the South Congregational Church at the south end.
  • A local and regional bus depot smack in the middle of Main Street.
  • Two major medical facilities on or very near Main Street.
  • Good restaurants all over the place, and people in them most of the time.
  • Human-scaled buildings in mostly good repair up and down Main Street, filled with locally owned businesses providing goods and services people need.
  • Stop lights at every corner that slow traffic enough to make walking feel safe. These are all Very Good Things.

    Beyond Main Street, we've got some other nice features.
  • A major, healthy, and navigable river that supports recreation, a few annual events, and a smattering of commercial activities.
  • A central area with fairly diverse residential neighborhoods for families with a wide range of incomes.
  • Significant employers in a spectrum of industries or services that keep us from being too dependent on any one trade.
  • Parks and other open space that give us room to breathe.
  • A network of roads that makes us easily reachable, but that doesn't turn us into a speed-bump on the way to New York, New Haven, Hartford, Springfield, Worcester or Boston.

    These are also Very Good Things.

    In many ways, Middletown actually is the kind of city other places want to be. But we mustn't take this good fortune for granted, because the dogs of decay don't live far away.

    Neighboring towns could easily be overtaken by unfortunate development that could spell ruin for us. Acme Widgets Worldwide could plop its headquarters in Ye Olde Durhame and put thousands more cars on the Route 9 - Route 17 path every day. Portland could ink a deal with the Blackjack tribe to put a huge casino next to Elmcrest Institute and tie Middletown's approach to the Arrigoni Bridge in a permanent knot.

    For that matter, we could shoot ourselves in the foot by letting another big-box corporate discounter take a dump on our local book, music, clothing and hardware retailers. If another Wal-Mart, K-Mart or anything-mart gets any closer to Main Street than they already are, I hope big loud alarms go off all over town.

    Middletown has a fair amount of prime buildable land left, but encouraging the kind of sprawling, low-density residential growth that destroys communities and burdens city budgets with expensive municipal infrastructure would be a major mistake.

    If you're interested in learning why our country is carpeted with ghost towns we used to be proud to call home, Kunstler's book is an eye opener. Published in 1993, it was an early warning shot from an emerging camp of New Urbanists -- architects, urban planners, developers and thinkers who believe that the way we build our cities no longer makes sense -- but that most of us don't understand how to make sensible changes.

    The issues New Urbanists work with -- zoning regulations, tax policies, real estate development, architecture, environmental policy, mass transit and others -- may sound dry, but they have heavy impacts on how we live our lives. Where I lived out west, these issues were commonly discussed in front page articles in the daily newspaper, and at well attended public forums. I haven't seen the same level of interest here, and that worries me.

    Kunstler explains that the biggest mistakes are made by cities that don't think carefully about the impact of "progress." Growth is too often assumed to be a good thing, no matter what form it takes. But thoughtless sprawl or ill-planned business development can be extremely destructive.

    Middletown has a lot to be proud of, and thus a lot to watch out for. Everyone I talk to seems excited about Middletown's immediate future -- an excitement I share. But let's go into this bright future with our eyes wide open, alert for the lessons we can learn from other towns' mistakes.

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