Entries from March 2007
Last fall, I taught a Learning for Life course at the First Presbyterian Church in Plainfield called “Introduction to Generation X,” to learn more about my cohort - people born approximately between 1961 and 1981 - and to give interested Boomer, GI and Silent folks a look behind the stereotypes of GenXers. Planning the classes, I learned about the generational cycle theory of William Strauss and Neil Howe. There’s a Wikipedia entry on this topic here.
Today, I met some of the Millennial Generation - young people born after 1981 - who are, according to the theory, likely to be extremely engaged in their communities as organizers, activists and leaders. I think the theory may well prove true - these kids - many of whom are students or recent graduates of North Plainfield High School - are full of energy, enthusiasm and connectedness.
The photo shows Drew Smith (tall guy in the back and a GenXer), who’s running for NP School Board on the Smith-Estevez-Thompson ticket, with some of the young volunteer crew, during a lunch break at Tia Rosa’s on Somerset. They stopped in to eat, rest and regroup during a day of door-to-door fliering for the April 17 election, on behalf of the Community Education Coalition, “active citizens, community members, students, parents and educators…who seek to create a dynamic multicultural collaboration between the students, parents, educators, citizens and school board members of North Plainfield, in order to best serve all community members though a strong public school system.”
Tomorrow, they’ll be out at Green Acres Park for a Soccer Day from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. For more information about the campaign, Drew can be reached at cecnpnj@yahoo.com
Categories: Education · Tools for Democracy
A few months ago, word came out that, due to financial difficulties, the McCutchen Friends Nursing Home on Linden would be closed, the residents moved to other facilities, and the property probably sold. At the time, one rumor had it that the building would be bought by the town, and turned into a banquet hall. The Courier-News article, linked above, reports that town leaders would like to see another nursing home facility buy and operate the place, or some other private enterprise. I don’t have any great ideas about what would be the best thing to do, but I do know that the McCutchen Home is a beautiful and unique local landmark that gives a lot of character to the neighborhood. This picture, taken today, shows the old Victorian part of the facility, and is a very striking sight to see coming along Rockview Avenue from the east. I guess I just hope that the building is bought by people who care about preserving beautiful old buildings, and people who care about people, the way the nursing home staff has for so many years. Maybe a good use would be to put the town administrative offices in there, or the town library, which is in sore need of updating and repairs. It would be wonderful if the McCutchen Home could be put to public use, so more people could see and enjoy its grace, inside and out.
Categories: History
I took the kids to Green Acres Park today. We tried to fly some kites, since the wind was so good, but the kites fell apart. My son went wading - deep, splashing, striding upstream wading - in the cold waters of Stony Brook, which flows west through the park after Crab Brook joins it, near the light at Grove Street and Green Brook Road. The park has an odd, end-of-the-road feeling, and is nearly deserted most of the year. Canada geese, mallard ducks and occasionally a Great Blue Heron populate the pond, joined by a few dogwalkers; big kids playing basketball; a few parents chasing toddlers at the playground. In summer, it’s somewhat more lively, with family picnics on the weekends, or pick-up soccer matches evenings after work.
I’ve been reading Jane Jacobs’ book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, mostly with downtown Plainfield in mind, but her analysis seems relevant to many modern communities, where opportunities for casual public relationships are limited by so many factors they’re almost not even sought anymore. Jacobs writes, on the uses of neighborhood parks: “A generalized neighborhood park…can become populated naturally only by being situated very close indeed to where active and different currents of life and function come to a focus…[successful parks] help to knit together diverse surrounding functions by giving them a pleasant joint facility…”
The paradox of city parks is that most still sit in leftover space, leftover precisely because nobody goes there or wants to purchase the land for income- generating purposes. But to build interesting neighborhoods and improve the overall economic health of a community, parks are most needed where many people move through for lots of different reasons, and there, land is most expensive and the demand for tax revenue is highest. Then again, even if there were interesting places to do some errands, bump into neighbors, and sit down on a bench for a chat and a people-watch, few of us would have time to visit them.
Categories: Infrastructure
What with the nice weather, I rode my bike - daughter in the toddler seat on back - to the Jersey Pork Store on Somerset Street this morning to buy ground beef for meatballs and freshly-made sweet Italian sausage. The butcher gave my daughter a slice of balogna; I remember my son getting the same treat when we first moved to North Plainfield five years ago, and think of the butcher’s kindness as a rite of passage for the town’s children, and their parents.Somerset Street is fascinating - it’s like a foreign country, in many ways, with dozens of shops serving the needs of immigrant families from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and other Central and South American countries. I don’t speak Spanish, but would like to learn.
Despite the language barrier, what I like is the bustle. It’s a lively street, full of busy people talking and meeting and working, many of whom live close by. If I had any head for business, I’d open a market selling local organic produce and bulk whole grains, combined with a bakery/coffeehouse/independent bookstore, in the vacant furniture store at Somerset and Jackson. But since I don’t have such a business head, I’m trying instead to work out ways to buy more of our family food from local merchants, by walking or biking. The Slow Food movement is all about building communities and healing damage to the earth by connecting people to each other, and to the planet, through food.
Categories: Local Business
Last night I went to the Superintendent’s presentation of the 2007-2008 budget for the North Plainfield School District. Our town has a recent history of not passing school budgets - part of statewide citizen/homeowner resentment at rising property taxes. One of the charts presented by Business Administrator Donald Sternberg vividly showed the fiscal trend - virtually flat state aid since 2000/2001, with a local tax levy line shooting up beside it. The local tax levy proposed for 2007/2008 is just over $26 million, a whopping $9 million increase over the 2000/2001 tax levy.
Along with many other concerned parents, educators and journalists, I think the No Child Left Behind Act was designed to destroy public schools in the U.S.; paraphrasing Grover Norquist, to shrink public education “until we can drown it in a bathtub.” But a growing movement to resist NCLB - especially the punishments given to districts that “fail” the onerous, expensive and underfunded testing schemes, got a big boost in the last few weeks, when 50 Republican members of the House and Senate introduced legislation to allow states to opt out of the testing mandates. Locally, school board candidate Drew Smith has said if he’s elected, he’ll work to build a coalition with nearby districts, to tackle the problem and reclaim local control of educational priorities.
I hope NP voters pass the budget on April 17 - I think education is the most important project adults of any community take on together, and vital to a functioning democracy. It’s good that voters are enraged at the cost-shifting, but the anger should not be directed at our own kids. We should direct our righteous anger at the right target: the people in Washington D.C. and Trenton who control the public’s money.
Categories: Education
