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NEWS FROM OLD UNTERRIFIED





 

STREETSCAPE?

Consumers consume. In a consumer society, manufacturers must strive constantly to tempt those who have few material needs left unfulfilled. As an American consumer I see the results of this striving all around me. Occasionally, I make note of little doodads such as battery powered polyester roses, to remind myself that we are a long way from being civilized, since each of us has a different idea of what is essential to his well being. Perhaps somewhere there are dozens of people who would die if they did not own battery operated polyester roses. But I seriously doubt that there is anyone out there who would die if he did not have an insect repellent apron.
Now, it is all very well to wax sanctimonious and get on a soapbox to rage against the machine. In my long experience, sanctimony and rage have their limits. What then must we do, as poor old misguided Leo Tolstoy used to ask?
My community's equivalent of the insect repellent apron is a plan grandly called Streetscape. It apparently involves, among other depredations, cutting town healthy trees and replace them with new ones. The difference is, according to my sources, that experts recommend such actions. Just who these experts are and why do they think that the public is stupid are some of the opinions floating around among town residents,
a) Town Council has a million dollars burning a hole in its collective pocket.
b) The plan is nothing but a way of creating infrastructure for development.
c) At least one Town Council member--and he knows who he is--called surveys designed to find out how town residents would vote on Streetscape, " a new weapon."
c) The mayor does not want Town Council to "take the plan apart."

Reporting on rumors is not an effective way to commit Journalism. The right and good thing to do is to talk to town officials and get the real story. But since the Pete Wilson administration, most municipals officials have taken the attitude that they do not need to answer questions from anyone who might oppose their views. There is always a chance to get information from those who talk off the record, but that is not the best way to inform the public. We all know that the town has some serious problems that are not being addressed. One of them is the need for a new water plant. The cost of water keeps going up and eventually it might become too high for all but upper middle class residents. This might suggest that the administration's unofficial plan to gentrify the town to the point that no under in the lower middle and low income levels. Could that happen, right here in River City? Could the majority our Town Parents really play into the hands of fat cat developers? The question here is, who benefits from grandiose Streetscape plans? Is it the merchants, developers, Shepherd university, real estate agencies, the masses?
It would be nice to have an answer to these questions, but do not hold your breath. Unless the townspeople are ready to descend upon Town Hall to demand their rights, there will be no change in the status quo. Individuals or small groups of individuals trying to get answers can be isolated, ridiculed and rendered ineffective. The key is to organise and everyone knows that in this community we are too individualistic to do anything of that sort.
What happens in this town depends very much on what we want to happen. Ir we leave it to Lance Dom to decide that his vision of Shepherdstown is the right one, we deserve to have him put it into practice. If we refuse to see that the greatest damage being done to Shepherdstown is not gentrification. What is at issue is the democratic process. When the voice of the community is seen as a weapon against the very people elected to represent it, something is gravely wrong. It is up to us to fix it.

Clara Castelar