Driving back from apple picking recently I stopped in one of those small New England towns west of Boston for a cup of coffee. I struck up a conversation with a gentleman sitting next to me. He has resided in this small New England town all his life – his family has lived there well over 100 years. You could see he was very attached to the village. However, he was not happy with the way things had been going in recent years. He noted that the town had changed a great deal since his youth and what he bemoaned the most was what he called a violation of the “Grand Bargain”. Intrigued by the phrase I asked him to explain further.
He said that historically there was an understanding in town that when major decisions were made they were always made with an eye towards what was best for the entire community. The sense of maintaining a “good community” was always in the background of civic and political life. He emphasized that by good he didn’t mean exceptional or great. The underlying community impulse was to provide a well-balanced community life. Diverse interests were attended to and taken care of but not at the expense of others or the balance necessary for the long term sustainability a mutually respectful wholesome community.
I could sense the unique character of traditional New England common sense and frugality in this man’s words. He noted that when the town historically provided for infrastructure spending, public service projects and expenses such as schools they always sought to provide what was sufficient for the good life. Yet they always avoided extremes or services that would better be provided by private institutions. This way, he said, they were able to build a solid cohesive well rounded community which could be reliably enjoyed by all residents and families.
My new friend lamented what he called the rise of special interest groups in town. He noted that many folks move to a small New England town like his because they are attracted to what has been built up over many years with a sense of the general good. And yet nowadays too many people just want what more of the pie for their own specific and often temporary interests – leaving less or no pie for others.
The loss of public life conducted with a sense of balance and community spirt was ruining his town. However, he wasn’t giving up on. He clearly had an historical knowledge of what his town was and a vision of what it should be. He talked about his efforts to influence town governance and society in general. I felt like I was talking to Don Quixote – frankly I didn’t know whether to join in the battle with him or move along and hope everything somehow worked out. I was beginning to look forward to ending this conversation and getting out of town and back to the comforts of Cohasset – then, uncomfortably, I began to think that some of what he was saying may apply to my small New England town.
My new friend was familiar with Cohasset – where apparently he had summered. He admired what he thought was our better sense of community and one less divided by special interests and isolated groups. The grass always looks greener. After some discussion we concluded that the voter participation was higher in Cohasset than his community and that a higher percentage of citizens were active in the community – both civically, and in the government, and that our smaller size also helped. We chuckled that, with so many folks involved in government through committees and boards, everyone was keeping an eye out on everyone else and thus there was less opportunity for self-interest or special interests to weaken the fabric of community cohesion. Kind of cynical but perhaps kind of true.
As I was rising to leave he again emphasized that a successful town needs to take care of all its citizens – with no one group getting more than they need for a good life and certainly none at the expense of the community as a whole. He noted that ironically it’s a solid balanced sustainable community that attracts many new families to his town and yet too many either don’t participate or act selfishly in their own particular interest and thus degrade the very small town community life which attracted them in the first place. While packing my book away he reminded me that when you lose your sense of community you’re “sunk” – or as he finally put it “you’ve got nothing”.
I got more than apples on this year’s trip to apple country. It was a long ride home.
For example, in small towns the “town fathers” often have financial interests in town. They are developers, realtors, builders, excavators, etc. Look closely at deals and you’ll find that things got sliced in a way that benefited them. I saw it when I lived in NH. An extra lot squeezed in was worth $200K to the developer and everyone got a piece as they all worked on the development. The Globe did a spotlight report a number of years ago that showed that in some MA communities an “unbuildable” parcel of land would be sold for a small amount, and then all of a sudden the new (connected to town officials) owner got all sorts of variances and then built on the lot for a substantial profit.
Another issue about newcomers. Often they demand improvements, and rightfully so. I was once at a NH school board meeting (20 years ago) and a Board member complained about demands for public kindergarten (“she never went”). Now I think every town in NH has this. These old timers put up with 100 year old town halls, libraries and even police stations.
I also have an issue with the unseen hand of the Chamber of Commerce types. These are the folks that are happy to see the rights of individuals stepped on “for the good of the community.”
What you describe is possible, and one has to keep a watchful eye for that. But in my limited experience it is not the norm.
I’d say, generally, towns still look up to the common good. The Town Meeting form of government functions well, there is transparence, debate, and there is little political denominationalism – vastly less than at the state or federal level.
One difference may be that towns are much more uniform in terms of population than states or the country as a whole – this is the great American presorting phenomenon where only people of a certain level of income congregate towards the same towns. Sadly, towns are segregated by income and socio economic status to s much greater level than states as a whole.