Swan! … and Slowing Down

I'm sure I wasn't imagining it. Yesterday, I was driving by the pond off Elm Street near Saxonville center, and I did indeed see a beautiful white swan. I wasn't able to stop, but did slow down for a good look. What a pleasant surprise on a dismal, grey, raw day!

Alas, I went back on foot this morning, and the swan was gone. Which just goes to prove again that some of the unexpected, joyful gifts nature offers us are fleeting indeed. And sometimes, even if you get to enjoy nature while driving, it's even better if you can slow down, stop, and see it outside of the sealed, metal environment that is your car. I sure wish I'd been able to pull over, get out, and give that gorgeous creature a much longer look.

Which brings me to a stream-of-consciousness related point -- you definitely experience your community differently in a vehicle and on foot. Now there's nothing inherently wrong with driving; it lets you go so many more places than you could if your only alternative was walking. But I think it's unfortunate if the only way you ever experience your community is in a motorized vehicle. There are things you miss, from chatting with the neighbors to seeing little details that simply whiz by in a blur when you're driving 30+ mph.

Sometimes we lose sight of that in a multi-tasking culture where cramming more and more, faster and faster, into all available time tends to be prized a lot more than deliberation, contemplation and slowing down. I'm reading the book Sabbath by Wayne Muller, and he's got some fascinating points on the need to balance striving with occasionally slowing down. He also asks:

"What is the true measure of the wealth of a people? The creation and preservation of beauty? A strong and healthy citizenry? An educated and compassionate leadership, ensuring justice for all? A palpable sense of civic joy? A collective sense that serving our neighbor is our highest civic good? Sadly, none of these rises to the top of our list. By current standards, the Holy Grail on the altar of civilization is the health of the economy, measured by the G.D.P. Economic growth is the measure of a life well lived, a nation well run, a civilization well built."

Without a doubt, money and prosperity matter - they certainly do to me. But so do other things. At the global level, is it truly beyond dispute that citizens of one nation, which has 3.7% economic growth and the average worker gets 2 weeks of vacation a year, are better off than citizens of another nation, which has 3.4% economic growth but workers get 6 weeks off each year?

On the local level, so much discussion lately has been about property values, tax rates, and growth. Now I happen to be a homeowner, and care a lot about the value of my life's largest financial investment as well as how much I have to pay each year to inhabit the house I'm still paying off. But there is more to quality of life in my community than can be measured in my checkbook. I would MUCH rather have paid a few more dollars a year in taxes to have had a beautiful new branch library in my community, a place that would have been a communal education/gathering center, a neighborhood anchor and a source of great civic pride. That was so worth the $12/year or whatever small amount it would have cost.

Government Structure, and Community

I've got a column in today's MetroWest Daily News arguing that Framingham needs a change in its structure of government. While I admire most of those now serving in representative Town Meeting, I believe the town has reached that un-sweet spot where precincts are too large to be "neighborhoods" where everyone knows everyone else, but way too small to each have their own media outlets that can cover representative activities and allow voters to easily stay informed of what their reps are doing.

In fact, with a dozen reps per precinct, almost no recorded Town Meeting votes and the vast majority of precincts having no contested races on election day, the current government structure provides little accountability to the voters. The common refrain -- if you don't like it, you can run for Town Meeting yourself -- is disingenuous. Not everyone has the time, energy, ability, inclination or interest for the very intense commitment that is being an elected representative. People have family obligations and/or work obligations. Some take classes, or travel, or work in the evenings, or have child-care issues. Or frankly don't want to be in politics. Framingham Town Meeting is a lengthy and time-consuming affair. Those Town Meeting reps who are responsive to their precincts do so because they choose to and want to, but do so in spite of the structure of government, not because the structure demands it.

Framingham is a large, complex community facing issues that need full-time attention. I don't think a part-time legislative body comprised of hundreds of individuals is the best answer. Government structure isn't the only reason why so many nearby communities are ahead of Framingham in terms of downtown revitalization, but I do think it's a factor.

European-Style Bread Shop Opens in Framingham

Master bread maker Michael Rhoads, formerly of Boston's Sel de la Terre, has opened B&R Artisan Bread on Rte. 30, at the site of the former Bread Basket kosher bakery (151 Cochituate Road).

This is welcome news indeed for those of us who envy some European lifestyle habits such as walking to the local patisserie for a loaf of fabulously baked fresh bread. (Ah, now if we could only get a few real European cafes ... and European-style walkable neighborhoods....) Artisan bread bears about as much resemblance to factory-packaged stuff you buy in the supermarket, as an Oreo does to a North End cannoli.

Profiled today in the Boston Globe Food section, B&R "offers classic French breads and croissants, plus a range of American-style confections, including scones and muffins, all baked on-site. (When the bakery first opened, Rhoads rewarded customers who managed to find the place with free cookies.) The centerpiece is, naturally, the bread. On recent mornings, the shelves were stocked with pain levain ($8), a large, crusty, naturally leavened bread; light caraway rye rounds ($2.75), a European version of the New York classic; and buttery brioche baked in rectangular pans to make Pullman loaves ($6.50)," according to the review, French Bread, Framingham Location.

I'm hoping he'll also consider offering challah at some point, since a lot of Bread Basket customers miss having a local, non-chain source for the traditional Jewish delicacy (which some say is not unlike brioche).

"Rhoads, who so far has about 10 employees, sells his bread to several stores and restaurants around Boston," the article notes. "He hopes that his spot becomes a place for suburban dwellers to shop at regularly -- just as Europeans do. ''You go and get your bread every day,' he says. ''You make it a stop along the way.' "

BostonChefs.com announced: "Baker Michael Rhoads, whose breads have graced the tables at some of the best restaurants in town (think: L’Espalier, Sel de la Terre and, most recently, Via Matta), reintroduces his artisan breads to Boston (well, technically, Framingham) with his new bakery, B & R Artisan Bread." Hours are reportedly 7 am to 6 pm on weekdays, and Saturdays 9 am to 2 pm. Plans for sandwiches are in the works eventually.

Update: I finally got to the store a few days after the Globe piece. The baguettes are incredible. I'll be back.

Framingham Planning Board Update

I've now had initial responses from all three Planning Board candidates to my questions.

Planning Board Chair Tom Mahoney has recently answered my specific questions on his Web site.

Challenger Stephen Meltzer responded in general to the questions on his Web site, and also sent me responses which are posted here as well as on his site.

Incumbent Carol Spack courteously responded that so far she has been very busy working on a major project, but tried to weave answers to those issues into her responses at a recent Candidates Night event, feeling that such events are a good way for residents to get answers to such issues.

As far as I can see, we have three strong candidates running for two open positions. I encourage local voters interested in where the candidates stand on issues discussed here, to take a look at the responses.

Fears of Development, Gentrification

"A few decades after it became a national symbol of urban decay, the Bronx is home to a rash of new construction projects that are changing neighborhoods that have seen little new building in half a century. Many residents are uneasy," the New York Times reported in a front-page story yesterday, Now Booming, Not Burning, the Bronx Fears a Downside.

It's a classic case of pondering the costs as well as benefits of soaring property values, and the impact on local residents who stuck it out through tough times, helped turn their neighborhoods around and then face being priced or forced out -- whether it's struggling artists who make an overlooked area trendy, only to be displaced by wealthier residents, or immigrants who start spiffing up a neighborhood only to see larger scale development displace them. I am often in favor of redevelopment, by the way. Nobody wants to save a crime-ridden ambiance, but it's also important to consider those who are already contributing positively to a community.

In the case of the Bronx, a major issue is "due to the dizzying speed of change," with some complaining not simply about the radical changes in neighborhoods, but how much is being done so quickly.

Many are thrilled that the Bronx is finally seeing the type of development that has long passed it by. "It's a good problem to have when the arguments that people are having are not so much 'Why is nothing happening?' but 'Why is so much happening and how can we absorb it?' " Bronx borough president Adolfo Carrión Jr. told the Times. And "dozens of residents who are critical of specific projects say they are not generally against new construction, saying their borough has been starved too long for restaurants, brand-name shops, even banks and grocery stores."

But there are definitely costs to a neighborhood for existing residents and businesses, as well as changing character.

The Times yesterday also looked at Hell's Kitchen, Swept Out and Remodeled -- a neighborhood I remember well from a summer working in then "transitional," now gentrified Columbus Circle in Manhattan. Unable to afford nearby pricy restaurants serving Fifth Avenue shopping clientele to the east, I'd often walk several blocks to the west to Hell's Kitchen where I could pick up a salad or sandwich for a fraction of typical Midtown Manhattan prices.

"Even during its worst times Hell's Kitchen was always, well, a neighborhood, made up of blue-collar families in walk-up tenements and theater people who wanted to live close to their jobs," the article notes. "But what the gangs and drugs couldn't do, gentrification is accomplishing — putting pressure to leave on those crusty characters who gave Hell's Kitchen its raffish charm."

Retired commercial artist Kostas Zimarakis, one of the many immigrants living in the neighborhood, was attracted to the areas for its friendliness, he told the Times, but now typically sees newer residents walking solo.

'They like their sense of privacy. I do not think they have an interest in getting to know people.' The change makes him feel lonelier, he said.

'You cannot talk to a building,' he said. 'But a person can make your day. It lights up your soul.'