Defining Revitalization

Frothingham Hall is a great place to hold a meeting. One of these days I'll remember that's what people are talking about when they tell me the meeting is at the Hall! Last night the new revitalization plan for North Easton was discussed at a public meeting at Frothingham. I, of course, went to the Hall-Oakes Ames Memorial Hall! And then the Town Hall, and next the Library! Luckily for me the plan that was presented was the same 25% complete plan that was presented to the Historical Commission for comment a few months ago. The people who are doing the design work say they are seeking public input before they go forward to finish the plan for a football field length of Main Street. If you missed the meeting you can check out some of the information at the Town website. The rumors that changes are coming to the town website are getting stronger, and it may actually occur before global warming turns Eastondale into beachfront property, but until then there is no excuse for people not to use the plethora of information available there. We have Facebook and Twitter, too.

One of the more progressive members of the Little Peach crowd attended the meeting last night, and gave me a fair summary of the meeting-essentially the same presentation as before the Historical Commission. As a resident of Main Street and a long time Eastoner, he has been attending the many public meetings on North Easton so he is very well informed. I asked him his opinion of revitalization and he expressed some disappointment. "I guess I confused revitalization with restoration", he said. The proposed changes are all reasonable and not radical, but my first reaction to the design was essentially similar. It seems more Main Street USA than historic Easton. OK, to be fair my first comment was "could I be grand marshal of the parade every day at 5 pm?" But remember  I hate change in general.

The restoration/revitalization comment is a good one. Everyone involved with the changes in North Easton sees a restoration of the livelier street scenes of fifty years ago coming as a result of the Shovel Shop project. Perhaps not everyone, in my darker moments I see everyone hopping on the train to go elsewhere and I have heard negative comments about the "EBT card crowd" coming to town and recreating the mean streets of the big city. Things should work out reasonably well-the library and cultural council are doing their best to provide interesting events, the Village is surrounded by more or less attractive parks and walking areas, and we already have the first new business moving in.

The new Master Plan Steering Committee is underway, and there have been lots of talks about "branding." As most of us know Easton has been ranked highly as a livable community due to its open space and history. The developers of the Beacon Project understand this and have made every effort to build a historical brand at the Shovel Shops. Even I'm optimistic that the place will be amazing to look at. Even the signage should look cool-a unique blend of the modern and historic. To encourage other developers and even private homeowners to maximize the value of their buildings in the district the Historical Commission is proposing an expansion of the local historic district. More on that meeting which will be held at the Hall-Oakes Ames Memorial Hall next week in a later post.

I see two issues. One is how to make the revitalization look less generic. In their defense the designers have tried to find every old picture of Main Street possible. Still none of those old shots show the red brick featured all over the current proposal. I hope that as the design develops these issues, some of which are based on legitimate safety issues, can be resolved. Personally, I think they can be if we all make our desires known.

The second and perhaps fatal problem for North Easton is parking. Even improving the current lot, capable of holding 63 cars,  to the north of Main Street won't met the needs of new businesses on  and the increased visits to the cultural and recreational facilities of the village. And then there is the MBTA's myth of a "drop and go" station at the Shovel Shops. Maybe we do need a monorail from Tomorrowland to take care of bringing tourists and T-riders to North Easton.

These are not my usual sarcastic comments about the pretensions of North Easton. I use North Easton as a recreational facility every day whether it's the library, the Historical Society, Frothingham Park or the Governor Ames Estate. Town government is being very open about its plans for North Easton, and it would be a shame if we had to leave the final development of those plans to out-of-towners. Let's all get involved!