A Hamlet For Us All

By Mickey Friedman
September 23, 2011

Eminent Déjà Vu Domain. I remember those words. Something about a dump for Great Barrington. Eminent Domain. Paying less than the land was worth. And then a court case and paying a whole lot more for our dump.

So it was a bit weird seeing those words in print. Now one of the most wonderful things about small towns is big people. Not so much big as in tall but big as in being felt. One person who has an impact on what we do and how we do it. Ed McCormick is one of those big people. He is sometimes everywhere. Putting out fires. Traffic-controlling town meeting. Planning for disasters and helping during disasters.

And lawyering. If you attend a Selectman’s Meeting you’ll often see Ed McCormick representing one of the parties. Sometimes if the meeting goes long, you’ll see him representing several different parties.

Right now he’s in the middle of several big things happening in town. He represents Gary O’Brien in his dispute with the Town’s Building Inspector over how Mr. O’Brien is using the property at 11 Rogers Road for his landscaping business. And Ed McCormick is also representing Stephen Muss, a developer from Florida — Florida, the southern state, not the Berkshire County town. Mr. Muss has a vision and a desire to transform our hamlet of Housatonic – Housatonic the town, not the river. And Mr. McCormick represents the man who was going to buy the old firehouse.

Few people have contributed as much as Mr. McCormick. But it was in the course of representing Mr. Muss that he suggested we – we being the taxpayers and citizens of Great Barrington – consider using Eminent Domain to take Nick Kelley’s mill. Nick Kelley has a mill in Housatonic and Mr. Muss’s vision and desire to transform the hamlet of Housatonic very much includes transforming Nick Kelley’s mill.

 

If you’ve ever met Nick Kelley you know he is nobody’s fool. He is a very smart man and a successful businessman.

I have no idea why Mr. Muss and Mr. McCormick would want to threaten Nick Kelley with such a blunt and imperfect weapon as Eminent Domain. And to do it so publicly.

I’m probably not the one to be saying this because I don’t have the best track record when it comes to money. But if you ask me I’m not the only one who could do with some financial counseling. The Town of Great Barrington ought to take a workshop with me. We keep buying things and building things and renovating things and paying an awful lot of money for all these things. Some things we need a lot and other things maybe not so much.

Frankly, the notion of seizing Mr. Kelley’s mill and being on the receiving end of another Eminent Domain lawsuit isn’t really conducive to a good night’s sleep. Add that possibility to the approaching dislocation and disorientation of a downtown being torn up and reconfigured, the loss of my familiar pear trees and a series of monstrous traffic jams, and it’s safe to say I’m becoming worried several times over.

As it is, my friend and therapist, Patricia, has urged me to refrain from bench sitting anywhere near the crosswalks. She thinks watching too many close calls is causing Post-Traumatic Traffic Stress. The death of the pear trees coupled with a costly Eminent Domain lawsuit might finally send me to a small room at Austen Riggs, and a twice-daily dose of powerful sedatives.

Now, I’ve never met Mr. Muss but there are many who are very much taken with him. And his plan and vision for the hamlet of Housatonic. Transformations are pretty darn exciting. Visions of lattes and river walks and rising real estate values. And artists and lofts for the artists. Latte-drinking well-to-do artists.

 

I’m of an age where grandiosity scares me. Nowadays, big deals are too big a deal for me. The way I figure it, let Mr. Muss transform a little bit of the hamlet of Housatonic. And leave Mr. Kelley’s mill be. If there’s a problem at the mill and that problem threatens public health and safety, I’m sure Mr. Kelley can fix it. And if he won’t I’m sure there are ways to persuade him.

I’m a big believer that good old-fashioned transformation, one mill at a time, sells itself. If you pull it off with art and efficiency and if it works for a great number of people, well then, they’ll want more.

New York City neighborhoods have been transforming themselves throughout the city’s history. Sometimes a building at a time; then a block at a time. But quite frankly I’m not even sure transformation is the way to go. As it is, Housatonic is a hamlet that most people can afford, families and carpenters and waitresses. Do we really need a new and spiffy and largely unaffordable Riverville?

 

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“A Hamlet For Us All” was previously published in The Berkshire Record, September 22, 2011