The Brunswick Downtown Association uses such lovely pictures to remind us of the enduring beauty of our historic village’s greatest asset: the timeless charm of the downtown area, with its aging, inviting, and well maintained shops, restaurants, other businesses, offices and such.
They remind us to be proud of our community’s heart, and to preserve and improve it for the future and the well-being of the community at large. Over the years, considerable funds have been spent to enhance the appeal and visitor friendliness of the finest little town in America. Things like brick sidwalks; bumpouts and raised crosswalks; and even back in parking.
Reactions have been mixed, we think it’s fair to say, and some, like the back in parking, actually had to be ‘reversed,’ poetically enough.
So we wondered, in a moment of fanciful reflection, what might happen if our gorgeous downtown blocks were maintained by those charged with the stewardship of our schools and other municipal buildings?
While you ponder that and talk amongst yourselves, we offer these additional downtown views to make sure your analysis is thorough and well-formed:
And we mustn’t forget one of Maine Street’s most historic structures:
Now that you’ve had some time to ponder our question, we’re going to give you some hints in pictures, so you can judge without the confusion and condemning tone of our words.
We’re known for criticizing town officials, and especially the school department, for dereliction of duty when it comes to stewardship of the physical assets with which they’ve been entrusted. We’ve frequently cited this principle:
Which is further elaborated with this passage:
We’ve even gone so far as to infer that school departments plan intentionally for the deterioration of their assets so they can periodically replace them with newer and more pleasing edifices, knowing full well how easy it is to shame taxpayers into forking over the funds. And we hold by that view, as nothing we’ve seen, especially locally, in any way justifies an opposing view.
Born and raised in New Jersey as we are, we love salami as much as anyone, But we prefer our slices in an antipasto plate, or on a classic deli sandwich, thank you, instead of as a symbol for dereliction of duty and abuse of the public trust.
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