WHETSTONE VILLAGE
OF ARTS, CULTURE & ECOLOGY
NEW “SMART” ZONING DISTRICT & RESTORATIVE NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL
HINSDALE, NEW HAMPSHIRE | BRATTLEBORO, VERMONT | USA PROJECT NARRATIVE AND BUDGET SUMMARY | SEPTEMBER 2015
EDEN
an
PROJECT NAME PHASE 1 (R&D)
WHETSTONE VILLAGE OF ARTS, CULTURE & ECOLOGY
JACOB ALAN ROBERTS
“AN URBAN OASIS FOR INSPIRATION, INNOVATION & INTEGRATIVE HEALING”
SIMPLY LOVE LIFE, LLC.
YEAR-LONG PLANNING EFFORT | SEPTEMBER 2015 - AUGUST 2016
EQVERMONT@GMAIL 802.380.9313
A HOLISTIC ,YEAR-LONG, COMMUNITY-BASED, ACTION-ORIENTED NEIGHBORHOOD / DISTRICT PLANNING EXERCISE THAT RESULTS IN AN INTERACTIVE 3 DAY CULTURAL FESTIVAL ON THE 5TH ANNIVERSARY OF TROPICAL STORM IRENE & AN EVENTUAL “SMART”, FORM-BASED, ZONING OVERLAY OF A NEWLY REDESIGNED “ECO~LOGICAL” LIVE/ WORK HUB IN THE CORE OF DOWNTOWN BRATT; RESTORING A VENERATED BROOKE & REVIVING A LONG ~ SUFFERING QUARTER. APPX. PROJECT BUDGET: $50,000.00*
PHASE 2 (DEMO)
(*INCLUDES YEAR-LONG COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT, RESEARCH AND COOPERATIVE PLANNING PROCESS)
PROPOSED 3-DAY CREATIVE DISTRICT “IMAGINEERING” FESTIVAL | AUGUST 26 - 28, 2016 UTILIZING A 3 DAY FLAT ST. CLOSURE PERMIT, INCLUDING THE PRESTON LOT, FROM THE PARKING GARAGE > TO > THE INTERSECTION OF FLAT ST. AT MAIN, WE PROPOSE TO FACILITATE A LOCAL, PLACE-BASED, COMMUNITY CELEBRATION AND CULTURAL EVENT THAT REFLECTS THE FINDINGS OF OUR YEAR-LONG STUDY INTO DESIGNING A NEWLY RE-ZONED CULTURAL DISTRICT / “ECO” NEIGHBORHOOD ALONG THE WHETSTONE CORRIDOR, GIVING PEOPLE A CHANCE TO EXPERIENCE POTENTIAL NEW USES. APPX. PROJECT BUDGET: $150,000.00*
PHASE 3 (DISTRICT)
production
(*INCLUDES ALL MAJOR FESTIVAL EXPENSES, INCLUDING INFRASTRUCTURE, PERMITTING, ADMINISTRATION)
PROPOSED NEW “CROSS-RIVER” VT / NH NEIGHBORHOOD ZONING DISTRICT APPLICATION AND AUTHORIZATION TARGET DATE | SEPTEMBER 2016 THE WHETSTONE BROOKE CORRIDOR: THE NATURAL AND BUILT ASSETS NESTED ALONG THE CURVY TOPOGRAPHY OF AN ANCIENT RIVER BED INTO & ACROSS THE CT.
{FROM WILLIAMS ST. “FIELD” & WHETSTONE ARTS COMPLEX, ENCOMPASSING EMERSON ORGAN CAMPUS; EAST ALONG FROST ST., PAST CERSOSIMO’S KILN, THE NEYT CAMPUS, INTO THE CORE OF FLAT & LOWER MAIN; PAST THE MUSEUM AND COOP TO THE RIVER-FRONT & DIRECTLY ACROSS THE CONNECTICUT VIA HINSDALE BRIDGE TO A VACANT WAL*MART, IT’S MASSIVE PARKING LOT, AND A 20 ACRE BOAT MARINA LOCATED ALONG THE CONNECTICUT RIVERFRONT ON THE NEW HAMPSHIRE SIDE} APPX. PROJECT BUDGET: $15,000,000.00*
(*INCLUDES ALL KEY PROPERTY ACQUISITIONS, ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES, LEGAL, FEES, ETC.)
TABLE OF CONTENTS OUR AIM CORE PURPOSE STATEMENT OF NEED STATEMENT OF INTEREST ARTICULATION OF ENDEAVOR OVERALL PROJECT DESCRIPTION STATEMENT OF CIVIC INVOLVEMENT BACK-OF-THE-NAPKIN BUDGET SUMMARY
OUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS & QUALIFICATIONS ALL ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS & INFORMATION
“When we touch the Earth we become small, with the humility and simplicity of a young child. When we touch the Earth we become great, like an ancient tree sending her roots deep into the earth, drinking from the source of all waters. When we touch the Earth, we breathe in all the strength and stability of the Earth, and breathe out our suffering- our feelings of anger, hatred, fear, inadequacy and grief.” ~ Zen Master THICH NHAT HANH
OUR AIM
To co-create a peacefully planned, sustainable, intentional community on our Bountiful Green Earth at the sanctified intersection of two mighty Rivers, a Healing Aquifer, a Lovely Urban Brooke and a Majestic Mountain known as Wantastiquet, or “gathering place by the waters,” by the native Abenaki (the “People of the Dawn”), and the local Sokoki Tribe who “broke away” and lived softly within this great place we call Brattleboro, VT.
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CORE PURPOSE Simply Love Life is a Vermont-based Creative Production Company. Over the past three years it has successfully launched a handful popular business ventures, a number of commercial “pop-up” demonstration projects, a couple of really cool public arts initiatives, and a range of exciting, educational and expressive cultural events ~ both in Ithaca, NY and Brattleboro, VT. We currently feature a stable of marketable “healthy-lifestyle” brands: * SUPERFRESH! ORGANIC CAFE’ * EQUILIBRIUM * KOSMOS
“Exquisite Vegetarian Cuisine” “A Positive Lifestyle Environment” “Creation from Chaos"
Organic, Non-GMO, Vegan, GF Foods Creative Arts / Healing Arts Center 3-Day Multi-Dimensional Arts Festival
Simply Love Life is primed to further develop each individual enterprise while also catalyzing a new progressive team of allies and investors to help meet our lofty goal of bringing peace, love & good vibes into this world. Ultimately, the core purpose of this specific proposal is to establish a new “Community Wealth Venture” to conduct business as a progressive and innovative Real Estate Development Team. The initial consideration is to incorporate a publicly-held REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust), to create, design, manage and deliver successful, mission-driven and goal-oriented brick-and-mortar projects that sustain life, such as the Whetstone Village. To sum up, all of our efforts aim to incorporate the most relevant and advanced techniques and examples available for use in all super-local, community-centered, eco-regenerative neighborhood development initiatives. The proposed partnership name is:
EDEN
{ Enlightened Development of Eco~Logical Neighborhoods}
STATEMENT OF NEED | BRATTLEBORO VT & HINSDALE NH | CONNECTICUT RIVER VALLEY BIO-REGION Brattleboro, Vermont, chartered in 1753, is a gritty, artsy, can-do New England community of 12,000 residents established in a low-lying basin nestled at the mouth of converging verdant valleys carved out of the Green Mountains by the Whetstone Brooke and West River spilling themselves into the Connecticut River and the proud facade of Mount Wantastiquet in NH. The region has seen it’s fair share of glory and strife as both an ancient settlement of the native Western Abenaki / Sokoki Tribe, as well as the place where the first european “township” was established in a strategic locale at Fort Dummer, by way of Greylock’s War. Like many industrious communities dotted along the Connecticut River, it was once a proud turn-of-thecentury “Mill Town” featuring a steady (renewable) water-based energy source at Whetstone Falls, helping to power many watermills, sawmills, gristmills, a flour mill, woolen textile mills, a paper mill, machine shops, a manufacturer of paper-making machinery, two factories making melodeons and pipe organs, a carriage factory, and four printing companies! Thanks to the Vermont & Mass Railroad and Vermont Valley Railroad connection, the town further prospered as a regional center for trade. Brattleboro also became widely recognized as a curative health destination for many by acting as a picturesque home to the alternative / “humane” mental health treatments at the Vermont Asylum (Retreat) and the Hydropathic establishment of Dr. Robert Wesselhoeft that harnessed healing mineral waters from an underground aquifer, and was considered a crown jewel of only three known 'water cures’ in the country! What’s more, Brattleboro was also known as a major recreation and resort hub, home of “Island Park”, a working farm, baseball field and grandstand, as well as an elaborate amusement pavilion with a ballroom, bowling alleys and a vaudeville stage built on the large island that sat in between the bridges to Hinsdale, NH. Due to its many alluring aspects and curiosities, Brattleboro has also been a magnet for writers, painters, poets & artisans like Robert Frost, Henry David Thoreau, Sinclair Lewis, Pearl Buck, William Morris Hunt, Wolf Khan, and noted architects Richard Morris Hunt and William Rutherford Mead. At Naulakha, a grand house built near town by Rudyard Kipling, the novelist wrote “Captains Courageous” and “The Jungle Book”, along with short stories and poetry. Music was a big deal here to! J. Estey & Co., manufacturers of parlor or "cottage" organs, was Brattleboro's largest employer while in operation, as thousands of organs were manufactured yearly and carried as far as Australia and New Zealand. This was also home to great innovators and scientists such as Elisha Graves Otis, who founded the Otis Elevator Company, and botanist / mycologist Charles Christopher Frost. Over the past century, however, we witnessed the spiraling devolution of a once mighty and majestic northeast hub that offered sheer beauty and presented a variety of extraordinary strengths, attractions and features to its citizens and visitors alike. In only a few generations time, the town and its critical assets have become withered, short-changed and marginalized throughout an era of far over-reaching urban renewal policies, proto autocentric suburbanization, converting farms to shopping malls, the outsourcing of middle class jobs to poorer nations and mechanical robots, and the chem-agra-petro-pharma-prison-military-mono-culture that’s been foisted upon us. To makes matters worse, the area has seen little economic activity over the past 20 years, local governments are repeatedly in budgetary crisis after budgetary crisis, and the local citizenry just recently experienced a few nasty disasters, such as the severe flooding of the Whetstone Brooke, Flat Street and Lower Main during Hurricane Irene; a high-profile murder; and a major downtown fire that ripped down an entire historic block. In trying to contextualize our own troubles by attempting to fathom the truly unfair and squalid conditions of millions of people around the globe, however, one must admit that the overall quality of life in this region is fairly sublime. We are absolutely blessed to reside in the cradle of Mother Earths’ great splendor (just look around); we’re centrally located in the Northeast US; we’ve got many caring and lovely educational, healthcare and social service facilities; we boast a strong community spirit while celebrating our own fierce individualism; and we’ve earned great repute as a unique place in American Independence, Arts, Craft and Agricultural History. Yet, once we factor out the natural beauty we’ve inherited and the good times of the past, a multitude of economic and social ailments that persist today indicate that our community rests on the brink of deep struggle. On top of having to compete with cheap labor aided, volume driven, mega-monopolies (ie. Wal*Mart) that receive massive government subsidies, tax write-offs, sweetheart land deals, PILOTs and other tasty favors and kick-backs for “doing business” and “creating jobs” in a community, as well as having to contend with ever-growing trends in non-local online discount shopping (Amazon, Netflix, etc..), our local yokel mom & pop shops, family farms, owner-operated eateries, medium-scale commercial industries, and the small, service-based niche-market businesses that help stabilize our local economy and re-circulate funds throughout our “Main Street” are also absorbing rising overall costs of operations, knowing that their core customer base is tightening wallets while feeling the effects of the multiple economic bubbles bursting over and again, with little relief in sight.
In the meantime, the large companies of yesteryear are no longer employing skilled-labor whilst churning profits out of their respective Factories and Mills up and down the mighty river; many high paid tech-based jobs are leaving with the closure of Vermont Yankee; “Big Boxes” lay empty; and the area’s young people are leaving in droves while the County’s workforce is aging. Furthermore, our basic town services and civic infrastructure is in various states of decrepitude; and the general indicators for near-term economic recovery don’t look so great. One only needs to walk around with a discerning eye to see how deeply this community has begun to ache. According to the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS / ’13), a high level, multi-stakeholder initiative billed as the “playbook for engaging in a collaborative, region-wide transformation of the economy in order to raise productivity, create wealth, and increase prosperity for residents” that SeVEDS dubbed a “blueprint for economic development activity in the Windham County region”, the researchers and authors readily admit that the current situation for the Organizations, Businesses and Residents in the greater Brattleboro, Vermont area looks fairly bleak. The following quotes come from the CEDS Summary of Economic Conditions: “To summarize the overall economic profile, Southeastern Vermont region continues to lag behind the US in measures of economic trend, prosperity, and structure…Since 2010, the region has not added new jobs at the same rate as the national average…Job creation has been stagnant since the early 1990s. Between 1995 and 2011, wage and salary employment has been stagnant…Average wage in Southeastern Vermont is lower than nearby markets…Examining S.E. Vermont’s wage structure in comparison to the rest of Northern New England reveals that the region is at a significant disadvantage in attracting and retaining a skilled workforce.” “Analysis Trend data shows that the Southeastern Vermont region has been declining as an employment hub over the past ten years. This is evidenced by the absolute decline in number of jobs in the region as well as the quality of the employment regardless of age cohort… Additional data for the labor shed that serves the Southeastern Vermont region demonstrates that median earnings for those living outside Windham County are far more favorable than for those living in Windham County, whether in Massachusetts or New Hampshire counties… The perception of overall high educational attainment across a broad spectrum of the local populous in the region is not borne out by the data. In fact, the region is producing a much higher percentage of under-educated younger workers than Vermont or the surrounding regions. “ “S.E. Vermont is getting older. In the 2010 Census, Maine and Vermont ranked #1 and #2 as the oldest states, and Windham County is aging faster than Maine or Vermont. There has been a significant increase in the population approaching retirement age. Age cohorts entering the working population (late teens and early twenties) have been small and there has been a significant decrease in persons of prime workforce and childbearing age. If current trends persist, this decline will accelerate… which raises questions about the region’s ability to achieve long-term, sustainable development.” Specifically, the neighborhood we are looking at re-developing is one of the most distraught. On New Hampshire's side of the bridge, locals are floundering with a stale economy that offers an estimated per capita income of $17,000 in Chesterfield and 23,350 in Hinsdale NH, well below the median wage per person in the US of $26,695. Recent job growth has been in the negative, the median age is 48.7 yrs old, and the cost of living is 8.0% higher than the U.S. average. On the river’s bank, the Boat Marina in West Chesterfield has been sitting on the market for some time; a large abandoned Walmart facility lays vacant alongside its mammoth empty parking lot; numerous private homes have “For Sale” signs on their lawns; all while the outdated bridges to and fro Vermont are deteriorating and dangerous and the pedestrian walkway along the road isn’t well maintained. In Vermont, we too have neglected our once glorious waterfront as it wrestles daily with regular Amtrak and Auto pollution, empty buildings and warehouses, pockets of homeless “campers” and dissociated drug addicts, toxic oil tanks, and years and years of built-up discarded human waste. Likewise, the mixed-use commercial and residential district that is situated along the Whetstone Brooke corridor continues to struggle as business in the storefronts on Flat Street and South Main come and go; the sidewalks, roads and bridges are in great need of repair; the waterway is unmaintained, oft littered and home to drunks, punks and vagrants; many of the old multi-family homes along Frost, Elliot and Canal are in disrepair; and Cersosimo’s lumber facilities dominate the street, further depraving the poorest and the youngest neighborhood in Town. One of the most striking images that remains seared into the consciousness of Brattleboro’s recent history is the unkind memory of the mountainous heap of ash, brick and charred metal that remained in the heart of the Town’s Harmony Lot after the four-alarm furnace of the Brooks House fire subsided; luckily the historic structure, and its Upper Main Street neighborhood has been revived to its former glory! Not to be outdone by another horrible tragedy, we mustn’t forget the forlorn visage etched onto the faces of the Lower Main / Flat Street residents, as tonnes of gallons of gushing rainwater receded and left a blackened knee-deep sludge of mud, slurry, silt (and who-knows-what) which flushed down the Whetstone Brooke on that fateful August day four years ago, when, in a matter of moments, Tropical Storm Irene dropped a fresh water ocean over eastern New York and all of Vermont. It is this very disaster that must have us take serious pause and note that unlike a rare accidental fire, the conditions that caused a flood to tear through our downtown could become a regular occurance. Our takeaway, as Zen Master THICH NHAT HANH reminds us, is that “When we touch the Earth we become great”, and in the aftermath, clean-up and recovery that followed each travesty, we grew together as a community. Yet, although we’re more closely bonded, the question that we must now answer is: how do we addressed the Whetstone flooding again? We know to call the Fire Department for a blaze; who controls the rising waters?
STATEMENT OF INTEREST So, here we stand firmly at a cross roads. The co-inhabitants of our shared Earth are suffering dearly at the hands of powerful forces endeavoring to dominate and diminish the people, animals and plants that our mother, Gaia, has nurtured over time imponderable. As the guardians and stewards of this gorgeous Garden Planet, this blessed miracle of life, we can no longer stand aside and allow negative minds, mean spirits and cold hearts to dictate the course of action; we must discover a way to unite and forge ahead with a clear focus on achieving health, harmony and joy for all! It’s time for new choices, new paradigms and compassionate new leadership. And the time to begin is Now. To help address this notion, Simply Love Life was established to act as an incubator and holding company for new, innovative, interrelated and mutually supportive concepts, projects and investments that help us reach our lovely, forward thinking and incredibly audacious goals. In other words, with the aim of living and loving ALL forms of life and being in full communication along our life’s path, Jessica and I founded this unique “quadruple bottom line” venture as an idea generator that conceives of and launches new initiatives aimed at re-connecting our independent selves with each other, our shared history, surrounding environment, our collective conscious and overall well-being in hopes of improving our planet’s future. As we have learned, the Brattleboro area is going through a tremendous amount of transition in its economy, its environment and its social scene. Over the years, numerous professional studies and plans have been commissioned that frequently say the same thing: The region has a lot going for it ~ natural beauty, great location, artsy vibe and rural charm ~ yet can’t seem to put it all together {in so many words}. Whether we want to point a finger at our leaderships’ “silo mentality”, “old New England parochialism”, or simply “small town politics”, what we do know is that the current focus and model isn’t working out very well. An opportunity to begin making a major shift came in 2012, when Brattleboro was awarded a National Endowment of the Arts “Our Town” planning grant which fosters support for creative place-making projects that help to transform communities into lively, beautiful, and resilient places with the arts at their core, and supports “when artists, arts organizations, and community development practitioners deliberately integrate arts and culture into community revitalization work, placing arts at the table with land-use, transportation, economic development, education, housing, infrastructure, and public safety strategies.” The grant's funding supports local efforts to “enhance quality of life and opportunity for existing residents, increase creative activity, and create a distinct sense of place”, and in the narrative to the NEA, the Town itself pointed to the same natural inner-city corridor that we are interested in developing as the Whetstone Village: “A very natural, potential district corridor snakes through Brattleboro: the Whetstone Brook, site of severe flooding during Hurricane Irene in August 2011.” Furthermore, the NEA application established a number of goals that set favorable conditions for this new cultural district initiative, such as: to increase the effectiveness and friendliness of forward planning; to demonstrate how the arts can effectively map, explore, and create, resulting in deeper relationships that engender meaningful participation from a full range of community sectors; and to provide a vision for discovering and creating a map that will incorporate livability as central to decision making so that Town’s grittier, more industrial funkiness will shift to create a more usable, safe community. Understanding that one of the major aims of project is to “celebrate the strength of public discourse and planning”, our unique neighborhood development proposal features a year-long kick-start of an artistic and ecologically-oriented place-making initiative that, in partnership with community stakeholders, property owners, residents, artists, students, government officials and the Town’s Planning Department, will special zones designed to generate businesses, attract tourists and foster civic pride by encouraging arts and cultural activities within the designated area. By delivering a series of fun and engaging charettes, workshops and local discussion groups throughout the year and providing comprehensive strategic direction to a broad-range of constituents for supporting local artistic, cultural and environmental assets within this critical area of our small Town, the vision, energy and effort behind the WHETSTONE VILLAGE OF ARTS, CULTURE & ECOLOGY is aimed squarely at helping expedite Brattleboro's recovery from recent tragedies such as Irene, the Brooks House Fire, the murder of a beloved manager at the Coop, as well as greater societal issues such as a down-turned national and local economy, an outflow of youth, an uptick in drug use, out of date land uses, derelict housing, and a woefully neglected river-front and downtown brooke. This is a true mixed-use urban neighborhood with GREAT POTENTIAL in need of some TLC, restoration, regeneration and redevelopment.
ARTICULATION OF ENDEAVOR “By and large, our present problem is one of attitudes and implements. We are remodeling the Alhambra with a steam-shovel, and are proud of our yardage” ~ Aldo Leopold Considered the forefather of wildlife management and of the US wilderness system, Aldo Leopold was a conservationist, forester, philosopher, educator, writer and outdoor enthusiast who fueled the evolution of modern environmental ethics. His profoundly deep value system that regularly championed nature & wildlife protection had a tremendous impact on our nations’ environmental ethos by way of his holistic ecocentric writings, positions and philosophies regarding preservation of land, biodiversity and ecology. Fundamentally, Mr. Leopold worked tirelessly to help educate, inform and inspire us to see the natural world “as a community to which we belong.” Learning lessons from such a great teacher of living with the land, it’s seasons, it’s native fruits and creatures, we must ask how do we put ourselves in the hands of our environment and not at odds with it? How do we build symbiotic relationships with one another and our shared surroundings? Further, what’s our regions’ comprehensive strategy to address our pressing environmental and climate change needs? Our infrastructure needs? Our civic, cultural and employment needs? Let’s go back to the 2013 “playbook for economic transformation” commissioned by BDCC and SeVEDS. The report suggests that the following development strategy will greatly help improve the overall quality of life in this region, an area obviously grappling with multiple challenges: “The residents of Southeastern Vermont have important decisions to make about the economic future of the region. On the one hand, the region’s cultural heritage, small town character, and natural beauty combine to provide a quality of place that many communities around the US are striving to duplicate. The region has benefited from that sense of “authenticity,” cultivating a deep appreciation of the arts and culture that attracts creative entrepreneurs and workers, as well as retired or semi-retired households from nearby urban areas searching for a better quality of life. From the perspective of economic development, as the “free agent” workforce—self-employed, free- lancers, artists, etc.—continues to grow, its share of total employment in the US, Southeastern Vermont, and other regions like it, can leverage its quality of place as a competitive advantage [emphasis mine]. The region’s proximity to large population centers and ability to deliver a unique experience are strengths that should be at the core of any strategy targeting sustainable economic development. Yet, quality of place and the ability to attract artists, free agents, and retired or semi-retired households are not sufficient conditions for long- term, sustainable growth and regional prosperity. Developing and maintaining community assets that contribute to quality of place, for example, requires steady growth in the region’s tax base. Cultivating the region’s appreciation for creative industries, such as artists, theater, and writers, does little good if the next generation of residents cannot find employment that provides enough discretionary income to attend performances or donate to non-profit arts organizations. And retirees, while valuable members, leaders, and sources of discretionary income in any community, cannot offer much in the way of employment opportunities for the next generation of workers. Accordingly, achieving sustainable development in quality of place communities like Southeastern Vermont means striking the right balance between preserving natural and cultural assets and growing the regional economy at a sufficient pace to provide the resources that are necessary to preserve those assets….(furthermore) There is an urgent need to develop a more holistic understanding in the region of the potential synergy between economic growth strategies formed around knowledge-based enterprises and goals related to quality of place. The idea that the goals are mutually exclusive is an inhibiting factor for economic development. Economic development is not a “zero-sum game,”despite the highly competitive nature of the industry.”
In boiled-down terms, what I gather hear is: Maintain and Enhance the Natural, Physical and Cultural Assets we are blessed to already have + “grow the regional economy” in order to support it. Easy enough, right? On the task of the former endeavor, I truly believe that we ALL get the idea of restoration and enhancement ~ yet we often struggle with finding agreement and securing funds to move ideas forward. We all know which buildings to spruce up and what streetscapes needs attention; we have lovely sustainable visions for how our Urb and sub-Urbs function in the future; we strive for clean & green energy and full-cycle waste systems; we are working on purifying our water, remediating our soil, cleaning our air; we have cools arts events , farm markets and festivals all year; we’re building wooded Brooke-side jogging paths and planning for exciting uses of our beautiful River-front; we’ve got a dog park and skate park on the way…there are many obstacles to face, no doubt, but I have faith that with the proper amount of permitting, resources and effort, we are well under way! On the notion of the latter, I would like to pose that THIS is where the paths diverge from one another. Traditional Economic Development strategies were once referred to as “smoke-stack” chasing, a practice where as one community (ie. Economic Development Agency) stacks up it’s greatest assets, bundles together various “incentives” and, in a very competitive arena, pitches relatively large-scale commercial /industrial development initiatives that could employ lots of labor, bring bus-loads of outside capital, and help stabilize the local tax base. The smoke-stacks come in the shape of any number of traditional industries; warehousing, manufacturing, large agri-business, high-tech campuses, retail / malls, educational and hospital facilities, etc. And by all accounts, this model has proven to be disastrous to our social lives, our natural environment and our local economy. Furthermore, when we hear that we need economic growth strategies formed around “knowledge-based enterprises”, we must take pause. While the experts have rightfully acknowledged a new era of micro-economy, non-monetary exchange, super-localism, place-based design, and the rise of more inter-dependent, fluid and dynamic work-flow systems by alerting us to the inevitable fork in the road when they admit that as the “”free agent” workforce—self-employed, free- lancers, artists, etc.—continues to grow, its share of total employment in the US, SE Vermont, and other regions like it, can leverage its quality of place as a competitive advantage”. While this axiom may hold true, the approach they prescribe to grooming a fertile landscape to nurture our region’s natural, built-in, “competitive advantages,” is where I differ. In dissecting this little nugget from the CEDS / SeVEDS consultants, we find that their answer is to, again, recruit a white-knight, silver-bullet, “Knowledge-Based Industry” to come to the rescue and prop up our civic and cultural shortcomings. They are telling our leaders to do everything you can to “sell the farm” and it’s time to get competitive with our neighboring towns on the Knowledge Corridor. They advise that “cultivating the region’s appreciation for creative industries, such as artists, theater, and writers, does little good if the next generation of residents cannot find employment that provides enough discretionary income to attend performances or donate to non-profit arts organizations.” Effectively, what they are saying is that we need to support big time job creators (ie. industry, a new smoke-stack) so that we have extra money to toss around at non-profits, and those poor souls toiling away in the Arts. The challenge with this thinking is that it promulgates the horribly failed and flawed principals of “trickle-down” or “spill-over” economics. They continue to prop up and support primarily, larger wealthier businesses with Our Tax Dollars and Our Shared Resources, rather than aiding citizens, small businesses, service-based ngo’s, or the very creative industries that the authors feel would indirectly (and eagerly) benefit from focused economic development support on other, more desirous, heavy-hitting industries who would then, hopefully, encourage their newly wealthy workforce to go out and see a theatre show, donate to the orchestra, or buy a painting. The 21st Century Economic Development gurus that get paid to travel from ailing community to ailing community to peddle their magic potion, all have the same schtick ~ they are still promoting the age-old idea that by courting and attracting new, technology-based industries to come and employ the desperate work-force, the client / Town has the absolute right target in their scope. Yet, as far as I am concerned, they are all looking in completely the wrong direction and through the completely wrong device all together. They say that: Overall Economic “Growth” (jobs, consumerism, etc.) leads to Overall Societal Gain (activities, amenities, services, etc.). And then they follow that up by suggesting that the municipality package and direct a substantial share of their constituents’ (tax payer / citizen) pooled capitol resources, natural allowances, tax credits and incentives, land, basic infrastructure and emergency services, and so on, as a “sweet-heart” pitch for contracts and deals with already wealthy corporations who are looking to establish, grow or relocate their respective businesses. That model is dead. The new economic reality is quite the opposite of what we’ve come to know as the tried and true Economic Development gospel. The time is NOW for the agreed-upon and planned support given to “job-growth” and “business development” initiatives be immediately re-directed toward the myriad of under-supported mom and pops, co-working spaces, family farms, creative collectives and artists, civic structural repair, environmental remediation, the web of much needed social services and the many things that define our quality of place! The time of pandering to mega-corps and their drought stricken trickle-down practices have come to an unceremonious end and the renewed effort to give authentic focus to the other 90% of us is best summed in the everlasting words of economist E.F. Schumaker, “Small is Beautiful”. This is our new cultural divide. This issue, unfortunately, isn’t unique to Brattleboro. All across the globe, humanity is at a critical juncture, facing the colossal task of righting spaceship Earth immediately. Thankfully, countless citizens are starting to get the ball rolling on this heroic endeavor worldwide. Prior to setting forth with any short or long-term strategies, however, we must first ask ourselves: “What is the destination?” There is no doubt that we have a thorny path to pursue, as the toxic, hazardous and damaged environment that which we inherit from our “enterprising” ancestors is in need of extreme empathy and action; innovation and investment alone will not suffice. Due to an avid and almost single minded focus toward the creation and accumulation of material wealth by all means necessary, the imagination, ingenuity and intention of humanity over the past few centuries, no matter how ingenious, reasoned or noble in deed, has lead to the catastrophic collapse of our planet’s ability to sustain precious life. Clearly, we can not repeat the same mistake again.
As a result of this insatiable desire to govern, or subdue, “nature” and to rule over one another, humanity has voluntarily contributed to an inexcusable destruction of indispensable habitat and a rise in pollution, invasive species, and climate temperature that has caused the greatest mass extinction of plants and animals since that of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Eventually, this irreversible loss of biodiversity at the hands of mankind, coupled with the exponential growth of the human population, the ever increasing industrialization of limited natural resources, and the escalating threat of world war, will threaten the very existence of our civilization on this planet; but there has to be a way to fix it, right? Yes. I believe there is. So where do we begin? Before we embark on the restorative process of achieving health, harmony and peace on this planet, we must first know where we are going; to collectively identify what is the “X” on the map. We need to see a clear end goal, a comprehensible mental picture of our shared purpose, effort and eventual creation. We need to begin to envision and design how our numerous and complex systems should perform to create a sustainable future for tomorrow. Just as early entrepreneurs of the Industrial Revolution imagined how a shift towards machine-based labor in agriculture, manufacturing, and transportation would have profound effects on the socio-economic and cultural conditions in Great Britain, Europe and beyond, we must also “foresee” what the Green Revolution looks like before we begin to build it; think real big! Learning from the past, nevertheless, the creative atmosphere of tomorrow must be fueled by a next great (r)evolution of human engineering, partnership and production driven and valued by a quadruple bottom line that accounts for Economic, Ecological, Social and Cultural effects equally. Remember, balance begets balance, peace begets peace, health begets health; this is not the charge of our children and their children, however, it is ours. We must take responsibility – Now! As we stand here at this crucial intersection, what vision for the future will we project? Which path will we choose to get there? By keeping a promise to uphold the universal well-being of all things that work sustains us that in the same way, we will begin to see an image of the future unfold that diminishes barriers to cooperation, care and efficiency in all sectors of the economy, our society and our lovely surroundings.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT Historically, the state-line defined border that exits today between Vermont, New York, Massachusetts and New Hampshire didn’t exist. The native peoples who settled here saw and related to the sprawling terrain as bio-regions, defined by the geography and the seasons, not politics. The Sokoki, a sub-tribe of the Western Abenaki, for example, claimed hunting, farming and fishing grounds and light-weight nomadic living all along the mountainous territory that covers todays Amherst, MA to areas north of Bellows Falls, VT, along the Connecticut River Valley. Here, at the very point of juncture of the West River, the Whetstone Brooke, Quinetucket, the “Great River”, and the ever present, stunning and dramatic Mount Wantastiquet, the earliest settlers revered this very confluence of GAIA’s power, grace, beauty & bounty as an extremely sacred place. And so shall we. Taking our cues from the ancient history of this land, EDEN is a unique effort to streamline the success of realizing the dreams of a more sustainable future. While the wild gesture of designing and planning a cross-river Eco-Arts Village is quite novel, the authentic economic, social and environmental gains should not be taken lightly. Again, to further underscore this basic assertion, the very neighborhood and natural corridor we are distinguishing as “Whetstone Village” was identified in the Town of Brattleboro’s recently awarded National Endowment of the Arts “Our Town” creative place-making grant as having wonderful potential as a new Cultural District. It seems, therefore, we’re on the right path. Our initial task is to develop a repackage-able “Pilot Project” that could act a model for other communities to learn from. Like many cities and towns across this country, we face a major undertaking to help elevate a down-and-out urban neighborhood into a green, sustainable, beautiful destination that nurtures and gives back to those who live, work and play within its bounds. I’d like to consider the endeavor one in which we rezone and re-brand a struggling mixed-use residential / commercial district as a “Bio-sphere for Social, Cultural & Environmental Regeneration”. By utilizing the collective power of multiple regulatory, zoning and permitting authorizations offered to localities as progressive planning tools to employ when establishing specialty “Districts” or “Zones”, the EDEN Partners will take a grand, yet measured, approach to addressing this new, innovative revitalization opportunity. Frankly, the idea that the Whetstone Village could re-invigorate that core relationship to place is amazing, and we clearly imagine that this newly incentivized district would again touch the lives of families and visitors in both VT & NH, just as in ancient times, or when Island Park connected our river-side communities with a large farm, baseball field, merry-go-round and other fun amusements!
The Whetstone Village initiative is imagined to unfold in three phases: I. II. III.
Intense research, surveys, community design charettes and other information gathering exercises to help inform the process and the vision (1yr) A 3 day arts, culture and heritage festival on Flat ST. commemorating the 5th Anniversary of Tropical Storm Irene (August 2016) Acquisition of real property and the drafting of State-sponsored Cultural District legislation
To begin, the EDEN team will partner with current residents, local businesses, civic leaders and area students to look very closely at the myriad of issues that our new eco-artsy neighborhood must address in its effort to become fun, safe, sustainable and regenerative, such as: a) Ecosystem restoration, b) Re-building and re-manufacturing that maximizes use of recyclable and/or post-consumer materials, c) Renewable energy production and use / energy efficiency, d) Locally-based sustainable agriculture, e) Converting all wastes into resources, f) Water conservation and reuse, g) Green transit and mobility, h) Green building, living roofs, and landscaping, i) Ecology and conservation education, j) and special Green Collar / Creative Collar job training programs As a follow up to our collective findings, we plan on hosting a 3 Day Cultural Festival on Flat St, during the Anniversary of Tropical Storm Irene, to help demonstrate some of our core project principles, highlight some of the wonderful ideas that were generated from the community visioning process, as well as to continue to have fun and build bridges amongst neighbors and visitors alike. As a way to inform citizens, gather public support and begin the process of legislating a new Cultural District in Brattleboro / Hinsdale, the Festival would essentially act as a spring-board for the bold energy and cool concepts behind the development of the Whetstone Village. What’s a Cultural District? It’s a specific area in a city that has a concentration of cultural facilities, activities, and assets. It is a walkable, compact area that is easily identifiable to visitors and residents and serves as a center of cultural, artistic and economic activity. What does it take to create a Cultural District? How hard is it to accomplish? How long does it take? Who should be involved? What do we need to know? As someone with experience launching arts-related 501c3’s, revitalizing a few Arts Committees, developing a Cultural District in the City of Syracuse NY, and having specialized in “cultural enhancement” in a few other funky communities, I have been involved in a number of art-related economic development projects and through the experience of my own lessons learned and via independent research, here’s a list of key steps to creating a Cultural District: 1. Decide why we want to create a Cultural District in the first place. What do we hope to accomplish? What problem are we trying to solve? Is there a strong interest in creating such a plan? Are people enthusiastically behind the idea who can offer momentum to help us through this process and then work to implement it successfully? 2. Who should be involved? Who are the key players in town who can offer ideas, energy, resources, and legitimacy for our process? In addition to the obvious leaders, identify hidden assets and talent. Involve the community and key players in our early planning stages. 3. Who will do the work in actually crafting the Cultural District plan? Do we have staff, expertise, and partners who can put together the information and creative thinking necessary to develop a viable plan and then carry it out? Do we need to bring in outside expertise or can we tap resources and experience in our community? 4. What is the most logical geographic area for the Cultural District to occur? Where are the most compelling areas of activity to serve as a draw for residents and tourists to visit? The site shouldn’t be too small but it definitely shouldn’t be too large. Make it walkable to be most successful (some suggest a ten minute walk from one end to the other). 5. What are the cultural assets within the district boundaries? Identify the cultural organizations, resources, businesses, creative industries, civic groups, educational entities, key social service, financial, religious, and public sector institutions and other resources in the area. What types of cultural programming can occur in the district as a draw for people to visit repeatedly?
6. Do a site analysis of the proposed district. Analyze the streetscape, traffic issues, key buildings, historic and architectural assets, gateways, and opportunities for public art and landscaping improvements. Evaluate other planning, development, and related activities that can reinforce the impact of the proposed cultural district or where the district can support those initiatives. 7. Where are opportunities for public art in the district? Do we want – and can we support – permanent or temporary installations? What site or landscape improvements are needed to support the art? Can we create public art that is integrated with landscape design or public works improvements? Is new commercial and residential development planned for the district where art can be included as part of the initial design process? How will we select the artists and what will we ask them to produce? 8. What will make the Cultural District unique and reflect the best of our community? Why should a visitor come to our district (again and again, we hope) as opposed to the hundreds of other districts around the country? How can we market our district and give it a special identity? 9. Once the district plan is completed, who will manage it? Who will take the pride and responsibility of ownership? Who will pay for it? What will it cost? Who will be in charge of coordinating the cultural programming and opportunities for business enterprise and cultural collaborations? Who will market the district and let people know about the ever-changing array of activities? Who are our partners and what roles do they play. 10. And finally, what is our strategy to keep the district current? How can we keep it active, lively and relevant? How can we keep it fun and a continued draw for visitors? Make it a place where WE want to be. Involve the community and diverse, creative partners to help make it successful. WHETSTONE VILLAGE’s KEYS TO ECO / ARTS URBAN PLANNING SUCCESS: 8 Core Themes ONE: Synergy and Critical Mass. A single arts or cultural facility by itself is unlikely to change its surrounding environment. Thus, it takes more than a single facility, even one with great drama and imaginative design, to bring life to a district or a downtown. Success is usually based on a blending of attractions that support each other over time. We must integrate this concept into a holistic, well-rounded design. TWO: Identity. The identity of a district is stronger than any of its individual components (ie. Whetstone “VILLAGE”!). Arts and cultural districts benefit from marketing the identity of their district. They communicate to a regional audience (often including out-of-town visitors) the happenings in the district. Creating identity markets a destination that combines an array of activities artistic and commercial for success. THREE: Heart of Downtown. The best location is almost always in the heart of downtown. The greatest benefits for the cultural community, downtown and the region are derived when the arts are woven directly into the fabric of downtown. When downtown is the location, the widest audience is reached, and the greatest synergy is developed. Thus, the Flat Street corridor leading to the downtown waterfront is the prime site location! FOUR: Sustain a Vision. A successful arts or cultural district needs committed investors and a steward of the vision. Without people to lead and sustain the vision, even the best art and cultural models would not survive past the idea stage. As the idea generators, our challenge is to excite and attract committed public & philanthropic investors willing to put their resources at risk at critical times to ensure continued advancement of the vision. FIVE: Historic and Cultural Anchors. New investment needs to use existing assets. Often the best way for downtowns to re-establish themselves as regional cultural centers is to build on existing strengths and historical anchors. Within the Whetstone Village footprint, NEYT, Latchis Arts, BMAC, BMC, Boys&Girls Club, Whetstone Studios, Estey Organ, Food Coop, the Sanel building, VCP, Insight Photo and Amtrak are some key assets. SIX: Stretch the Boundaries. The most successful organizations have ventured far beyond traditional arts boundaries. Leaders of art and cultural districts must be prepared to do whatever it takes to create an atmosphere of success. It may be helping to restore historic storefronts, design streetscapes or open a ticket business. The best structures move freely between civic, commercial and cultural worlds; we’re hoping a farming element helps! SEVEN: Beyond Buildings. The hardest work comes after the buildings are built, not before. Even the best venues can fail with weak marketing, management and programming. Likewise, "weaker" venues or designs can succeed when management and marketing are strong. All venues need capable, professional staff to enhance their volunteer leadership. This is a great place for no / social service agencies to link into the ongoing effort. EIGHT: Artist as Asset. Often, too little attention is paid to the viability of arts organizations and artists. Buildings don't make art; artists make art. Artists and art organizations are key to successful cultural centers. They are the reason venues draw people to downtown - and this area has plenty of artists that would happily play strong roles in the design, development and long-term health of this unique endeavor.
STATEMENT OF COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT We moved here from Ithaca NY, by way of San Ignacio, Belize, and are now three-year residents of Brattleboro, VT. Since arriving in the Spring of 2012, we’ve been a pretty busy duo, having lived, worked and volunteered on a few local organic farms in the area, something that has been tremendously helpful and influential in developing our nascent agricultural education. We launched Equilibrium, a “Positive Lifestyle Environment”, on Elm Street as a popular 3,000 sqft community-focused Healing Arts / Creative Art Center that attracted hundreds of supporters in its first year and has since been re-imagined as a significant 15,000 sqft multi-level, multi-faceted, cultural arts facility in the heart of Downtown Brattleboro on Flat Street. Additionally, in a short period, Simply Love Life has also become proud owners of one of the fastest-growing organic food businesses in the region, Superfresh! Organic Cafe, an acclaimed Vegan Eatery on Lower Main St. We are also happy new home owners living only a few short blocks from Town’s center on Elliot Street! Although we have been focused primarily on establishing beta-projects that have the potential to manifest stability and long-term growth such as Superfresh!, Equilibrium and Kosmos, we’ve also been heavily involved with a wide range of community affairs. As it’s Coordinator for a major transitional year, I helped the historic Business Improvement District transition its aging brand from BaBB to the Downtown Brattleboro Alliance; helped to negotiate the sale of the River Garden; get its books out of the red; recruit new Board Members; and attract a new stable of community volunteers to envision new visions for the future and participate in making the town thrive again. What’s more, I have volunteered on the Board of Trustees of the Arts Council of Windham County, was a member of the Town’s Public Art Committee, hosted a successful Downtown Summer Concert Series, am responsible for a number of new Public Art Projects being commissioned; am involved in the YP movement here and have always been a strong public advocate for new eco-sensitive, creative enterprise development throughout this funky little Town. In addition to her non-stop schedule running her own businesses, Superfresh! Organic Cafe, my partner Jessica has found the time to join the Board of Trustees of the Vermont Center for Photography, provides Certified Holistic Counseling and is co-coordinating healing retreats to Mexico every winter with a group of her peers. And while our joint efforts and experiences in Southern Vermont are to be acknowledged in context of this proposal, it is also worth noting that we both come to this area with extensive professional backgrounds in not-for-profit management, community development and other mission-driven grass-roots cooperative types of organizations and enterprises. In short, we both have found ways to enliven our home-bases with a range of civic, artistic, cultural and culinary endeavors. To give you more insight to what, exactly, we have achieved in our young lives, you will find copies of our respective resume’s attached to this end of this proposal.
In Peace, Jacob Alan Roberts and Jessica Jean Weston