[MassHistPres] Influencing Town Politics

Fri Mar 28 16:34:16 EDT 2008

Hello,
It seems to me that most discussions which involve the goals of preservation 
or planning or conservation commissions are discussions of community 
direction and priorities. Candidates for public office expect to receive 
such questions and hopefully have formulated replies.

In some towns there is too little informed debate, and a letter to the 
editor in today's Recorder discussed a tendency in small towns he called a 
"cult enviroment (can't question any public safety expenditure)" which leads 
to multimillion dollar facilities.

The Greenfield HC is advised to contact councillors when a matter of concern 
is up for discussion. Communiciation.

Marcia Starkey

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jonathan Feist" <jfeist at charter.net>
To: "Diane Gilbert" <d.m.gilbert at comcast.net>; "Maggie Rosa" 
<maggierosa at comcast.net>
Cc: "MHC listserve" <masshistpres at cs.umb.edu>
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 6:20 PM
Subject: Re: [MassHistPres] Influencing Town Politics

Really good comments floating around, both for and against my position. :)

One of the great obstacles in historical preservation is inspiring people to
actually care. While I understand the benefit of a bureaucracy being
politically neutral, I think there is a greater good to be served by
generating discussion about some of these topics. People¹s eyes pop when you
tell them that it¹s better to fix a door to $300 than to replace it with a
new one for $1000. Or that there is actually a good reason not to replace
all their windows with vinyl.

I might feel differently about propriety if chairing the HC was a paid
position. But by its volunteer nature, it only attracts preservation
advocates, or maybe some people with silly notions of power, though I
haven¹t actually met any of those in person.

It seems unnatural to keep quiet during times like this. In fact, what
inspired my survey was one of the candidates requesting that I support their
campaign, and another candidate hinting the same. I decided to stay neutral,
but to at least participate in the discussion in my own way.

Proper or not, I urge others to follow suit. There is much work to be done,
and much opposition to our values.

--Jonathan

on 3/27/08 3:48 PM, Diane Gilbert at d.m.gilbert at comcast.net wrote:

> I understand the concerns of those who caution about mixing politics with
> preservation advocacy and initiatives especially when one is a member of a
> municipal agency such as the historical commission (appointed by the
> Selectmen) challenging (in a nice way) the board, elected, who is the
> appointing authority for the commission.
>
> Jonathan shares my passion for free speech and for an open, public 
> discourse
> on these matters.  I happen to serve on the Dartmouth Select Board and 
> also am
> currently the President of the Dartmouth Heritage Preservation Trust.
>
> When it comes to matters of historic preservation, I never hold back.  I 
> use
> my bully pulpit on the Select Board to advance the cause of preservation 
> but
> recuse myself from voting on any matter that concerns the Dartmouth 
> Heritage
> Preservation Trust, a 501c3, independent from the town but certainly an
> advocate and partner with the town on matters of historic preservation. 
> After
> two years, I resigned from the historical commission before I was elected 
> to
> the Select Board because I didn¹t feel the commission was doing enough to
> advance the preservation agenda.
>
> It seems to me that under MGL Chapter 40, section 8d, the historical
> commission has a duty to the public to ensure they do all they can under 
> their
> purview to protect and preserve a community¹s historic legacy and 
> heritage.
> So I¹m not sure why it¹s inappropriate to survey the candidates to find 
> out
> their positions.  I would do it.  They serve the public and the public¹s
> interests.
>
> Diane Gilbert, Town of Dartmouth
>
>
> On 3/27/08 11:17 AM, "jfeist at charter.net" <jfeist at charter.net> wrote:
>
>> > I'm not sure how discussing issues could be considered inappropriate. I
>> didn't
>> > endorse any candidate, and my understanding is that part of the role of
>> > historical commissions is to raise awareness of issues related to
>> historical
>> > preservation. I would be delighted to be ousted, if this is not the
>> > case. --Jonathan ---- Maggie Rosa <maggierosa at comcast.net> wrote: > A 
>> > note
>> > of caution. > When the Gloucester Historical Commission attempted, last
>> fall,
>> > to  > solicit answers to a questionnaire that we generated for 
>> > candidates
>> >
>> > for city mayor and council we were rapidly informed that this was not 
>> >  >
>> > appropriate as we are beholden to the same rules that city employees  >
>> must
>> > abide by and not participate, as a group, in city political  > 
>> > activity. >
>> >
>> > Maggie Rosa > maggierosa at comcast.net > > 26 Fort Hill Ave > Gloucester, 
>> > MA
>> > 01930 > > Home Phone # 978-281-1871 > Cell 978-290-2553 > > > > > > >
>> > On Mar 27, 2008, at 9:15 AM, Jonathan Feist wrote: > > > Hi all, > > > 
>> >  > In
>> > an attempt to make historical preservation more of a local campaign > >
>> issue,
>> > I sent a little survey to the five candidates running for  > > 
>> > selectmen, >
>> >
>> > in Harvard. > > > > I posted my results (with my own commentary) on a 
>> > new
>> > blog. It went  > > live > > yesterday. I announced it to some locals 
>> > that I
>> > know, and it already  > > seems > > to be getting some traffic beyond 
>> > that
>> > group, which means that there  > > is > > pretty good interest around 
>> > here
>> > for such things. It will be  > > interesting to > > see how it actually
>> plays
>> > out and whether these issues get more air  > > time as > > a result. 
>> > But
>> you
>> > might try something similar, if you have similar > > rabble-rousing
>> tendencies
>> > to my own. I also sent ³Letters to the  > > Editor² to > > our local
>> > newspapers announcing it, hopefully to come out tomorrow. > > > > 
>> > Here¹s
>> the
>> > link: > > > >> http://harvardpreservation.wordpress.com/ > > > 
>> >  > --Jonathan
>> >
>>>>>>>>>>> > > > > > > > > > > ===============================================
> > > >
>> > Jonathan Feist, Chair > > Harvard Historical Commission > > 
>> > 978-772-4864
>> > (home) > > 617-747-2148 (Berklee office) > > > > Preserve Historical
>> Harvard,
>> > MA: > > http://harvard.ma.us/histcomm.htm > > > > > >
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