A Poll Among The Ashes

Back to the issues. The poll results are in, and 54 unique votes were tabulated on the question, “Should Stratford sell Long Beach West under the conditions listed in the current agreement?”

Here are the results:

Yes, it’s the best deal we can manage at this time: 36 votes (66%)
No, we can get much more for it or develop it ourselves: 10 votes (18%)
Maybe, but we need more information and a town referendum: 7 (12%)
To tell the truth, I don’t know enough to make an educated decision on this: 1 (1%)

Not surprisingly, “I’m sick of it, already! Stop asking!” got no votes! Why? It seems to be the hottest issue at the moment as it involves all the drama surrounding Stratford politics. It dredges up the ugly class wars of the “sweetheart leases,” the ease with which one person’s careless cigarette toss rendered us helpless, the termination of those leases, and our subsequent inability to come up with options from which to choose. All of this is seen through the lens of the Stratford political machinery as it screeches and grinds to a halt amid the ancillary issues like whether we have a right to referendum or whether the Republicans are trying to stall the Democrats in order to deny them the semblance of progress.

But what to make of these numbers? The first option wins by a landslide at first glance as it easily outnumbered all other votes combined. However, adding up the second and third options means that 30% of the respondents do not look at this as the best deal. That is a significant number; if one-third of the people have doubts, it legitimizes the opposition. The question is what to do next.

Ideally, both sides of this issue, those who wish to sell and those who don’t, would lay out their plans for public consumption. This would narrow the discussions to the pros and cons of each plan, with one winning on merit rather than political machinations. Unfortunately, as I’ve written previously, what has happened instead is that only one side has presented a plan. As a result, we are left to debate the merits of one option without the benefit of looking at alternatives.

What happens if the Long Beach West sale to TPL annd the Fish & Wildlife service gets shot down (whether by town council vote or by referendum)? What do we do with it then? More importantly, shouldn’t people be permitted to vote on this issue with the knowledge that shooting it down means we will follow Plan B?

Without Plan B, the citizens of Stratford are left to wallow in the politics of the past that have left us with a barren Shakespeare Theatre, an empty Army Engine Plant, and the ghostly remains of Long Beach West.

We’ve been here long enough to see the writing on the wall: nothing will get done. Oh, it will be discussed. It will be studied, and we’ll probably spend some good coin getting someone else’s opinion. It will cause people controversy, and it will be spoken of at parties as “the way things happen in Stratford.”

That’s not good enough. Maybe Stratford needs to make decisions rather than spending so much time avoiding them. Maybe we need to choose when two roads diverge in a wood rather than standing in place for fear of making a mistake. We’ve already made the mistake: we’ve done nothing. Mistakes can be corrected, but the failure to make decisions leads to a rot much worse than that seen on the crumbled cottages of Long Beach West.

Choose a path and let’s get this town moving again. If there’s only one path presented to us, study it and look for alternatives. If none appear then you know you must move on. The Observer had hoped that some group would have offered a counter-proposal by now because it’s a shame we can’t do something ourselves. But none have been offered because no alternative exists. We all had our chance. We couldn’t come up with a plan.

All things considered, we can’t help but look at the Fish & Wildlife’s track record and decide that it’s the most attractive option we have. Nothing has come up about their failure to fund land-buys before, and it’s reasonable to assume that 100 years of history won’t change because we threw our hat into the ring. All the pettiness that clings to this issue like poison ivy misses the point. Boardwalk? We’d still need permission if we wanted to build one ourselves. Cottages? We’ll have to pay to take them down ourselves regardless. Liability? Fire & police coverage? We’ll be on the hook for these anyway. At least this option offers a timetable for taking them off our books. So it takes five years. Heck, what have we managed since 1987? Give ‘em ten! It’ll still be better than whatever this town has been able to muster.

All of this and no mention of protecting our wildlife or open space. Why? Because those things have been clouding the real issue and polarizing opinions instead of allowing for logical compromise. The real issue: we can’t afford to sit here and let all of these major projects shatter to the ground around our feet because of semantics. The fact is that our excellent Public Works department is stretched to the limit already and we can barely manage as it is. Deal with it.

I’d rather choose the best path available and walk on then die in the woods waiting for an epiphany.