FIR Interviews me on one book just as I finish up another

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This FIR interview with Bob LeDrew was a great moment in measurement. Bob asked great questions and so did the audience.
It was particularly fun to reflect back on the current book, just as I put the finishing touches on the new one, Measuring the Networked Non-Profit written with Beth Kanter. It won't be out till summer, but it goes to the publisher tonight.

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[Rocky B.]

Now Here is a "Blast from the Past". Commetary by the "Queen of Measurement" follows....

April 30, 2007
Closing the door to the future
The conversation on every corner of every street in Berlin should be about the dismantling of the pulp mill. Those of us who either worked there or had family who worked there are grieving. The "Mills" were also our bread and butter for almost 100 years. The pulp mill and associated activities put $100 million dollars in our economy every year. This money purchased our food, our houses, our cars and put our kids through school. The loss of this infusion of capital is just starting to be felt in Berlin and throughout the North Country. The taxes paid by the mill kept our taxes at a more resonable level than those we will see in the near future. What to do? In desperation and ignorance are we going to allow the short term knee jerk reaction of keeping a 200' smoke stack and large boiler in place, just in case company X or Y may want to use it to generate electricity? Leaving those structures in place closes the door to any positive long term investment in the downtown area. The stack and associated buildings will seal our fate as a second rate community. The State's most impressive views of the Presidentials can be observed from that 120 acre parcel of downtown Berlin. People from all over the world could be drawn here to live, work, invest or just relax along the river, the potential is mind boggling! All of that potential goes down the rat hole if the stack and boiler remain, yet nobody is having that conversation. Why is that? Have we accepted our lot as a second rate, rusted out industrial relic? Have we lost all hope that we can do/be better than a "has been" community? It's one thing for the City to have leadership without a vision or a sense of the future, but it's something else for the whole community to remain silent as our future and the future of our children is being determined by a second hand boiler and smoke stack. Maybe we the citizens should buy the damn thing and tear it down piece by piece! The least we can do is have an intelligent discussion about the subject.

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Right on! Berlin needs to think about it's future and with the mill gone, for what is probably for good needs to divert their efforts into another faction of the town to be able to prosper and those mills will prevent any kind of "beautifying" or "renovations" the cities would want to do to make Berlin a more appealing tourist spot. It seems as though people traveling north either drive right through Berlin to the farther North Woods or stop just short in Gorham. If Berlin wants to stay afloat it has got to act NOW. Otherwise, berlin will become a low cost housing epicenter for the southern cities castaways.

Posted by: Shawn | April 30, 2007 at 09:01 PM

The only way we can beat this thing is by posing a significant threat to the powers that be. That's why we put a poll up on www.coosconversations.com to gauge just what popular opinion really is. Anyone who cares about this topic -- go there and vote!

Posted by: Queen of Measurement | May 08, 2007 at 06:18 AM

Katie, I think challenging "the powers that be" is close to being a waste of time. They have closed their minds so long ago that they have forgotten what it's like to listen never mind change their minds. In the case of the mill property I agree with the author of this blog, create a public discussion/demonstration and show that this boiler and chimney is not in the City's best interest. The salvage company will listen before the "powers that be".

Posted by: rocky

[Rocky B.]

April 09, 2012
Choosing an Illusion
Now that a historic downtown area recently known as “The Rite Aid Block” has joined the old Post Office and is no longer, I can’t help but think of the businesses that at one time were there and that made Berlin a special place to live and shop. Most recently we had JC Penney, but a few years ago there were many more places of business. There was Endicott Johnson Shoe Store and at one time Atwood Photographic Studio in the basement area. There was Morin’s Shoe Store and Dale’s Radio & TV, George’s Candy Store and Young’s Music Store. Some of us remember Moffet Millinery Store and a “beer joint” that I can’t remember the name. How about the Albert Hotel which was turned into a restaurant and then back into apartments for college students? These were all on Main Street with several other businesses on Mason Street. At one time and before the Snow Shoe Club was Fournier Furniture Store and a small office that I believe, was where you could go to pay your telephone and electric bills. On Pleasant Street you had the A&P Supermarket which later became Prince’s Supermarket and just up the street was Lionel Furniture. I’m sure I’m forgetting a few, but these were all thriving businesses that complemented the rest of our downtown and our vibrant City. From the 20’s to the 60’s there were several hundred people employed in our downtown and of course you had the thousands who worked in the paper mills and shopped there. For the lack of planning and investing in its future, Berlin has become but a shadow of itself and for a native son like me, I’m not only saddened by this latest event, I unfortunately don’t see any indication that the City is about to reverse its decline. Yes, we have the platitudes that come from the politicians such as those from our mayor and the unfounded promises that were about to turn the corner. The real opportunity for Berlin went down the drain when the residents bought the notion that the biomass plant was going to be the center piece of a renewal for Berlin as portrayed by Paul Grenier’s strategy to become mayor. For Berlin, the events of the past ten years with the mill closings have been nothing short of catastrophic and demanded nothing short of a major shift in direction and effort to arrest the ungoing decline. Yes, the next couple years will be busy with the construction at the biomass plant, but as the last worker heads south on Rt-16 the 40 promised jobs at Berlin Biopower will go unnoticed. The noise, smoke and steam from the biomass plant will seal Berlin’s fate as a relic of the industrial age and, a victim of the illusion that, the future will be a reflection of the past.

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- You're Living in the Past, Rocky B. And the Future will Erase all memory of You. That is how Life goes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsCyC1dZiN8

[Rocky B.]

http://www.maggiesnotebook.com/2012/03/allen-hulton-postman-bill-ayers-family-and-black-foreign-exchange-student-with-strange-name/