Do you miss the mill? Please, everyone who lived in Berlin when it was there, answer yes or no. I just talked to Paul Grenier, candidate for mayor, and this was his response:

“Nothing positive happened with the closing of the mill. I think it’s a lot worse, look around.”
I didn’t live there then, so I don’t know. I lived near Livermore Falls and Jay during high school, and a girlfriend’s parents lived in Rumford years later, but there is a big difference between being connected to a mill town and living in one.
Mr. Grenier misses the jobs, I’m assuming, and he didn’t mention anything about enjoying the clean air today. That doesn’t match with my sensibilities, but I was never laid off from the mill. I am comfortable telecommuting from my laptop to anywhere in the world. Not everyone can do that. Not everyone shares my perspective, and I fear too many of the people on LPJ share a worldview closely aligned with mine. It’s time to make more room.

So tell me, please, do you miss the mill? Was the smell worth it?

The sad part is the people who lost blue collar mill jobs aren’t the ones cruising the web checking out blogs. They didn’t leave the mill to work on computers; they left to find another working class job to pay the bills. And just because they don’t have time to post 100 comments doesn’t mean their views aren’t valuable.
While my perspective prefers the clean air, my job isn’t to preach my perspective. It is very likely Mr. Grenier isn’t alone in preferring a prosperous, dirty city, where everyone made a good wage and Main Street thrived. To discount that perspective is to do a disservice to the residents of the city, even those who aren’t working class.

Middle class versus working class—the difference is clear in Berlin. There are middle class opportunities, but few working class jobs left. Look at the story I did a few weeks ago about the parts supplier running a business out of his house—how do you take that opportunity if you don’t know computers? How does working class escape the rut in Berlin?
I wonder what infrastructure the city really needs to survive. How can industry survive today in the U.S. in general ? Could it survive in Berlin? Are working class people who aren’t comfortable with computers doomed in the new economy, both locally and nationally? Or is my job going to be shipped to India, and the tradespeople will have the last laugh?

I don’t really have any answers, but I think it’s important to recognize when your worldview is restricting your understanding of the facts. My background is middle class, with a college education and lots of open doors. I value clean air, mountain views, organic food and art galleries. Not everyone does. Some people would prefer 200 jobs to a dozen more restaurants like Libby’s. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? The jobs seem more practical…

So please, in the name of science, tell me if you miss the mill. And maybe list off your education and some socioeconomic background, to see if those are indicative of anything.

I’ll start—

Mill—Don’t miss it (How could I?).
Private boarding school for high school
Two bachelor’s degrees from a state university (I paid for it all, not my parents)
Don’t drink beer, but I do enjoy wine
5 years as a commercial fisherman; hated it because my hands smelled all the time
Favorite sports: rock climbing, ice climbing and skiing (read: rich kid sports; ever looked at the price of ice tools?)

My bias is obvious. Do other people notice theirs?

What does it mean to be post-industrial? I was walking around one of the Berlin parks this evening, and I was able to wander through the relics of the bygone era—the remnants of industrialization. It was like walking through Stonehenge, with echos of history that don’t make sense in the modern era. While I enjoy the traces of the past, the city itself is still trying to figure out just how to move forward.

Do people miss the mill and that industrial era? I never saw it, but I’ve heard about the heyday of Berlin. It sounds wonderful, and at the same time terrible. How do people feel about the transition that has occurred over the last half-century? Is it better to live in a city with clean air and empty storefronts, or was it better to itch for the weekend to go to camp but have money in your pocket? I’ve heard a lot of nostalgia for the old days; is it real? Given the choice, would residents go back to that?

I wonder if people see the circumstances Berlin faces as a blessing or a curse. True, there are lots of empty houses that occasionally catch on fire, and there are poor people moving in because of the low rents, but there is also a grand history and an infrastructure the city can now leverage in new ways, ways surrounding communities don’t have. The assets of today are the remnants of yesterday. Which era would you rather be in?

I was reading one of the articles I posted about yesterday, and had an idea that could completely change Berlin.

Offer a free apartment to any four year college graduate under 30 (or 35, or 28) who will settle in Berlin.

Berlin suffers from a brain drain. Too few young, creative people stay or return to Berlin. As in other places, “the best kids go while the ones with the biggest problems stay, and then we have to deal with their kids in the schools in the next generation.” Those that do stay or that come back are expected to shoulder more than their share of the burden within the community. Berlin needs more creative, educated young people to serve as the foundation for the city.
So how do you get them there? Berlin has an overabundance of housing, some of which will be demolished in the next few years using Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds. What about renovating some of those properties, but instead of turning them into low income houses turn them into free apartments for the people the city needs most.
This plan could work. Use NSP money to buy apartment buildings in need of rehabilitation, and then use BIDPA funds to restore them. Or, if you have to, use all BIDPA money so it avoids the rules associated with government money. Then advertise free places to live for driven people with four year degrees around the southern part of the state, Massachusetts and Maine.
New York City, which has astronomical rents, has a similar program for office space. They have few entrepreneurs compared to Silicon Valley or Boston because the brightest minds are often hired by big firms; the barriers new firms face are too high. The city has started to subsidize office space for start-ups in an effort to build the entrepreneurial culture.
Berlin could do the same thing. The city doesn’t have money, but it does have housing. Offer free rent—residents pay utilities—in a city-owned apartment building. The city would own the property, which, if the city grew, would increase in value. The building would become a solid investment. The city would get new blood and new money, and the people there would build ties within the community. Maybe some of them would move out, but many of them would stay. They would start businesses, get married and buy houses of their own. They would become the city’s next generation, mixing with the few entrepreneurs who stayed.
There would be no reason not to offer this to people from Berlin as well as those from away. The city could stop sending its smartest and best educated kids to Manchester and Boston and reap some of the investment it makes in its youth. It would be a cheap incentive to bring some of them back, and at the same time it would clean up more of the blight.

This is an example of the type of non-traditional thinking Berlin should be employing to figure out how it will move into the next century. Would it work? I don’t know. Go ahead and shoot holes in it, but then propose your own idea of how Berlin can reinvent itself.
Need inspiration? Check out this study from the Chronicle of Higher Education. That’s where I got my idea, maybe it’ll help with yours.

I’ve seen a convergence of random incidents that make me think it’s time to start asking some questions of the Public Utilities Commission and Public Service of New Hampshire.
In a story I wrote last week, Clean Power Development said they are ready to break ground on their project if they can get a purchase power agreement. CPD has a complaint before the PUC that says PSNH’s refuses to discuss buying power from them. PSNH argued CPD is trying to force PSNH to buy CPD’s electricity against their will.
Mayor David Bertrand wrote a letter to the PUC on Monday requesting they address the issue as soon as possible, as the CPD project would be a huge help to the city. And PSNH started following me on Twitter the same day. That’s enough gentle reminders to make me think I really need to get after this issue.

I understand PSNH’s feeling that it shouldn’t be forced to be an unwilling partner, but it seems like a dodge to the real question. Is PSNH required by law to consider all viable proposals to figure out what will result in the lowest electricity cost to rate payers? I think that’s the question I’d like to see answered with a simple yes or no. If CPD is in the best interest of rate payers, PSNH, a regulated utility, should accept their offer. If the CPD offer isn’t in the best interest of rate payers, PSNH should reject their offer. But PSNH can’t make that determination if it is unwilling to hear the offer in the first place, it seems.

I have read the docket, and it seems like CPD is asking one question and PSNH is answering a different one. I’d like to get the answer to the question CPD is asking, as that is the question the city of Berlin is asking. I suppose the PUC will ask it too, but I’m impatient.

So, PSNH, can you refuse to hear an offer? Is that a violation of your responsibility as a regulated utility?

Update: PSNH contacted me through Twitter and said they will address the question.

Update: Martin Murray of PSNH left a comment reiterating PSNH’s position that the law does not not require them to enter contracts with local generators. I wasn’t satisfied with that answer, so I called Mr. Murray to ask if PSNH is allowed to dismiss a proposal without considering it. He said due to the current complaint he was unwilling to comment. I tried several different approaches, including asking how PSNH decides who they enter into contracts with. I thought if I made the question more general, not about CPD, he might be able to answer, but he was still unwilling to comment. He said the issue is before the PUC, and it is for the PUC to address. He said PSNH will issue a response to the PUC docket in about a week.

I’m not satisfied with that response, but that’s what I got. Their response to the PUC hopefully will clear the mystery up. Either way, I intend to keep after it.