Ok, it’s time for me to backpedal.
I thought, less than a week ago, that capitalizing on ATVing and snowmobiling was pointless, because it was focusing on something citizens of the city were more interested in than people from around the state and further abroad. After several days discussion, however, my perspective has changed.
I don’t think ATVs are the silver bullet for Berlin, but I don’t see another industry that will allow the city to build needed infrastructure faster.
Maybe a casino would have, but New Hampshire doesn’t allow gambling. What the state does allow is off-roading, and people are flocking to Berlin to do it.
I spoke to a man from Deerfield who was up with his son to take advantage of Jericho Mountain State Park. He spent $500 for a two day trip, all of it in Gorham. That is the market Berlin has to tap into.
Berlin got $60 of his money because he broke his clutch lever twice, but otherwise he didn’t spend a penny in the city. But he brought his money up, and so do other people.
I was at Jericho Motorsports, across U.S. Route 110 from the park, and I met a couple from Massachusetts who came up for the day to ride. They rented ATVs and spent the day in the park. That was another $150.
With this money is coming to town, how can Berlin get its cut? The ATV businesses are actually doing a good job of it, but there is so little other infrastructure in town it doesn’t spread to Main Street.
But it will. The park has been there for three years, and Councilor Tim Cayer said the Blue Line, that will provide access between the park and Success, is almost complete. This will significantly increase the number of trails available without reloading the trailer. When all this is complete even more riders will come.
And then the hotels will come, and more restaurants, and more stores. Right about the same time as the new prison. Everything, in fact, is looking up.
I don’t ride ATVs or snowmobiles, but I can’t argue with the transformative potential of motorsports. Don’t believe me? Go to Jericho Mountain and ask where people are from; they are from Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire, Maine and Connecticut. People come to Berlin for this, and it’s time to capitalize.
Again, I’d like to see rock climbing and paddling take over as the draw, but there isn’t the traffic yet to build a hotel for those people. The ATVs, however, are there in enough numbers to do it. Someone with an entrepreneurial spirit would be smart to do it now. And Berlin would be smart to embrace it.

No, I didn’t make up the title.
That’s the name of the initiative put forth by Norman Charest, Berlin’s economic development director. It is a proposal to replace Berlin’s failing manufacturing sector with infrastructure to make the city an ATV recreation destination.
“This is not strictly a tourism initiative,” he said in tonight’s city council meeting. “The old Berlin is dead and gone. We need to reinvent ourselves, and this is the low hanging fruit.”
Mr. Charest said the city has already felt positive economic impact from the ATV park at Jericho Mountain, with businesses relocating to the area specifically for the proximity to trails. The city needs to capitalize on this, he said, and then push the capitalization into high gear.
This hits close to one of my posts last week where I said the opposite — that Berlin needs to diversify its recreation opportunities, not focus them, as part of a complete package for tourism. I listened to Mr. Charest speak tonight, and I heard the echo of a hole in his thesis. Two actually.

1. Mr. Charest said if Berlin creates the infrastructure for ATVing, manufacturing jobs will follow. That was shortly after he said manufacturing jobs are migrating overseas, fast becoming only a memory in the United States. ATV park or no, it isn’t cost effective to manufacture goods in the U.S., and there is nothing Berlin can do to change that. Mr. Charest is working to bring recreation to the area in hopes that new jobs will bring the old jobs back. But he said the old jobs aren’t coming back. Where that leaves Berlin is a mystery, but certainly without a strong manufacturing sector. The city still has to find the jobs somewhere else.
2. Enough with the power sports. Mr. Charest mentioned outdoor recreation, hiking, skiing, rock climbing and kayaking in his presentation. I could add to those: ice climbing, mountain biking, road biking, cycle touring, trail running, rafting, canoeing, bird watching, caving and geocaching. There are literally dozens of outdoor activities that could take place around Berlin; there is land enough for all of them. Unfortunately, there is only one in the 21/21 initiative: ATVing.

Mr. Charest is right; Berlin needs to figure out the next step in its evolution to a sustainable economy. And he’s doing more than most people: he’s working on a solution. The problem is residents of Berlin, Mr. Charest included, know how to do what they know how to do and don’t know how to move beyond those activities.
Can Berlin build an ATV park? Sure. As Mr. Charest said, “What we did for fun we now have to do for business.” But how does Berlin develop those outdoor recreation draws that Berlin residents don’t do for fun? How does Berlin develop Mount Forist for rock climbers, and plant caches in the woods for geocaching, and set up good trails for hiking and trail running, when these aren’t the recreation activities the city is familiar with? Where is the plan for that?
Mr. Charest’s plan addresses a need, but it unlikely ATVs, snow mobiles, hiking trails or anything else is ever going to bring back enough manufacturing jobs to return Berlin to its former glory. The 21/21 initiative, however, will undoubtedly bring jobs into the city and be an important part of moving the city towards the twenty-first century. It is only a sliver, however; as Mr. Charest said, “It is the low hanging fruit.” It is time for the city in general, and Mr. Charest in particular, to look for the things the city doesn’t know so well, to see what they can do to revitalize the local economy. The city needs to look beyond what its residents like to do on weekends, to what it has to offer to people from other backgrounds. It needs to start peering around the tops of the trees.

I’m interested in what people have to say about this. I’ve made it clear I think Berlin needs to do more to shed its blue collar image if it wants to thrive instead of just get by, and I don’t think more ATV entertainment will work toward that end. But I don’t have any answers, just questions. I’m going to pose those questions to local business people to see what they think the 21/21 initiative will do for them. The results will be in next week’s Berlin Reporter.

I also pose those question to you. What activities should Berlin be encouraging? Where will the city see the most benefit? Does outdoor recreation sans gasoline fit with the city? Is the current plan comprehensive enough? Who’s duty is it to see the plans come to fruition? Is there a blue collar mindset? What does that mean for the city’s future? What will have to change for the city to thrive, not just get by?

I’d like to hear what people think. Where should Berlin go next? What does 21 really mean for the city? Will the city need a 22/22 initiative, or can it find its way in the dark?

Berlin usually lives in a different time than the rest of the county. In the last year the country has caught up to Berlin, but for a long time the two were speaking different languages.
Money flowed freely around the U.S. for the last decade, but not in Berlin. The mill has been gone for years, and crowded streets, secure jobs and a thriving city went with it.
The first drive through the city it looks dead, but that cursory view is incomplete. Go to city council meetings, and walk around town, and it feels like everyone 18 to 40 has left, but that impression isn’t right either.
There are businesses, started and run by 20 and 30-somethings, that are trying to pull Berlin out of its malaise. They are struggling yet surviving in this city that has brought down so many. They are the shoots of grass after the forest fire.
I’m working on profiling these success stories in the Berlin Reporter. The first installment will be next week. It will be a conversation with Stacia Roberge of Rumorz Boutique. In the coming weeks there’ll be profiles of the TexMex Cafe, across from city hall, Seventh Street Graphics, the owners of the movie theater and more. There are failures in Berlin, but there are success stories as well. It is important to notice them, to see what the city and its residents can do to support the young entrepreneurs trying to lift the city up. So stay tuned, and check out the Berlin Reporter.

This weekend saw more traffic in Berlin than the city has seen in a long time, including out of state license plates. But did into translate into more money for local businesses? Not as much as might be hoped.
Thunder in the Mountains and the New England Forest Rally certainly brought crowds, but it takes more than crowds to support a city. It takes money. And it’s unclear how much money came into town.
Richard Tessier of the Great Northern Moose Lodge said he didn’t see a real impact from the rally race. The fans watched the race and then followed the racers north without ever really opening their wallets. Not the best outcome for the city.
Thunder in the Mountains was bound to be a little more successful because it lasted two days, but because the city lacks the necessary infrastructure for tourism it still missed the largest portion of attendees’ dollars.
Where are people coming in for these events supposed to spend money? Where should they stay? Where should they eat? Berlin doesn’t have what it needs to make these events successful; it needs to figure out how to get them.

The city council is hoping the state will make the Budget Inn remove its rusty old sign. It is the only sign to the only hotel in town. Councilors Ryan Landry and Tom McCue made a point that they aren’t against business, but every councilor agreed the eyesore at the southern entrance to the city had to be addressed.
But what needs to be addressed more immediately is that the Budget Inn is that it is the only place to stay in Berlin. If someone chose to come up for both days of Thunder in the Mountains they have to head to Gorham to sleep. And on the way they probably bought dinner at J’s or Libby’s.
Berlin has worthwhile restaurants. TexMex, across from City Hall, has good food for cheap, and the Northland Dairy Bar is a North Country legend. But no one stops on the way to Gorham because there are so many more options once they get there.
Gorham, however, has done some things wrong. Burger King, MacDonalds, Subway, and Pizza Hut dominate the strip. Libby’s and the White Mountain Cafe own the high end market, but otherwise the food options are disappointing.
Berlin, in contrast, doesn’t have chain restaurants. Aside from Dunkin Donuts and Quizno’s, every eatery is a local establishment. Many people don’t understand how important this is to tourists, particularly to the ones with excess money to spend.
There was a discussion at city council several weeks ago about convincing the 99 or the Olive Garden to move into the Rite-Aid building the is being donated to BIDPA.
NO! Maintain the aesthetic of the city and lure an independent restaurant owner to town, as Mayor David Bertrand suggested. The image of a Berlin downtown overrun with chain stores is less appealing than a downtown with a biomass plant. Neither is a good vision for the future, but Wendy’s is a bigger turnoff than renewable energy.

The city doesn’t have much ability to recruit businesses, but the city could work harder to invigorate its tourist industry.
First, the city needs less rally, more Thunder. Host events that draw people to the area for more time. It may be more work, but events that have people come in and leave the same day don’t sustain hotels and restaurants, which in turn bring in people who support other businesses. The change to a two day motorcycle rally was a great step. Bravo.
The city should also eliminate transient events. Motorsports are great, but what is the best thing about being on a motorcycle? The open road. Berlin knows motorcycles, snow machines and ATVs, but that doesn’t mean they are the best attractions to Berlin. The city needs to encourage events that bring people to Berlin and then keeps them there, instead of events based on motion.
What about a music festival at Northern Forest Heritage Park? A three day bluegrass, jazz or blues festival would encourage people to come to town and stay, not to circle the area for two days then go home. People would need a place to stay and food to eat, which local vendors could supply. Growing an event like this could put Berlin on the map, and at the same time involve local businesses.
Berlin needs to change its image. Not the look of the city, but its image around the state. What is Berlin known for? Defunct mills, a logging park, an ATV park, a motorcycle rally, a rally race, an antique car show and snowmobiling. Does that strike anyone else as one dimensional?
I know there is art in Berlin. St. Kieran’s Community Center for the Arts had a wonderful retrospective on Robert Hughes, a local artist. Why is there no artist festival in the summer? Berlin is on the Androscoggin, with whitewater to the north and flatwater to the south. Where is the big push to draw kayakers and canoe paddlers?
Don’t forsake internal combustion recreation, but Berlin can’t cling to it alone. The city is at the foot of the mountains, along a river, only a few miles from the Appalachian Trail, with a huge cliff in the center of town. Is anyone trying to draw people in for outdoor recreation?
Berlin is a mill town, maybe to its core. But in figuring out what it will be next requires the city diversify. It has to offer entertainment even to people who do not share its residents’ vision of fun. Berliners love motorsports, but motorsports are not enough to sustain the entire tourist industry. The city is not in short supply of culture or character. It does not lack creative people with new ideas. It just needs to start implementing them.
The biggest challenge is the city’s marketing. Councilor David Poulin said he wanted to see the stacks removed from the city seal. That’s a start to revamping the city’s image, but how aggressive is the city working to that end? Most of the messages the city sends out are, “Send us your prisoners (state and federal). Send your trash to our landfill. There’s cheap rent for welfare families. Oh, and we have redneck powersports too.”
That’s the city’s image in the south. There are a few people challenging that perspective, but they’re losing. It isn’t an accurate reflection of the city, but it’s the most vivid picture out there. Until that changes it’ll take more than a restaurant or a new motel to get people to spend money up here. It’ll take a miracle.

Stacia Roberge is 28. She lives in Berlin, put her money where her mouth is and opened a business. That’s gumption.

Ms. Roberge owns Rumorz Boutique, a women’s clothing store on Main Street. She opened May 17, 2008; the country has been in recession since December, 2007. Ms. Roberge said the store has had challenges, but they are still open. Just today I saw someone carting their things out of a space on Main Street, “STORE CLOSING” written on the windows. Berlin’s Main Street is a hardscrabble place, with empty storefronts and burned out buildings. What would convince her to do such a thing?
Berlin. There is no better explanation for what holds people here. Its residents have a loyalty to the area that doesn’t die. Ms. Roberge, who went to UNH and lived in Virginia for a while, is one who came home. She retained the loyalty, and she came back.
And why shouldn’t she come back? Ms. Roberge points to all the things Berlin has, and it seems everyone should want to live here. It’s beautiful, it’s inexpensive, it is a great community. It is a historic community on a beautiful river. Why would anyone want to leave?
But those things aren’t what Berlin is known for. It’s known for its stink, its grime, its outdated thinking and its fires. What a way to view a city.
Berlin does not stink. There is no odor here. I haven’t been working here near long enough to remember when it did, but Ms. Roberge has. She grew up here, and she remembers the mill. It forged her work ethic, but it didn’t melt her spirit. The rest of the state thinks of stinky Berlin, she said, but that’s flat wrong. Berlin is an affordable place to live with a view of New Hampshire’s Presidential range. It is a place with houses normal people can afford. It is a city with one of the most beautiful downtowns anywhere, except for the empty storefronts and burned buildings. It is a place with potential.
Ms. Roberge used to be one of the staffers for the Main Street Project, but now she’s engulfed in her business. While there she thought of a marketing plan for the city: send out scent-free car fresheners labeled “Berlin, New Hampshire,” with a link to a website describing the city. She said people thought she was crazy. I thought she was a genius.

Every night I drive home from work I drive over the Notch. I drive to Glen, where I can’t afford a house and where there are more Massachusetts plates than New Hampshire (in both Summer and Winter). In Glen and further south I talk to people about Berlin and they look at me like I drive to a third world country every day. They tell me about how bad it stinks and how bad the fires are up there. They tell me about how backwards the people are and about how bad the drug problem is. In some ways it’s like me telling the residents of Berlin about Berlin (which I do every week). They don’t know. They know nothing. I’m in Berlin every week, talking to people, photographing people, getting to know the city, its residents, its business owners, its police officers and its firefighters. It is so much more than it appears to be, and it isn’t the things people think it is.
I admit I have compared Berlin to Dresden, Germany, after the firebombing. It is hard to drive through the city and see so many burned buildings. When I first started there was a string of fires over the weekends, and I would get depressed as I drove in up on Monday mornings. But the burned buildings are the misrepresenting headlines, not the facts of the story. They are a momentary tremor in a peaceful city working to find its place in the 21st century. Unfortunately the city doesn’t do enough to combat those headlines. They don’t do enough to project the real story.
A number of times in city council meetings I’ve heard councilors complain that Concord doesn’t pay any attention to this part of the state. But this part of the state has to shake Concord and elsewhere out of this foggy misrepresentation. Berlin can’t wait for people to change their minds — it has to make them change their minds. It has to get the message downstate: “Berlin – beautiful, historic, affordable, odorless.”
Why? Why does Berlin have to do this? Because Rumorz won’t survive. Because Teabird’s Cafe won’t survive. Gill’s Flowers won’t survive. Morin’s Shoe Store won’t survive. Because nowhere and nothing will survive if the city doesn’t show the state and the region it has something to offer.

The opportunity is in the fact that Ms. Roberge is right. Berlin has something to offer. It doesn’t stink. It is inexpensive. It has lots of property waiting for homeowners. It is beautiful. But Ms. Roberge doesn’t need to know that. I don’t need to know that. Chances are you don’t need to know it either. The world needs to know it, and Berlin needs the world to know it now.
Berlin 2.0 is just an ad campaign away.

If people in Berlin are looking for economic opportunities they should look to the west. Mount Forist, if it were an hour south, would be covered with rock climbing routes. Instead it has less than 10. Ed Webster’s guidebook to climbing in the White Mountains describes Mount Forist as covered in ash from the mill, leaving climbers’ hands black at the end of a route. But Paul Cormier, local new route developer, said any soot had long since washed off. What is left is clean, moderate slabs of granite.
North Conway has a long history of climbing on Cathedral and Whitehorse, the two granite cliffs just outside of town. People make a living as guides and working in outdoor shops. Embracing the outdoors has been good for Conway; it could be good for Berlin too.
The thing Conway lacks is beginner terrain. There are easy climbs, but because they were climbed early in climbing’s history they are not well protected. Climbs can be made safe or dangerous, but early climbers often felt it was necessary to prove how bold they were, putting little protection into easier climbs. This created easy climbs that require experienced climbers to ascend them.
Berlin is different. So few established routes means there is room for more. And the ethic has changed since 30 years ago. It is no longer frowned upon to make easy climbs safe. New route developers could put in the well protected moderate routes that appeal to the majority of rock climbers. North Conway lacks that terrain; Berlin has that opportunity.
Climbing isn’t big business, but every weekend dozens to hundreds of people flock to climbing areas in other parts of the state. They eat at restaurants, shop at stores and stay in hotels. They bring dollars to municipalities near climbing areas. Why not Berlin?

My wife and I had a great day on Mount Forist today. We didn’t see anyone else, we got a great view of the city, and the climbing was wonderful. She wants to go back to put in more routes. Anything we develop will be protected with moderate leaders in mind. This is the sort of energy the city should embrace, something it should harness, as part of the assortment of new economic drivers that will carry the city into the twenty-first century.