A sense of place

What would make you want to visit a certain location?

What would make you want to move there?

What would make you want to stay there?

There could be a number of answers, but there is one reason that would not be on the list:Because it’s the same as every other place.

Despite this fact, the overwhelming trend in development across this country for the past half-century or so, especially with regard to commercial areas, has been to make every place the same as every other place. The Great American Strip Mall is everywhere and nowhere: plunk someone down in one and there is no way, bar weather, that they could guess what region of the country they were in, let alone the state and town.

Against this backdrop, we applaud the City of Port Jervis for its recent revitalization efforts. With the proposed new building on Front and Sussex streets, whose proposed architecture blends seamlessly with the older buildings that constitute Port Jervis’s heritage, and proposals to renovate grand old landmarks such as the Erie-Lackawanna Round House, the city has made it clear that it understands something that many localities have forgotten: its history and heritage are among its most precious assets.

We use the word “asset” here not just aesthetically, but in a strict financial sense. To understand why, look back at the questions leading this editorial. With American commerce taken over by multinational franchises building to the cheapest possible standards, more and more locales have been reduced to the same Everywhere. Those locations that have preserved their uniqueness—their sense of place—are becoming an increasingly scarce commodity, attracting a corresponding increase in demand and property values.

The town of Walton in Vermont is one example of a success story. They have preserved their old buildings and pedestrian-friendly sidewalks. They do house some national franchise stores in buildings that blend with the existing ambiance. This, by the way, is an option available to any municipality: to require that franchises construct attractive buildings that fit in with existing neighborhoods, rather than intruding a bland homogeneous shoebox.

There are also plenty of local mom-and-pops in Walton, some of which, like the Vermont Country Store, have so prospered in their idyllic location that they have become nationally recognized catalogue retailers. Trees are plentiful. Parking is sufficient for the huge number of tourists who visit every year, but is unobtrusive to the rest of the town and landscaped with vegetation.

Walton is a tourist destination not only because it has a lot of stores—anonymous strip malls across the country can say the same, but no one would come across the country to visit them—but because it has preserved and built upon its uniqueness. It is a beautiful place to be, its own place, different from any other. And that makes it a profitable place to be. In fact, according to Edward T. McMahon in his “Better Models for Development in Pennsylvania,” studies show that property values in historic areas increase more rapidly than in non-historic areas.

Our area has a number of muncipalities, in addition to Port Jervis, that have rich historical assets and should be encouraged to guide new commercial development in a direction that preserves and enhances them. We have an example of this right here in the newspaper’s home town of Narrowsburg: the Mews. It is to be hoped that the delays that have been thrown in the way of the project will be cleared away quickly, as once this retail space has been activated it should become a potent generator of traffic and income for the hamlet.

But Bethel is probably the local town that will have to engage most seriously with this struggle for identity. The opening of Bethel Woods has made it the prime target for commercial development. For this reason, the recently imposed moratorium on building in the Route 17B corridor is a wise idea. We only hope that, when the moratorium is lifted, the ensuing development goes along the lines of the new building in Port Jervis, the Narrowsburg Mews, or the meticulous renovations of White Lake houses that have already been done in the corridor. This careful reconstruction of our history and heritage will celebrate, define and enhance the character of the place that we collectively call home.

Also in this issue:

• Taxpayers given the cold shoulder

Dr. Punnybone

How Many Grits?