Recently South Berwick resident Jennifer Houghton, owner of Little Hat Company and parent of three, mentioned to me how great it is to be raising children in South Berwick.  She agreed to share her thoughts here at the 236 Diner.

In a world that seems to be spinning faster, it’s a wonderful opportunity to bring up a family in a town that allows you to walk not run.   I remember coming home from a business trip to N.Y.C. and literally thanking God that we don’t have even one single stop light in our town.  I had spent two days in a cab trying to get to three scheduled appointments in an absolute scramble for time.  Traffic, crowds, impatience, and smog seemed to be the daily theme and it was hard to catch your breath walking down the streets filled with people, vendors, and construction barriers.  Don’t get me wrong.  The city can be an explosive energy and catalyst for getting major things accomplished.  When the sun goes down and the lights turn on there is something so magical that you feel like a child right before opening a present.

When I would come home to South Berwick I would always let out a sigh of relief knowing that I could just slow down and enjoy each and every moment without someone behind me needing to get somewhere.  One of the main reasons coming home would be so satisfying was knowing that I was raising my children in a small town community surrounded by endless opportunities. (more…)

South Berwick has begun a community conversation about economic development. (See earlier article about this initiative.) To stimulate thinking, knowledge, and ideas the 236 diner will be offering information and links to a variety of research, reports, and case studies about economic development. This is the first in that series.

Quality of Place and Job Growth: A New and Needed Maine Investment Strategy, a report by the Governor’s Council on Maine’s Quality of Place was released in May. The Council was appointed by Governor Baldacci in 2007 in response to the Brookings Institution study: Charting Maine’s Future: An Action Plan for Promoting Sustainable Prosperity and Quality Place that recommended a three-fold strategy for Maine’s sustainable prosperity: 1) investing in product and service innovation, 2) streamlining government at all levels, and 3) revitalizing our towns and cities while protecting our rural landscapes.

The Council’s report makes the case for protecting and promoting our quality of place as a way to build Maine’s economic prosperity for the future.  The report’s recommendations arise from the changing Maine economy. In the past, Maine’s economy was tied to resource extraction and the use of natural resources as inputs for manufacturing. Now Maine’s economy focuses more on services, from fast food jobs to highly skilled service jobs like computer programming and design. Today’s manufacturing jobs in Maine, whether in lumber, paper, boats, or biomedicine, require much greater worker skills so it means that Maine is in worldwide competition for people who can create and sustain this 21st century economic development.

In this report, the Council asserts that Maine’s chief economic asset in this competition is (more…)

Ray Oldenburg, an urban sociologist writes about the importance of “third places” for healthy functioning of communities. He describes third places as

“informal public gathering places. The phrase “third places” derives from considering our homes to be the “first” places in our lives, and our work places the “second.”

Americans long enjoyed third places in the form of the inns and ordinaries of colonial society, then as the saloons and general stores springing up with westward expansion. Later came the candy stores, soda fountains, coffee shops, diners, etc. which, along with the local post office, were conveniently located and provided the social anchors of community life.

“Third places” also suggest the stability of the tripod in contrast to the relative instability of the bipod. Life without community has produced, for many, a life style consisting mainly of a home-to-work-and-back-again shuttle.”

 

From Our Vanishing “Third Places” by Ray Oldenburg

As South Berwick explores the feasibility of using the St. Michael’s property as a library or other use we have the opportunity to create a new kind of civic place in our downtown.
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