A View from The Dim Side*

Perhaps the most beautiful byproduct of honest exchanges like the one between the Masked Preservationist and this blog is understanding just how far the Dim Siders need to reach to justify their all-or-nothing view.

MP stacked a few of his thicker history books atop his pulpit and delivered a passionate defense of the public parks - scratch that, LARGE, CENTRAL public parks. His students will learn that such LARGE, CENTRAL parks are as American as Fast Food and Strip Malls, and anyone who doesn't subscribe to the Dim Side view hates America and the working man.

His touchstones in history? New York, Chicago, Boston. I don't see it. Comparing those communities to Newburyport would have held more water during the revolutionary war when our city was large enough to qualify for a major league baseball franchise. But that's not the case any longer.

How does our lovely burg compare at all to 19th Century New York or Chicago? We're not a collection of tenement housing yearning for a blade of grass under our feet. We have Cashman, the Mall, MAUDSLAY for crying out loud. And yes, we can have more park downtown. I just don't subscribe to the absolutist notion held by MP and other Dim Siders.

The unknowing minion of the Grass Seed Cabal and John Deere Inc. gets a little more real with a comparison to Prescott ($187,000 annual budget) Park in Portsmouth. He even attempts to bring things home with an observation that Newburyport's festival often migrate down to Market Landing Park after they'd enjoyed themselves downtown. 

He suggests they're drawn by the flowers and grass. Maybe. But isn't it just as likely those folks are walking to the river or even more likely their parked CARS?

* Note: I obviously don't believe open waterfront folks are dim at all. I'm just amused by the symmetrical name calling. Juvenile, I know.