Leadership Stylings

Honesdale Borough Council recently made a statement (found HERE) at their May 3 meeting describing the Borough’s side of a code enforcement story that affected a local business (Black & Brass Coffee Roasting Company.) Black & Brass’s side of the story is partially told HERE. We need not rehash that tale yet don’t mind taking a moment to unpack a bit of how it was told.

Without getting into the regulatory weeds we so often enjoy hiking through, there are a few items worth noting about leadership in this saga. Black & Brass, having reached a moment all too familiar and perpetually unfortunate, found themselves with a single path forward. A path, prescribed by the Borough, that required hearing fees, time, and potential legal action to find resolution.

Few have the resources to counter municipal machinery when it decides to chug along, directly atop your existence. Black & Brass decided to find another way to address this challenge. One that didn’t involve a lawsuit that costs everyone money better spent on food.

Borough Council didn’t provide many options so Black & Brass created their own. That’s what community leaders do. They create things.

The above (and soon to be) below-referenced statement from Honesdale Borough Council highlights their recent leadership style. A style less about creating things than it is about insisting on the impossible; things staying the same.

It’s worth noting that Council is made up of many people and many ideas. The collective body carries with it the weight of local authority, however. That weight is pushed around with the momentum and oft-unchallenged power of a singular entity that enforces rules for how to live instead of facilitating progress that makes it easier to live here. Honesdale Borough Council, as a singular entity, is what we’re looking to better understand.

1. In Council’s statement, it was indicated that “… the Borough was contacted on at least two occasions by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) regarding air quality complaints… ” and that “Upon it’s investigation, the Borough Zoning Department notified Black and Brass that it was alleged to be in violation of the Borough’s Zoning Ordinance due to its roasting operation at both of its locations.”

   >> This implies that the DEP’s investigation of air quality complaints led to Borough action. It turns out, the DEP was simply notifying the Borough of complaints they received and determined to be a neighborly nuisance that didn’t warrant their further involvement. The Borough’s actions were their own and based on the Borough’s interpretation of their zoning and property maintenance/quality of life ordinances (chapters 210 and 160, respectively, of the Honesdale Borough Code.)

2. In Council’s statement, it was indicated that “Honesdale Borough Council has not taken any action against Black and Brass or its two landlords. The only action to date has evolved from the zoning office which is charged with administration and enforcement of the Zoning Ordinance and Quality of Life ordinance.”

   >> This implies that the Borough is not responsible for their own ordinances or administration thereof. Honesdale Borough Council is responsible for and has approved the adoption of and amendments to both the Honesdale zoning ordinance and quality of life ordinance. That authority rests solely with Council. Further, the zoning office and officers tasked with day to day administration and enforcement of these ordinances are authorized and hired to do that work on behalf of the Borough, by Borough Council.

3. In Council’s statement, it was indicated that “The ultimate interpretation of these ordinances is left to the Zoning Hearing Board, and if necessary, to the courts.”

   >> This is true in the sense of adjudicating the applicability of or disputes related to zoning related issues. The implication, however, is once again that Borough Council itself is not responsible for any of this ongoing conversation. This isn’t true because it is Borough Council’s responsibility to approve and adopt ordinances or amendments thereto. What’s more and as indicated above with respect to the zoning office/officers, members of the Honesdale Zoning Hearing Board are appointed by Borough Council to serve the interests of the Borough.

4. In Council’s statement, it was indicated that people expressing support for Black and Brass are “… incorrect to blame Honesdale Borough for the recent relocation of the Main Street roasting operation and the projected relocation of the Willow Avenue operation.”

   >> We can’t help but disagree. What might you do if your previously permitted business were served a cease and desist order carrying the enforcement weight of a municipal government?

Honesdale Borough Council is responsible for the existence, administration, and enforcement of all Honesdale Borough ordinances. If those ordinances include language restrictive to gardening because compost could be defined as garbage or if those ordinances don’t allow upper floor apartments or coffee roastery cafes to exist within walking distance of each other, then Council has the authority to change those ordinances. Likewise, if code enforcement officials are interpreting equal intensity smells to be more offensive for one business than another, then Council can redirect the efforts of that code enforcement official.

Deferring responsibility is not productive when trying to solve community challenges. Borough Council’s rules and how they manage them matter to all of us. When Council insists they are not responsible for the enforcement of rules they’ve signed into local law, they’re setting an example we hope future leaders do not follow.

Public Discourse

A few old time buddies meet for coffee and doughnuts to chat local politics. A pair of filmmakers toast bar beers over neighborhood tales. A crew of highschoolers spray paint a lesser-used bridge abutment with profanity. A family talks about their day over dinner.

Does this list include a pattern break or conversational continuity?

Public facing surfaces covered with unauthorized images and messaging have many names; Graffiti, vandalism, gorilla art, advertising, murals, etc. Most of those tags are saddled with stigmas and the ones that aren't usually stipulate a creation presented under certain conditions. All, however, are part of a neighborhood's culture and represent pieces of an active conversation.

What community places are yours enough for comfortable self expression?

Abutment Message Board, South Entrance, February, 2020

Some of us like morning coffee. Others prefer evening beers. Some of us enjoy late night shadows. Others favor dining room light. Communicating within each frame carries social obligations and requires investments of participation, an exchange of resources, dedicated places, and groups of people choosing to spend time together.

Not everyone likes coffee or is old enough to legally drink or goes outside at night or regularly eats with their family, however. The collective shares enough for kinship but is made up of differences. Each needs their own share of shared space.

The old railroad bridge abutment turned tunnel near Honesdale’s Park Street Complex is one of those spaces. Every year, it fills up with conversational remnants, gets reset with a blank slate of fresh paint, and then the pattern repeats. The cycle is a beautiful sight to behold. Like a bivalve village’s lung, filtering our thoughts and exhaling deep local¹ signage.

Sure, bits of the conversation include problematic and grotesque messaging that, on average, isn’t kid friendly and, in some cases, isn’t particularly comforting to see but within the chaos you’ll find instances of reflective self policing. Vulgar, counter-notations sprayed atop gang references and hearts shoehorned in among hateful visuals are both part of an ongoing narrative.

In a general sense, the discourse can be encouraging, even when elements of the dialogue are discouraging. Layer by layer, there exist examples of community course correction. It’s like a remixed town hall meeting. Ideas are shared and considered and an evolution of understanding evolves in public view.

Abutment Message Board, West Side, December, 2019

Abutment Message Board, East Side, December, 2019

Room for opinion diversity means people feeling free to share what's important to them. Opinions aren’t held by all and some should be immediately challenged but space within which to freely express opinions is vital for every community.

Part of the East abutment image above features the statement “F*ck This Town.” That’s a simplistic notion devoid of constructive feedback but somebody wanted to say it so it’s worth knowing it exists.

Might it be just as important to have a high profile, town-celebrating mural at a prominent intersection as it is to have a town-deriding message, shared with a limited audience under a bridge?

Both carry notes of truth to be aware of as community members in common and represent concepts expressed on both ends of a spectrum. We can balance out the messaging by favoring positively lit stories through increased scale, support, reach, and fanfare so it seems entirely fair to have a few platforms reserved for everything else.

More room can be made for sentiments that build things up instead of those that tear things down² but it’s probably healthier for the full breadth of our ideascape to exist than for that existence to be stifled with regulated favoritism of one delivery form over another. Topics like permission, vulgarity, and misdemeanor tend to lead the way when someone draws a penis on a wall but enforcement from the top doesn't stop stories from bubbling up near the bottom.

Isn’t there value in knowing the scope of perspective of neighbors in the neighborhood?

Democracy includes people using their voice. Sometimes that means we hear inappropriate or profane things. We can't know what someone has to say until they say it and we can't control all channels in which something can be said. What we can do is consider what's presented to us, decide what we like best, and, as necessary, offer alternatives in reply.

When we see a gorilla offering of words and pictures, we could see an illegal act of norm defiance or we could see an illustration of neighbors staking their claim in the neighborhood by picking a place and sharing ideas. And when a commemoration of a harsh drug gets painted over by another toasting an objectively less harsh one, there’s view of comparative truthes in action. A wall-unfolding debate is not unlike countering points of view in newspaper editorials. Both are open discussions, they’re just happening across different media.

Community conversations are constantly breathing all around us. Staying informed means keeping our ears peeled, irrespective of the source. Letters to the editor, public meeting comment, and wall scrawls are all kinda the same thing. We’re trying to read as much local writing as possible and recommend tunnel strolls when en route to the Stourbridge Project.

• ¹ Great phrase borrowed from John Roos.

• ² Something podcasting pals at Uhh Yeah Dude say a lot.

Abutment Message Board, Dirty Footprints Restarting the Discussion Cycle, February, 2020

Continual Maintenance

Honesdale’s building stock is imbued with past energies. We’re lucky in that way. Much that once was remains on full display, standing like inspirational guideposts within the local landscape. These markers, be they smooth sidewalk stones, ornate home porches, or waning industry outposts share space through time and connect us to multi-generational neighborhoods.

Stewardship of these resources is an active and ongoing process. As extensions of us, our buildings can be equally alive but we must provide life to keep them upright. Older structures can still share value, like the basic shelter and useful space inherent in their form/design. They’re already here and a lot went into their formation so it’s worthwhile and economical to keep them intact.

Everything that went into a space’s creation and everything created within it is a gift. It played host to the past, sits in the present, and remains useful as remix fuel to efficiently support future endeavors. These are existing resources, native to our neighborhoods but utilizing them to their fullest takes a payment of tribute. A small offering of maintenance and use. That’s the responsibility of a building steward and it’s a fair exchange for what’s been given to us.

This is a relationship. Without respectful balance, there can be instability. Something falling or burning or being torn down is a symptom, not singularly caused by accidental or intentional acts, however. One generation unaccounted for could be enough. Roofs caving in, water damage, and errant sparks can all lead to demolition. Vigilance is needed in prevention but less the reactionary kind that imposes stricter control and a blame of confrontational street art. Community assessment that allows for continual conversations is more proactively diligent.

Discussion of questions like…

• Why have certain buildings remained unoccupied for decades?

• Where do our neighbors without homes find places to sleep?

• How does something from the 1940s get neglected then re-imagined as a hub for vibrant graffiti?

• Was a secret, forested amphitheater-meadow at dead-ended Olive Street more productively alive with someone camping there than it was when the last business closed?

• What happens when a space attracts the “unauthorized” hang-out attention of our next generation?

• Can a place be more fruitfully used, via choice over obligation, by “trespassing vandals” than by nobody, as an otherwise abandoned shell?

• Might a place lead a more beneficial existence in an “unofficial” capacity, alternative to the example set by a previous, “official” utilization?

… are parts of conversations we like having on a regular basis.

What we create within the community is part of a continuum. It’s not only easier to utilize what we’ve got before building completely anew; it’s more respectful of local character and heritage. With a universe of opportunity in every project, we’re not limiting our creative options when we maximize the use of existing resources.

Why not re-activate under-utilized nooks hidden in plain sight before building something fresh? Why not keep old buildings you can already see the blue sky through alive by developing pathways for them to be sold or gifted away, instead of waiting until they become a pile of debris deeded to somebody with other priorities? Is there room to question what it means to own portions of our landscape and regularly remind each other how important it is to provide care for the same?

What other buildings that currently exist would we miss if they were no longer around? If they’re valuable to us beyond surveyed fence lines and outside what is legally “ours” and “theirs”, are they not part of our shared existence? Would we challenge our notions of what healthy and resilient neighborhoods look like if it meant more brick gets left standing? Or are we, as Peter Hall wonders, “… saddled with the previous generation’s value judgments… ?” We’re open to questioning these things and questioning ourselves in the process.

One way to see preposterous public drawings and phrases is as vandalism. Another, is as under-valued pockets of opportunity being highlighted and potential being realized. Narrowly scanning the horizon for the next batch of spray-painted peeni (or penises) and reporting skateboarding movements to a neighborhood watch feels like focusing on a single, back building wall, while blinding ourselves to the rest of town. We think there are more holistic concerns than the crimes investigated in American Vandal.

There can be cycles of death and rebirth in an approximately 75-year, structural life. After decades of vacancy, what appears to be a disrespectful paint job may in fact be the opposite; the acceptance of a gifted guidepost as a place worth being in again. Cherishing a beautiful space can come in many forms. Rediscovering potential beneath decay is celebrated when it’s more thoroughly understood. Is a vacant building getting tagged worse than that same building staying unnoticed and eventually crumbling? Perhaps new color additions are natural signs of a living community and neighborhood reclamation.

Olive Street, End Meadow - April, 2013

Downtown Evolution

“Everything Flows” - Heraclitus

These photos (above) can be found in our Main Street photo library HERE. An interactive map (snippet shown) can be found on our maps page HERE or by clicking on the map image below. The flow state of downtown Honesdale, PA can be experienced by strolling around on a daily basis and connecting with the local landscape.

Tales of Nook Activation

What does a town look like after it doubles in population? In Honesdale Borough’s case, we can look to the past first. Historical estimates (various sources) have us marked at anywhere from around 6,000 to 9,000 people. Starting at a current population estimate of 4,000, we could experience a percentage change in positive growth ranging from 50% to 125% to reach these historic highs.

Were these noted peaks in population sustainable? If population highs are akin to an ecosystem’s carrying capacity, then we’re currently under capacity. However, that many more people might strain the landscape’s environment and infrastructure. It might equal people living in cramped conditions or in low-wage service to those with more opportunities. Yet, diversity of job prospects at all may be something we currently have less of, alongside lesser population.

It’d be interesting to find out where we could grow from here and what that version of Honesdale would look like. On the same token, it’s interesting to note what things look like now. By flipping future projections and goals built around past data back around to the present, we may better be able to understand what a place is like and experiencing, as it changes. Why are the people already here staying, creating, and expanding their families? What’s preventing others from doing the same?

We often look for outside motivation but, within the local landscape, there are flashes of creative inspiration. Many pockets of capacity, leftover from a larger place’s foundation, can be turned to for reference. Nooks holding potential include vacant lots, back alleys, underutilized transportation corridors, empty upper floors, and more. Activating those nooks could include new community gardens, reoriented small businesses, new trails along old travel ways, and affordable studios for the next generation of engaged citizens. How much can we grow, from where we already are, before pulling in adjacent resources?

Maybe, as Charles Wolfe suggests and we would agree, answers will bubble up, through inclusive access to organic engagement. A sense of place so strong that it’s not just a matter of calling a place your home town generally but calling a home your neighborhood specifically. A collective, equal-stakeholder spirit, imbued within individual community members that allows each of us to inherently know nothing is static. A shared knowledge that places and spaces were different in the past and will be different in the future. An understanding that we and all of the different versions of us can, collectively and individually, make or remake our present environment. With this in common mind, we can advance the benefits of these shared opportunities by crafting new forms, in ways that are respectful of one another and the extension of nature we represent.

In August of 2015, a portion of the 500 block’s back alley came alive beyond what present, day-to-day interactions imply. A grassroots injection of local energy allowed an assortment of individuals to come together and share space for multiple reasons. Engaged participation in the present took place across multiple building stories and reversed storefronts. Everything being informally connected by a good, old-fashioned, public alley being utilized to the maximum potential of the moment. A potential, perhaps, last matched by canal days gone by, where commerce, conversation, and culture seeped into and out of town, one block over from the main street.

This map, shown here and from our maps collection, is a local landscape story, told over the course of a certain time and across a string of inter-connected spaces.

View fullsize

Click to enlarge.

Another New Year

Thanks to everyone who attended and followed along with the NYE Ball and Dance Party we put on with Black & Brass at 6th & River.

Events like this aren’t just for everybody, they are everybody’s. What’s created is what engaged participants make of it. Any given project we work on is a single piece of a grander inspiration cycle, featuring connection points to shared space and time, meant to be experienced, then carried forward as personally or collectively desired.

Specifically, this dance party and ball was designed to be enjoyed in whatever ways we cho(o)se. It was a happening that incinerated in the moment, leaving dust we all danced ourselves clean of before heading back home to a new year. As always, some sparks remain, to be ushered on down the line of inspiration cycles to come. What’s next for all of us?

May the creative boundaries between producers and consumers continue to morph and contract in 2019. The greater canvas of the local landscape is vast and filled with abundance. Events and projects like this one are as much yours as ours. That’s just the way we like it in festivaltown, Honesdale. Happy New Year.

New Year’s Eve bar by Here & Now and grooves by DJ Jus’ Boogie.

Spatial design lead: Lisa the Maker.

Party photos above and below by Jack Kingston.

Landscape Nooks

A scan of the horizon offers an abundance of opportunity. Each frame of reference highlights creative potential. Slightly shifted perspectives and the application of engaged participation within the landscape can transform what is and what was into what we’d like something to be.

This can be a temporal re-framing, activating a nook in time. This can be a spatial re-framing, activating a nook in three-dimensional space. This can be a programmatic re-framing, activating a nook with alternative uses. Any and all and more are part of what’s freely and commonly available.

Take a stroll around your neighborhood. Note how it currently exists. Uncover how it previously existed. Consider what it could be going forward. Ask yourself, what if Honesdale (or your neighborhood) … ? How can things be made better by you and your neighbors, for combined benefit?

Discovering the answers to these questions is empowering. Once nooks of opportunity are identified, they can be found everywhere and we all have agency for change within us. It’s an inclusive, permission-less ability shared in an open source environment.

Someone answers one question with the community in mind; then, all of a sudden, you’re in the teller line for a banking errand and the village backdrop is a lot more engaging than it once was. An elevated, downstream-facing, slightly hidden, vertical space has been transformed in an unexpected way.

Making a deposit in front of large, historic windows becomes exciting, like stepping into an alternate dimension. The commonplace all around us that once felt static and gray becomes alive with color. An objective, experiential pleasure doubles as a reminder. There are nooks all around us, ready for activation.

We can build things up without tearing things down. What is it you’d like to create out of your and your community’s innate potential?

Festival Boundaries

What are the boundaries of the place we call Honesdale? Community boundaries can be defined by a zip code, polling place, shopping preferences, family homestead, or something else entirely. Sometimes boundaries are clearly expressed and other times entirely amorphous. Definitions can change over time or depending on who you ask or under what context.

This is partly the nature of making maps. No maps fully illustrate reality. All maps are a representation of reality, capturing a concept or phenomenon or feeling. There's a certain mystery in that and it balances out the perceived authority any given map portrays.

Connections to our community grow vertically as well as horizontally. That's why Honesdale's boundary can be described in a fairly straightforward way (in municipal government terms) yet, equally described in an intangible way (in terms of community identity). The H'dale boundary map we recently made illustrates this dichotomy.

Portion of the Honesdale Boundary Analysis map.

We're fans of reality's hidden layers, nooked within the habitat of our human-built environment. Our Maps page is full of examples. Our event and festival projects are equally steered into these open spaces. Driven by a shared inspiration cycle designed to create something out of nothing yet, anything out of everything else, each festival or event is an attempt to activate a shaded corner of our shared universe in the 18431. That brings us to the Canaltown Moving Movie Festival.

Our new festival might be easy to describe in terms of what it is (a movie festival) but it'll be tough to draw a boundary around. This fest will take place at multiple venues throughout town. Attendees will be able to see every movie by watching sets in whatever order they like and choosing their own festival adventure. Like Spookyfest, there will be international selections alongside local creations, albeit exploded into chunks and coordinated for multi-part discovery downtown.

Moving Movie Festival logo draft

The Moving Movie Festival map may look different every year and the schedule may eventually cover multiple days but the plan is to make it feel like the whole town is alive and collectively "up to something" each and every time. This year is round one of connecting the dots in new and exciting ways.

Bringing Killer Shrews to Town

White Lion Studios visited Honesdale to show their masterwork of independent cinema, "Attack of the Killer Shrews!", on March 18, 2017. We organized the local premiere by partnering up with Cinema 6 and coaxing folks out from their Blizzard Stella bunkers to share in a non-traditional, night at the movies.

How'd we meet these folks? In short, Spookyfest.

If the movie stars align, our pals will return to expand the "Shrewniverse" with Honesdale-set additions to this moving picture canon but, sequels aside, we're just looking forward to hanging out again and doing some karaoke on a Friday or Saturday Night.

Recommended best practice for bringing killer shrews or movie companies on location scouting expeditions to your town? In short, make real connections over the things you care about and dive into some shared community engagement. Worst case scenario, you make some new friends.

Gallery Notes: 1) Independent Cinema, Marquee Infiltration 2) Cinema 6, Off Hours 3) Karaoke with our Movie Friends at Black & Brass Coffee Roasting Co. 4) A Visiting Stuntman at R3 Hardware 5) Attack of the Killer Shrews! and River/Trail Support