A lot of people have good intentions. That doesn’t necessarily make them right, but it does make it a bit more interesting when you become sure that although they mean well, they’ve single handedly insulted an entire group of people or in this case, an entire region of the state.
I’m pretty sure I talked to one of these well intentioned people on Monday. I got an interesting phone call a couple of days ago regarding a story I wrote for Monday’s edition of the paper. The story was about the crows in downtown Norwich – something I’m sure nearly everyone is aware of at the present time. In a recent meeting, city officials were discussing what they could do about the crow problem. You see the problem with crows is that they leave crow droppings everywhere, and when there are a lot of crows, they make an awfully big mess. The sidewalks get covered, cars become covered and the parks downtown, where we hold nice events like Colorscape, the Pumpkin Festival and a bunch of other stuff, those get covered too. (If you read back through The Evening Sun reporter blogs, you’ll even see one incident where an Evening Sun staffer took a couple of hits.)
It’s pretty gross, and not very sanitary and the city started talking about ways to fix the problem. Judging by the number of complaints in “30 Seconds,” it probably wasn’t a bad idea, but I received a phone call from someone who thought differently.
I always enjoy getting feedback after I write a story, and if someone thinks this particular issue shouldn’t be an issue at all, I can respect that opinion. What I found a little harsh was this particular gentleman, who resides downstate, explaining that people from the city (New York) who have a few bucks know what the real issues are. Now I’m sure the gentleman didn’t mean to sound rude and condescending, but frankly his statements sounded less like a complaint on local politics and more like an insult to the people who live in the area.
I talked to the guy for several minutes, and his intentions seemed to be for the best, but what stuck with me after I hung up the phone wasn’t his intentions, it was that one statement.
I’ve lived in Chenango County for most of my life, excluding the four years I spent in college and a brief spell in the Fort Drum area, and during that time, I’ve heard a lot of comments from people who think they know more because they are from a more populous area, but the bottom line is, that’s just not how it works. Big city problems, have big city solutions. I’m sure down state businesses will move into a downtown store front regardless of a nasty looking sidewalk out front, but in Norwich there just aren’t as many small businesses knocking down the door. Those same problems in a small town have different ramifications, and need to be looked at on their own merits, and solutions or decisions should be decided based on that.