| A note of clarification- while “ community center” is proposed to serve multi-generations, to date, it is not intended to offer inter- generational programs. The programming for use of the community is designed to keep seniors separated from kids- seniors/ adults in AM and kids in PM, after school.
It is an important distinction.
We have truly inter- generational community activities offered throughout town, throughout the year- First Day, Winter Carnival, April Alarm, 4th of July, Codman Harvest Festival.
Community is built through events such as these and perhaps we could add more. The Bemis Free Lecture Series will be adding such programming in the coming year.
A building does not community make, people do.
Sara Mattes Conant Rd Sent from my iPhone Connie you nailed it. We need a Community Center at the ball park/ schools location! We are trying to build an intergenerational center- where kids who have grandparents who live far away can make GRANDFRIENDS ! Let us create activities that build community across generations-game nights-movies for all-exercise programs, trips, mental health support and the list goes on! As an aging adult I do not want to be isolated- if you want to do that why not put all the old people on ice flows and push us out into Flint/Sandy pond! Then we wouldn’t be a burden! I enjoyed John Carr's account, partly because I lived in Cambridge near Harvard Square for 17 years before moving to Lincoln. In 1990 I felt that I had "been there, done that," and was eager for a quieter, greener environment. I moved to Lincoln and ended up on Greenridge Lane, which someone said had been advertised as "Cambridge in the country." For me it was ideal, walking distance to commuter rail and the town center (Donelan's, post office, etc.). Now retired, I don't use the commuter rail as much, but I value the concept of a town or village center (aka Lincoln Station). Even though I am still driving, I would be much more likely to visit and utilize a Senior/Community Center if it were located within walking distance from these other amenities (groceries, post office, Something Special, dry cleaners, Twisted Tree, bank, et al.), rather than -- not really "in the middle of nowhere," but still remote from other probable destinations -- a location like Hartwell. I've thought a lot about the issues, and am reluctant to vote approval for funds to study just the two previous proposals. Things, and people, and people's ideas, have changed in the past ten years. Could we not have a broader discussion, including the scope, purpose, and location of the proposed new facility?
June Matthews
Greenridge Lane
-----Original Message-----
From: Lincoln <[email protected]> On Behalf Of John F. Carr
Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2022 3:32 PM
To: Constance Lewis <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [LincolnTalk] The meaning of community
Those tables where people sometimes play chess in Harvard Square only exist as part of an ecosystem that is everything the Select Board, police department, and Planning Board fight so hard to keep Lincoln from turning into. Many thousands of people pass through the square
in a day, more than live in all of Lincoln. Less than one in a
thousand of them stop to play chess. There are more things to do in Harvard Square than all of Lincoln plus several community centers.
For a while centered on two decades ago I spent Saturday afternoons and evenings there. I would meet up with friends for dinner then we would separate to do our own things before meeting again. Split up, we didn't have a choice of shuffleboard vs. cribbage. We had a hundred shops for those who wanted to shop. For the rest, listen to the street musicians, walk along the river, or go for a smoke or a drink on the Common. If one of us had been into chess that break would have been time to look for a game.
Maybe another 15 years of gentrification have changed things, but in the 2000s the area was filled with what Lincoln residents would call "suspicious" people. Around half the people I ate with any given Saturday night would have residents here calling the cop. The white ones too. And I didn't hang out with the really weird people.
Friends who could hold a decent job, and friends of friends.
That is what happens when you have a dense urban environment with good public transportation. That is why Arlington residents were not excited by the offer to extend the Red Line to their town forty years ago. Urban is not for everybody.
We are not going to have lots of shops, activities, and good public transportation around a community center. We are not going to have a lot of people within walking distance of the building. The community center will be an isolated facility visited by people who can get a car ride. If we want to dream we should look at other towns, not cities. What happens at other towns' community centers? Are there crowds watching chess games? Is the site deserted except for a few hours every day? Is the building near anything, or is it in the middle of nowhere like Hartwell?
John Carr
On Fri, Nov 18, 2022 at 12:18 PM Constance Lewis <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> On a beautiful days in early November, I had an appointment in Harvard Square and stopped for coffee at the Smith Campus Center (formerly the Holyoke Center). The plaza in front that faces Mass Avenue has always been well used by a great variety of people—from Harvard students to Cambridge residents to visitors from near and far; and I have always enjoyed spending time there, sometimes just idly watching the passing parade. But on that Thursday, I looked at the plaza and the sidewalk in front of it in a different way because of the LincolnTalk discussion about the building of a community center. I saw people on their laptops pausing to chat for a minute or two with someone who stopped by. Other people were talking seriously or cheerfully with friends and often with strangers at the next table. People of different generations were playing chess. All around the plaza and even on the street, there was a subtle, but palpable, sense of community.
>
> I thought about what a community center would contribute to the well-being of Lincoln residents of all ages and situations. Those of us who are primarily connected to the town through the Council on Aging and Human Services will inevitably become more connected to the schools and the students. Other adults who are focused on school activities and those whose children have gone on to high school may fall into conversation with strangers whose ideas are enlightening or annoying, both part of building and maintaining a strong community. Parks and Rec will have space to engage Lincolnites of all ages in old and new activities.
>
> For me, a building, no matter how well planned, is just bricks and mortar until it is inhabited. Once people bring it to life, a building becomes something no one could have entirely anticipated; before long, people start to wonder how they lived without it.
>
> Those of us who are familiar with the space constraints in town know how much we need more space for both administration and activities. Scattering activities around town is often difficult or impossible to arrange. A centralized community space makes it possible to manage activities creatively, and the Community Center Building Committee has made this case very well. Yes, building the Community Center will raise everyone’s taxes though probably not as much some people imagine. But this investment in the future will be well worth it if it makes Lincoln an even better place to live and thrive.
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