Challenges. Wilfred Zinavage
The 60s
I was bom in 1956, a time when life was different. We always played outside and had few worries. I went to Saint Patrick’s Catholic School in Norwich, Connecticut. I discovered early on that there was a separation of culture. I was Italian, so while I was in the 4th grade I was able to go to Delia’s and eat a grinder for lunch. There was an Italian fest across Delia’s neighborhood. Although my neighborhood was mostly Italian there was a mixed bag of all denominations. The downtown was still exciting. There were clothes shops and restaurants there. The Norwich Town Mall killed downtown. Women that drove could easily pull in and park and didn’t have to worry about parallel parking. This was about the time when downtown became a dumping ground for Norwich State Hospital patients. There was an influx of patients who ended up there. The Waregan Hotel was their home. There they found their friends, package stores, and social services or welfare. The center of the city provided all the necessities. Metro area for people who needed assistance people could go to the mall instead. The Town let it turn out that way a place where a patient from Hartford, Vernon, wherever had it all.
The 70s
The 70s was still a downfall patient walking around scared people (women) from town. Many places were still there, cloth, food, restaurants, but decline continued caused by influx of patients parallel parking does not work for women. No insight to make it a destination the thought of college there did not happen, same with museum. The thought of removing a building does not work. It like having a missing front tooth. A parking lot needs a destination. Removal of the waterfront a big mistake (1950s). This was when the downtown was abandoned. Downtown needs an attraction. The scrap yard and police station is where it should come from. The thought of a college was also missed. The 70s had no one wanting to be there. Social service ended there and the town paid a price for it. The cost of the ccd is crazy. Should be one tax town. People find it hard to just pay the tax.
The 80s
Evacuation of downtown. Not much interesting except parking areas and parking lots. Buildings taken down. Lots put up with business moving out. Slum lords profit from patients. Downtown was taken advantage of.
Same in the 90s and the 20s
Downtown needs to be reinvented. Waterfront okay as long as odor from the sewer plant is controlled. The police department should go to Chestnut and North Franklin Street not Buckingham. Tax all the same. No ccd tax. Ethnic diversity accepted and it is what the town was built on. Incentives to move to downtown welcomed. Not to scare people off. The casino is at the doorstep. Time to work off their influx.
Authors notes: he meant the Wauregan Hotel; the CCD was the term given to the city consolidated city district, where if you lived within, your taxes would be higher as well as the “influx,” which I believe he meant influence. Again, I left it the way he wrote it by his hand.
In the opinion column of The Bulletin on Sunday, April 26, 2019, was an article entitled How Can Tolls and Taxes Reverse State’s Decline? by a writer named Chris Powell. Mr. Powell is a columnist for the Journal Inquirer in Manchester. He ended his article by stating the following: “Showing Connecticut’s decline, the state’s economic and demographic data practically screams for challenging these policy premises, but there’s too much profit for tod many people in continuing to do what drives the state down.”
Again, the author’s challenge is for future visitors and for the local residents to understand that we should feel welcomed when we travel to places (i.e., that mass transit should be inexpensive and efficient) and that decay and decline due to greed and stupidity should really cease to exist. But, reality, in the form of the decline of Norwich, shows just what Mr. Powell stated.
So, the challenge to you the reader is simple. See what remains of the Norwich State Hospital and the building of a theme park. Go to Norwich and note the decay. See the birth of people attempting to put the glow back into what was once called “The Rose of New England” with new businesses.
I have written this book to expose was actually happening at the hospital and the resultant effects on the city of Norwich it had when it closed down.
On 18 August 2019, at a press conference after two mass shootings, (one in Texas and the other in Ohio), President Donald Trump was asked what he intended to do about them. He basically put this whole issue of mental health out for the public by stating that. “It isn’t the gun that pulls the trigger”. He then mentioned seeing the effect of a mental institution closure when he lived in New York city and” We need to look at the issue of mental health” and mentioned that 92% of our institutions were shutdown to save the government money.
In summary best expressed by the Tea Party “83% of Americans blame mental health as a major issue. ((9/15/19) on a survey they took
Finally, for tourists I suggest looking at the Indian burial ground where the Masonic temple once stood, look at the Norwich city hall and its outside beauty of it all that and know that inside in a certain meeting room the city council members chairs are much higher than the public ones. Arrogance?? Explore, Ask residents, See the beautiful Uncas Leap Falls (when the river is high). Finally, explore the amazing contrast of a city trying to recover.
The following are more comments that I have added to entice you, the reader, to explore and to ponder.
16 November 1991
Dear Editor of the Bulletin,
Profit… A valuable gain.
Eminent Domain… The right of the Government to take private property for public use.
Citizens who oppose the Pequot expansion please understand what these words mean. I am sure that over ten million patrons and 10,000 employees have some say. Remember too that the tribe will have given the state over 200 million in taxes. They have already demonstrated the ability to “blend in” with their Foxwoods complex.
They need to expand and will do so despite your objections. Only the lawyers will profit from your good intentions.
Your blissful ignorance is not understanding profit is readily seen by the action of a certain town look in regards to a parking lot used by the employees. It now stands empty stark and ugly looking and is only giving those same townspeople minimum taxes in return. I say why not let the Pequots use the lot for a minimal fee until your illustrious leaders can get their act together and determine final use i.e., profit!
This sort of ignorance can readily be seen in downtown Norwich. Instead of providing for millions of tourists, traffic, and housing problems it instead has invested in grandiose schemes of a baseball stadium and now ice rink. All this while buildings stand empty and rot away!
Before you blame yourselves remember what happened to the great woolen industry thanks to both Federal and state government policies and interventions
Take charge of your destiny, people, and remember the words!
WILFRED ZINAVAGE
51 Hanover Versailles Road
Baltic, CT 06330
Phone: 860-822-1352 (after 5:00 p.m. please)
To: State of Connecticut, Environmental Committee
From: Linda Puetz, Sprague Board of Finance
Date: March 3, 1999
ACC SB 827
ACC HB 6006
Good morning my name is Linda Wilkinson Puetz. I reside in Hanover, a village in the Town of Sprague, Connecticut. I am here on behalf of ACC SB 827, ACC HB 6006, and any act concerning “Smart Growth” in Connecticut.
The headlines have become overwhelming…stadium to be built…stadium draws opposition…store owner fears closing business because Civic Center doesn’t have enough foot traffic. The City of Norwich will exhaust you. The on again, off again Masonic Temple project, the on again, off again Wauregan Hotel, no hotel if the state doesn’t fund a municipal parking lot… City Manager Talman needs more money from the state…the uptown, downtown of where the community college should be located…and the final straw the Mashantucket’s