City mouse, country mouse, never a suburbs mouse

Thirty years ago, they took this failed New York writer out of the city, but they never took the city out of me -- even after I became a successful writer. Now I’m moving from the suburbs to downtown again, where I should be. I was in the ideal suburban location: you can hear the Contoocook River through the open windows, and see it through the trees. But any time you want to go somewhere, including the mailbox, you have to get in your car, and any time you want to find people to talk to, or conduct business beyond buying a pizza, you have to drive to the city or (God forbid) a mall.

I was born in Baltimore, Md., and lived in Manhattan for 10 years. In 1977, I came to Henniker, still the nicest small town I know, with great competence at being a community. I liked Henniker, once I recovered from the Blizzard of ‘78, because I was 4/10 of a mile from the blinking light and whatever city-type action (mostly bars) there was.

I learned the importance of competence as a community when I briefly covered Henniker and Hillsboro for the local weekly newspaper. Hillsboro is a town that never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. In my time alone, they refused to put up 20 percent of the cost of a municipal sewer system and have the federal government pay 80 percent. They just dumped their waste in the river. When Reagan was elected, the federal government stopped paying for municipal sewers, and ordered Hillsboro to build one and pay the whole cost.

Downtown merchants fought a bypass for 30 years because nobody would drive past their stores. Finally, the traffic jam between Concord and Keene got so bad that the state built the bypass anyway. It took as long to get through Hillsboro as it did to get from Concord to Keene. The bypass is considered the main reason why downtown Hillsboro has experienced a little revival.

Hillsboro ruined Emerald Lake by listening to an out-of-state developer, who said he was going to build “summer homes.” The town encouraged the builder by suspending their setback, sewage, and road quality requirements. After all, these people would only be there in the summer. The town would not have to educate their children, or send school buses up to transport them, and pollution to the lake would be no issue because it would clean itself after three months of inadequate sewage treatment.  These would be the ideal residents:  they'd just pay property tax and need no town services.

Well, there’s no such thing as a summer house. People live there full time, and conflicts between the town and the Emerald Lake Association are a constant source of news.

Henniker never had these troubles because they had more competent government, elected by people with more competence at being a community.  They got federal funds for a sewer system and for a downtown renovation.

When I went to UNH, and started writing for weeklies down there, I lived in the Barrington woods, the kind where you can’t see the road and have to travel uphill on a gravel road in winter to get to it. That had its charms, but I’m not one of those people who can “read” nature and see the diversity of life and how living things interact. I admire these people, and love it when they show it to me through their eyes.  A nature walk with a biologist is my idea of a great day.

But in the woods, I am always a guest. I don’t get that sense of calm people get from silent nature because I’m too afraid of bugs and bears.

But the first thing I do when I move to the city is lose 20 pounds because I walk everywhere. I start conversations with strangers, who stop being strangers. I plant perennials. I sit out front or out back and talk to the neighbors and people walking by.

For $850 a month to $1,200, there is an abundance of nice rentals in Concord now. I did so well selling my suburban condo before the bust that I can affor those rents.  I’m looking for one and finding plenty that are suitable. I’m just waiting for Mr. Right, have found a few, and hope to sign a lease this week. I have an idea for a book. Maybe I’ll write it there, living alone but only being alone when I want to be.