I love living in Concord. There are expansive woods, wonderful restaurants and a town center straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting. This is an idyllic New England town and an incredible place to raise a family.
Traveling around the town itself, however, is a different story. It is not a wonderful scene. There are potholes and construction jobs that resemble my 7-month-old learning how to build a toy train track. Elm Street had four large holes for weeks this summer, without any real signage or detours. I don’t know of the nuances that go into laying asphalt, but it certainly seems dangerous to just leave holes in the road.
It feels like we are aware of these issues and have the enthusiasm to begin solving them — but then everyone just decides to get sandwiches and leave it in a perpetual state of “half-solved for another day.” This is not the way other problems are evaluated in our town.
Every issue of The Concord Bridge contains a new opinion article on climate change, private planes and noise pollution. People like to get involved. We enjoy solving problems. More so, we like the act of finding new problems to solve. My question is, before we get caught up in electrifying leaf blowers and stopping jets, why not just focus on an easy one?
I know we are all excited for Concord 250. We have come a long way in that time, and yet these roads look like the British trampled through town last Tuesday. I’m actually starting to think Thoreau didn’t choose to live in the woods; he just wanted to avoid Main Street. Same goes for the Little Women.
I know we have the resources. I think we have the enthusiasm. Why not make this town welcoming and accessible?
Eric Clark
Hosmer Road