Finding An Authentic Life In Newtown

After a sustained decadelong sprint, we learned this week that the housing market in Newtown appears to have moderated its pace (see page C-1)  — perhaps just long enough for us to get our bearings and catch our breath before the next leg in this amazing race to the new Newtown — whatever that will be.

In taking stock, we always end up talking about two things: population and real estate prices. For the record, our population is 26,300; vacant lots are now selling for $280,000 to $300,000 and most homes are selling for between $450,000 and $1 million. People or money? Which is the better measure of a town?

If by people, we mean the gracious neighbors who put up with our cranky little dog’s late-night front-yard rants and who collect our mail when we are on vacation, then our town is a better place for every single one of them. But if we mean the hundreds of cell-phone-yakking, inattentive, kamikaze SUV drivers endangering every square foot between point A and point B when we are late for a meeting, then our town in a poorer place for every single one of them. As for the desirability of skyrocketing real estate prices in Newtown, it depends on whether you are the buyer or the seller. There has to be a better way to measure where we are, and ultimately, who we are.

Connecticut Magazine in its never-ending quest to rate everything in the state — apple pies, doctors, restaurants, companies, ice cream sundaes, you name it — this month has once again rated towns. Newtown is #5 on the list of 23 towns with populations between 25,000 and 50,000. It is a respectable showing based on the town’s crime rate, SAT scores, housing costs, tax rate, library facilities, etc. But by that measure, Newtown was beat out by four other towns — Glastonbury, Westport, Cheshire, and New Milford. They are all nice towns, but frankly we prefer Newtown.

To our mind, what makes or breaks a town is its authenticity. You cannot mass produce it, franchise it, or transplant it, and it is very hard to make a buck off it. But authenticity of place, of experience, and of people is the true currency of a rich life. Newtown still has plenty of authentic places (the front porch of the General Store, the bench atop Castle Hill, the bridge at Dayton Street, the balcony in the Edmond Town Hall Theatre…), authentic experiences (the Christmas tree lighting in the Ram Pasture, the farmers’ markets in Sandy Hook, the Easter egg hunt at Dickinson Park, the parade…) and authentic people, who we honor one by one in the space above this editorial each week.

The pressures are intense for Newtown to go the way of so many other towns whose true character has disappeared under a blanket of franchised commercial enterprise, sweeping subdivisions, and ersatz tradition where real colonial homes are knocked down for puffed up nouveau “colonials” with amenities. The problem is that such places end up looking exactly like each other, and it becomes difficult to tell whether you are in Newtown, Conn., Newtown, S.C., Newtown, Ga., Newtown, Ky., or Newtown, Penn.

Newtown’s Plan of Conservation and Development recognizes Newtown’s authenticity, underscoring the importance of community gathering places, open spaces, historic buildings, and streetscapes where people are not crowded out by cars. If the real estate market does give the Planning and Zoning Commission a pause in which to reflect on Newtown’s progress so far and its plans for the immediate future, we would encourage it to dig into the town plan and continue the important work that is beginning to show results in the revitalization of Sandy Hook through a collaboration of town officials, preservationists, private property owners, and developers. There are other hamlets in Hawleyville, Botsford, and Dodgingtown waiting their turn.

The town’s success in implementing its own plan of conservation and development will determine whether people will continue to find an authentic life in Newtown.