One Voice, One Action

After years of waiting to get their park back, children living in downtown Lewiston will have a brand new park to play in. The former Maple Street Park will be rebuilt in its new location at 69 Knox Street by Memorial Day 2008! The groundbreaking took place on April 24th at the park's new location.

[Ward 5 Lewiston City Councilor Tina Bailey]

This is an active example of how much can be accomplished when people join together to make decisions for our community. The Visible Community in collaboration with the City of Lewiston, the Downtown Neighborhood Task Force, Connie and Norm Rousseau, and the L/A Fund, have made this experience possible. One voice! One action! Okay, well, maybe more than one “action”, but the example sets itself.

[Groundbreaking by members of the Downtown Neighborhood Task Force]
















The Visible Community, according to Craig Saddlemire, a resident of downtown Lewiston and spokesperson for the Visible Community, “was formed by downtown residents, local social service providers and community organizations in response to concerns that very serious development decisions were being considered for the downtown neighborhood without the input from the people that would be most affected, i.e. the downtown residents. To address those concerns, the residents and community agencies formed in order to overcome the communication gap between downtown residents and the decision makers at City Hall.” The “immediate threat” that brought together the formation of the Visible Community has since been resolved, but that hasn’t stopped them from remaining active in their community. “The Visible Community has been pro-active in their efforts to empower downtown residents and helped them to influence public policy before the decisions are made, as it concerns the downtown.”

So how is it, that one person, one action can make a difference in your community, Mayor Gilbert says it perfectly, “…through the cooperation of Lewiston’s elected officials, staff, members of the community, and generous donors, this new park is about to become a reality!”

One VOICE is all it takes, lets hear yours!

[Crowd gathered at groundbreaking]

Examples of community/Halal Store

[Halal Store: A key gathering spot, located at Chestnut and Lisbon Streets]
[Kennedy Park; where many downtown residents congregate]

In Robert Putnam’s book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Arrival of American Community, the Harvard sociologist details how we have become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and our democratic structures. Putnam warns us that our stock of social capital—the essence and fabric of how we are connected within our communities—has fallen off and this poses grave danger to our nation’s long-term wellbeing.

Fortunately, Putnam doesn’t leave us teetering at the edge of the cliff, as his later book (co-written with Lewis Feldstein and Donald J. Cohen) provides examples of communities where residents are finding ways to reconnect and rebuild the store of social capital.

Interestingly, as cities like Lewiston have gone through difficult times, economically, many residents have fled downtown, for suburban enclaves. These communities, with large lots and spacious homes, make it difficult to connect with neighbors.

My own example, living on three acres, in Durham, with neighbors I rarely talk to and don’t really know, is much different than some of the vibrant examples of community that I’ve witnessed in downtown Lewiston.

Last Friday, I was invited by friend and follow Empower Lewiston board member, Ismail Ahmed, for lunch at Halal Store, at the corner of Chestnut and Lisbon Streets. Entering the market and restaurant, we ordered our lunches of Festival (a combination of pasta, rice, mixed vegetables, sautéed with goat meat and shaved steak), accompanied with salad, fruit drink and fresh banana. This provided a wonderfully different and hearty lunch, as well as the opportunity to have a needed conversation with one of my favorite local residents and a leader in the community.

While the food was very tasty, rich with pungent spices and seasonings, the goat meat was a special treat. Even better was the sense that this local store was the hub of the Somali community, as men were arriving for lunch, from the local mosque. Immediately, they’d enter the store and greet one another. I must have been introduced to close to 10 new people, as well as greeting a few other men that I knew from my work in the larger community. Everyone was glad to see Ismail and catch up on his news.

Afterwards, Ismail explained that Halal is a place where news is exchanged. When he hasn’t been there for several weeks, people grow concerned, as there is a sense of connectedness that exists here, in downtown Lewiston that doesn’t always exist in our more homogenous suburban areas of Maine.

Being of French-Canadian heritage, on my mother’s side of the family, with a Memiere that used to live within the boundaries of the two census tracts that make up the EC/EZ, I was familiar with the city and the vibrancy that it had 35 years ago. I was reminded of that time, by the sense of energy and the obvious community that I witnessed in and around Halal Store.

I have always believed that diversity adds to the social capital of a community and I got to witness it firsthand, last Friday.

There are many other positive examples of community that resides with the boundaries of the EC. I hope that Voices from the EC becomes a way to tell some of the stories that illustrate community in downtown Lewiston.

Blogging downtown

The new Empower Lewiston blog comes from conversations that our strategic planning committee, of our larger board, has been having. We recognize that giving residents of our community a voice is a good thing and we hope that the new blog does just that!

As a longtime blogger and someone who tries to stay current with Web 2.0 developments and models of communication, a blog seems like a vehicle that could provide a platform to capture the stories and vibrancy that exists in the two census tracts that make up the Enterprise Community (see definition). While print has been the typical means of non-profit information sharing, usually via newsletters, Voices from the EC gives us something that can be immediate, participatory and might help spur a revolution of sorts, in how news and the happenings of life in the downtown is disseminated.

In May (check back for specific details), Empower Lewiston will be hosting a blog-a-thon, where we will welcome members of the downtown community in to learn about blogging, the types of stories and techniques that make blogging "hot" (versus cool; see McLuhan) and get some budding bloggers up and running, telling their stories (that very day).

I'm excited to be part of the story and I hope many others will be, too.

Empower Lewiston enters the Blogosphere

BLOG-A-THON COMES TO THE EC MAY 21st

More details coming soon!!!

Empower Lewiston is a non-profit agency located in the heart of downtown Lewiston, Maine. As a way to improve our outreach to residents and businesses, we have as a group decided to launch a blog that we hope will become a vehicle for local residents to communicate.