The recent letters against the proposed apartment building at 8-10 and 14 Bank St. concern the visual impact and traffic around Colburn Park. I live at Emerson Place apartments and feel very fortunate that I can afford the rents. I love living in downtown Lebanon. I can walk to the CCBA’s Witherell Recreation Center, City Hall, the library, etc. It would be worth giving up a historical view to share the availability of more housing in the downtown area, especially if it is less expensive.
With hope, the Planning Board and the property owner can resolve the issues to allow more apartments in downtown Lebanon.
BABETTE HANSEN
Lebanon
I am writing about the lack of equity and transparency surrounding the upcoming Town Meeting and election in Hanover.
Our town, like many communities, is struggling to redesign its election process in the face of COVID-19 restrictions. Originally scheduled for May, Hanover was forced to delay Town Meeting until June 23 and to establish a process for absentee voting, as well as voting in person, which is required to approve the budget. With only a week to go, the town has not released a plan for safe participation in Town Meeting, nor adequately informed residents about the voting process.
Aspiring voters in Hanover have one option: Print a request for an absentee ballot from the town’s website, sign it, and scan, fax or send it to the town, wait for a ballot to arrive by mail, and then return it by mail so it is received before 5 p.m. on June 23, or drop it off at Town Hall with the same deadline. This complicated process makes it hard to vote unless a person has a computer, the internet, a printer/scanner and can find these instructions on the town website. Despite the fact that downtown Hanover has “reopened,” there remains no other option for voter registration, picking up or dropping off a ballot, and no information about voting in-person.
Voter suppression is defined as “any effort, either legal or illegal, by way of laws, administrative rules, and/or tactics that prevents eligible voters from registering to vote or voting.” According to the New Hampshire chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, municipalities have a significant amount of leeway in determining their election processes. It is unacceptable to systematically leave out people who lack access to technology and not communicate effectively about new processes for voting during a pandemic.
Don’t let voter suppression happen here. We urge you to contact the town manager and the Selectboard to demand that the town remove barriers to voting and develop a plan for residents to safely vote in person and participate in the upcoming Town Meeting.
DAISY GOODMAN
Hanover Center
We confidently recommend the reelection of Peter Christie and Bill Geraghty to the Hanover Selectboard. Over the past few months, the pandemic has caused significant financial and social upheaval for everyone. The Selectboard and town officials have worked closely with the schools, local businesses, Dartmouth College and residents to minimize the risk of getting and transmitting COVID-19 while helping plan for a rapid and safe recovery for all as soon as possible. Commercial progress on South Main Street is encouraging. They have begun careful rethinking of next year’s budget. Keeping this team together with their knowledge and expertise at this time is very important. Their record of maintaining financial stability and managing many other complex issues is impressive.
In addition to on-site voting on Town Meeting day, absentee voting is also available to all registered voters this year due to COVID-19. Check the town website for details. Please join us in reelecting Selectboard members Peter Christie and Bill Geraghty.
ELLEN and JIM LYNCH
Hanover
I urge Hanover Town Meeting voters to vote no on article 14 (Planning Board Amendment 13) regarding short-term rental use. The Planning Board’s recommendation was not unanimous and the listening sessions, emails and letters from town residents revealed a similar division of opinion. The board proposes to permit hosted and unhosted short-term rentals. I have used three goals to judge whether the proposed amendment would be good for Hanover: that it protect Hanover’s housing supply, preserve neighborhood character in our residential districts, and ensure the accountability of the landlords with an effective and responsive registration and monitoring system.
I believe the hosted rentals that the amendment proposes will meet these goals. Unhosted rentals, on the other hand, could defeat these goals. With the property owner absent during the rental period, there will be little to limit disruptive behaviors, which a number of citizens already experience with absentee landlords renting to students. A survey of (illegal) unhosted rentals of the Airbnb type in Hanover in 2019 revealed that several properties were accruing substantial income from unhosted rentals. The top-earning property was reported to have garnered $216,000 in just 67 days of renting. Returns of this type are an open invitation to investors to come into town, buy up properties for renting, and thereby drive up prices for family homes. Without a robust enforcement process, a slap on the wrist or small fine will not deter an investor. Unhosted short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods have disrupted communities across this country and around the world. If this amendment is approved by voters, there will be no going back when the problems emerge — the right to unhosted renting will stay with the property in perpetuity.
The amendment would come into effect after the Hanover Selectboard adopts a short-term rental inspection ordinance. I recommend Hanover voters vote no on article 14 and urge the Selectboard to show first that it can pass a short-term rental inspection ordinance that has robust enforcement provisions and is paid for by those who will benefit financially from renting.
IAIN SIM
Hanover
The writer is a member of the Hanover Planning Board.
For 400 years on this continent, people of color have known oppression — from slavery through Jim Crow to mass incarceration. They continue to suffer discrimination in housing, education, voting, job opportunities, pay, access to capital, health care, law enforcement and the justice system. Our knee has been on their neck for four centuries.
Ironically, race is a meaningless concept. According to The History of White People, by Nell Irvin Painter, there is nothing close to anthropological consensus on categories of “race.” And skin color presents an unbroken continuum of shades. Race and skin color are as arbitrary divisions of human beings as hair or eye color — and yet they continue to divide us.
Institutional racism protects white privilege and reduces people of color to second-class citizens, this despite their willingness to fight and die in the armed forces to protect rights and liberties they do not fully enjoy. Their contributions to our culture and society are undeniable.
We can start by responding at every level of government to reform law enforcement practices. President Barack Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing offers a playbook for action. Are you willing to get involved in that process?
White America has never repented for its original sin of racism, nor has it seriously examined the white privilege it enjoys. Are we destined yet again to witness what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called “the appalling silence of good people”?
ALLAN MacDONALD
New London
The petition going around to remove the weather vane from the top of the Baker Library at Dartmouth Collage is another example of wrongful interpretation (“Petition seeks removal of library weather vane,” June 13). That being said, let me say that those who want this removed are looking for an excuse to remove history from our country.
There is no reason why this weather vane should be looked at as “racist.” It shows a celebration of two cultures smoking a peace pipe, not “a long pipe,” and having a celebratory drink by one of our state trees. It shows the progress of America, not the racist thoughts of people today. Those folks need to get a life, not erase our history.
WALTER GOBIN
Cornish
I just re-read Steve Nelson’s column of June 6 (“Looting is the least of the outrages”) to see if I agreed with Francene Ellis, whose June 10 Forum letter (“This is not peaceful protesting”) described Nelson’s columns as “insane ramblings.” I do not.
Nelson did not condone the destruction of businesses or other property, nor any other violence. He said he understood it. So do I. As President John F. Kennedy said, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
In essence, what Ellis is saying is that those who have been oppressed for several hundred years can protest — if they do so quietly and respectfully. The comfortable always argue that “change takes time” and “violence is counterproductive.” The privileged rarely ask themselves what they would do in similar circumstances.
If things are to be different this time, it will be because white people stop being silent about race relations in the U.S. We know black people have been mistreated for generations and it’s time to acknowledge we have been the beneficiaries of their unpaid and underpaid labor.
To have reconciliation, you first have to speak the truth. The truth is that few, if any, white people would gladly swap skin color with black people. Why? In a decent world, skin color wouldn’t make a difference, right? This is our time to make our country a decent place for all who live here.
BOB CIERNIA
White River Junction
That behavioral standards have a disparate impact on those disinclined to observe them is apparently seen by many as something both shocking and sinister. Just what exactly these worthies believe civilization to consist of I wouldn’t hazard to guess.
By the same token, those who are keen to defund or disarm the police, at least those agitators who aren’t actual criminals, are oblivious to the extent to which they benefit from the willingness and ability of the police to exercise force on their behalf.
No doubt the prats currently demanding that the baby be thrown out with the bathwater will later be among those who most loudly and indignantly bemoan the plight of the baby.
ANTHONY STIMSON
Lebanon
White people are being called to educate themselves about anti-black racism as an integral part of U.S. history. There are many relevant books and resources on the subject. One that stands out is the series Seeing White of the podcast Scene On Radio (found at sceneonradio.org), which is freely accessible and compelling.
The podcast series encourages us to take the crucial step of developing an understanding of what it means to be white. The interviews and dialogue deepen understanding of how ideas about race are embedded in our institutions and affect our perceptions.
CHARLENE GATES
Norwich
A recent social media post resonated with me and my friends. It began “Resistance is not a one-lane highway.” It could be that your lane is protesting, or organizing, or counseling. Your lane could be art activism, or maybe it’s simply surviving the day. “Do not feel guilty for not occupying every lane,” the post concluded. “We need all of them.”
Maybe your lane is to donate to programs to help people on the front lines. Maybe your lane is to make masks for people to be able to gather safely. Maybe your lane is to talk to your family and friends who don’t agree with you and start a dialogue about racial injustice. Maybe your lane is to listen more closely to what the protesters are saying and to open your heart to their suffering.
Everyone can play a part. No one should remain on the sidelines. We need everyone.
LORI FORTINI
Lebanon
On June 7, a rally was held on the Green in Windsor. Three excellent speakers telling personal, riveting stories, addressed the importance of combating racism, and all addressed the importance of more effective anti-racism education.
It’s too bad that the Valley News was not able to contribute to the education of the public by providing some coverage of this well-attended and very moving event.
LEE MONRO and ELVIN KAPLAN
Brownsville