hi I am so pleased to have this
opportunity thank all of you very much
you see this never doubt that a small
group of thoughtful committed citizens
can change the world
indeed it is the only thing that ever
has
wouldn’t you agree with that Margaret
Mead quote it really does take just one
person to see to another that’s not
right or somebody might say do you want
to work with me that is really a problem
and soon others are joining and then the
momentum begins the story begins here in
the Berkshires where we have many
cultural and educational assets and we
have a beautiful River the Hoosick River
which flows very fast cool naturally
breeding trout and you can see how
lovely it is but when it enters North
Adams it becomes really a constricted
stream looks more like a drainage ditch
10 to 20 foot high walls this is the
price north adams pays for flood control
in the 20s 30s 40s north adams downtown
was destroyed by the Hoosick river and
they asked the federal government would
you do something well that’s what the
federal government was doing
in the 50s so this is what we have a
2-mile concrete scar in our downtown but
when that river leaves North Adams it is
really a beautiful river so as it
happens I went to Providence Rhode
Island and to San Antonio Texas on
business about 20 years ago I saw their
downtown their downtown River look at
this beautiful really nice people
sitting along the river having nice
meals enjoying the river businesses were
there visitors came and spent time
downtown well I came home and said to my
husband
why not North Adams why not
North Adams can’t we change that we’re a
struggling struggling former mill town
55% of the people who live here our low
income we have people who come here to
ski or to bike or to hike but they don’t
stay look at those empty storefronts but
what we do have is the largest
Contemporary Art Museum in the country
and a hundred and fifty people
sorry 150,000 people come here every
year but they don’t stay either we don’t
have enough to keep them here well
we started in 2008 as a small group not
knowing one thing about River
restoration like do you know what a
fluvial geomorphologist is we didn’t
either but it’s very important when
you’re doing this kind of work we also
didn’t have the resources to hire
consultants to help us learn what to do
but that didn’t deter us either we were
so sure so sure that if we could restore
our River it would help revitalize our
city well soon we were a coalition
businesses foundations individuals in
north adams and surrounding community or
joining us the local watershed
association the state here’s another
mouthful the Massachusetts Division of
ecologic already ssin who knew they
existed well they do and they are very
important the wonderful thing is that
over time all of those people made a
leap of faith that you know what let’s
stick with this I think it’ll work and
many of them made a financial leap of
faith so that enabled us to start
learning how to do this how do we start
well the first thing we learned was why
the river looked like that in that
little ditch that’s the design from the
Corps of Engineers meant to look like
that nothing can live in it nothing it’s
unhealthy well we also learned
that the Corps of Engineers is the
entity we have to go to to change
anything and that reassured the public
because we were hearing I didn’t hear it
directly but people were saying because
they were learning a little bit about
what happens when you change the river
don’t let that lady tear down our walls
who knew I was so powerful well so we
learned about the Corps of Engineers and
we learned the city’s relationship with
the federal government in 1950 they
signed a contract saying they would be
responsible for all repairs well take a
look at what we have here we have that’s
one of five 20-foot wide panels that
have fallen since it was constructed and
we learned there are six more that are
leaning well that was of some concern
and there was it was of some concern
because 15 million dollars was the cost
of that project how was the city going
to pay for that well there was some good
news and the good news was San Antonio
and Providence are not unique cities
from South Carolina to South Korea are
all changing their downtown’s this is
Greenville South Carolina you see there
I hope there are what we call
amphitheater steps down to the river not
a perpendicular wall and then in Denver
you see something similar this is a
different design but the purpose is the
same
if you have that when floods come the
water goes up and then it goes down so
99% of the time you can see the river
you can be in the river you can look at
it that’s the modern way of doing things
and also in Denver this is a great model
for us you can see they have walls we’re
going to have to have walls in North
Adams in some places but what you see
that looks like a river it’s called a
low flow channel they cut right into the
concrete that you saw in those earlier
pictures that means fish can be in there
Cardiacs can be in there people can be
in there and if you look closely you can
see there’s a bike path and a walking
path on either side they have more space
where they did this then we will but we
have a possibility of having by path as
well in our downtown so when the city
started hearing all of this the good
news and the bad news they said okay
find out about our River
what raise more money find out what the
engineers can do here get us some
pictures so we were about to do that
when a tropical storm Tropical Storm
Irene hit the Northeast and North Adams
really bad the flood chutes were filled
debris noise almost to the top scaring
everybody and it sure changed their
thinking about what we were doing stop
the message was were not interested we
have no interest in your fancy ideas
well we were down but we weren’t out
we scurried back to our organizational
corner and said okay we’ve got to do as
Margaret Mead says and be more
thoughtful take into consideration that
fear of flooding is a part of the hearts
of many many people here so we said okay
how can what can we do to make people
think maybe riverside activities are fun
and that yes sometimes the water does
rush fast but most of the time it can be
a community asset so what you see there
are a couple of the community gardens we
had the high school kids build raised
beds and we grow herbs vegetables and we
had a pizza party there because right
near that particular garden is a
community pizza oven built by an artist
who came to MASS MoCA now other people
are going down to the river even though
it still has that ugly fence so that was
one thing we did it and people kind of
liked it the other thing we did is
remind them that this was a 65 year old
system it was not in good condition and
storms are getting more serious doesn’t
it make sense for us to plan ahead maybe
the walls won’t save North Adams with
the next storm the next thing we did was
more fun and that was we we said you
know what this is a beautiful valley we
live in we have quiet scenic roads for
biking we have beautiful fall colors in
our mountains skiing do you really want
to have a concrete an ugly concrete scar
in the middle of all of this beauty two
miles of concrete 45 feet wide
well they started changing their minds
that fear of flooding changed a bit too
faith in what we were suggesting so the
message was okay get back to where you
were three years before when we told you
to stop and so what they asked was
remember they want designs for North
Adams so the designs for North Adams
incorporated many of the things you saw
in Denver and and in Greenville
amphitheater steps low-flow Channel and
also a meandering stream not just a
straight shot like the concrete they
loved him and they said okay okay pick
one pick any one we like it all and get
it done fast easy for them to say well
it did take several years because to
have a design that we would submit to
the core of Engineers for 1/2 mile it’s
gonna cost a half a million dollars
so we talked with our elected officials
major stakeholders we talked to the
governor the then governor they said how
about how about North Adams Boston gets
a lot could we have a half a million and
he said yes and that money was allocated
to our project and it was managed
however by the Massachusetts division of
ecological restoration
they are the specialists in choosing a
firm managing all that money and how the
work gets done so this is what we have
it is a half a mile of
whoops a healthy river and I bet you’re
saying wait that’s wintertime yes this
is a four season project where they play
ball in the summer we could have skating
in the winter and on the other side of
that river is going to be a bike path so
you can go cross-country skiing there
and then in the summer have all the
traditional picnicking paddling but now
you can see that bike path so in less
than a decade we’ve gone from dream to
design we do not have a shovel in the
ground but North Adams will have will
have a 21st century flood controlled
healthy accessible attractive Hrant
River there’s no stopping us now so now
that you’ve heard this most unlikely
story and you’ve got that Margaret Mead
quote in your heart I hope you’ll look
around your world what needs changing
what could be improved what should be
eliminated I hope you’re encouraged and
inspired to make a change all it takes is a small group thank you