Part 11 (2/2)
For days, Paxton stewed over his exchange with Claire. Feeling Claire expected him to quash his true feelings on the project, he couldn't resist sending her an e-mail.
”Claire, let me be completely honest,” he began. ”As to the heart of our conversation, I have given the matter a good deal of thought. You are asking me to dissemble. But that is not my style. Nor is it yours, it seems to me. Did you dissemble with George Milne? With the City Council?”
It angered Paxton that Claire had gone to great lengths to help and stick up for Pfizer. But no one seemed to be standing up for the little guy-the homeowners. ”Why didn't you go to them from the start and insist that no more homes and neighborhoods be sacrificed to development in New London?” Paxton wrote. ”The state may be a blunt instrument, but one could have said the same about the City Council and Pfizer Corporation. Why should the governor or state agencies be spared the call to do things differently this time around?”
Paxton objected to Claire's apparently dismissing the neighborhood as a blighted community. ”It's not a slum,” he said. ”But a viable piece of old New London with people who have lived there all their lives, who have invested in that part of the city when no one else wanted to, who fear they are being forced out just when their investment could pay off. It is not right.
”Right now, a lot of good people are questioning your integrity and the integrity of the NLDC. What I'd like you to do is amend the plan.”
Claire didn't have to study Paxton's e-mail to realize he wasn't going away quietly. Without some quick intervention, Paxton's outspoken opposition could cause some real problems down the road. The NLDC set up a series of public presentations at different locations throughout the city. The presentations had a simple objective: lock up public support for the NLDC's plans and snuff out any opposition before any negative momentum picked up.
What's it like to have a newspaper reporter come to the house? Susette wondered. She was about to find out. Kathleen Mitch.e.l.l had called Lee Howard, the editor of the Susette wondered. She was about to find out. Kathleen Mitch.e.l.l had called Lee Howard, the editor of the Day Day's real-estate section, and suggested he interview Susette. Howard had been following the eminent-domain dispute and agreed.
When Howard arrived he immediately put Susette at ease with his quiet, una.s.suming manner. Early on, he asked her about the NLDC's plan to revive the city through eminent domain.
”They can have my house when they can take the keys out of my cold, dead hands,” Susette said.
Howard knew instantly that the NLDC was going to have its hands full with this woman.
When asked about the NLDC's argument that she could make a $16,000 profit by selling to it, Susette balked. ”Look at this view,” she said, pointing toward the Thames River. ”How many people with a $70,000 house have a view like this? If I leave here, where can I go and get the same thing?”
Her point was simple, yet compelling.
Susette insisted she wasn't the only one in the neighborhood determined to stay. ”The people that wanted to sell have sold,” she said. ”The people still here don't want to go.”
The more she talked, the more sense she made. Susette had nothing to hide. And the resentment in her voice and on her face was raw, especially when Howard asked her about the negative perceptions about her neighborhood, such as its reputation for crime.
”The biggest crime here is what Claire has planned,” she said, insisting that Claire was using code words to hide her true intentions. ”You know that 'HIP little city?' To me, that means Higher Income People.”
Howard left impressed by Susette's intensity and her candor. He called the NLDC for a response to her statements.
Pat O'Neil had been in charge of public relations at the NLDC for a year. Previously a reporter at the state capitol, he had heard about the opening at the NLDC from Jay Levin, and had agreed to come on board to help defuse the Freedom of Information dispute with the Day Day. Right away, O'Neil ended up handling one crisis after another and working closely with Claire. But he never bought into Claire's agenda. And he had a personal distaste for her approach. The steady s.e.xual innuendo and the urgent Friday-night meetings got old fast, in his view. But like a good soldier, he kept his gripes to himself. It was hard to believe he had been on the job only a year; it felt more like a decade.
It fell to O'Neil to handle Howard's questions about Susette and her insistence that the NLDC was being unfair. O'Neil told Howard that he understood where Susette was coming from. ”For people who have lived in houses for a long time, it is difficult,” O'Neil said.
His honesty made an impression on Howard.
O'Neil also admitted that there were financial motives for the NLDC to act quickly in its attempt to obtain the homes in the fort area. ”If you wait two years and Pfizer opens and people are desperate to move in, things like that do have an effect on the market,” he said.
After interviewing Susette and O'Neil, Howard produced a cover story t.i.tled ”In The Way of a Revival” for the newspaper's weekly real-estate section. It included color pictures of Susette's house-freshly repainted after the fire-and of its impressive views.
The article's slant and Susette's tough quotes were just the kind of press the NLDC was trying to avoid. A couple of weeks after the article appeared, Dave Goebel told O'Neil he wanted to see him in his office. O'Neil figured the agency had another crisis.
”This isn't working out,” Goebel told him. ”I'm going to have to give you notice.”
Stunned, O'Neil said nothing.
”It's unfortunate,” Goebel continued. ”I feel bad about this. But we've got budget issues. We need project managers and engineers. It's a problem that I have to deal with.”
O'Neil liked Goebel and had always found him to be professional. But he wasn't buying Goebel's explanation. He was convinced it was something else.
”I'm not sure how or why I ran afoul of Claire,” O'Neil said.
”I don't know either,” said Goebel.
Steve and Amy Hallquist saw the feature story on Susette. It confirmed their growing reservations about Claire and the NLDC.
They decided to attend one of the public presentations Claire had scheduled.
Claire was partway through her speech when Susette suddenly stood up in the back of the room.
”This is bulls.h.i.+t!” she said.
All eyes s.h.i.+fted to Susette. Steve and Amy spotted a redhead in blue jeans and a flannel s.h.i.+rt. They recognized her as the woman in the newspaper.
”It's total bulls.h.i.+t,” Susette repeated. ”They're down here stealing our properties. They're trying to take our homes.”
Civility instantly left the room. People mumbled under their breath. A woman toward the back of the hall insisted people in the neighborhood hadn't been included in the process. A man complained that Claire was messing with real lives.
Claire insisted that there were various alternatives and that no final decisions had been made.
Susette remained standing. ”We're not against all development,” Susette said. ”But that doesn't mean you can push us around. We have a right to stay here. These are our homes.”
Amy turned to Steve. ”Wow,” she whispered in his ear, ”she just went off.”
The audience didn't appreciate Susette's outburst. Most people wanted what Claire had promised.
The contrast struck Steve. Claire described teamwork, democracy in action, and everyone working together for a better city, but Susette's actions displayed anger over powerlessness.
When the meeting broke up, the Hallquists heard a community opposition group was planning a meeting.
”We have to do this,” Amy said.
Steve didn't have to be persuaded.
November 18, 1999 When Susette walked into the Landmarks building she hardly believed her eyes. In the center of a large room with a wood floor, some tables had been pushed together to form a makes.h.i.+ft conference table. Mayor Beachy and Kathleen Mitch.e.l.l sat around it, along with Fred Paxton and his wife, Sylvia; John and Sarah Steffian; Steve and Amy Hallquist; and many others. Most of the attendees had never met Susette. But her plight had a lot to do with everyone's presence. She quietly took a seat near the window, away from the table.
Mitch.e.l.l hoped the meeting would be the beginning of a true neighborhood opposition group. Board members of the New London Historical Society and of the Landmarks group had shown up. A few people from Connecticut College were also on hand. The mayor looked ready to roll. This, Mitch.e.l.l thought, is a group capable of having an impact.
After the mayor said a few words, Paxton made a presentation outlining the NLDC's plans to wipe out the Fort Trumbull neighborhood.
John Steffian pounded his fist on the table. ”This is not going to happen,” he thundered. He had looked at the NLDC's designs for the Fort Trumbull area and concluded they had failed to take into account a variety of ways to preserve and incorporate the historic residential neighborhood into the new development.
Steffian pushed for a joint resolution by the historical society and Landmarks that would oppose the forceful eviction of residents from their homes in Fort Trumbull. Both boards had previously resisted taking that stance, but the opposition had largely been based on the sense that it was too late in the game to stop the NLDC. The people in the room felt otherwise. Both boards now voted in favor of the resolution.
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