We do not frack. We lost our factories generations ago. Marijuana legalization is not yet a profit center for Connecticut.
Put differently: our cultural resources, and richly preserved local heritage, will be the first to go when funding cuts his town. They’re what we have when we don’t have big income.
The budget first proffered by Governor Malloy this winter suggested that local not-for-profit historic preservation organizations would lose all state funding. Howls of protest have held death off for a year or two. But simply throwing a tiny amount of income previously statutorily dedicated to arts, tourism and preservation into the general fund to mitigate an imbalanced ledger sheet misses the point:
History is our one, central biding resource: the single seminal value generating aspect of nearly every community in our state. Eating our seed corn may staunch today’s hunger, but it wrecks the provenance that creates unique value for all of New England.
I discuss this on a recent episode of WNHH radio’s “Design Czar.” To listen, click on the audio above or find it in iTunes or any podcast app under “WNHH Community Radio.”