William Kenny

Member since September 28, 2022

I was born in NYC and raised in Central New Jersey. I lived in Germany for fifteen years and arrived here in Norwich in November of 1991 with my wife, Sigrid, and our two children, Patrick (9) and Michelle (4).

Our children are grown and gone but my wife and I remain.

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William Kenny3 years ago The most important aspect of the drawing/phase one proposal to me is the change of direction of traffic coming up Broadway, towards our beautiful City Hall. I confess to being somewhat reluctant to just changing the flow of traffic as I'd like to see ALL of Lower Broadway transformed into a walking space with delivery vehicles/trash removal only allowed at certain hours and/or certain days.I think that means I'm advocating for a small rotary at the junction of Bath, Union, Chestnut and Broadway and making Chestnut a two-way street. I've attached what I found to be a very interesting point paper of sorts that sort of incited me to walk that entire area, in the downpour, twice today to better experience what we have at street level, when we open our minds and our eyes. I hope it sets you alight as well.Thanks for the opportunity to comment.Bill Kenny

William Kenny4 years ago I stopped by to read about the two ideas already posted and I like them (though I'd like them better with more detail like where the money comes from to improve the marina and/or redesign Lower Broadway as well as including whom we hope the targeted audiences for those improvements might be).I'd fervently hope we'd revisit a concept that succumbed to crib death a little more than a decade ago, the Vibrant Communities Initiative (both The Day and Bulletin long ago removed the links to stories they actually did on this but this is the link (unashamed self-promotion) to a blog entry I wrote at the time to help give you a flavor: https://tiltingatwindmills-dweeb.blogspot.com/2011/09/good-things-come-in-threes.html).We need to think big and then double down on that thought; look at our city's history and realize we are just the most recent people to have the good fortune to live and work here. Everyone before us added something. It's our turn because we've been waiting for someone to show us how without realizing we are who we have been waiting for.No, my suggestion isn't 'too big,' not if we break it into bite-size morsels and create a shared language to measure our progress (and understand that my peanut butter is going to get into your chocolate and vice versa).We tend to look at our city as a two-dimensional object when it's far more complex than that. Folks working to improve the Harbor have a stake in what happens in Down City and efforts with Shipping Street impact Thamesville and beyond.We need to see the whole frame (as we used to say in video production). Stovepipe organizations ('tiger teams') get small projects accomplished but big ones need a wider field of vision. We must learn to look beyond and above our own self-interest.Sorry. Didn't mean to go on and on (and yet I did).

William Kenny

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‘You've got to get out and walk!’

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