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Sense of Place

By Brett Truett

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Groups like National Geographic and the Sierra Club, and their members have worked ‎tirelessly to protect nature, since 1888 and 1892 respectively. This is done so our natural world can be preserved for future generations. Closer to home, various groups do the same for the Adirondack Park that spans‎ 6,000,000 acres.

The world over, many hundreds of millions of acres of lands and water are protected. In some places, access is highly prohibited and deemed a "strict nature reserve". Vast acres will see very few actual visitors, most only by way of glossy photographs in a magazine.

Now imagine a setting where people, for generations, created a place to settle, live, work‎, and be entertained. Scenes of families, friends and acquaintances producing memories, in homes, shops, out in streets and in alleyways, in workshops and factories; people and businesses producing goods, inventing products and hatching ideas, some that even helped set the course and shape our very young nation.

Others toiled to record these occurrences as others drew or captured them in photographs. In various forms, stories have been passed along to the newly arriving. If fortunate, stories might be conveyed within the original buildings ‎and settings they originally created.

In Downtown Utica that's exactly what has taken place. Many of us read and hear stories based on so many Utica occurrences. ‎To think, how would anyone know what impact, any one tale could impart on any one person?

Might someone gather up a certain collection of stories; of places, people, and ideas, or just upon seeing a single building's interior, that imparts a grand vision? Perhaps it was upon seeing part of an old machine? A machine in an old mill building, at a particular time of day as sunlight streamed through massive windows, first striking off old grease-stained floors‎, then onto the story teller's face?

A more artificial process recently coined is called "place making". Cities and towns around the globe spend untold millions because many places need to be highly manicured so the original scene can be manifested.

Utica's very own Columbia-Lafayette Neighborhood‎ is a place holding many great original assets in place making. In a long weekend, or only a few weeks, one can polish-up an old relic and magically be transformed back to 1836.‎ These are powerful moments that can be passed on and in-turn create an amazing impression, one no one could predict it's impact on the future.

(Story continues below picture)

Sense Of Place, 442 Lafayette Street

In the opening paragraph the aforementioned nature preservation groups boast 10,000,000 members. So we ask, is it possible that a much smaller and closely connected group of people - striving to preserve 34 acres of blocks in a historic downtown - might be onto something vitally important?

Lest we forget its not as if we don't have plenty of land, on a green hilltop, in which to build our new hospital.

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Recently Mr. Truett purchased 442 Lafayette Street. He did so from a private owner that had no interest selling to MVHS who would bulldoze the property. Mr. Truett has dedicated much of his time since August 2015 to relocating the Downtown Hospital Concept to the St. Luke's Campus, and preserving the Columbia Lafayette Neighborhood.

Understand more reasons Why We Oppose The Downtown Utica Hospital Concept. Then, consider all the advantages of the 64-acre St. Luke's Campus.

Finally, note all the other Community Voices Opposing The #MVHSDowntown Concept.

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No Studies, No Reports, thus we remain #NoHospitalDowntown