My Christmas wish list,hope

Christmas wish list,hope,

I haven’t written a Christmas list for many a year, but it seems an obvious time to make a wish list for Middletown.

So, Dear Santa:

I hope for ready access to the Connecticut River from downtown sometime before my family is scattering my ashes in the current.

I wish for a triumvirate of leadership, city, school and unions, who will understand that if we have the best schools in Connecticut, right here in Middletown, it will be the most productive economic generator we could hope for.

I wish for more retail on Main Street.

I hope for a new restaurant that doesn’t serve pizza. In fact, I have a specific wish for good barbecue and locally-brewed beer.

I wish for a city that won’t spend hundreds of thousands of dollars suing itself.

I wish, against hope, for full PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) reimbursement from the State of Connecticut.

It’d be nice to have a full-time police chief before next Christmas.

I pray for more owner-occupied residents downtown

I wish that everyone is able to be warm when they need to be warm, and can find a meal when they are hungry.

I wish Common Council meetings would all be one hour shorter.

I hope that all our men and women in the armed forces are able to return home strong and healthy.

I wish the surface parking lots on Main Street would disappear beneath prosperous development.

Anywhere in town I’d love to turn the corner and find a Whole Foods, a home-made ice cream shop, an RJ Julia annex, a club booking nationally-touring musical artists.

I wish those beep-beep-beep walk lights (audible pedestrian signals) on Washington Street would be replaced with bird chirps.

Bike paths. Lots and lots of bike paths.

I wish someone from the Destinta chain would pay some real attention to the quality of projection at their Middletown theater.

I hope for a short-circuit for the system that plays endless classical music around the Middle Oak complex.

I’d like a downtown festival that doesn’t revolve around the internal combustion engine.

hope for a strong gust of wind to blow all the satellite TV dishes off the roofs of historic homes around town.

I’d like a populace who understands that you can carp and complain all you want on news blog sites, but things will never change unless you turn off the TV, get up off the couch and do something.

I’m thinking if John Basinger could memorize Paradise Lost, that Paradise Regained shouldn’t be too far behind.

A monthly night-time farmers market.

I wish for the return of a city (municipal) farm, where education would be combined with sustainable principles to create food for those in need.

I wish for an apology from Kleen Energy. All we’ve ever heard is how much good they’ve done for the city. Time to finally man-up on this one.

Another new senator.

I wish for city-wide free Wi-Fi.

I’m sure there are lots of wishes, hopes and desires I’ve missed, and I encourage you to add yours in the comments section

Finally, I hope for health and happiness for family, friends and neighbors. And as hackneyed as it sounds, peace on earth and goodwill toward men, and women.

And Santa, if you are able to fulfill even one of these wishes, there’s a glass of Knob Creek and a sugar cookie waiting on the hearth.

Ed McKeon is a filmmaker with Motion Inc., and one of the founders of the Middletown Eye.

(source:middletownpress.com)