Since the 1960s, Nancy Gallant worked in the mills and many shoe shops of Lewiston-Auburn.

“After all those years, I was having trouble with my hands,” says Nancy. “My arm went numb and I thought it was a heart attack but it was carpal tunnel. I had to get operated on. Then I had no money coming in. I tried to find work but no one wanted to hire a 55 year old with carpal tunnel.”

Nancy had lived on Knox Street for five years, when she discovered city development plans to demolish her building and many others. She helped start the Visible Community with other people to protect their homes. After the development plans were stopped, an electrical fire displaced Nancy from her building. Sadly, a second fire in her Pierce Street building cost her everything. She rented the first apartment she found on lower Knox Street.

“It was cold leaky. You could feel wind through walls and windows…” When new senior housing opened on Bates Street, she applied immediately. Nancy finally feels she has a nice place to live. But her experience isn’t unique in our community. She deserves – like all downtown residents – to have a voice in the future of her neighborhood because she is the best expert in some of our downtown’s challenges. She has found she can have a voice as part of the Visible Community and in helping to create the People’s Downtown Master Plan.

A column by Jonathan LaBonte in the Sun Journal (August 31) criticized the People’s Plan for lacking “broader community vision” and demanding “status quo” for Lewiston’s downtown residential neighborhood. We welcome the opportunity to clarify the purpose of the People’s Plan and explain its importance.

The People’s Plan was created by and for those most impacted by development decisions in the downtown – its residents. We created a process inclusive of the many people who have felt unheard and undervalued in previous decision-making. This required extensive door-to-door surveys, outreach at resource centers, and public meetings advertised by flyers, newspaper announcements, press events, and phone calls. We did not exclude any stakeholders in our process. In fact, one visioning session included landlords, business owners and legislators, as well as residents.

The People’s Plan was created to inform a “broader community vision.” We intended from the beginning that the People’s Plan would work in collaboration with other planning efforts – such as the Downtown Neighborhood Task Force – to help develop a larger vision and plan for the challenges and opportunities facing downtown. As we developed the plan, we also supported other projects that reflected the will of downtown residents, such as the Knox Street Park and Bates Street Senior Housing.

We strongly believe the People’s Plan is a useful tool that reflects what matters to residents, and for that reason it is both inherently important and informative. It affirms the worth of downtown residents and our right to participate in a democratic planning process. For Nancy Gallant to belive she and her neighbors could have direct influence on the future of our neighborhoods is far from “status quo.”

The Plan also charts a course of action for residents and the Visible Community, along with other stakeholders, including a newly engaged City Hall, to work together towards improving our downtown community. The success of the People’s Plan will not be measured by any theory of what the redevelopment of downtown should be, but by how its implementation coordinates what is possible with what is desired in the downtown, and mobilizes people to work for those positive changes.

The People’s Plan was funded by a grant from the Presbyterian Committee on the Self Development of People, whose mission embodies the values of self-determination and human dignity and seeks to “participate in the empowerment of economically poor, oppressed and disadvantaged people who are seeking to change the structures that perpetuate poverty, oppression and injustice.” The Visible Community tried hard to embrace this mission throughout our process. We hope other members of the community will join in partnership with the Visible Community and downtown residents to help create a more positive future for everyone.

Craig Saddlemire is a member of the Visible Community. The People’s Plan is available at www.mainepeoplesalliance.org/affordable_housing.html. E-mail [email protected].