We’ve all heard about the “parental bill of rights” or SB 272. This is a bill that would require school staff and teachers to report to parents, if asked, as to whether their child is or might be LGBTQ. To be clear, these students have broken no school rules or have harmed other students. They are just behaving in a manner their parents might not understand, be aware of or approve of. 

To require school staff and teachers to do, what amounts to, spying for parents is not right. Not only that, it is a form of discrimination against any student who is perceived as “different.” Or in this case, as LGBTQ. To do so would only foment a feeling of mistrust for the student. To do so could also send a child, unknowingly, back to a home where he or she could be harmed.

There is an upcoming hearing at 10:00 am of the House Education Committee on Tuesday, April 18th. The committee will then vote on SB 272 on April 25th. We urge you to contact the members of this committee and let them know you OPPOSE SB 272.

There is an ordinance coming through the City Council process that would roll back restrictions on consumer use of fireworks in Keene. I think fireworks cause a lot of environmental damage and other harm, and would like to keep the restrictions where they are.

First off, note that we are talking about allowing fireworks for consumer use , not commercial displays like at the college graduation or a baseball game. Commercial displays are already allowed through a city permitting process. But all the growth in the fireworks industry is in consumer fireworks.

I would note that the above chart ends in 2020, which was a bumper year for fireworks, when consumer fireworks flooded the market for pandemic supply-chain-related reasons. I recall people around the neighborhood setting off fireworks every night, to the endless annoyance of my beloved wife. Flashing lights and loud noises give her a headache.

That was in my neighborhood in East Keene, which is pretty densely populated. The new rules would not allow fireworks in neighborhoods like mine – they are to be restricted to the rural and agricultural zones. While I am deeply skeptical of how well that restriction would be honored in practice, launching fireworks in rural areas comes with its own problems. 

Noise pollution is high among them. That loud report – BANG BANG BANG snap snap snap snap snap – freaks out all animals in a surprisingly large radius. The effect on dogs is well known, but also consider the effect on wildlife – especially as our ordinance pushes these displays into the rural zone. Many species will simply desert areas where such disruptive human activity is present, retreating deeper into the woods or disappearing altogether. 

Fireworks noise can also be a triggering factor for some veterans who have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). People on the autistic spectrum can also be affected by the combination of loud noises and flashing lights. These concerns can be mitigated somewhat, in the case of commercial displays, by prior announcement and notification to neighbors in the area – but there will be no such mitigation for consumer fireworks, which people might launch off at any time without prior warning to those who may be affected.

Fireworks also cause a lot of air pollution. Keene should also be specially attuned to air quality issues given its geographic setting, on the floor of a glacial valley that is subject to atmospheric inversions. If fireworks are launched during an inversion, the smoke – high in particulate matter and laced with toxic metals - can be expected to linger in the city for an extended time.

In addition to these toxic metals – potentially including lead - residue from fireworks includes perchlorate. Perchlorate is an oxidizer used in fireworks that makes the rocket burn, and is also a thyroid disruptor, posing a risk to human health as well as to the local ecology. The Environmental Protection Agency is currently running studies on how perchlorate from fireworks is affecting local watersheds, soils, and sources of drinking water.

And of course there is the litter. Fireworks create so much litter. Don’t get me started.

Also fireworks contribute significantly to the risk of, you know, fire.

If you live in Keene and, like me, you aren't a big fan of this change, your best bet is to get in touch with your City Councilors and let them know - their contact details can be found on this page.

The topic will also be up for discussion at the meeting of the Planning, Licenses, and Development Committee at 6:00 in City Hall on Wednesday, April 12. Be there if you can!

Just a few days ago, I watched in stunned horror, (along with most of America) the egregious, racist expulsion of two, young, black Tennessee state legislators. The White legislator was spared expulsion due to one vote in her favor. Their crime? They lent their voices to citizen protestors in the wake of yet ANOTHER horrific mass shooting last month, this time in Nashville.

We can’t vote those two legislators back in to their lawfully elected seats, but there is an action we can take here. We can take a few moments to call, email or text our Democratic representatives and ask them to introduce a resolution censuring the Tennessee Republicans for their anti-democratic and racist removal of their colleagues.

We also need to explain this resolution is not only a shunning of the Tennessee Republican legislature but, should this get to a vote in New Hampshire, it would put any NH Republican legislators who vote against it on record as supporting anti-democratic and racist actions.

Step 1 is to contact your Democratic representatives and let them know you want this resolution proposed to express the will of the people. To be clear, we don’t expect New Hampshire to act upon EVERY injustice that happens throughout our country, but this expulsion by the Tennessee Republican legislature smacks of authoritarianism and is very dangerous for our democracy and our nation! Make sure your reps understand this. 

Step 2 is to then remind voters during the next election cycle of those candidates who were in support of anti-democratic and racist actions!

To contact your representatives, here are the links:

The New Hampshire House of Representatives (state.nh.us)

The New Hampshire State Senate

Today in Tennessee, democracy died a little bit at the hands of racist Republicans in the Tennessee legislature. Let’s back up a bit . . .

On March 29, 2023, six people, three of them nine year old children, were gunned down in yet ANOTHER mass shooting, this time in Nashville, Tennessee. Three days later, hundreds of people including adults and school age children gathered at the Tennessee Capitol, utilizing their First Amendment right to peacefully protest. Which they were doing for stricter gun laws. Three Tennessee House legislators, Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, all Democrats, added their voices by speaking out against gun violence and urged their colleagues to vote for common sense gun legislation. They did this on March 30 in the legislature, KNOWING they were breaking a House rule but felt strongly they had to give their constituents a voice. 

"I fully acknowledge that. But I broke that rule in order to fight for Tennessee's children, Tennessee's teachers, Tennessee's churches. We have got to address this issue. And we have got to make sure that both sides of the aisle are talking about this issue. And I will break protocol if I need to fight for Tennessee kids," Johnson said. "2,000 people were outside the doors begging us to talk about gun violence. The least we could do is acknowledge that they were there... that they cared and they're fighting for their community." 

The Republicans in the Tennessee House of Representatives were not happy with that. Johnson and Jones were stripped of their committee assignments because of the chants while Pearson had no assignments as he was newly elected in January. Clearly that wasn’t enough. . .

Today, April 6, the Tennessee House held a hearing to vote to EXPEL the three Democrats because of their involvement in a protest concerning gun laws. For what they referred to as “disorderly” gun reform chants from legislators trying to end senseless gun violence.

For exercising their First Amendment right. 

Today I watched, in real time, the blatant, in-your-face act of racism in the state of Tennessee. Rep. Jones was expelled in a 72-25 vote. Rep. Johnson was retained in a 65-30 vote. Rep. Pearson was expelled in a 69-26 vote. For those who are unaware, Rep. Pearson and Jones are Black, Rep. Johnson is White. 

This expulsion vote was unlike any other vote in Tennessee history.

This does not bode well for democracy not only in Tennessee but in our country. We must remain ever vigilant that something similar NEVER happens here in New Hampshire!

DAMNABLY CLEAR CHOICE

Tennessee Republicans voted to sacrifice White school children & Black legislators 

for #WhiteSupremacy & guns. 
pic.twitter.com/eB0olZQWYL

— Rev. & Prof. Cornell William Brooks (@CornellWBrooks) April 7, 2023

Ever wonder about the origins of our state flag? I did and this is what I discovered. 

New Hampshire declared its independence from Great Britain on Jan. 5, 1776. That same year the state constitution was being written and a state seal was being designed by the First Provincial Congress. Represented on the seal was a pine tree and an upright fish on either side of a bundle of five arrows. The arrows represented the (at the time) five counties, the pine tree and fish represented the principal trade of the colony.

On the seal was the inscription, “COLONY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE * VIS UNITA FORTIOR” (translation: “A united force (is) stronger.” The first record of the seal dates back to Sept. 1, 1775 on commissions issued to military officers by the Provincial Congress. July 5, 1776, was the last known use of this seal on an act of the General Assembly, however, it is still used (along with the modern seal), on the cover of copies of the State Constitution.

In 1784, the legislature changed the seal to show a ship on stocks. The sun rising in the background was a reflection of Portsmouth, which had become a busy shipbuilding center. 

In 1931, Gov. John Winant formed a committee to design a new seal. Later, these new recommendations were approved by the General Court, a law was enacted and then codified the new official state seal design. On Jan. 1, 1932, the changes went into effect. 

The new state seal used the warship USS Raleigh encircled by a laurel wreath and nine stars. (The Raleigh was built in 1776 in Portsmouth for the new American Navy.) The wreath represents fame, honor and victory, while the nine stars declares NH was the ninth state to join the Union. The water represents Portsmouth harbor and the tiny, yellow-colored bit of land is granite, representing NH’s rugged landscape and strong people. A new seal also had a new inscription: “SEAL . OF . THE . STATE . OF . NEW . HAMPSHIRE”

Many other state flags are based around its official state seal and New Hampshire is no different. By 1876, more states had their own state flag, often due to the urging of the Post Master General who wanted to display them or by groups such as the Daughters of the American Revolution. By 1925, a majority of all states had flags. 

Currently, some states such as Massachusetts, Minnesota and Illinois have already filed (or plan to do so) bills looking into their state flag design. Other states have already undergone the process of redesigning their state flag such as Mississippi in 2020 and Utah just this past week. Georgia has a much more stream-lined flag since the early 2000’s.

Here in New Hampshire, the possibility of a new state flag design is being discussed. According to Rep. Tom Cormen, he and Rep. Jonah Wheeler are going to propose a bill to have a commission do research to see if there is a need for a new state flag. That would be the first step. Should that pass, we’ll see where this goes.

Last summer as part of broader efforts to address the ongoing crisis of housing and homelessness, I pitched various entities within the City of Keene on the idea of reforming the current restrictions on building Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) in our community. I’m happy to say that an ordinance for ADU reform is now making its way through the City Council process.

Accessory Dwelling Units are smaller, secondary housing units that share a property with existing single-family homes. They can be attached to the existing house – like when an attached garage is converted into a “mother-in-law suite,” or they can be detached as a separate building on the property.

Currently we allow ADUs in Keene, but with substantial restrictions. For example, detached ADUs are only allowed in the Rural and Agricultural zones. This means that all of the many old carriage houses and stand-alone garages in densely populated residential areas close to the city center are currently off limits for conversion into living space. This latest ordinance should change that.

This is a valuable opportunity because, as I was quoted saying last year, “The quickest, most affordable and equitable thing we can do to increase the availability and reduce the cost of housing in Keene is to enable more people to live in the buildings we already have.”

As luck would have it, a policy brief, authored by Emily Hamilton and Abigail Houseal of George Mason University, was recently released that takes a look at New Hampshire as a case study as part of a national study of state laws concerning ADUs. The study sites the following factors that make New Hampshire a relatively well-suited state for ADU building. To quote the study, these are:

• High rental rates
• Binding supply constraints on other types of housing
• Existing stock of large, relatively lightly occupied single-family houses
• Large lots
• Demographics that support housing construction, including people with funds to build them, families looking for intergenerational housing solutions, and student renters

According to Hamilton and Houseal's analysis, the three major barriers regulatory barriers that tend to limit construction of ADUs are owner-occupancy requirements, parking requirements, and requirements for a conditional use permit. All of these requirements will tend to reduce the number of ADUs that get built, and thus reduce the effectiveness of ADU construction as a tool for use in easing the housing shortage.

While Keene’s new ordinance does not require a conditional use permit for an ADU, it does require that each ADU come with a parking space and that the owner of the property live there, in either the main house or the ADU. I actually know of an ADU in Keene that currently sits empty due to that owner-occupancy rule.

Unfortunately, the researchers were able to get data on ADU counts from only a few municipalities – town-level data is far too difficult to assemble in this state. But one does what one can with the data one has. In this case, there is enough at least a nice table of different policies in several NH jurisdictions:

Being as Keene and Portsmouth are of similar sized populations, this suggests, once detached ADUs are no longer restricted, we might settle into a pace of about six new ADU permits a year - or perhaps more as no conditional use permit will be required. We could do even better by dropping the parking and owner-occupancy requirement.

Of course, regulatory changes only go so far. While among the most affordable options for housing development, ADUs are still quite expensive to build from a homeowners perspective, and so better funding mechanisms are needed. 

Recently, large developers have been able to rake in housing incentives from federal funds that are channeled through the state. Dollar-for-dollar, these corporate handouts would be a lot more effective at bringing affordable housing to market if they were made available to homeowners seeking to finance ADU projects.

On Feb. 26, I wrote about my concerns with Gov. Sununu’s proposed licensing reform in the budget he presented to the legislature. His proposal was to eliminate 34 licenses,14 regulatory boards and nearly 700 statutory provisions. While some of the licenses required were for professionals whose need for licensing did seem a little like overreach, other professions such as a medical technician, nuclear medicine technologist and cardiac electrophysiology specialist were also on the governor’s chopping block.

Since the proposal, House members heard from their constituents, many of them in the license targeted professions, who voiced their concerns and strong opposition. For example, several landscape architects contended that removing the license would be hazardous to public safety. These are the professionals who, among other things, control erosion and plan where buildings and roads will be located. In addition, they would not be able to bid on public projects without a license.

On Monday, the House Finance Committee declined the proposal opting to remove instead only three required licenses, an athlete agent, hawkers and peddlers, and itinerant vendors. However, when the entire house takes up the budget next week, they could bring back the governor’s proposed licensing reforms. Or, if the House decides not to consider it, the proposal could be sent on to the Senate, where the senators could decide to bring the proposal back for their consideration. 

One of the points to this article is that sometimes constituent concerns that are voiced to lawmakers can and do make a difference! Let’s not stop doing that. If you would like to make your voice heard on this issue or any other and are unsure who represents you, follow this link: The New Hampshire House of Representatives (state.nh.us)

To contact your senator, follow this link: New Hampshire State Senate

Even though they scrubbed three of the 34 proposed licenses, the House gave the go-ahead to now license musical therapists and recreational scuba divers who want to catch lobsters.

It was one year ago, last week, that Councilors Catt Workman, Bryan Lake and I and about 60 other people showed up at City Council committee meeting to call for a better plan to address housing and homelessness in Keene. As a result of this advocacy, the Mayor was pushed to convene an ad-hoc committee to make recommendations on a path forward. 

The recommendations have been made and the work to implement them is ongoing. I've discussed this all a bit in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series. 

Now here in Part 3 since its been a year, its worth taking stock of whats been accomplished. I've made a list:

• There is a new ordinance in the works that would reduce constraints on on Accessory Dwelling Units. This will expand the housing supply at the low end of the market.
• We're getting a slight improvement to the city's camping ordinance. We're not getting the campground that many wanted, but the city now will now have a little more flexibility to help people who are discovered camping on city property. Rather than summarily kicking people out, the parks director will be able to authorize campers to stay an extra night or two while they work with social services to arrange for better place to stay.
• Soon, people being released from protective custody in county jail will be able to get a ride to where they need to go, rather than being dropped off with no resources in the middle of Keene.
• State legislation has been proposed that would allow cities like Keene to recover more costs for sheltering the residents of other towns. It is hoped that this will provide financial incentive for those towns to find housing solutions for people locally, rather than sending people out of their communities and away from their existing support networks.
• A pilot program that located a porta-potty downtown lasted for about 12 weeks before the potty was vandalized by late-night drunks. However, there is still a desire on the Council to establish a more permanent (and vandal-proof) solution for public bathrooms - maybe as part of the ongoing downtown redesign.
• New signage directing people to the downtown bathrooms we do have (located on the second floor of City Hall, open 8 to 5) has been posted at Railroad Square.
• A safe parking program may be on its way, spearheaded by Southwest Community Services with the help of local churches. I haven't heard about this for a little while and I hope its still in the works. This would be a major win if it happens.

Taken as a whole, I think this list encompasses some good things that will help people, and I am proud of the work I've put in, with so many others, to help make them happen. But even these efforts are so limited and difficult - it lays bare the immense scale of what is yet to be done.

Onward.

fas·cism:

an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.

Recently, the NH Senate passed SB 272. This bill REQUIRES those who are employed in the school systems to contact the parents of an LGBTQ student and inform them of their child’s preferred gender identity and use of preferred pronouns. In the event of an intolerable house hold, this could be a potentially dangerous situation for the child!

This bill will go on to the House for a vote after April 1. Meanwhile, a different bill is being voted on in the House today. HB 417 will now include “gender affirming care” as a form of child abuse. If passed, a child’s PARENTS can be charged with abuse if they attempt to get that specific kind of healthcare for their child. According to various mental health organizations, the American Medical Association and doctors throughout the country this should be the standard of care for young people who are transgender.

Why would anyone deliberately want to put a loving and supportive parent in the position of choosing jail or helping their child?

Please take a moment to contact your representatives in the House and Senate and let them know you oppose these bills because of the potential danger they would bring to LGBTQ children.

To find your ward and your Representative, follow the link:

The New Hampshire House of Representatives (state.nh.us)

To find your Senator, follow the link:

New Hampshire State Senate

HB 467-FN is a bill that requires new public playgrounds to have solid rubber or rubber-composite surfaces beneath each piece of play equipment. This is an important step toward making playgrounds accessible and will enable children who use wheelchairs to play alongside children who don’t.

Today the bill got its hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee. Here is the testimony of one of the bill’s supporters:

Here in Keene, I served on the committee that consulted on the design for the new Pat Russel Park, which is now under construction. Taking inspiration from a playground near where I grew up, I made it my mission on that committee to advocate that the two playgrounds in the project be made not just accessible, but inclusive. On this I had mixed success.

We were able to get pea-gravel and wood chip surfaces replaced with rubber, which was a big win. I also asked that various features and games be installed at an appropriate height for wheelchair users, so that activities could be available to all children. 

I also asked that special consideration be given to children on the autism spectrum, by creating play areas where these kids can find shelter from excessive stimulation. The idea is to ensure that there are spots from which autistic kids may observe the commotion of the playground, without necessarily having to be immersed in it.

We were able to get these features into the design, and my hope is that most of them have survived subsequent rounds of budget squeeze. 

Funding is a significant limitation here – a state fund to provide grants for inclusive features in public playgrounds would go a long way. (SUBTLE HINT TO MY FRIENDS IN THE STATE LEGISLATURE)

Another problem was that, by the time I was asking for these things, many choices with respect to the playground had already been made. For example, a vendor and style of playground had been chosen earlier in the process, which mean that when I asked for selection of a particular slide that had extra space designed for disabled kids to make use of, we were unable to get it because that was not an option offered by our vendor.

All of this is to pass on an important lesson that I learned from that process:  when designing playgrounds, inclusion and access needs to be part of the planning conversation from the beginning.