Coronavirus could get towns to think outside their borders
If there’s anything that could get Connecticut’s famously insular towns and cities to think outside their borders and pursue regional solutions to common problems, it’s the coronavirus pandemic.
There might not be a better time, in what could become a seismic, generational shift in the delivery of services for taxpayers with common problems, if not borders. While there have long been regional health department, planning agencies and Councils of Government, the time is ripe for a massive assessment of what can be done to save money and promote post-pandemic economic development.
More and more in recent weeks, Joe DeLong, executive director of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities has heard from members what he calls half-jokingly “the dreaded R word,” for regionalization.
“It’s an interesting time,” DeLong said Friday. “I think within all of our membership, people are starting to think more regionally and collaboratively, and not parochially. After all, the pandemic doesn’t know borders. People are starting to realize we’re all interdependent on each other. We’re not there yet, but we’re asking the right questions.”
Tom Swan, executive director of the Connecticut Citizens Action Group, said one of the glaring weaknesses in local government that is practically crying out for a regional response is special education in public schools.
“You can make a real case there for regional cooperation,” Swan said, pointing out that the school closures in the pandemic added extra headaches for parents. “What is happening, is that essential workers have to stay home with kids who have special needs.” A regional approach, supported cooperatively by several towns, would have more financial help and better resources.
Joe McGee, a former state development director and vice president of the recently defunct Business Council of Fairfield County, which was one of the first casualties of the state pandemic, said regional economic development, linking Fairfield and New Haven counties is crucial and will require commitments from businesses, banks, hospitals, universities and labor unions.
“There needs to be a broadbased organization that plans and also markets the region and it has to come from companies here,” McGee said, stressing that it should not be left to state government.
He said with more businesses now poised to leave New York’s congestion, development hinges on bringing the railroad back with advanced sanitizing techniques to assure riders it will be safe.
“We need an organization of people really committed to the economy, that has to look at the key challenges going forward,” McGee said. “People are looking around and asking themselves ‘do I really want to live in Manhattan or Brooklyn, or go somewhere with less density.’”