During the recent Nazareth Council Meeting the phrase community pride arose on various occasions, and it got me to thinking what does community pride mean?
Councilman Davis during his presentation to Council of the revised Government Center Proposal, stated that the new building would be a source of community pride.
Councilman Samus discussed community pride as participating in a volunteer town beautification day.
Many residents noted their pride in the community, for its hard-working people, historic buildings, landmarks, layout, and design. And they stated they would be proud of keeping 30 Belvidere, fixing it, renovating it, and making it a crown jewel of the business district.
So what is it?
To me it begins with affiliating yourself with the community. You don't have to live in Nazareth to have community pride in Nazareth. You could have grown up here and since moved away, you could work here, but live elsewhere, or you could live out of town, but in the school district and feel the association with the town. A community extends beyond a specific geographic area and is comprised of those who have concern and care for it and who advocate for it.
The most visual acts of community pride I see are the gatherings and cameraderie found at the Moravian Craft Show and Library Book Sale, the Nazareth Days celebration, Evenings on Main Street, and yes at our organization and Council meetings. People coming together who may only have one thing in common - their community.
You also see community pride in how people maintain their homes and businesses. You see it in how they greet one another and strangers on the street or in the parks.
Community pride is something special you can't find in a sub-division. Yes you can know your neighbors, and help one another, but it goes beyond that. It's going to the library and talking about a recent book, or having your children be read to by the same librarian who once read to you. It's about walking to the home football game or spending an afternoon at the park watching baseball. In this sense, it is where nostalgia meets today.
Sometimes it's about walking a bit slower and looking, closely, at the buildings, the architecture, the nuance you hadn't noticed before. It's about the history and the people who made it.
Nazareth, in particular, has something on most other communities, fame. Between Mario Andretti and Martin Guitar exists the whole of civilized man. No matter where I have been if I mention I am from Nazareth, I am asked about one or the other (and Marco may enlighten a whole new generation to us). That is something special we have and share with these strangers. They see our pride in the community, its people, and its businesses.
Community pride can't be quantified, and maybe it can't be concisely articulated, but it is one of those things that you know when you see it - and in Nazareth you see it often and it is strong in the hearts of the people.
I mentioned previously that I was very impressed with the words of Tim Harper at the rally in July to halt the new government center proposal at Hall Park. He spoke of not tearing at the fabric of the community. He warned that doing so will cause long-term damage. His words resonated with me.
No one wants to lose something good. Having community pride is not a first step - it is the culmination of a great many things that are significant to the people, who in turn want to continue and enhance their community and tell others about it. Furthering your own and fostering the pride you have in your community to others is maybe the culmination of community pride. I don't know, maybe I didn't hit it quite on the head, but it was a first shot.
What do you think? What does community pride mean to you? How would you evaluate community pride, particularly in the people of Nazareth?
11 comments:
I think you hit it pretty good Ross. Community pride is the love that one has for his town and it's people and also it's history or past.
Not participating in spring plantings for the town does not mean that you don't have community pride. Maybe you were busy that day or maybe it was the perfect day to do your own plantings. ---- or maybe it was advertised too late and too little.
Twelve years ago I made the unfortunate decision to settle in Nazareth and raise a family. I made the incorrect assumption that a community over 250 years old would have more tradition and community pride than this one does.
An even bigger disappointment has been the vastly over-rated schools. There are a number of good teachers, but we they are basically instructed to teach with the single minded goal of performing well on the standardized tests. What you basically see is a school with a good demographic getting good results while they should be getting great ones.
The recreation facilities stink ... no community centers, a lousy track, no pool, etc. The longer you wait the more it will cost. And all we do is cater to the elderly - lets let them into sporting events for free. Nice move Don Keller. Why? If you don't build the facilities your football, boys basketball, etc. are going to stink.
Since you don't have the facilities of an LVC school you might as well go back to the Colonial League and wrestle Easton, Northampton, etc. independently.
Umm..leave if you don't like it here
"There are a number of good teachers, but we they are basically instructed to teach with the single..." Hmmm, interesting slip of the fingers on the keyboard. Are you a Nazareth teacher yourself?
Thanks to all who commented. Sounds like someone didn't have enough newsovercoffee this morning!
It does seem that the gripe is from a disgruntled employee who can't see the school from the community. The community has a pool, the school doesn't. The school has the "lousy" track, facilities, teams, and should join another league.
In this person's case I have to agree with anonymous 2 - leave and turn that frown updside down by making some money in the process. You'll get double what you paid for your house 12 years ago if you've at all maintained it. You can move to one of the other LVC communities that don't cost nearly as much as Nazareth (Easton, Bethlehem, Northampton, Allentown) or break even and go to Emmaus or Parkland.
Regarding seniors, you seem to have little respect or understanding. Seniors have been able to go to school district sporting events at no charge for longer than you've lived here. This is not catering. Consider it thanking them.
Imagine for a moment if you lived on roughly $20,000 a year. The school tax bill comes and you owe about $2000 on a house you paid off 30 years ago that cost you maybe $10,000 at the time. In exchange for this tax you have the opportunity to attend for free five home football games, four wrestling matches and 10 boys and 10 girls basketball games. If you have a wheelchair you can even sit in the corner of the gym out of everyone else's way, since the pull out bleacher's can't accomodate you.
Is this catering?
Finally, you need to keep facilities in good shape. I agree completely with this. It lets people know you care and have pride in what you've got. Facilities, however, do not improve performance. Hard work, dedication, and toughness do.
In the end I guess it seems to me that you are looking to others for help and would rather complain about them than try to find solutions to resolve them yourself.
Keep coming back to newsovercoffee. By all means take a full drink each morning. Read about all the people who are working hard to make this community better. Read about the groups and organizations, the government officials, the borough workers, police, fireman and every other person who takes some time out of their own life to make life better for everyone else.
And when you finish pouting, pull yourself up and make a contribution, or do yourself a favor and move.
NOC, thanks for driving home another point that I neglected to make. As a whole, the people of this town lack introspection. They think they have it going on, but the really don't. Actually, not even close. Others do not perceive you as you perceive yourselves.
I chuckled a few years back when a Bethlehem NAACP member implied that Nazareth was a racist community. The leadership of Nazi-reth was appalled.
It takes much more than throwing money at a situation to fix it. And you can't fix a problem with intolerance until you acknowledge there is one.
Your schools are a Columbine waiting to happen. Parents pit their kids against each other. The problems start at the top - its nuture (or lack thereof) not nature. The culture in this community stinks.
I love how you spend your recreation $$$s. What is 2/3 of the money allocated to the lame Nazareth days. Meanwhile, where is the Boro's girls softball program? Oh, thats right you neglected it to the point where it was dissolved. The girls equipment was so poor that Upper Nazareth threw it all away because it was garbage.
A skate park, a track, a community center with gymnasium space. Please, anything. You are the second wealthiest district in Norco outside of Saucon yet you offer the teachers an insulting pay increase and have no recreation to offer the young families that are misled on the "great" school district.
Nazi-reth. DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE.
I wrote a comment regarding the last post deleted it. I instead decided it would simply be sufficient to say:
Making a point is fine, but de-sensitizing the term "nazi" to serve your own illogical purposes is deplorable.
This is the kind of comment I would expect from a teen who can't comprehend what a Nazi is or did.
Say what you want, support your point, but don't be vulgar and offensive on this site.
I can't take the credit for coming up with the moniker, but that is what people from the Lehigh Valley call our wonderful town.
You are treading on thin ice with some of the comments you are quoting. By the way WHO are all the 600 to 1,000 petition signers???? and who is hiding the petitions?. So far they are all "anonymous".
Wow!!! This is a scary thought --- That one of my children might get this person as a teacher!!! He or she sounds like he wishes he would live somewhere else and so do I!!!
To the person who posted in regard to the petitions, I'm not sure I can find where this information was posted.
When covering council meetings and workshops I try to present public comment as comprehensively as possible. I'm not reporting the public comment as being factual in its content, only that it was stated to the Council.
If you direct me to the specific post or comment, I'll double check and may even be able to provide the individual who supplied the number.
Let me know and thanks for visiting.
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