Skip to content

Pine Plains Views

A Portrait of a Small Town in Rural America

Menu
  • Home
  • Photo Gallery
  • Community Meetings
  • Video Categories
    • People
    • Attractions
    • Agriculture
    • History
    • Schools
  • Community Links
    • Links
  • About
  • Contact Pine Plains Views
  • Search Pine Plains Views
Menu

What IS Community, Anyway?

Posted on August 1, 2016

It was a large red barn right by the side of the road. It was so well-known it was a landmark for directions.

BROOKS BARN on road MAPPED

Then, on a Tuesday morning, if you were driving down the road you saw this:

By the end of the day only rubble remained.

Brooks Barn After

By the end of the week what could be removed by dumpster was and what had to be buried was. The land was landscaped and seeded. As if nothing were ever there.

landscape now

As if nothing remained.

But there were remainders. People.

On Facebook people raised many questions. Why?  Was it for taxes?  Was it for the view?  Was it because the barn was in terrible condition?

I am sure that there are answers and, after all, a person who buys land has the power, if not the right, to do whatever to it as long as it conforms to local ordinance (in this case the Town of Northeast, not Pine Plains).

But it just happened — without a public discussion, warning, comment, or solicitation for options.  And that is what made it an abrasion.

I am making this page on Pine Plains Views available for discussion through the Comments section below.

1 thought on “What IS Community, Anyway?”

  1. Wendy says:
    June 28, 2019 at 1:50 pm

    What a shame. Destroying the history and character of a place. They probably didn’t even have that old historic lumber reclaimed. So many people these days have no sense of their own history and heritage. Perhaps, that’s why so many seem to be experiencing a crisis of identity and values.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

WHY THIS WEBSITE

I came to Pine Plains by choice, not by chance of birth.

But the small-town rural community I chose is changing. The farmers have, for the most part, sold to people from the city and fields are becoming lawns.

And, like the land, people, too, are becoming subdivided as difference breeds distance rather than discourse.

I have been making these videos to preserve and reconstitute what I can of a changing way of life and to share it with the community.

On a more personal level, I am making this website as a way of holding on to the reasons why I came here.

Stan Hirson

©2023 Pine Plains Views | Design: Newspaperly WordPress Theme