It's Time to Fix This Old Neighborhood

We Have the Power to Rebuild our Neighborhoods. Join Me On the Journey!

Welcome to This Old Neighborhood

Many of us live in suburban developments, built in the last century - now in urgent need of repair & replacement. Bridges are falling down, water systems failing, gas mains exploding, condominium towers crumbling into the Atlantic, utility & condo fees skyrocketing, and more and more staggering special assessments - whether to recover from catastrophic failures, or to avoid them.

We need to fix This Old Neighborhood. We need to do it now. And we have to figure out how to pay for it as investments that pay for themselves, rather than costs that bankrupt us.

Join us, as we blaze a trail, and draw a map that you can follow, in your own community.

We Have the Power

We have the technology, the know how, the construction techniques, and the money.  We have the capability to rebuild our neighborhoods.  Better, stronger, cleaner, greener, more sustainable & maintainable, more affordable. What we need are maps to follow: Standard contracts, project plans, and financing packages that easy to follow. And somebody has to go first, blaze a trail, draw a map for others to follow.

My name is Miles Fidelman. I'm an Engineer, with the Hawaiian shirt & pocket protector to prove it. And I seem to be stuck with the problem.

I spent the last 50 years building networks - for the military, for corporations - mayors & City Managers hired me to network their communities. I wrote the book on it.

I thought I was peacefully retired. But here I am. On the road again. Fixing This Old Neighborhood with my friends.

Welcome to the Village of Nagog Woods - 2024

I come to you from the Village of Nagog Woods - a 50-year old condominium complex - the oldest in Massachusetts. Where I find myself on one of our four condominium boards, and our long-range capital planning committee - struggling with the results of decades of deferred maintenance and patchwork repairs.  

We’re big: 277 units, 38 buildings, a clubhouse, pool, tennis center, a contracted management company, and a sewage plant we share with our neighbors. Water comes from the town; gas, electric, telephone & cable come from private utilities. We have our own zip code.

We border a reservoir, town forest, art museum, and a regional park. We’re essentially a self-contained street & utility district.

And Nobody Is In Charge!

Between 277 unit owners, 4 condo boards, separate boards for our community corporation and sewage plant, a management company, private utilities, and our surrounding town governments - nobody has the big picture, and nobody is really in charge. We’re all in business together - partners in a real estate venture. We operate as our own local government, and public works department - but we really don’t think, or operate as such.

I find myself on one of our condo boards and our long-range capital planning committee - contemplating how to avoid the skyrocketing costs, special assessments, and catastrophic failures bessetting so many other communities our age.

We suffer from years of deferred maintenance & patchwork repairs - driven by a demand for low condo fees, a bias towards small projects that avoid triggering "build to code" requirements, government by volunteer committee, and unit owners who favor "nobody can touch my unit" over finding ways to work together toward common benefit. We contemplate replacing our building envelopes, while individual unit owners install their own windows, doors, sliders, and insulation. Our sewage treatment plant is busily relining the mains, but that stops at the street - from there, depending on which length of pipe we’re talking about, it might be a condominium association problem, or an individual unit owner’s (every time a pipe clogs, or breaks, it’s an exercise in finger pointing over who’s responsible for repairs, who pays to clean up the mess, and it’s well nigh impossible to contemplate replumbing a building-at-a-time). It’s a mess.

We've a reached a point where the condition of our buildings, grounds, and utility infrastructure require comprehensive measures - building envelope replacement, a new drainage system, updating the wires & pipes in our walls.  We MUST go big, and the only to way to afford it, is to work together. It's a challenge.

And And Opportunity

Our town recently passed a "decarbonization ordinance" - requiring that all new construction, and all major renovations, be fossil fuel free. We are part of a 10-town pilot, enabled by state law.  New technologies, construction techniques, and financing models are being demonstrated all around us - such as neighborhood-level geothermal heating & cooling - far more appropriate for multi-family buildings, than individual, unit-by-unit heat pumps.

We can learn from these efforts, as we look for ways to organize & finance the major work that we need.  Government incentives may be available if we move quickly - we are already using ARA funds to reline our sewer pipes.

IF we can find ways to think at neighborhood scale, and work together, rather than at cross purposes. It's an exercise in herding cats. 

It’s A Process

I'm proceeding, as if hired by a mayor or city manager, to develop an infrastructure plan for our community - our development & our neighboring residences and businesses with whom we share facilities - to organize, and develop a plan, sufficient to float loans and hire contractors

I invite you to follow along with me as I proceed to fix our old neighborhood

It always starts with walking the site, talking to people - asking what they need, what they want.  Bringing people together to share their visions & plans, and find ways to work together. Maybe launching a neighborhood association, or civic league, or community development corporation to provide a focal point.

Then we start talking to vendors.  We visit project sites, invite vendors to give us capabilities briefings.  We organize a bidders’ conference or trade fair, maybe a field exercise where vendors can demonstrate their wares.

Maybe we run a design charrette, where community members can work together to develop a common vision & plan.  Maybe we run a scenario game - a computer simulation, a live action role playing game.

And then we start talking to lawyers, acquisitions specialists, and bankers - and start the political process of pulling together financing, selecting vendors, signing contracts, and getting to work.

It's a process.  It takes time.  Fortunately, I've done it before. And I seem to be stuck with the job.

Get On The Bus, Come Along for The Ride

So that's what we're going to do here, and share the experience on the net, where you can follow the fun, share our pain, maybe learn something that you can use in your own communities.

This isn't a funded project, I'm doing this as a volunteer, out of necessity to protect my home. I'm doing this without staff - so don't expect major media production values.  I'm an Engineer, not a TV Producer - this is my Engineer's log, in blog form.  I'll be posting notes, interviews, vendor presentations, as they happen - sometimes as zoom sessions, opening the floor for viewer participation.  I'll answer questions as best I can. I’ll be opening chat rooms around specific topics, and for communities that want to organize local watch parties & working groups.

Finally, this is turning into a full time job, without a customer paying for my time and expenses.  So I'm turning to you, my viewing audience for support. Subscribe for free to follow along.  Pledge a few bucks for full access to the archives & to participate in the discussions.

So welcome, and stay tuned, as I set out to fix This Old Neighborhood.