I spent last Thursday and Friday in Vermont and, while I sift through pages and pages of notes, I thought I’d share some higher-level observations that are starting to emerge from my travels.
First, people have been incredibly nice and generous with their time. I’ve chewed up hours and hours of the work day in offices and stores in all three Cambridges. No one has seemed irritated at my questions or the disruption.
Second, I never expected to have so many conversations about wastewater treatment.
Also, I never expected so many conversations about broadband, but I should have. These are rural communities.
Besides wastewater and broadband, a theme that I’ve thought about a lot is community — how do we build community, whether we live among 500 or 100,000 fellow residents?
Last, coming from the 100,000+ Cambridge, I have been surprised how very different the Cambridges in NY, ME, and VT have been. It isn’t simply that a town with four times the population has four times the stores.
More details soon. For now:
Our Cambridge 