Holyland USA

So much could be said about Holyland. What's left of it overlooks what was then Scovill factory and within the last ten years trees started growing on the hill. It was downwind of all the smokestacks. I surmise the heavy metals have disapated enough for them to grow again. An inspired man created the site in the last century and when I was a child there were pilgrimages up to it. There was a miniature Bethlehem, a concrete Pillar of Salt and the large cross that overlooked the city and glowed at night. But Holyland fell into disrepair, the entry now controlled by an order of nuns who refuse to allow people to walk through it. The last time I was there I found a chicken coop style structure covering a boulder that had two cracks in it. They were painted blue with labels for each. One was titled "Euphrates," the other "Tigres." Enclosed was a large plastic doll with rotting hair. A hand-painted sign tied around her neck said "Eve." The sign outside the shed informed me it was the "Garden of Eden." Even the neon "Holyland USA" sign has suffered. A few years back the "l" and "y" had gone out. As you drove on the highway at night it glowed "Ho land USA."

Cherry Avenue

Best Places
Oh, the Brass!
David K. Randall 03.13.08, 6:00 PM ET
Forbes Magazine dated April 07, 2008

Best Places For Business And Careers Best Smaller Metros By The Numbers:: Lowest Business Costs Lowest Cost Of Living Highest Education Levels Lowest Crime Rates Highest Job Growth Highest Income Growth Best Places:: Chattanooga, Tenn. Des Moines, Iowa Worst Places: Waterbury, Conn. Vote: What city is worth the high cost of living? No Thain, No Gain Cash Is King Dangerous Curves Best Places Complete Contents

To promote itself, a corrupt, has-been city reaches out--to a corrupt ex-governor.

Houston finds oil, Green Bay packs meat and Waterbury is famed for producing corruption. At least four mayors of this little (pop. 108,130) Connecticut city have been indicted for crimes committed while in office, the most recent two episodes involving Philip Giordano, in office from 1996 to 2001 and now serving 37 years for sex crimes (among other counts), and Joseph Santopietro, in office from 1986 to 1991, sentenced last year to five years' probation for a price-fixing conspiracy. In 1986 dead people were found to have voted in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Chicago and New Jersey have plenty of publicly elected convicts in their pasts, but these are big places. Pound for pound, Waterbury is really in a class of its own for government criminality. Combine that with abandoned factories, a rotten school system and a 20% poverty rate and you get a real package of reasons to stay clear. In this year's survey of Best Places in which to do business, Waterbury gets the booby prize.

Not so long ago this mill town on the Naugatuck River was an industrial powerhouse. Between 1850 and 1950 it grew to preeminence in brass manufacturing, accounting for most of the country's output. It made most of the ammunition casings fired by U.S. servicemen in WWII. Waterbury was also a center of clockmaking.

The profits from this rich manufacturing base financed rows of mansions in the Hillside neighborhood. The downtown sported an elegant train station with a 240-foot-tall campanile, designed by McKim, Mead & White.

What's left? A 29-square-mile junk pile. Timex is the biggest manufacturer still around. The city's largest employers--its two hospitals--are in ailing financial shape.

Turning things around presents a challenge. So in February Mayor Michael Jarjura (who hasn't been accused of anything) looked for the right man to be the public face of the Waterbury Development Corp. His choice: native son John G. Rowland, 50, who rose to prominence as Connecticut's governor from 1995 to 2004. Rowland was newly available, having served a prison term for fraud. His ankle bracelet came off in 2006.

In his new position Rowland will get $95,000 a year for trying to persuade existing employers to expand and others to relocate here. Dressed in a collared shirt and Izod sweater, the jaunty 6-footer takes forbes on a tour and explains that businesses will be drawn by the affordable real estate. But of course. Some 150 vacant structures dot the city, and that excludes commercial buildings downtown that have tenants on their street floor but, above, boarded-up windows.

Is the city's bad reputation going to be a problem? No, says the ex-gov: "People's memories only last about six months." Or else people just don't mind a little honest graft. The owner of a restaurant tells Rowland that his meal is on the house. The owner of a clothing store sees him eyeing a suit and says that he can provide a really good deal on it. "What do you think looks better?" Rowland asks. "Green or brown?"

Timexpo

Contained in the only part of Scovill Manufacturing's factory plant is the Timex Museum, "Timexpo." Timex is a local business, the current corporate version of The Waterbury Clock Company and the various other clock companies it gobbled up in the last 100 years. I've not been in the museum and don't know anyone who has. Scovill is best known for its subsidiary, Hamilton Beach and its last CEO, Malcolm Bainbridge who became Secretary of Commerce in Reagan's cabinet. What is left of the plant you see before you. The remainder has been paved over and made into a mall and shopping center, both with many empty store fronts. I was told the then CEO of Timex was an avid admirer of Thor Hyerdal, thus the Easter Island replica in styrofoam and concrete. It abuts the interstate that runs over the city. To the west, across the interstate and on Abrigador Hill are the ruins of Holyland, USA, what was one of the largest pieces of outsider art in the country.

A shining example

In the middle of town, in front of what used to be the train station is a statue dedicated to Father McGivney, creator and founder of The Knights of Columbus, now headquartered in New Haven. I drive by this statue every day and each time I am forced to be reminded of what they represent. The Knights, besides wearing silly costumes are also an arm of the Catholic Church that donates millions to anti-gay and anti-women's rights political campaigns.

Blackie's is open for the season

Another landmark of Waterbury. I have not gone in. It would be hard for me with such a name. But then I went to high school with two cousins the same age and with the same name of Michael. There was Michael Feola-the-Redhead and Michael Feola (who had dark hair). Why it wasn't the other way around, I don't know. I guess Michael Feola-the-Blackhead would have other connotations than his hair color. They say they make good relish here.

March 5, 2010

When I grew up in this part of the state, an interracial marriage was a person of Italian descent and the other Irish. Here is their progeny and now only $4.99 at Stop and Shop.

When hell freezes over

With a full moon and the coming thaw, it's apparent rutting season has arrived. Sami keeps rubbing her cloaca in my face and pinching me with her beak. Humans are irritable. The trees are starting to bud and song birds are once again heard over the cacophony of crows. This is the moment of limbo, where piles of snow, ice, sand and garbage - a tiramisu of winter's legacy - begin to give way to Spring's coming warmth. But it's not yet here in Waterbury. The ground is frozen, the wind still cold. Grass, the harbinger of Spring's first shock of green, has not yet arrived. Sand from the snow trucks still covers the streets with mud (if it's raining) and dirt and dust (if not). But it's coming soon. There may be another snow storm or storms and they will only depress us for a moment and vanish quickly. For the next six weeks as it warms we are once again exposed to each other, a mass of humanity crawling out of our houses from hibernation; we begin to congregate outside, our pale skin and squinty eyes exposed to the elements and the copious amounts of strewn litter not yet hidden by nature's seasonal greening.