Reaching the Summit
To the editor:

I would like to share with your readers the following letter that was written in response to an article encouraging residents of the Summit neighborhood to avoid putting vinyl siding on their houses in the hope of achieving “historical neighborhood” status.
Dear SNA:
I am writing in response to the column titled “Vinyl is not Historic” on page 2 of the Fall 2006 edition of the Summit News. First of all, I want to express my deep resentment at the shallow, self-righteous elitism implicit in this article. To suggest that “my neighbor’s homes in the Elmgrove Gardens…” are “not so different” from my own and therefore someday my “home could be in a historic district” makes the presumption that this is something I would desire.
But let me express another perspective here. I see my home, and my neighborhood, not as a museum piece or picturesque tribute to someone’s idea of “quaintness”, but a living, breathing neighborhood filled with children, energy, and LIFE! I would rather look forward to the future, doing the things that best preserve the structural integrity of my home and doing so with an architectural aesthetic that is not mired in someone else’s notion of “historical”.
For me, history started in the 1950’s – a period that reflected new textures, new materials, and (god forbid!) a variety of color schemes. Beyond the elitism of your anti-vinyl propaganda, there are the real-world economics of raising a family in the Summit Neighborhood. Perhaps I cannot afford to repaint my house in historically-correct colors every 10 – 15 years. Perhaps vinyl (dare I say it… even ALUMINUM!)is a more cost effective solution for me, and would far outweigh the benefits of any tax credit.
But beyond this, I find the implicit intrusion into my rights as a property owner to be an unforgivable affront. Believe me, SNA, if I decide to cloak my house in day-glo orange aluminum siding I will do so, and I will oppose to the death any movement to prevent me or anyone else in my neighborhood from doing the same.
Perhaps you should pull your head out from the clouds and realize that as we in the Summit Neighborhood congratulate ourselves on supposedly reduced crime rates, just across Rochambeau in the Camp St. neighborhood you have drive-by shootings and crack houses. In the Fox Point neighborhood, a place that desperately NEEDS a branch library, the Fox Point Branch is slated to close. In the meantime, we get new sidewalks no one actually needs, and traffic bumpouts that actually obstruct and interfere with pedestrian and vehicular safety.
Please keep your elitist propaganda to yourself. Don’t assume “East Side” to mean “upscale” – we are a varied people from all economic strata and with a range of background, tastes, and aesthetics that reflect the plurality that makes us strong. When I want to experience the Victorian era, I’ll go to the museum. But I don’t want to live there.

Maurice Methot
50 Summit Ave.
Providence