Old Window Workshop has six suggestions for Springfield to increase opportunities  for residents and save its historic heart. 

1. Offer low-interest loans for window restoration: Cooperative Banks and Community Development Block Grant funds could offer low-interest loans to low-income homeowners to restore and retrofit windows for energy efficiency.  Pre-approved loans are a common tool used by salesmen of new replacement windows. Some homeowners have spent many thousands of dollars unnecessarily simply because they could get a loan to replace their windows. Loans to re-use windows have triple-value:  improved living conditions for homeowners and tenants, jobs and skill-building for workers, quality windows and energy improvements for property-owners.   

2. Educate Homeowners: An Information Sheet comparing replacement windows to restored windows could be available at the Building Inspector’s Office when property owners apply for permits to replace their windows.

3. Offer Window Restoration vs. Replacement: Property managers and owners could be required to get window restoration bids along with their application to replace windows.  Building Permits could require an estimate of the cost of replacing demolished windows, as well as reusable doors, interior trim and flooring. 

4. Expand Job Training: Remodeling and restoration contracts for city properties could require job training for no less than 2 Springfield women or youth.

5. Create Higher Ed Opportunities: The City Council should request that STCC and UMass create a Historic Preservation and Restoration Trades Institute where students earn income and gain skills on-the-job while taking courses that lead to Associates Degrees and higher education.

6. Set The Example: Soon Springfield City Hall will need windows maintained, re-glazed and re-finished.  This cost can be incorporated into the city’s monthly building maintenance budget.  At-risk youth could be trained and paid in the summer or after-school during the year, on the condition that they complete high school.  Women could job-share and stay in school.  

After the election, I had the good fortune to meet and work with activists for environmental and social justice.  First, I attended a panel discussion of historic preservationists led by UMass professors, Max Page and Marla Miller.  These folks are redefining the future of preservation as a tool to fight climate change and inequality.  The second was the Board of Directors of the Building Materials Reuse Association who met in Chicago.  This Board is a group of tool belt entrepreneurs, architects and organizers who reuse original materials from buildings and give it back to residents who reclaim their own whole communities.  

I heard Max Page say, “We can’t build our way out of climate disaster, we have to preserve our way out of it.”  And Anne Nicklin, CEO of the BMRA often calls us to envision and act to create a “world without waste.”  That means no more throwaways of our great natural resources, including us people.  

​Ahead of us is the fair distribution of good wages and family-centered, community-focused work where women are equal in all fields.  Ahead of us is saving our own local environments by stopping leaks in existing gas lines—not building new ones.  Ahead of us is re-learning what democracy should look like---not giving our power over to bloated billionaires.  

March and April incubated seeds for all kinds of growth.  In every city there must be a planting tray where ideas germinate. At first, the seeds need a greenhouse to stay safe from wind and frost. They need sun and watering. Every idea that has accomplished social change has come out of planting soil that has been carefully tended. In my experience, I have found that the planting trays are usually tended by a strong woman gardener.

In Westfield, Massachusetts, the gardener for ideas is Ann Lentini. In Springfield the gardener is Morrell Thomas. Their greenhouses are Domus (Home), Inc. and Westcarb (West Indian Caribbean), Enterprises, Inc. They are vigilant in making their organizations strong enough to carry the weight of activism, but their expectation is clearly defined at the outset. They want ideas to sprout, and by summer, to survive on their own ability to feed people.

The idea of a preservation trades center has been germinating inside the greenhouses of Domus and Westcarb. In February Ms. Thomas adopted the Old Window Workshop idea and told me, “Get out there and do what you do well. Work for your passion and good will come of it.” She is a fiercely independent gardener. The idea of preservation services as part of her business model must survive through its own ability to deliver what people need, her customers, her workers and her business greenhouse.

Now little green specs in planting soil have let go tiny leaves that will soon be the size of your hand. Buds of color on trees and shrubs have begun to soften even the starkest city streets. Soon, the high schools will empty kids out on street corners with nothing to do. And the gardeners are expecting results from their patience.

My task: Build a greenhouse for preservation trades. Give women and out-of-school young people planting soil mix to learn how to preserve what is beautiful around them. Give them the hammer and putty knife to make a living and feed their families.

By springtime next year, millions and millions of dollars for restoration of Union Station and Court Square and even a big new casino will begin to trickle-down to construction contractors looking for proven workers. With this kind of watering can, even neighborhoods with the highest poverty rates in the country can become seed flats for all kinds of growth.

By summer next year, there will be fewer kids on street corners and women will be harvesting food from their own skills in preservation trades. Old windows–fresh food.