Is Darren Winham a coffee nut?

What other reason could there be to have two Aroma Joes bookending town, each near to a Dunkin Donuts? He must also love the theater, too...

To some, Exeter is already far too busy for the size of the town. If true, there is zero reason to “build it up” to “keep its edge” or whatever tired description you might use as a euphemism for top-down molding of this tiny town into Portsmouth. “Increasing revenue” is a another one—it means the Town Rulers will collect more in taxes and spend more, i.e., divert more resources into government consumption. Further, even if  “building up a town” were unanimously supported, it proves far too much: why stop at a Portsmouth-like Exeter? Maybe it should be like Boston, or New York.

Note, it's not Winham's $80k+ salary that's the biggest waste. The real waste is the diversion of production into government chosen channels. He has no clue what type of or how many businesses should be located in Exeter. Nobody does, but entrepreneurs and capitalists, who seek profit by providing goods for voluntary consumers, have the best insights. If Pimentos is closed, it doesn’t mean something should replace it (let alone another bar food place). Maybe it’s just a bad location, and resources are better diverted elsewhere at this point. Maybe that lot won't be productive for ten years. There are infinite desires by consumers and precious few goods to produce them. Only market prices can help allocate goods to consumers' most urgent demands.

Exeter bureaucrats should do absolutely nothing to "bring businesses" to Exeter. It doesn't matter what "vision" they have for the town. It is the wrong one.

Small victory over town ruler

I admit: I was cheering on the detractors of the crony town hall deal.

Personally, I think that bureaucrats and their cronies deserve vitriol and not civil discourse. I can be perfectly polite with the man on the street who agrees with them, but the man on the street is not the one engaging in back-door shenanigans.

Darren Winham (with his $80k+ salary--not including benefits), in his perpetual quest to turn Exeter into Portsmouth, has no intention of listening to the demands of Exeter's residents. If he did, he would resign and recognize that entrepreneurs respond to consumer demands through market prices. No top-down direction is necessary.  Unless his real goal, unwittingly or not, is simply to raise "revenue" for the town government, i.e., to increase the tax coffers...

The best quote: "Why was this kept so secret?" Answer: pipe down, Citizen, you have no role in molding society. Just appear at the official sacrament of voting in March.

The underlying question: who owns the town hall? Is it Darren Winham? Is it the Chamber of Commerce? It's nobody and everybody--"we" all own it. Or, is it the hapless taxpayers, who are continually mulcted of their earnings? With private property, no such conflict would arise.