Northwood News ♦ June 2009

President’s Message

By Carole A. Barth

This is a painful column to write, but I feel it is important to note the passing of Wayne Goldstein.  Likely many of you never met Wayne, but if you ever testified at a Planning Board or County Council hearing, odds are you’ve seen him.  (He was the guy with a pony tail, wearing a hat.)  Wayne was, quite simply, the lynchpin of the civic activist community.  Although you may never have met him, he helped make our community (and, indeed, the county) a better place to live.

He was actively involved in a host of issues:  planning and land use, historic preservation, the school system, parks, and the environment.  He wrote many columns in The Sentinel exposing the arrogance and foolishness of people and institutions who are supposed to work for the citizens.

Wayne helped us directly in our fight to save Rachel Carson Meadow.  First he helped us get the support of the Montgomery County Civic Federation.  Both Wayne and Jim Humphries (chair of the Federation’s Planning and Land Use Committee) testified in support of saving the meadow.  Wayne arranged to get the black walnut tree measured and its age estimated.  He also connected us with other neighborhoods and activists with whom we could make common cause.

But the main thing about Wayne was that you could depend on him.  He was always there for us to share our triumphs and defeats, to strategize, to attend practically every meeting and hearing (sometimes more than one a night) and, most importantly, to actually do the work.  He had mad research skills.  You could tell him about an issue and, in a little while, up would pop an email chock full of pertinent facts and citations.

In his testimony, he was known for skewering the powerful with humor.  He managed to be entertaining and passionate about the issues at the same time.  Sometimes his hats were part of the show, chosen to make a point or relate to the hearing’s theme.  Yet he never came across as angry or a crank.  He always kept it just under “over the top.”

Wayne didn’t seem to burn out, and he always seemed to genuinely enjoy it all.  The more information and outrage you gave him, the more he would smile and his eyes would twinkle ever brighter.  This amazed me.

It’s hard to measure the impact of involvement and activism.  You tend to lose more battles than you win and, even when you do you win, there’s always another battle and another and another.  The boondoggle comes back with a new buzzword.  The new legislation you fought so hard for is only as good as its implementation.

But those of us that worked with Wayne have no doubts as to his impact.  We feel it every day.  In his loss, we finally understand just how much of a difference he made.   ■