If you’ve lived in Westport for more than, say, 6 hours, the reference is clear. “Compo” is “the beach.” “The beach” is “Compo.”
Apparently, AKRF and Lothrop Associates have not lived here for more than 6 hours.
They’re the consultants to the Compo Beach Site Improvement Committee. Yet even though “beach” is right there in the title, the consultants’ report frequently refers to the beach as a “park.”
With lifeguards, sand and plenty of water, Compo is a beach.
The Executive Summary on Page 1 says: “The Compo Beach Master Plan … is intended to serve as a ‘blueprint’ for future improvements to the park.”
The “park” is referenced 3 more times in the Introduction 2 pages later, including this: “The Master Plan evolved from an extensive public outreach campaign … where the community expressed its concerns, ideas and desires for the park.”
No. We did not.
We expressed our concerns, ideas and desires for the beach. Compo is a beach.
As a beach, it has many wonderful attractions: a boardwalk, Joey’s, a playground, athletic fields, a marina, and 2 decorative cannons. Those are important parts of Compo, and we enjoy them all.
But Compo is not a park. It is a beach.
Just because 2 people got married at Compo Beach, we don’t call it a chapel. (Photo/Betsy P. Kahn)
Changing nomenclature is not insignificant. There is a reason one side in a long-running debate calls itself “pro-choice,” and the other “pro-life” — instead of “anti-abortion.”
Recasting our planet’s health as “climate change” rather than “global warming” has reframed that issue. Deniers can no longer simply look at freezing temperatures and major snowstorms, and scoff.
Central is a park. Compo is a beach.
And no consultants’ report will convince me to say — as no one in the history of Westport ever has — “What a beautiful day! Let’s go to the park!”
Any way you frame it, Compo is a beach — not a park.
