Robert Maccini is an editor and a member of Concord Concerned Citizens.

In a Concord Monitor article on April 25, Mayor Champlin, noting that anger has produced incivility in some corners of public discourse, says, “It’s just not the Concord that I’ve lived in for 40 years.”

He sees the anger as a byproduct of polarization at the state and national levels. I disagree.

As the saying goes, “All politics is local.” I believe that the anger is sparked primarily by local officials disregarding the voice of the public. Many Concord citizens, unwilling to silently defer to elected officials, are speaking up and questioning their decisions. I heartily agree with the mayor on the need for civility, but also with Rep. Maggie Goodlander, who recently observed that sometimes a “holy anger” must be harnessed to bring about change.

The chief example of shrugging off public opinion is the school board.

In 2023, after hearing months of overwhelming public testimony against relocating the middle school to Broken Ground, the board voted to do so anyway. Then, in 2024, when Concord Concerned Citizens (CoCoCi) properly followed the existing procedure to propose amendments to the school district charter, the board spent the public’s money on lawyers trying to prevent voters from having a say in the matter.

The voters prevailed emphatically, with the amendments passing by about 67%. And now, in 2025, the board presses on toward spending $164 million for a middle school, most likely with little or no state building aid, even though there is widespread public opposition to this sort of exorbitant price tag regardless of the school’s location.

Although the mayor didn’t mention it, the Concord of the past forty years is vanishing in another way. It appears that gentrification of the city is proceeding full speed ahead.

A realtor in my neighborhood just listed a fairly modest house for $580,000. This is now typical of the astronomical house prices in Concord. She tells me that buyers are normally well-heeled older folks, often from out of state, and that young families are priced out of the market.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, of the 234 incorporated towns and cities in New Hampshire, Concord ranks 156th in median household income, which puts us about two-thirds of the way up on the income ladder — far from the top rung. In 2023, the median household income in Concord was $83,700, about half of what it is in Bedford.

Despite being the state capital, Concord is a working-class town. It seems like our elected officials are either unaware of that or don’t care about it, as they are placing some $375 million worth of projects on the table all at once: a middle school, golf clubhouse, Memorial Field, police station, wastewater plant.

Exhausted homeowners and renters are struggling to keep their heads above water in the steadily rising river of tax increases. The new property reassessments will only exacerbate these increases, the brunt of which will be borne by those least able to do so.

As the mayor himself warned in his “From the Mayor’s Desk” email on April 4, “Unfortunately, based on the experience of other communities, it’s likely that lower-valued homes in high demand — such as manufactured housing and condominiums — as well as multi-family properties and apartment buildings, will see the highest percentage increases.” On top of this, the school board says that the building of a $164 million middle school with no state aid will increase the property tax on a house assessed at $350,000 by $1,113 over the first two years.

The mayor says, “I think we can hash out our differences and our challenges by sitting down around the table, by talking to each other.” I agree, and how often I have wished that city officials would actually do this.

CoCoCi’s repeated requests to the school board for face-to-face dialogue have been met with silence. Our comments to the board at their public meetings have sometimes been met by eyes either rolling or fixed on electronic devices and always — unless we can speak for less than 180 seconds — by being cut off in mid-sentence with, “Your time is up.”

The mayor says that he is “looking for ways to promote and participate in community conversations.” I’m glad that he is, and I hope that the school board will do likewise.

Dear city and school officials, please tell us the places, dates and times you want to sit and talk. We’ll be there.