Revitalizing a town

[Lisa S]

Today I get to do something I’ve always dreamed of… have input about the future planning, revitalizing and building of our town.

Somehow, our city was able to hire Christopher Alexander, an architect that believes that users know more about the buildings they need than any architect could. I’ll get to walk through our downtown area with one of Alexander’s staff and talk about the way I live in our burg.

Our poor little town has been misdirected for many years. We live on the banks of the beautiful Willamette River. The nature surrounding our town is awesome. Back in the 1900's, beautiful homes were built in our area and a trolley line kept the town connected with neighboring cities.

Today, two of the main thoroughfares in town are blighted with car dealerships and fast food restaurants. Our downtown area is still charming, but the latest “improvements” are hardly that. If we don’t get a handle on how we grow, all chances for making our town an inviting place to live go out the window.

I hope these folks really listen to the input they get today. I plan to tell them that we need to have a reason to go into the downtown area everyday (a grocery store), plenty of places to park (very inadequate at the moment and nobody’s downtown!), a connection with nature and the river, and buildings that represent the history of our town. It’s exciting to be a part of the planning process.

[Chyna]

That is so awesome. My little town is supposed to be doing something like that but the only input opportunity we get is to attend meetings. Meetings are just impersonal in my opinion. I hope they don't go along the same lines you guys did and now have to re-do the past mistakes like now your town has to do.

Do let us know how the walk goes. That is one of the things I was so impressed about when I visited my db in Seattle. His neighborhood is like it's own city and everything is within walking distance. How wonderful.

[dedavis]

I'm really interested too. Like Tanya's town, we only have meetings. I've been thinking about writing a letter to the city planner--he's young and forward-thinking. So many problems here as we grow so quickly. Traffic, affordable housing, open space...we have wonderful semi-wild places nearby too. It seems like the commercial interests dictate what happens here more than the residents. We could learn from other communities, and I hope we do.

Kudos to you, Lisa, for getting involved.

[Lisa S]

Our town is renown for it's in-fighting in the past. I feel as though we have some new blood joining in on city planning and I hope we can make a difference. I don't hold out a lot of hope on having input on the huge things that seem to make people get really crazy ie mass transit issues, but I'd like to have a voice in building and street design. I'm also involved in community building activities such as parade and festival planning.

We don't have much in the way of commercial interests in our little downtown area. I hope that the way we structure the city will attract interesting and unusual businesses. I'd love to start a new business down there, but it's still too sleepy. I don't have the money to sustain a business while the town wakes up.

You all would love our farmer's market. That one small event has made a huge difference in how the residents feel about our town. We attended the first market of the year yesterday. I bought some organic butter, lunch for the kids and a couple of bat houses. More than anything else, it was like meeting all of my friends in a huge outdoor living room. Talk about community building ~ it's great!

[Chyna]

I really wish our Farmer's Markets would be set up where there is parking. Our downtown is renown for lack of parking that doesn't involve feeding the meter, circling the one way streets and just finding something remotely close by. My dh just can't walk far and so we have ot park fairly close to where we're going if it were just my dd and I we'd park as far away as necessary and hoof it. Gives one a chance to window shop.

When I lived in Rapid City SD I was near the downtown area and just loved it. There were some nice little shops to just stop in and buy this or that. And it was pedestrian friendly. Not sure if that is the case now but I sure liked it then.

[Cottage Artist]

That sounds amazing! Oh, I wish someone would do that with our little town...it seems the only thing that moves in when we get a new building up is a car lot or dollar store. Its tacky. Let us know how the process goes! I'd love to hear about it, maybe learn a few things to pass on to my own community.

[Health Guru]

Very cool that you have that opportunity! Hope it goes well and that you're given the right amount of time and attention.

What with expansion and all, it is good to see someone with a sense of tradition while still able to work with growth. Let us know how it works out!

Cheers,

H.G.

[gigiG]

Lisa~ What a wonderful adventure, learning, input, etc... It must be very exciting have some input~ making history. Your town sounds like such a wonderful place to live... :)