Pick a small town, any small town, and take a good look at it. What’s interesting about it is that it probably started out one way and, over time, became something else. Unless it’s one of those quaint Colonial villages that sell licorice in the shops and where everyone wears leather pants — that kind of thing is unnatural, though. But real-live towns have to make decisions in order to survive. Sometimes they’re little decisions, made daily, and sometimes they’re big decisions that determine the future direction of a town’s growth.
Let’s look at the town of Hoquiam, Washington, up in the Pacific Northwest, right on the edge of Grays Harbor. The town was born and raised a lumber town; logging was its life. And now, years later, logging continues to be a part of the town’s heritage, celebrated annually in parades and logging competitions and an internationally known Loggers’ Playday. But if there’s a chance to grow, how should it be handled?
Meaning what to do with its waterfront area. The Hoquiam River flows through downtown on its way to Grays Harbor, and it is this area that has raised the discussion. Waterfront development has done wonderful things for cities such as San Antonio and Baltimore, and while it is quite a bit smaller, still there’s so much potential in a river running through a city.
The waterfront was last a cultural focal point in the 1980s. Recently development has taken an interest in the area, and so it’s on the people to think seriously about how they want their town to grow, and what they want it to grow into, and how best to use their taxpayer money. There are, of course, no guarantees.
These decisions made or unmade ultimately have an effect not only on the residents of the little town on the edge of Grays Harbor, but on the region at large. The town is separated by the boundary of Myrtle Avenue from its neighbor town to the east, Aberdeen. As has been the case throughout history with such relationships, the two towns have a sort of rivalry, high school sports and whatnot. But the point is: what they decides to do, to make itself into, to finally become — it changes not just itself, but Aberdeen, and the surrounding towns. They’re all connected, of course, as you may imagine, but the point is that these decisions, these developments — they resonate outward, like ripples in a still river.
For the town, these decisions are all worthy of consideration. The town will want to maintain its connection to its history while moving ahead, maintaining its relevance and its ties to its own past. This is a constant negotiation, not surprisingly. And so therefore the decisions are ones that should be made communally, because the big ones aren’t the little everyday ones; they’re the ones that make their own history.wns equal to Hoquiam need be unafraid of conversion — the most fantastic cities straddle centuries, after all.
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