Dirty Little Town/ Going Going Gone

Comment

Comment by Rick Reiley on March 16, 2010 at 6:54pm

Thanks Jami. I don't know if there's a solution to what ails us but it's obvious doing nothing will get us exactly nowhere. We've followed short term gain for so long that when it finally falls flat we've forgotten any other answer. And keep flailing around in the muck and the mire searching for paradise. Each leap more desparate and disatisfying.

Comment by Jami Ward on March 16, 2010 at 2:25pm

Our country's migration from a manufacturing economy which requires a centralized facility to operate to a service economy that can be done anywhere is one of the driving forces behind this flight from the city center to other places. ("We don't need to live near the factory, let's just go where we want.") Unfortunately that changing economic tide has left way too many people stranded on the beach with no way to get back to the water. And they essentially give up hope and no longer care about where they are because it's not where they want to be. I LOVE the song!

Comment by Rick Reiley on March 16, 2010 at 5:50am

I'm sure your accurate David in that many towns I see that fit the portrait died during the Great Depression if not before. They exist largely in memory and the physical remnants are reminders only. Reminders that something once happened there of some significance.

As for boarded up downtowns- my job for nearly 6 years was as a Main Street director. Main Street was born through the National Trust for Historic Preservation as a means to return life to downtown areas. But there's a stacked deck. So much of a cities resources- schools, businesses- are directed toward building and annexing and developing further and further from the centers of towns. In essence this works to hollow out the core, leaving the downtown empty and the residential areas connected to it becoming less desirable. Because they're not close to anything anymore.

Walkable communities are just a memory in many of our towns.

Less desirable means less rent can be charged and the cost of maintaining the property becomes untenable. Here our only high school moved from the center of town to the edge of town, at the same time Wal Mart built in that area and since has built another big super center another mile further from town. Our folks who're wheel chair bound or without transportation other than their own two feet have to bum a ride or risk the highway traffic to take care of business. Same with our county health care facility. It was located in the center of town within easy walking distance. It was closed last year when a new facility was built on the outskirts of town accessible only by vehicle. No sidewalks anywhere near. The political will to make sense of future growth is virtually non existent.
And as you can imagine when Wal Mart came to town the exodus of businesses and interest in downtown emptied the place almost overnight.
Now these otherwise usable properties downtown sit idle awaiting rebirth. Here we have had some good success with downtown rehabs but it doesn't keep apace of decay. A really nice, new recording studio is underway in an old bank building, a three story furniture store is undergoing a rebirth with a new cafe being constructed inside, another three story former drug store is being rehabilitated into oil company offices, another underway as housing and office space. All of this being done by private individuals. It's to be commended and applauded but so much is yet to be done.

The community gave up ties to the Main Street program because they didn't think it was worthwhile. (As did Stroud in 2000. )
The last two refineries closed here years ago, the two railroads followed suit. I believe this is a pretty common story. The oil business is still a huge part of our economy with over half a billion dollars spent here in recent years building oil storage capacity and a new Canadian pipeline to be built here in the coming months. Things come, things go, it's all the ebb and flow of the organism that makes up 'community'.

Perhaps this is a transition stage to a new place in time. Of course that's what it is! I can find as many positive reinforcements of this picture as negatives. It's simply a jarring thing to see the life and surroundings I've lived with all of my life change in ways I find foreign and not always comfortable.

Comment by David Vidal on March 16, 2010 at 3:14am

I love the bright and cheerfully sung chorus/tap dance, Rick... we just don't hear enough of those.

There are certain towns and areas that seem about half blown away. I've seen 'em in Oklahoma, and parts of Texas. New Mexico's got 'em. Montana. New Orleans, of course. I suppose they're just about everywhere. Just abject poverty, right next to people who seem to be doing okay. Stroud, Oklahoma is kinda like that. The downtown is half boarded up. There are nice middle class houses next to rotty shacks with rusted hulks of vehicular remnants in the driveways. I think it's a vision of how America is right now. But I also think it's a vision of how America has always been. At least in my lifetime. Nobody shows these places on television... everybody lives in Beverly Hills. Of course, there are some pretty bleak areas right near Beverly Hills, too....

"Among liars, thieves and lawyers"... I look forward to hearing it.

Comment by wiffledust on March 16, 2010 at 12:24am

the whole housing thing is such a mess in some areas. i know where they had bursts of unfishinsed construction, it's like a ghost town. then there are exburbs where people left and there are these big houses where nobody lives. we have some areas in downtown philadelphia that would be gorgeous and convenient to live in if only someone could rehab them. ...as for the geriatric good humor man...hmmmm...i know older people who like ice cream more than cabbage on a stick!!!

Comment by Rick Reiley on March 15, 2010 at 7:11pm

Next up will be a video of my new geriatric version of the Good Humor Ice Cream man! He'll be the warm carrot and cabbage man who goes through elderly residential areas with warm carrots and cabbage on a stick while ringing his bell and promising excellent bowel movements with every purchase.

Comment by Rick Reiley on March 15, 2010 at 6:52pm

In many cases people have simply abandoned property. In others it appears they have given up hope. Hope of a job, a better job, hope of ever being able to properly maintain property. In some cases it was built as 'government housing' where it's torn up and abandoned not long after it's built. Some communities let the code enforcement people deal with it but so much has fallen in their lap and the cities have little resources to use in remedying the situation. Often the city's only response is to tear down the property or whole neighborhoods, compounding the problem. We are much better off than many areas and as I said this isn't rampant. It's just that with the economy the way it is could it be a vision of the future? American cities as a setting sun? Depressing I know. I'll get happy in a minute.

Comment by wiffledust on March 15, 2010 at 6:36pm

this is pretty serious stuff, rick. are you talking about people walking away from the properties or a lack of caring in general? good work!