 Go to Athens/Delphi: David's Pi_ge |
 Or go to RainForest: David's Page |
|
Rebuilding community |
Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1999 10:20:02 -0500 From: Diane Fitzsimmons <.-.-.-.@ou.edu> To: positive-futures@igc.org Subject: [pf] Rebuilding America's communities (long post)Dear pos-futures friends:
I had an interesting weekend catching up with some old friends and getting more grist for my intellectual mill as to creating sustainable communities.
I went to the 25th high school reunion of my childhood friends. We moved from this town when I was 14, so I didn't graduate with them. But the town was so small (850 and the county seat) that there was only one school in the county, so I attended school with the same group of 50 or so kids for eight years in the same building. When your peer group group is that small, you REALLY get to know people. I and many other people who didn't actually graduate were invited back for the reunion.
This town is on the edge of nowhere in southern Illinois -- it perches right on the Ohio River, so it's basically land's end for all the highways leading to it. It was founded in the early 1800s, and the folks still there are working very hard to cobble together a new economy that will help it thrive in the next century.
The county has an unemployment rate of well above 8 percent; the town has about 130 low-income HUD rental units. The population is growing -- former residents like to retire there; but the school population is shrinking. And attracting retirees is not as easy as one might think; for instance, health care is very limited, not to mention the gerontology specialists we aging baby boomers need.
The business district was changed substantially since I left in 1970 -- only one grocery store, only one hardware store, no clothing stores, no dry cleaners, no dry goods store, no news-stand, no auto dealership. Like everywhere else, shoppers are lured to larger cities (connected now by interstate highways and not winding, twisting state highways) to have more "choices." But the town does have a combination video store and tanning salon!
We lived there because my father was an employee on an Army Corps of Engineers dam. We lived in government housing on the dam reservation. A bigger and better dam down river made our dam and two others obsolete. The dam is gone; the reservation and its beautiful 1920s homes were abandoned about 20 years ago. One piece of big news at the reunion was that the feds have finally sold the homes to the town government so they can be restored and turned into resort condos.
Tourism is the route this town has chosen for prosperity. They have been lucky enough to build a big marina that attracts weekend fishermen from cities a couple of hours and more away. The town now has three or four restaurants (one quite fancy) and several bed-and-breakfasts. Downtown has three or four antique shops and a couple of "gift shoppes." The town plays up its historic, racy, rivertown heritage in an effort to attract tourists. It also encourages fishing, hunting and trail riding -- although I heard grumbles that "THE ENVIRONMENTALISTS" from "OUT OF TOWN" are trying to regulate those activities out of business.
My childhood friends who went into farming (mostly hogs and corn) are having a hard time surviving by doing that full-time. One friend who loved farming even back when we were 6 years old has now "retired" because he can't make a decent living at it -- now he's a carpenter and part-time caterer. Another friend (who lives out of state, is now into sustainable issues and owns an organic farm) was trying to encourage him to try niche farming or CSA, but the community is so isolated it would be a long start-up.
The other big job source? Sadly, prisons. A boot camp for juvenile offenders is in my county with another prison for women planned. Two prisons in the county to the west, another prison in a county to the northeast, a federal pen in a county to the northwest. BTW, the juvenile boot camp -- filled with young men from Chicago -- is actually quite popular with the residents. The prison provides a great source of labor for community projects, building parks, etc. The young men mow by hand (and I do mean the old push lawnmowers) the highway rights-of-way. My friends in law enforcement claim these young men compete to get into the boot camp program because they do less time, leave with a sense of accomplishment and have a lower recidivism rate. The residents aren't worried about these offenders escaping. The few that do are all city boys who stick to the highways because they can't survive in the dense forest that surrounds the area.
Anyway, the visit sparked quite a discussion between my husband and myself during the 14-hour trip home about what point in our society's recent history spelled doom (or radical change) for towns like my old hometown and every American downtown.
"Could we have prevented all this," my husband joked (having seen one too many "Star Trek" episode), "if we could travel back in time to assassinate Henry Ford?"
We came up with no great ideas. Yet, I am still optimistic for my hometown because so many of my childhood friends have stayed and are working to keep the place together. These folks are mostly not college-educated; they're not what I consider visionary; I'd be really surprised if any of them were reading this list-serve. In fact, they'd probably lump us in with those out-of-town environmentalists. But I am encouraged nonetheless because they are in there every day, plugging away to try to preserve their town as best as they know how. They still care about one another and want to maintain childhood bonds; my husband and I came away rejuvenated, wanting to build those same feelings of community no matter where we live.
Here's a final story about the meaning of community. My husband and I visted the teeny-weeny town library, where I spent many an hour as a child. The librarian asked if she could help me, and I explained that my family had moved away in 1970 and I wanted to re-visit the library because it was important to me as a child.
"What was your name?"
"Well, I don't have any relatives here anymore, so I'm sure you don't remember, but it was Hust."
"Oh, you're Diane. You went to school with my kids. Welcome back!"
That's what people want in community: to walk into a place 29 years later, and they still know your name. That's the kind of positive future I want for us and the generations to follow.
Diane Fitzsimmons
Norman, Okla.
This is: http://www.oocities.org/Athens/Delphi/3142/RebuildingCommunity.html#top