Oct/100
The Minute Town Of Hoquiam Considers The Past And Grows Up
Small towns are the direct product of human decisions, millions of them, going on daily, weekly, monthly since the advent of time. Or at least the advent of the town. These decisions comprise the true nature of a town, and often towns end up far, far different than their first days as a result. Some end up becoming cities. Others end up becoming empty places. To even out these small decisions and shape the destiny of a town, the community often has to get together and make a big decision or two.
The town of Hoquiam, Washington, to take one entirely random example, is in the midst of making some definitive decisions about its future. Originally a logging and lumber town, the people of Hoquiam display their pride at their town's history with logging competitions and fall parades, and with an event that gets international attention, Loggers' Playday. So but the town isn't all lumber and sawmills; so how to make the most of the city's other attributes, particularly its natural ones?
From the River's Mouth to You
This growth would occur along the Hoquiam waterfront, the part of downtown running along the Hoquiam River. What to do with riverside property is a question many towns face, and for cities with developed waterfronts like San Antonio and Baltimore, the investment was met with great success. An underused area became, in a few years, a popular area full of restaurants and bars, hotels and shopping, entertainment of all kinds.
The Hoquiam waterfront hasn't seen much action since its heyday in the 1980s, but now there is development interest, and so the community has to think seriously about what kind of town it may want to become. Development is obviously no guarantee of success, nor will it necessarily turn Hoquiam into a metropolis, but decisions need to be made collectively, because of course growth isn't free -- tax money is the ruche fertilizer for civic growth.
A Becoming City
One of the perhaps important factors to consider is Hoquiam's neighbor to the west, the larger city of Aberdeen. These two towns have had a friendly sort of rivalry, as neighboring towns will. But it bears consideration to think about how bigger towns often benefit at the expense of their smaller siblings -- tax money and tourism being just two ways bigger towns get ahead. Hoquiam's decision to grow might bear upon its rival in interesting ways.
But Hoquiam must proceed cautiously. It is interested in preserving its past, as is evident in the 2009 revitalization of its train depot. So it knows how to preserve and honor its past; now it must seriously consider how it wants to carry that history forward, what kind of city it wants to become.
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