2016 Spring April 22 Friday
55 degrees this morning, walk 31:39 minutes
Victory in the cardboard caper! May be appropriate that today is “Earth Day”!
Friday and another week has sped by, and April of 2016 will soon be over. Time is not only speeding by, it is almost shifting.
Started a new “Field area” for work yesterday. Actually, just sitting in for a while for someone who is out.
It was very interesting to go into a totally new area. This new area is somewhat of a small town as opposed to the metropolitan area.
In this case, this town, while fairly small, appears to be the commercial center for a relatively large area of farms and small towns. While it doesn’t have a mall as such, it has a Wal Mart, McDonalds, a wide variety of restaurants etc.
It also has a lot of shopping downtown, having basically apparently developed itself as a historical center as well as a wide variety of stores.
It actually has a lot of traffic downtown and also has several major shopping areas near the interstate exits.
I haven’t really been there for years, so I was surprised at the growth and also pleased that the “downtown” was basically successful, or at least appears to be successful.
The commercial mix is surprisedly diverse, ranging from feed and farm supply stores to antiques, music shops, and even several bicycle shops, all apparently locally owned and operated. It also has a lot of “chain” travel and restaurants at the interstate exits.
With a municipal background, I am pleased to see that a city is successful in such development, both the downtown and the “new” areas. Of course it also has areas which aren’t so nice. Maybe those areas are considered “opportunities” rather than problem areas!
I haven’t been in a relatively small town (probably 10 to 12 thousand) in a while that is a commercial center also and not part of a Metropolitan Area. I had forgotten that people’s behavior is different (not necessarily good or bad, just different.)
Of course, they also had the drivers that I’m sure muttered about that “old man who didn’t know where he was going” as I searched for addresses in an unfamiliar city! No one honked or anything, but a few times I felt the frustration from the other car. (No gestures or anything, it was just the attitude!)
I was very pleased to find a shortcut home, so as long as I have this area, I have a nice pleasant road to take home. Yesterday, I turned the music up and the sunroof down and enjoyed my trip home!
The viability of the City I went to yesterday is interesting. Frankly it is not an attractive city (especially in the hot summer), but it’s private development is what makes it a commercial success and probably a successful City.
I don’t know a thing about it’s local politics, except I know it has somewhat of a thriving antique and historical culture, as well as a music culture. Apparently, the Interstate, which was close enough to have a positive impact without being so far away as to destroy the city, although with the historical, antique and music culture, and being close, but not too close, to a metropolitan area all combined to make a relatively successful commercial successful, much more so that in cities of similar size I have seen.
Makes my heart warm to see a success like that!
That’s it for now, Friday, April 22, 2016.
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