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everyone has good posts here and I understand all sides, but its more about, in a way, preserving what is left, chains push out local favorites(sometimes) and new ideas can be either good or bad(depending what they are). I think, if a town wants to change then it should but small towns are unique in their own way with their own type of people and their own type of lifestyle and they all kinda vary depending on which state you are from.
I think if you were raised in a small town then you would understand more, if you were raised in a city then I can understand how you might feel about change and all that, Im all for change here in ABQ but its still got to retain its charm,culture and character and the bigger a city gets the harder that is. Growing up in a small town can be sentimental, its so small that it holds all of your memories in it since you are familiar with every part of it. Its hard to watch something like that progress into anytown USA and change the culture and ways up.
Small towns are for those who dont need the bigger and better options in life, they are content with a family oriented life and friends since there isnt much else going on. Its all about a simpler slower paced life. Of course the local people want this and that but Im sure most would rather keep the character of the town even after the chains move in, that is when they might realize how much better it actually was.
I've always lived in small towns. Wal-Mart is a subject of debate there. When we were poor in a small town it was good to have a Wal-Mart near. (None were in town, but I was born not far from the birthplace of Wal-Mart) You could get a variety of things cheaper than you could otherwise and when you're poor that's nice. However there is the damage to small business. I knew people who worked to keep Wal-Mart out of there town and probably also people who worked to bring one in. I could see value in both positions. My oldest sister worked against a Wal-Mart entering her town, but wanted a Long John Silver's. (Although to me that makes sense. In the middle of America seafood restaurants are not all that traditional so few or none would be displaced)
If my town, including my child/infancy town, had say a Dairy Queen or something I really don't think that would ruin anything. The nearest Pizza Hut to where I am now is in a franchise owned by someone from that county and I think it hires locals. In the town where I went to college there's a McDonald's and a Braum's, but there's also two locally-owned diners that are decades old. They've survived and they're pretty good. The mall in that town has a great deli that's been there for decades and is by a local. I think sometimes competition encourages things to get better. In the town where I started, as much as I love it, the diner was often terrible as you had no other option.
I came from a small town, no Walmart or Lowes, Sam's Home Depot NOTHING, had to drive 20 miles or even more but it's better than 100 miles, that just really bites!! My kids dread their weekends if he have to go get some things at Sam's club or Toys R Us, Best Buy because it's not available here. Also the furniture in particular is very much over priced here in Clovis. It's sad, spend more to shop here or have to drive 200 miles round trip for a bargain or even mail order on internet and pay shipping to get a bargain. Yeah, it's hard to embrace a place like that for us transplants. I used to get irritated at transplants from our old town who complained but come on people. Clovis needs to embrace change and the new people if they want the base to survive and have some harmony. On that note get some night time lights for the Bob Spencer Soccer fields, that is really needed with the popularity of soccer here.
lets say a transplant moved to your small town or city and complained that it lacked several popular big box stores and that the people are close minded or too progressive, how would you feel?
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but my view of the town wouldn't be affected or threatened by what a transplant says. His opinion reveals more about him than about the town.
everyone has good posts here and I understand all sides, but its more about, in a way, preserving what is left, chains push out local favorites(sometimes) and new ideas can be either good or bad(depending what they are). I think, if a town wants to change then it should but small towns are unique in their own way with their own type of people and their own type of lifestyle and they all kinda vary depending on which state you are from.
I think if you were raised in a small town then you would understand more, if you were raised in a city then I can understand how you might feel about change and all that, Im all for change here in ABQ but its still got to retain its charm,culture and character and the bigger a city gets the harder that is. Growing up in a small town can be sentimental, its so small that it holds all of your memories in it since you are familiar with every part of it. Its hard to watch something like that progress into anytown USA and change the culture and ways up.
Small towns are for those who dont need the bigger and better options in life, they are content with a family oriented life and friends since there isnt much else going on. Its all about a simpler slower paced life. Of course the local people want this and that but Im sure most would rather keep the character of the town even after the chains move in, that is when they might realize how much better it actually was.
People from cities deal with this in a different way, but I understand where you are coming from. I've spent most of my life in and around Chicago, and I've seen a lot of change over the last 30 years, much, if not most, has been good. Crime is a fraction of what it used to be, the city is no longer hemorrhaging population, and despite the media focus now, I remember when it was much worse. However, some this change feels sterile, and I feel like that there are parts of Chicago now that are simply 'generic big city' which could be dropped into any big city in the US, and nobody would notice, all the stores are the same, the restaurants are the same, etc. I imagine is at the crux of your complaint as well.
Just the other night, I was walking down street in the south LOOP that made me feel like I had traveled back 20 years (when I was also walking around the LOOP long after all the suits had taken the train home), and while the street was a bit run down, the restaurants and bars of were more of the 'vinny's pizza, hot dogs, gyros and Italian beef' type places with a few shady characters hanging around outside, rather than the pseudo-gourmet chain lunch places that are all the rage now, I felt a bit of nostalgia for the days when things weren't quite so bland, safe, well lit up, and new.
lets say a transplant moved to your small town or city and complained that it lacked several popular big box stores and that the people are close minded or too progressive, how would you feel?
In the case of my town, Staunton, VA. It was the transplants moving in that noticed the charm and uniqueness of the downtown area that long time locals had let fall into disrepair. Now it's a very well preserved historic district filled with locally owned stores, coffeehouses, restaurants. It's even been in a couple of movies, Hearts In Atlantis and Evan Almighty. We even have a historic recreation of Shakespear's Blackfriars Playhouse. Without outside intuition the downtown would still be a bombed out dump. Some transplants have complained about the pace of life being slower, or lack of shopping, but they're just dumb for not doing proper research before moving here. Most seem to like it here and don't complain too much. We have many from the NYC area including NJ and for some reason many specifically from the Philly area. Outside of downtown is the typical Wal-Mart chain restaurant crowd. The town is becoming quite polarized, along with my state. Ironically, I have heard some negative sentiment about "outsiders" moving in, but they were "outsiders" themselves years before that fear the area that attracted them initially is being changed for the worse. Such as in rising taxes because the area is becoming more attractive.
in the NM thread, people who have been transfered to Clovis NM are comlaining that the town dosent have a good Italian restaurant or a sushi joint or a Bed Bath and Beyond, it gets annoying, they want Gluten free and complain the people are close minded, after all they are in Clovis which is a small conservative city of 33,000 people which is practically the bible belt. They already want to change it.
The town is a BBQ, steak and Mexican food kinda town not a sushi and lasagna kinda town.
I say they need to adapt to ones living and respect the town and its ways and not try to have the town adapt to them.
Well there's two sides of the story as mentioned it sounds like those people need to get on the horn and start trying to attract those type of businesses. Just because you don't like sushi doesn't mean that I can't enjoy sushi. I have to agree with the other post that complaining about it is annoying but being proactive and talking with the chamber of commerce is cool.
I don't really see anything wrong with progress...and I'm sure it isn't just transplants who would like to see a sushi restaurant or a Bed Bath & Beyond come to town - locals usually like those kinds of things too. As long as the transplants don't sit around and complain about it, it wouldn't bother me if they are proactive in bringing new businesses to the area.
Change isn't always progress. When people move somewhere and start wanting to change it to match where they used to be that's often not viewed as "progress" to the people who already live there, especially not when it starts putting long time local shops out of business.
What is really odd is why people move somewhere and then set out to change it. If where you (general you, not you in particular DeaconJ) were was so great, why leave? And why move somewhere that is missing so many "vital" stores or amenities?
Well in some cases people move to a place for work or education, not because they want to be in said place.
However sometimes people fall in-love with something or someone and then when the "new" rubs off they noticing things they dislike and want to change. And now I could start paraphrasing Chris Stevens whole speech on becoming disillusioned with owning "The Brick" in "Northern Exposure", but I'll spare you that.
If it's something that catches my interest, I'll probably look into it and possibly try to talk it over in terms of its effects and what it would take to make the changes. If in the end I feel like it's a good idea, I'll likely try to help with making the changes, or at the very least, voice my support. If it isn't a plan I like, then I'll probably passively work against it by not supporting it or by saying what I feel is wrong with it when appropriate. Probably.
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