A town needs to grow and change to survive, and often this can be a tricky thing. Often a town is settled for one particular reason and then, years later, finds it needs to learn a new trick in order to stay viable, which is inevitable. How this town goes about remaking itself says a lot about how industrious the town itself is, but it also serves as a reflection on us and our modern times.

Look at the town of Hoquiam, Washington; it’s a town going through changes. Established as a logging town, it maintains that history with events such as the Loggers‘ Playday. On top of that, there’s a logging competition and accompanying parade every fall. So while it’s important to preserve and celebrate a town’s past, it’s also necessary, sometimes, to invent new traditions.

Consider the Hoquiam waterfront. This stretch of city in the Hoquiam downtown has been underused since its previous heyday in the 1980s. Now that some development has taken an interest in it, there’s a possibility for it to become a much more colorful and vital part of the local community. It can’t be all logging contests and lumber festivals, after all.

There’s space on the Hoquiam waterfront for hotels and shops, the kind of commerce that makes a town a city — or at least a bigger town. A good waterfront area has done much for other cities, notably San Antonio and Baltimore. It creates a kind of city center with room for dining and shopping and entertainment. And of course there’s a natural feature that serves as built-in scenery, something to sit by while sipping drinks or having a bit of dinner.

There’s another reason for Hoquiam to develop its waterfront. There’s a kind of long-running rivalry with its bigger neighbor to the east, the town of Aberdeen. These bigger towns often get more development opportunities, more tax money, than its smaller sister. Like the older sibling who gets all the new stuff while the little sister has to play with old toys. So it’s in Hoquiam’s interest to develop that downtown waterfront into a place friendly to locals and tourists alike, if for no other reason than it could give Aberdeen something to thing about.

A town’s history is important, but so is its future direction. New ideas need to be embraced. Hoquiam, like many small towns, needs to be brave in embracing its possibilities for that future — it can preserve its history even as it evolves.

Learn the real truth 911 and how banks counterfeit money legally. Truth-It! You Think You Know?

categories: hotels,housing,development,real estate,property