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As an elected official in Kirkland, Washington, and as a book sales agent, I traveled often to regional and national meetings for various seminars and sales meetings. Quite often, attendees from other states and cities would peer at my name badge, and seeing the city I represented would quickly remark about that small, beautiful community on Lake Washington, with an incredible view of the snow covered Cascades, and with an authentic small town charm. Some had even visited Kirkland to see firsthand what made the town successfully unique.
During these years, I witnessed Main Streets wither away. Suburbanization. Sprawl. Huge shopping malls. Big box discount stores. All sucked business away from small town, Main Street establishments.
Fortunately, Springfield has maintained a number of blocks of excellent private shops, cafes, theaters — not to mention the library. There’s local art. Most importantly, it owns an authentic small-town charm. When I say authentic, I am remembering writer James Kunstler’s popular book from the 1990s, “The Geography of Nowhere.” He describes towns that try unsuccessfully to create what Springfield has as the “cartooning aspects of suburban sprawl. Cute buildings with caricature store fronts and quaint brick inlaid roads meant to resemble a community, all surrounded by acres of asphalt to park all the cars for free.”
But what is critically missing is city life, and the idea of meeting and getting along with people in a real place. Main Street is where we can walk to socialize, take care of our errands and invest in the “social capital” of the community. Quite possibly the greatest social benefit from a strong Main Street is the identity it gives us.
Every day I go down Main Street to volunteer at the Springfield Public Library, stopping for breakfast or a coffee, to meet with a friend or visit the unique stores, all the while feeling quite at home on Main Street and happy to have made the transition in moving here.
Unfortunately, many towns over the past 40 years have zoned their Main Streets out of existence. Overdeveloped with new and taller buildings, and rents too high to keep existing local shops in business. Subsequently, the Main Street character becomes a memory of the past.
Springfield’s Main Street is the physical core that establishes its identity. I was thrilled when I moved here to see evidence of American resilience on every block, and to witness the importance of what a strong, revitalized downtown has to the health and spirit of the community at large.