So last week, the big focus of our paper was on the downtown and people's expectations of it. Everyone's opinion matters, including ours here at the paper, but some of the ideas, well, just aren't that practical.
But still, the idea behind it was to get people talking and feeling excited about the downtown core again; even if it's not feasible, it's still fun to think about meat vendors along Main Street, right?
However, the reality of the situation is that some great things will happen to the downtown but it will certainly never be to the extent of bigger cities, like Toronto or Montrealeven smaller cities like Prince Albert.
Our city is still going through growth spurts; picture Humboldt like a gawky, 12-year-old middle-schooler who just grew another three inches.
Well, like that poor boy's mom, the City of Humboldt is constantly trying to find new pants to fit its ever-growing child.
Take Adam Duke's letter to the editor this week.
Duke is right: as much as it's fantastic to have visions for the downtown of Humboldt, the focus needs to be on how these things can ever happen.
It's easy to say "I want this, I want this, I want this" but have you ever sat down and thought "Hmm, can this actually happen though? And if so, how?"
One of the most critical ways for Humboldt to inject more life into the main strip of the city is to have more people there.
And how do we do that? Like Duke said in his letter, by increasing housing options down there, which, not-so-coincedentally, is a large focus for the city in 2014.
Yes, there are neighbourhoods surrounding the downtown but these past few years, it seems new subdivisions have been popping up in the west side of town as the city expands that way.
It'll be interesting to see exactly how the City plans on increasing housing options in the downtown; I know Mayor Eaton has mentioned the idea of building "upwards", possibly adding new apartments or duplexes to the downtown core.
Infrastructure aside, the local Downtown Business Improvement District has been working at piecing together ideas for Humboldt, such as historical street signs (set to go by this spring), among many others ideas (stay tuned for next week's Journal on exactly what they have in store).
But in the meantime, of course it's fun to spitball ideas for the city's downtown area and people who come from a bigger metropolis, like myself or Melanie, will be naturally inclined to wish there was a Starbucks on every corner (even though I myself am a staunch Tim Hortons drinker).
So some ideas are great ones: having the local music store play tunes outside on a speaker during the summer, street fairs or having more planters installed along Main Street.
And some probably won't happen, like street vendors, outdoor patios or giant billboard signs.
Whatever the ideas are, it's great to express them and let the City know them, but it's ultimately up to them and their advisory groups to decide what's a go and what's a no.
That being said, you can take the girl out of the city but you can't take the city out of the girl, so some of us new to Humboldt will go to sleep at night with visions of greasy street meat, venti lattes and happy hour dancing in our heads.
Eh, could be worse.
CM
