I was sure it would happen sooner or later. I was just counting on later.
I have become the weird relative who rides around their old hometown going, ‘When I was a kid, this was …’ whatever used to be there. But since my old hometown is Pensacola, Fla., there have been huge changes.
And to be truthful, it wasn’t really Pensacola, but a little podunk outlying tiny town. Of course, I’m old enough that we had to go to the big town to shop for clothing, or bank, or any of that kind of thing.
Some of the changes are acceptable, like housing developments near where people work. New roads to get to and from those developments. That kind of thing, while eliminating the rural areas I used to know (and ride my horse on) is to be expected.
However, there are some other changes that are not so acceptable.
There are swaths of town that have been let to go to seed. Places that used to be vibrant shopping centers and offer services to residents of that area are empty, the parking lots grown up and full of nothing but weeds and potholes. Instead of renovating the buildings and keeping the needed goods and services where they are needed, the developers chose to go to the outskirts and build new to engage new owners of new homes.
In my opinion, those actions are the beginning of creating deserts. Granted, businesses need to be where the business is, to locate where a profit can be made. But just because an older neighborhood isn’t the newest and shiniest in town, because the residents have less disposable income of which to dispose, don’t count it out.
Those people still need food and clothing and other necessities of life. They may not all have access to a vehicle or public transportation.
At one point in our past, each town or neighborhood was self reliant. The people who lived there could get what they needed there, usually by walking.
True, today we have delivery services that will drop nearly anything at your door. I am sure there are many people who rely on them.
But maybe, just maybe, it is time for Watonga to consider what it wants to look like in 5 years, 10, even 20 years from now.
Maybe it is time to upgrade the planning and zoning committee and consider making it part of the city government, even a small part. The code enforcement could be given teeth to force removal and cleanup of burned out hulks of former homes.
The rules and laws that determine what can be built, where probably need an upgrade too. Remember when we were interested in ‘Flipping this Town?’ The concern and passion never really took hold.
With the influx of city income, in the form of water and power sales to Diamondback Correctional, this is the time to at least begin the planning of what the future of our town looks like.
Because failure to plan is the same as throwing our hands in the air and shouting ‘Whatever.’