I love where I live but...

I have lived in my town for about for about 10 years now. Even though my address growing up was in a different city, the schools I attended were part of my current town's school district. We lived on the border of the two cities. My elementary school was in one city, and my junior high and high school were on the street that divides the two towns. So I've basically lived in the area my whole life. It's a wonderful town and school district. The police and fire departments are top notch even though it's a small town. With that said, I believe there is one area that it missed the boat on...preserving it's downtown.

When you travel through the downtown you don't see many of the old buildings that used to be there. They've been replaced with newer ones or demolished all together. A few years ago they got rid of the downtown railroad station that had been there for at least 100 years. This was when the DART rail came through town. Instead of going through the intersections they built up the stations so that it was like a bridge going over the streets. There was a railroad station house on the old rail line and instead of using that as a stop they got rid of it and built over the street. The businesses of downtown are nothing you'd really go into. There are a couple of business that are useful..tailor, law firm, etc, but nothing in terms of shopping. There is a collision repair shop on one corner and a copy store on the other. In between there is a main street bar, and several middle eastern bars. Now, I understand that there is a high concentration of Asian and Muslim communities near the downtown area and there are stores that cater to those nationalities. However, there could also be some antique shops and other types of restaurants.

For example, the downtown area of the city just to our north is awesome. There is a DART rail station that stops downtown, there are apartment buildings that have stores on the street level, and the old, historic buildings have been preserved and are being used. The downtown is very busy during the day. Of course they have law offices and such, mainly because the city offices are down there. But they have several restaurants, a pub, antique shops, specialty clothing stores, art shops, and even a magic store. I remember my mom and dad telling me that the place that is now an art gallery used to be a furniture store and they bought the crib that they used with my sister's and I on the second floor. Jason and I have eaten at several of the restaurants (there's a Bavarian one we want to try next), and often walked up and down the streets. There's a new restaurant that Jason and I have eaten at this week. It is in the historic grocery building. It takes up 3 floors and two of them are restaurant seating, while the roof is halfway enclosed with the bar and there is also outdoor seating. It's really neat. You can sit up on the roof and have a drink and look down on the people window shopping.

So it is in this way I think my town has missed the boat. They didn't preserve their downtown very well.