I'm sitting in the front window of Main St Cafe, next to an electric heater looking at a poster for the New Year's Eve Downtown Kokomo 20th Anniversary Ball Drop Celebration.
How can this be? I was 54 then, could still stand in the cold for one and a half to two hours and think nothing of it! What on earth has happened to me?? More importantly what has happened to my "hometown" since then? For a long time, absolutely nothing...except to decay.
So, I know what some of you are thinking....no, I do, really I do. The first thing that popped into your head was narrow streets, roundabouts, stop signs, islands with trees, pot holes, etc. And some of you still look forward to seeing Kokomo Municipal Stadium flood...sorry. Of course, except for pot holes, I love all that stuff. I have family and friends, well one friend especially, who will go to her grave without ever going downtown again or driving through the roundabout on E Markland! She simply won't give any of these things a chance. That's okay though, she and others are certainly entitled to their opinion. That's one thing living in America is about, the freedom to express your opinion. But, I digress....this is my opinion....Kokomo is once again a place to take pride in, it's a place of opportunity for small businesses. Some make it and some fail, but they can try.
My biggest regret is that it came so late in my life. A friend and I used to walk 3 miles a day before work and though I love Highland Park I'm still, years later, a little dizzy from walking in circles. How we would have loved the trail system!
I spend a part of most everyday downtown, if nothing else just driving through and checking daily progress. Every single day something is happening and has been for a long time. I've watched the complex on Superior St across from the IUK Gym, the stadium, the parking garage and apartments, the Y, the condo's on Market St, the new complex across from the stadium, the Foxes Trail transformation from the J.M. Leach abandoned ice plant, everything on North Buckeye St, the apartments on the corner of Apperson & Jefferson, etc, etc. I've shopped at P.F. Hendricks, Bind Cafe & Books, Jitterbug and more. I've eaten at Wings, Etc, Cook McDougal's, The Wildcat, Foxes Trail, Main St Cafe, Jamie's, Gabetta's, Gingerbread House Bakery, Oscar's pizza and 3 Amigo's and I've even made a birdhouse at SHAK Makerspace. Now, don't tell anyone, but I've also had a beer at Tin Man Brewing! Thank goodness for popcorn! I went one First Friday and hadn't eaten anything. That could have been a problem though I saw enough people I knew that had I not filled up on popcorn I could have gotten a ride home. :)
What have you done to see what all this is about? Have you given it a chance? Will you have trouble finding a place to park near where you want to go? Sometimes....be persistent. Will you have an occasional bad meal or poor service? Again, sometimes, but instead of spreading discontent share with the owner and help them become better. And just so you know, I've not always given things a chance either but when I have it was magical!
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