Featured News Story:
Jessica Lange disses Stillwater in NY Daily News
Stillwater’s most famous [ex] resident spouts off about how Stillwater is no longer a “real place.”
Analysis/Rebuttal:
Recently, Stillwater’s most famous ex-resident, actress Jessica Lange, shared some negative views about out little community to reporters of the New York Daily News. Ms. Lange is not alone in her sentiment. Her view that “everything gets yuppified” is truer of Stillwater today than ever before. Expensive new housing developments, along with big-box stores like Menard’s and Lowe’s and the usual suspects of national franchise restaurants, are choking out all the nice open spaces we used to have on the western hill (and choking out the businesses they compete with), making that part of town look more like a Woodbury-esque suburban wasteland than a quaint logging town. What’s more, the flashy new condos downtown, which now pollute our cityscape of genuinely antique architecture with the faux-antique masonry of which yuppiedom is made, sit largely unoccupied.
Ms. Lange is right to be upset with those developers and with our city planners for not better evaluating the market before bombarding us with high-income yuppie pods. Yet one point she makes baffles me–that “now it’s all gift shops,” referring to the historic downtown shopping district. If by gift shops you mean antiques, sorry Jessica, but it’s always been that way. And why shouldn’t it? Some of those antique shops have some really cool stuff in ‘em.
Our city has held off on what I think of as gift shops–those dime-a-dozen souvenir and T-shirt shops common in places like Hayward, Wisc., or nearly anywhere else where tourists tend to flock, the ones that all sell the same customized “I got my drink on in [insert city name here]” shirts and stickers. And this is one area where I give kudos to our city planners: for keeping stores like that from turning our little river city into just another summer tourist spot.
Ms. Lange, there are still quite a number of independent businesses downtown that make our city unique: Stillwater Music, the bookstores, the kitchen store, Kmitsch Girls (a truly one-of-a-kind import store), the antique stores, several thrift shops, the co-op, a haberdashery (and how often do you see those?), several clothing stores, a liquor store, arts suppliers, a multitude of restaurants and bars, coffeehouses, a jazz lounge, two night clubs, and even a winery. Not to mention our multitude of historical sites, natural wonders, and beautiful setting at the banks of the St. Croix.
Does this sound like a town that’s been overrun with gift shops? What more do you want, Ms. Lange?
Still, there is that pesky business with the empty luxury condos. There’s also a profound lack of activities for those below the legal age of consumption. What we really need, not just for that demographic but for everyone, is a record store. Yes, the sale of CDs may be plummeting (thanks in part to iTunes), but any record store proprietor will tell you that such a business is more than just a place to by music. It’s a social setting, a place to gather, a place to find out about local events (musical or otherwise), a place to buy incense, T-shirts, posters, and jewelry. It’s also a place around which local artists and musicians would rally, and could help boost the solidarity of those in our scene.
I think back to what I once heard: that in the early days of Stillwater and the establishment of Minnesota as a state, the powers that governed our little logging town were given a choice to either host the state capitol, state university, or the first prison. They chose the prison, because it would create the most blue-collared jobs.
I believe many of Jessica Lange’s contentions with Stillwater life (and mine, as well) would be assuaged if only we had gotten the university instead.
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Other real estate news stories:
Real estate players hit ice for charity
http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2008/02/11/focus1.html
Coleman gets fearful on economy
Possible corruption in the state legislature…
Molnau sold farm near road she pushed.
http://www.startribune.com/local/west/15909507.html
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