Seasoned Christmas Memories, Fresh Holiday Musings

[XLFD]

Late this Saturday afternoon shortly after dark around 5:20 PM, I found myself walking through downtown Ludington.  On the way in, on South James Street, one can't help but notice the festive display of lights hung up on the street fixtures featuring the usual shapes we associate with Christmas.  When I do happen to head downtown, it's usually light out and not in the Christmas season, so I rarely get to experience the holiday light show.

It made me wax nostalgic for my childhood memories of growing up in nearby Scottville, roughly forty years hence when my younger self was ten years old, living on the outskirts of town, and would head into downtown Scottville after dark during the yuletide season.  In Scottville, circa 1974, the downtown looked a lot different than it currently does.  This was a time before all the big box stores and restaurant chains had moved into the area between these two small cities; a time when both downtowns were self-sustainable and vibrant.

To a young kid with a few bucks saved up for Christmas presents it was particularly memorable seeing the wide variety of lit street decorations featuring three dimensional icons and hearing a couple of speakers mounted in the center of town belting out a wide variety of Christmas music.  Most every storefront had some sort of Christmas display on or inside their windows, and had their own Christmas music playing when you came through the doors. 

Scottville's population was only a little over a thousand people, but their stores were often a-bustling.  They had a wide variety of stores during this time.  Multiple sports stores, drug stores, multiple grocery stores, multiple variety and gift stores, a hardware store, a movie theatre, and just about every necessary specialty store that truly made Scottville at that time "Mason County's one-stop shopping center".  After Thanksgiving, almost every business stayed open until 9:00 PM.

I remember wandering downtown often during the weeks leading up to Christmas, never being disappointed in getting a good bargain somewhere, and receiving friendly service people who would cheerfully wrap your presents for you.  The whole atmosphere was so conducive to spending all that money you saved to buy your family and close friends gifts they would like.

I must admit the wide innocent eyes of a ten year old differ greatly from those of a more jaded fifty year old, who has seen the spirit of Christmas and the status of Scottville change throughout the years for the worse.  But for a few minutes I was able to reminisce on the old times long before anyone envisioned all the US 10 buildup and the notion of Black Friday as an event.

Ludington's seasonal lights made me remember yesteryear, but then I began noticing that beyond these large scale ornaments there was not a lot of illumination.  The James Street bars and eateries still had some interior lighting but almost everything else along the way was closed and dark.  Most of the open places had little recognition of the season, probably because they were mostly selling meals and beers and naught else.  I failed to hear the sound of holiday music emanating from anywhere.

Surprisingly, Ludington Avenue had much the same look.  The Hallmark store was still open, as was Ludington Gallery and Gifts, the Reed Photography Store, and the various restaurants and bars.  Everything else was closed and most looked like they had been closed long before when I arrived, which was shortly after 5:30 PM.  Besides a tinny rendition of Christmas carols outside the Gallery and Gifts store, which also had some noticeable seasonal decorations, the only sounds heard were normal sounds and music from inside the drinking establishments as you passed.

Overall, the experience left me concerned about our two cities and their business owners in Mason County and their strategies for saving the downtowns, which have come at a great expense to their residents.  Ludington residents are forced to pay $40-50,000 in to support the downtown development authority (DDA) and county entities pay in $70,000 (and increasing).  The Ludington Convention and Visitor's Bureau (CVB) brings in hundreds of thousands from the 'room tax', used to make the county visitor-friendly.  Scottville has their own DDA and enroll in the Main Street program, both with tens of thousands of dollars in expenditures to dress up and improve the downtown. 

Yet, just one week after 'Small Business Saturday', eight days after the "Aglow on the Avenue" parade (which marches out of its way to avoid mentioning Christmas), and less than three weeks before Christmas, Ludington is pretty much shut down for business before 6 PM, quietly ignoring the songs of the season, and looking mostly as it would during March, except for the glaring lights on the street poles. 

Meanwhile this same weekend, we hear Manistee's highly successful Victorian Christmas Parade and theme being received very favorably by their locals and visitors, while being covered by the City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) more than they covered the "Aglow on the Avenue" holiday parade in their home city.  Maybe going back in time to a place when Christmas time meant something is a better strategy for our community and ourselves to restore the spirit of the season, our inner spirits, and the strength of our downtowns and communities here in Mason County.

[Willy]

Very thoughtful X.

[XLFD]

I try to be thoughtful, but usually only get the cup half full if I'm lucky.

It just strikes me as odd that the taxpayers of Ludington directly put in $100,000 in downtown subsidies for Ludington with the rest of the county putting up $40,000 and then we get the attention and resources of an awful lot of quasi-government focus groups like the Chamber and CVB, and it's only made the downtown stagnant and non-competitive with the PM corridor. 

In the downtown, we have one 'upscale' grocery store, no hardware stores, no sport stores, no drug stores, no 'anchor' stores, etc.  Back when I was a kid and young adult in Scottville, I could get what I wanted in downtown Scottville, even more in downtown Ludington, but now both seem incomplete, and are only growing more so, as their DDAs and Main Street Programs do not seem to me to encourage economic development, product/service diversity, or sustainable development in the downtown; it can easily be argued that they discourage it. 

Look in the COLDNews and the Shopper's Guide to find some sales from the downtowns of Scottville or Ludington.  The only one I could find in this last week, right in the midst of Christmas season, was on the very back of the Shopper's Guide for AJ's Party Port advertising wine, spirits, beer, and tobacco only.  Just in time for the kids for Christmas.

[Willy]

I went to the DDA website and couldn't find anything explaining why they exist. The financial report was approved at the 11-10-14 meeting but was not included in the minutes. When I tried to do a search for the report I was taken back to the minutes which of course contained no financial report. I'm not surprised that trying to find out what is going on financially with the DDA is made so difficult. I suppose they want citizens to file a FOIA request to obtain a copy.