Ludington Wins Over the USA

[XLFD]

Have you noticed Ludington has become America's premiere city in USA Today polls?  

In April, Ludington became known nationally as 'Best Historic Small Town' in the country by USA Today’s 10Best Readers' Choice Awards.  The only Michigan city on the list of the 20 nominated towns, Ludington (without a historic district until 2022) topped small US cities with histories spanning back to the 16th century.

In May, Ludington's Stearn's Beach won second place in the USA Today 10Best Beaches in Michigan Reader's Choice Awards. With eight of the finalists on the shores of Lake Michigan, including the winning First Street Beach in Manistee, one may wonder why the shores of Lake Superior and Huron finished so poorly.  

Finally, in December, Ludington's New Year's Eve Ball Drop won the top spot in the USA Today 10Best New Year's Eve Drops Reader Choice Awards.  Eight of the other top ten finishers featured drops of novelty items, only Ludington and Times Square would utilize 'balls' of lights. 

Surely then, 2024 appears to be a year when the rest of the USA recognized that Ludington had the best to offer as far as their historicity, their beach (near best), and New Year's Eve drop-- at least in the eyes of those who respond to the 10Best polls.  And we should be proud of that, presuming we earn those titles through a fair process.

Yet, the Ludington Torch got to wondering if the process itself was fair.  We remember back when city leaders made a concerted effort to win contests for the best place to live in America from Reader's Digest, using local media to get the word out to vote for Ludington.  Rather than take the hint, the Ludington Torch decided to back Walhalla, and gamed the voting process in order to get them over the finish line in front of Ludington, twice in 2011 and 2012.

Frankly, most folks in America won't have Ludington cross their mind when they think about a historical city or a New Year's Eve drop, so the USA Today 10Best experts must have at least one person on their staff that does and knows enough about the beaches of Michigan's west coast to list eight of them in their regional contest.  There could also be a concerted effort by the Ludington CVB, the DDA, and the chamber of commerce to persuade these expert 10Best panelists to consider Ludington among their lists, and this effort would likely be redoubled once success is achieved.  Lending credence to that theory is that each of the three photos used in the three contests involving Ludington are from one source based in downtown Ludington.

Once one gets Ludington on that list of 20 contestants, it's a small matter of mustering votes, and like the Reader's Digest contest, one can easily stuff the ballot box if they have a desire to do so and the time to spare.  In one of the current contests regarding Alaska Cruise Lines, the Ludington Torch was able to make multiple votes inside of a minute (we spread the votes out because we know nothing about Alaska cruises and have no horse in that race).  

Ludington will undoubtedly see a great uptick of interest in their New Year's Eve Ball Drop in a couple of days, will likely see more people look into our city's history, and even drop by our beach next summer because of their very favorable showing in these contests, and that should be a boon for our tourism industry.  So, if our CVB, chamber, DDA, and/or other area businesses are devoting time and effort to win these contests, we should not be surprised that they do so by using whatever means to achieve that goal.  A dozen years ago, they saw how easy it was to put Walhalla on the map.

[Willy]

As much as I love Ludington it's hard to believe that it is rated in the top 10 for anything. Let's face it if Ludington was located off the coast  it would be just another small town USA. Lop off the Lake front and what's left. No Badger, no beach, no State Park, no lighthouses no sand dunes. Just a flat small town with a lumber history like many other Michigan towns. People come here for the Badger for Ludington State Park for Hamlin Lake for the sand dunes but that's it. Nothing to see here, certainly not top ten material, Sorry to burst your bubbles folks.

If anyone has traveled anywhere, even just around Michigan, we all know places that really stand out as top 10 material and these places have no need to be voted on to be recognize for their uniqueness. 

[XLFD]

I'm old enough to remember back when we had Michigan History classes back in high school, and cogent enough to remember cracking open the textbook we used back at MCC in Scottville, checking out the index, and finding that not only was Scottville not mentioned, but neither was Ludington, except for as a point on the Michigan map.  Frankly, we have a rich history here, I love our local heritage, but Ludington's history really had no impact on the rest of America, even if we were to annex White Pine Village and Father Marquette's alleged death site.

As for NYE drops, every other one on the list is more original and more location-appropriate than Ludington's, so realistically, how would you get it at the top of the list without some devoted stuffing of the ballot box?  One just hopes that the folks who did the stuffing weren't then on the clock as a public servant and ignoring their other duties.