The "Character" of Desirable Places to Live vs. "Creeping Gentrification"

When we have a choice — as opposed to forced corporate relocation, or something like that — we tend to seek out places to live that are in alignment with our interests, lifestyle, political leanings, preferred activities and such.

Trees: subject of the latest questionable local government decisions

Along those lines, there are always some places that consistently pop up as "desirable places to live." Certainly, we may all have our own preferences as to what makes a place feel "right," but there are usually a lot of common threads underlying those choices.

Sadly, the "solution" to people's quest for a nice place to live also has a way of turning into "problems" for those places.

People choose to move somewhere perhaps because it seems "quaint" or "perfect" in some way, but too many people doing so has a way of changing a place to where it no longer embodies the characteristics it had when those people were first attracted to it.

This avenue of trees begins when you first come down the hill into town

We see that more and more here in our little seaside town, which — for the longest time — was a quaint hamlet filled with artists, writers, musicians, psychics, hippies, poets, homesteaders and others who didn't exactly fit into the mainstream.

I've previously written about the "changing face" of the population here... and we are now increasingly seeing the infrastructure that made the town unique and desirable becoming more and more "gentrified," in service of being able to keep more and more "outsiders" happy.

Of course, they are not exactly "outsiders," in the sense that they now live here, but they are starting to ask for infrastructure, features and facilities that were never part of what drew them here iun the first place!

In summer, when fully leafed out, they are quite majestic!

One recent boondoggle was a proposed $23 million swim center that might bring the town some prestige and importance, but actually had very little grassroots support. Naturally, it would have been funded by tax dollars — via property taxes — which might not have made much difference to recently arrived millionaire retiree transplants from California, but would have been a massive kick in the stomach to the budgets of long-time locals.

In 2023 we almost lost our 120-year old minicipal golf course and 58 acres of green space to an initiative to turn the land into a dog park and mixed-use retail and residential area. Thankfully some old locals of influence were able to form a non-profit organization that bought the land lease from the city and took over management of the space... which is now thriving.

We really didn't need any more luxury condos and swank shopping... or more space for people to take their pedigreed labradoodles out to poop.

The trees also provide a cover/screen for lots of scaffolding and tarps in the industrial port

The latest bit of controversy surrounds trees. But not just any trees, but a half-mile long stretch of the main road leading to downtown, lined on both sides by 60-70 year old poplars in the style of a fine old avenue. In a sense, they represent a rather iconic "entrance to the town," but it has been determined that they should be cut down and replaced with something "more modern," like typical suburban paved sidewalks.

In the greater scheme of things, perhaps this constitutes "small potatoes," but for those of us who have been here a while, the trees' removal represents a sort of "loss of character;" the sort of character that made this town stand out from most cookie-cutter towns across America.

Undoubtedly, there is some value to the proposal in the sense that the trees interfere with both above-ground (branches) and below-ground (roots) utilities... and the trees — being poplars — are coming towards the end of their lives.

As much as anything, I am putting these photos here to remember what once was!

However, it is the relatively "characterless" proposal for what is to replace the current trees that's causing most of the uproar... because it removes yet another piece of "unique personality" and replaces it with rather "sanitized and generic" landscaping that says "you could be entering pretty much any small town in America."

Maybe those of us who have lived here for a while are simply old fossils who are not keeping up with the times, because we care more about the character and appeal of where we live than about whether or not we can make our property values go up.

We can take some solace in the fact that the golf course was saved, and the swim center idea is pending "alternative" funding because voters did not pass the property tax increase. Sadly, though, the trees will be gone by next year...

Thanks for visiting, and feel free to leave a comment — engagement is always welcome!

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All images are our own, unless otherwise attributed.
This is an AI-free post!