A long time away...

I've been a long time out of keeping any semblance of regular updates to the blog. Sorry about that. I'm jealous of Rodney Hart and Joe C. who keep their blogs regularly refreshed with new stuff. I have no real excuse--I'm just lazy, I guess.

Anyway, I spent last week in Oshkosh, Wisconsin visiting my brother and his family.

Oshkosh is a very nice community of about 60-thousand people, part of that line of cities from Fond du Lac at the south end of Lake Winnebago up through the big O, Appleton, Kimberly, Kakauna, and on up to Green Bay.

Its biggest claim to fame is the Experimental Aircraft Association Fly-in, an annual get together of all manner of cool aircraft. Of course they have a kick-a$$ museum too, which is open year round.

My point in all this was my visit to the downtown area of Oshkosh. It is in some ways a mirror image of Quincy's central business district.

There has already been some good development and growth in population in the downtown Oshkosh area, but only in the last couple of years have most of the industries that used to line the Fox River been tempted out to the edges of town. The riverfront therefore is even less developed than the Quincy riverfront--I guess the 93 Flood helped kick start some work for us by "natural" urban clearing.

Anyway, while we are ahead of them in that regard, they are miles ahead of Quincy in straightforward development of their downtown--and perhaps there is a lesson for us to learn there. They have large numbers of young, professional types taking apartments in the central city, and while there are still many delightful botique-type shops, the city has managed to get some "anchors" in to help make the area more attractive to residents--something I wish Quincy could manage.

One area we outshine Oshkosh is in historic architecture. We have a committment to saving and using historic buildings in Quincy, something I hope we do not lose.

Of course, Oshkosh *is* part of that long line of small cities, and during my visit I routinely accompanied the family to appointments and activities stretching from just south of Green Bay all the way back to the homestead in Oshkosh and even across to the other side of Lake Winnebago. We have nothing to compare to that population base and the consequent relief for Oshkosh from having to do *everything* to revitalize itself (because other nearby communities are doing some of those things and they don;t need to be duplicated).

Still, we are in a good position here in Quincy, and I hope we continue to push for re-use of our downtown resources and growth of the city through increased economic activity. If Oshkosh can do it (and they haven't done everything we have by any means) so can we.

Now if we could tempt the EAA *here*... :)