The New York Times dropped by Galena this year. I don’t imagine that this was a great year to visit Galena, since the fall foliage–around here at least–was unspectacular. But I think Galena is in the Driftless Region, and I bet the fishing is pretty good out there…

In any case, the Times describes what has become of Galena in recent years:

Most of the city’s downtown was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969, and then the antiques stores, the craft shops and the tourists moved in, sprouting like mushrooms after a steady rain.

Thanks to restrictions on electric signs and a series of face-lifts, Galena has a look that hasn’t changed in years. The only thing that changes about the storefronts is the tenants. “There are more restaurants — more good restaurants — and fewer antiques stores,� said Pete Stryker, a second-home owner from Chicago. Local residents and second-homers alike appreciate the shift, which has brought in upscale restaurants like Fried Green Tomatoes and the peat-smoke atmosphere of Frank O’Dowd’s Irish Pub. (New York Times 12/7/07)

As people have actually moved in, they demanded good food. Before they were just visiting and buying antiques and they could put up with mediocre food. But times have changed. Galena is on it’s way to becoming Illinois’s Jackson Hole…

Elgin has something in common with Galena: a historic downtown. But a preservation strategy has its risks as well as its rewards, I think. And a pure preservation strategy–actually I should say a “historic strategy,” where you are essentially trying to create a look that hasn’t changed in a hundred years is appropriate only for destinations that have nothing to offer but tourism.

For a large, dynamic city like Elgin you have to keep moving forward. That doesn’t mean tearing down old buildings, but it does mean building new buildings (on existing vacant lots) that are truly new and not pastiche. Our risk is in not being bold enough.

Filed under: arts, downtown.
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