The Little City Of Hoquiam Considers The Future It’s Time For Change

Any small town is a study of the small decisions that shape it. And those decisions, made by residents and businesspeople and the government that runs it, often take it in directions it might never have seemed able to go. But there it is: sometimes towns grow all on their own, and it seems like there’s nothing to be done but watch the changes, like a rebellious teenager. Sometimes, of course, it’s time to make big decisions too.

To take just one example, let’s look at Hoquiam, Washington. This town started life as a logging town, making its money from the Northwestern forests surrounding it. Now it maintains that identity in a kind of nostalgic way, through an internationally known event called Loggers’ Playday, annual logging competitions, parades. This has worked well for the town, but now it may be time for a change.

Those changes would happen on the waterfront, a stretch of downtown running alongside the Hoquiam River. These kind of cultural centerpieces have done amazing things for cities such as San Antonio and Baltimore. Where once there was a bunch of running water, now there is shopping and dining and hotels and bars and a whole stretch of real estate just made for entertainment.

The waterfront hasn’t been much in vogue since the 1980s, but recent development interest has revived a discussion about how best to use that area. There is a lot to consider, because of course this is tax money going into any new project. It’s important to review options and decide, as a community, how best to use and area, and who best to head up that development — a decision that can’t be taken too lightly.

As a small town, it has to decide whether it wants to stay small or make some growth decisions. It’s already got a rivalry with its larger neighboring city Aberdeen, and friendly competition often spurs some of the best kinds of growth, personal and otherwise. Sometimes the bigger towns get all the tax money, all the tourism, so if the town decides its identity is as a larger town, it may suddenly make the rivalry that much more interesting.

So as it moves forward, it has to think about how it can preserve its history but stay modern. How it can have a heritage that informs its future. It’s a question all small towns at some point have to face, and while it doesn’t mean Hoquiam has to become a metropolis, it at least has to face some grown-up decisions.

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