Hagadone Gardens (Temporarily Wondering)

Hi Dave –

I’m sitting here looking at the cover of a bi-weekly newspaper I read. Pictured is an obviously wealthy couple wearing full-length fur coats, both sporting a rich-man’s version of a cowboy hat, window shopping in Aspen. There are a few other people in the photo as well, none are what I would call regular folk. Soon to be downtown Coeur d’Alene?

I don’t have an opinion on Hagadone’s latest proposal. I don’t feel I have enough information and I’m not sure my opinion would matter to anyone anyway. Regardless, I do see where it all leads. I think it likely that Sherman Avenue’s (Lakeside to 7th) days as a street that we drive down are limited. It will eventually be closed to vehicles and open to bicycles and pedestrians only. It will continue to become less attractive for locals to patronize the businesses there. With a continued increase in the amount of tourists and part-time, second- or third-house residents who spend money at the trendy places, maybe businesses continue to prosper. But certainly the character of the place will change. For better or for worse, the young (or young at heart or mind) won’t be “cruising Sherman” on those summer nights. Those of us who currently enjoy spending time downtown will no longer fit in very well there. Most of us will be out of our league, or at least out of our budget. Maybe we’ll just lose interest.

Hagadone’s proposal will not cause this transformation. It appears to me it has already started, but it is occurring at a fairly slow pace. With an expanded resort at the head of the table, it will speed up the process. If it is not this one, there will be another. The downtown is on its way to becoming an amenity of the resort and maybe that’s OK – I don’t feel it is for me to say. I don’t think the so-called “locals” will like the “new downtown” 10 years from now. Should that matter if the businesses there continue to prosper? Do we identify this place by the character of the downtown? What role does it play? Can we really prevent it if we want to?

Tough questions to which the answers will be far more obvious in hindsight.

Temporarily Wondering

DFO: Temporarily Wondering has shown us the future.