Part 6 of my vision for Crookston

I’m sorry to be so slow getting this out to you, do you remember the other five parts? They are: Part I, Slow down, make it beautiful, and peaceful, Part II Address Parking once and for all, Part III antiques, collectibles, thrifts make a great destination, Part IV Bring people downtown through affordable rental housing, events and UMC, Part V create the best schools ever and after attending a recent 'strategic planning' session, I must say our goals must be much much higher, why not a magnet school for math, science, and engineering? or fine arts? or the highest GPA sports students ever?

Finally here is Part VI: Everybody talks to each other and everybody has meaningful work. Ok, I know, that’s two goals in one. Think though, if everyone talks to everyone else either by the Crookston Daily Times Guestbook, or email, or on the phone or in person, everyone would indeed have meaningful work because of our relationships with others, talking about our problems, and working together to solve them. And I must make one qualifying statement, and that is, we speak to each other while keeping our best manners, and our most open mind. Using our minds to concentrate and really listen. To respect all races, all income levels, and to take the time to have those conversations. Believe me I know its easy to say and tough to do, and sometimes when I try, I get slapped in the face, but oh well, its not the end of the world or anything.

And since I have only found part time work so far, I have spent my time thinking about Crookston and writing grant applications. Plus I’m an introvert, not a talker really. I should have gotten out and about and talked with as many people as I could. Surely there is someone somewhere who could put me to work full time in and around Crookston. Many times I thought to myself “I have no skills! Stupid Bachelor’s degree in marketing means nothing! The American Dream is dead! How will I pay the next bill!? But the Lord has provided and people in Crookston have been kind.

And so we must all continue to be kind, fair, and hopeful for Crookston. 50% are on the federal free school lunch program and I suspect the rate is higher than that, 18% Hispanic population, lots of homelessness, people on disability, and those that are trying to help them. But it takes a village to raise a child, a village to start a business, and a village to communicate with parents, teachers, community leaders, those doing the laundry for the hospital, and the hospital executive director. The leaders and the followers, the sports people and the arts people, the farm kids and the town kids, the poor kids and those from families more well off. I’ve found over the years that if you talk long enough, you will find something to connect you to the other person and then fear goes away, and new opportunities arise.

One thing we could do right away is add a “Time Dollars program” to our community. Imagine the young helping the elderly for time-dollars that they can go spend to obtain other services that they need. A person called “mmaps” on the Crookston Times Guestbook said that Crookston has a service base, not a retail base, and that’s true, so why not capitalize on it, and if the retail sector can afford it, they could join in and redeem time dollars as well! Imagine it! The homeless helping the poor non-profits with their works, and proving their worthiness to hire, the smarter kids helping those that need tutoring, parents helping teachers, teachers helping parents, people could apprentice again if paid in time dollars, not real dollars, kids could get some useful skills instead of one shop class in their whole life. Instead of a strings tied government program, we could help ourselves with our own teams of "Youthbuild" or "Self Help Housing" the list could go on and on. But it only works with frequent respectful communication.

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What if?

What if the 722 recipients of the 467 something billion dollar bailout started a charity to give back to those they made poor and who are also paying for their bailouts, and their children, and their children's children? Yes, the wealthy could give more.

Part V of My Vision for Crookston starts with comment from Patsy

Patsy said: "I've realized recently that Crookston is really a paper tiger in that people are generally poor and have little money to spend even for the most basic necessities. Those conditions lead to a clear division between the haves or popular in town and the have nots. I see it more and more in the community, more division both economic and in status connected social circles. The new hockey arena, quite truthfully, scares me in that if we, or the leaders, have guessed wrong about what we really need to substain us instead of what we may need just to survive, then Crookston is pretty much finished or the best days have already passed before us. The stats, trends, and local leadership, who seems to be caught in a 1950's-60's time warp, make Crookston's future linked to the aged, middle aged and elderly. Certainly not to a up and coming youth movement. Kay, am I on something or onto something?"

Patsy, Your comment/question needs to be out there on the front page of my blog, not hidden in the comments. I believe that all government is a “paper tiger,” in that it seems all powerful, but that is only because of our fear and/or lack of knowledge of how it works. When we have no fear, we can make change happen. It saddens me to quote that the “poor are always with us,” and the division you talk about is everywhere you go and yes, the division between the “haves” and the “have nots” seems to be widening everywhere, not only here in Crookston, where ½ of us make less than $34,609 (2000 census) per household, and 12.4% of individuals are living at or below Federal poverty level of $10,830 yearly income. A better income judge is the number of kids on free or reduced school lunches. Last time I checked it was over 50%.

I read an article a few years back that is even truer today than when it was written. This report finds that the richest could have given billions more in 2000 and I suspect that it holds true today.

“According to a new report from NewTithing Group, "http://www.newtithing.org, a nonprofit donor education and research organization, the nation's wealthiest four hundred taxpayers could have donated billions more than they did in 2000 without sacrificing their lifestyles.

Data provided by the Internal Revenue Service revealed that taxpayers with the highest reported incomes in 2000 made an average of $174 million and donated, on average, $25.3 million, for a total of $10.1 billion, or 6.9 per cent of the $146 billion in charitable donations that Americans declared on their tax returns. According to the report, however, the same group of individuals could have comfortably given nearly one-and-a-half times that amount, representing an aggregate increase of more than $4 billion, without compromising their financial well-being.

"Charities and social services face severe long-term funding cuts in one of the worst fiscal crises for states in fifty years," said NewTithing founder and Chairman Claude Rosenberg. "An additional $19 billion could have kept open fifty homeless shelters that have been closed in fifteen Midwestern states in the last year alone; help schools and the underprivileged in California, which is struggling to decide which services to cut, including in higher education; [and] improve the quality of life in Massachusetts, where social services could decline after another round of budget cuts....[W]wealthy tax filers -- and certainly the wealthiest four hundred -- can come to the nation's rescue by donating the maximum they can comfortably afford to those charities that can provide a solid social return on investment."

"Wealthiest 400 Could Comfortably Afford to Give Billions More." NewTithing Group Press Release 1/01/04.

Indeed, the best days have already passed before us in the 50’s and 60’s, and that is everywhere as well. The problem that no one wants to address is “What do we want Crookston to be like when our kids have kids?” And they are having kids now and working two to four jobs and paying one or two child support payments. And the reason no one wants to take on that question is that it is a much more risky question to answer than dealing with the risk of future costs of the hockey arena.

Unfortunately, the economic dichotomy will all even out as the baby boomers age and decline in health and find that those with wiped out retirement funds end up in the same situation as those that had none in the first place. Lots of people give me a funny look when I say, the cliché, “You can’t take it with you.” Not the aging, the tight-fisted, or the fearful, but the youth and their creativity are the key to re-inventing Crookston. And that leads to me to say that Part V of “My Vision for Crookston,” is to offer the best schools ever in Crookston and we will draw more people to come and live and stay and open shops and do things than ever before in this “our bedroom community.”

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Best Paint Ever at Crookston Paint and Glass

I am a recent convert to oil paint. No more latex on exteriors anymore! They only last about 7 years and then the entire building has to be repainted. That latex is rubber, it holds in moisture where it shouldn't. Like my rotted out old windows on my home. I recently restored them with Crookston Paint and Glass's Metal and Wood alkyd paint. It spread on easily like soft butter, the prepared wood sucked it up like it really needed it and I know it did, and the second coat took just a a small amount of paint. No need to prime, just two coats of "Metal and Wood" paint. It covered the Rusco metal storm/screens beautifully too. Beautiful and worth a little extra on price. This paint job will last 20+ years, like our family's former lake cabin did at 35 years and then it only lost its gloss. I'd like to return to the old wood storms as well. Bill Knutson of Crookston told me they expanded a bit in the cold sealing the window frame! And if you are like me and want clean window panes spring and fall, taking them down and putting up screens was cause to clean and inspect for decay before it got out of hand.

While you are at it, get the right caulk for the right job and caulk in the right places! Use glazing compound where glass meets window, not caulk! Over caulking can cause moisture build-up and rot as well. Old ways and old wood windows are sometimes the best because they are fixable at a reasonable cost, like going back to oil based paint.

5 More Prayers for Crookston

That the former Carnegie Library can be maintained until a creative re-use can come forward.

That the Banks of Crookston reconsider sponsoring an affordable housing program grant application for the Union Building.

That a new community gathering space evolves downtown, perhaps the four floors of the former Kay’s Attic building?

That City Leaders slow down traffic and encourage the big trucks to use the bypasses, so that downtown is safer, quieter, has more diagonal parking, has more walkability, and is more of a visual pleasure for shoppers and visitors.

That we fight off modern day laziness and endure slight inconveniences with all the strength of our forefathers and mothers.

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Part IV Vision for Crookston

Those who read the Crookston Times Guestbook already know Part IV of “My Vision for Crookston.” And that is BRING MORE PEOPLE DOWNTOWN! In other words, let’s develop what we already have: a beautiful downtown, made so by the vision of the community leaders of the mid-80’s and with help from Minnesota Department of Economic Development Small Cities Grant. Don’t forget the promoters of the Red Lake River goes way back to the mid eighties also! Gene Miller was deeply involved then. He started the movement to restore our river to recreational status.

Do you remember some of those folks? Chuck Hiller, Henry Gredvig, Hilkey, and Ray Ecklund were some that I knew. And by the way isn’t that how the sidewalk pavers got funded? Not through highway 2 improvements, but through that first block grant. It was a grant to the City to fix up downtown and was set up as an interest buy-down grant and a 5% loan program. The loans got paid back and reused through a revolving loan fund that was made just for downtown improvements. They had some money in the fund and they spent it on the pavers. Was all the money used up then? I thought these funds would revolve for quite some time and be available into 2011 or 2012?? Anyway, the loans and the pavers eventually got paid back through tax assessments downtown. How that happened I don’t know. Oh well, one more lost tool to use on downtown buildings. But I digress.

Here’s the gist of my letter on the guestbook, with a few improvements:

The problem downtown is not the older buildings, the vacant buildings, or the image; those are just symptoms of the problem. It is the LACK of “people traffic” downtown. There are not enough customers to buy and therefore pay to repair the buildings, whether they are new or old! There are only two ways to fix that problem. One is through tourism and events, (on Crazy Days, the Brenda Nordlum & Kay’s Attic Rummage Sale made more money than in one month of being open daily!) Another is through housing downtown. For only $4,000, We could get Artspace here to develop the Fournet Building, or the former Villa St. Vincent building into housing for artists! We can encourage UMC to develop downtown housing! Think, for a moment, if their $10 million new student housing could have been created in one of our vacant buildings!! The quick rent up of Central Square is proof.

IMHO, everyone here and their friends and relatives needs to write, email, or call their Ward leader, cc the Mayor, and Dan Johanneck, that tourism and housing downtown needs to be tops on their to-do list, its time for a new block grant, and tell them not to divert us by thinking about tearing out those beautiful pavers: they were put in with state and federal money and paid for by all the businesses downtown! Write today!

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Top 10 Prayers for Crookston

That no more businesses close their doors.

That Metro Plains receives tax credit funding for the former Wayne Hotel.

That Prairie Skyline receives Housing the Long term Homeless funding for the former Union building.

That a developer comes forth to develop housing in the former Professional Building.

That community leaders prioritize developing housing and businesses downtown.

That the former Winter Shows building can successfully come back as a place for equine events.

That people and leaders adopt the idea of a working arts center in the former Cathedral on Ash.

That the Red Lake River is made into a recreational hot spot for Crookston.

That the poor, angry, depressed, apathetic, can’t be done here, misinformed, and gone to the lake folks are revitalized.

That our younger and older generations come back to help us.

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To be or not to be that is the question...

The question is from Patsy, Can a non-profit start up to purchase a business? Sure! But a word of caution - its not a venture for the faint of heart! And some harder questions need to be answered before creating a new entity. A new public charity can take six months to up to a year to form. And it's getting harder and harder to get the special 501 c 3 status with the IRS.

The first questions go out to the owners of the Crookston Bowling Alley, Corral Lanes:

1. What is the sales price? What is important to you? Selling it quick, getting the most money out of it?
2. Will you carry a contract? Be flexible on terms?
3. What is the potential return on investment?
4. What is the net operating income?
5. If a negative cash flow, is there ways to change the situation?
6. As a potential buyer, can I see the books and have my accountant look them over?

Assuming there is some money to made in the business, the second question is: Is there an existing non-profit public charity that needs the bowling alley to raise funds for their charitible cause? Do they have the capacity to operate it?

Third, is a non-profit entity the right choice? What about a Limited Liability Company or a Corporation? There's tons of information on public charities, foundations, and other entities on the web.

And last or perhaps first quesion, since we are in Crookston, can we find a group of five people willing to invest time and money and enthusiasm to form the new non-profit, investment corporation, or LLC with owning and operating the bowling alley as the main means of fundraising or have they all moved to the lakes?

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Let's all just walk..

Check your neighborhood walkability score! Did you know that downtown Crookston has a walk score of 98 out of 100! And the north residential end of town has a 38! So why do keep on with sprawling out the North end of Crookston? Check out this site: www.walkscore.com, and type in your address. Let’s think “green” in March.

Part Three of Vision for Crookston

Part III Oops, I gave it away already: Make Downtown Crookston a destination for thrift, consignment, antique and collectible shoppers. Encourage retired folks, married couples with one income already, and non-profits to start a business. You’ll notice that I mention the type of business owners we need—Business is just too slow downtown now to encourage a single person to open up a business and depend on that business for a living. Not yet, anyway. But if we
• First: Beautify, and slow traffic,
• Second: Address parking once and for all, and
• Third: encourage thrift, consignment, antique, & collectible shops,
More people will come to attend what we already do have: Farmer’s Market, OxCart Days, etc. plus, they will come just to shop. Most of the people that shopped at Kay’s Attic were from Grand Forks! They were on their way to the lakes for the weekend. Or, they were people who used to live in Crookston that stopped by to reminisce about the former S & L Building with its gravity run system for making change. (Anyone skilled enough to put one together? I have a set, a gift from a great friend, John Vraa.) These folks were visiting friends and relatives. Last fall, I had people in the store that came just for the thrifts, and antiques and collectibles. Just in case you didn’t know, we have a new thrift shop that benefits the Humane Society and a new antiques & collectibles store “Timeless Treasures” operated by Cindy LaFleur in the former Mattie’s Menagerie location. Kay’s Attic & Antique Emporium will be changing to a thrift shop that benefits Prairie Skyline Foundation. It’s going to be great, Crookston that is; I just know it.

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Town Square or Town Square? Response to Steve

Hi Steve, Thanks for posting! I’m glad to hear that you’d like to see the same thing, i.e. the downtown preserved, greatly valued for its character and seeing new development from private entrepreneurs as well as I do.

As usual with any vision, there are obstacles and problems to work out. The major obstacle with the town square green space idea is that the City will have a tough time getting approval from the State Historical Preservation Office for such extensive demolition of historic structures many of which were restored with public funds for green space when we do have many beautiful parks, especially the underutilized Central Park. Note we have a park on the corner of the busiest intersection in town, Main & Robert, and no one sits there and watches trucks and cars go by.

My vision involves “clustering” downtown businesses in the two blocks between Loring and Second Street, making the distances shorter to walk, not farther. I’d love to see walking encouraged, but to do so ironically will involve shorter distances not longer ones. (Its no secret we as a nation have gotten lazy) Many people have mentioned on the Crookston Times Guestbook and elsewhere over the years of the need for a central location for the proposed community center. (You know the one that never gets onto the drawing board??) My guess is we will want a roof over our heads for the community center, not simply green space. Since the City and School District chose to destroy not only Central High School but the Junior High School gymnasium as well, our chance for a sizeable central community center may well be gone. If we can concentrate the businesses and eaterys we will have at least a business center. Any vision we choose to follow will involve sacrifice no doubt about it, but we have lost so much already. Watch for my upcoming slide show on the blog.

The City through the Crookston Economic and Development Authority, (CHEDA) is interested in downtown. I believe they are working on a new housing Tax Increment Financing (TIF) for downtown that could encourage private development. It just hasn’t been in the news as much as our new 3 or 4 rink hockey arena which in my opinion is moving way too fast for the money involved.

Reading between the lines on the former Wayne Hotel project, the building won’t be torn down until the next Minnesota Housing grant round is completed the end of October and we hear if the project has this piece of funding in place. It isn’t over yet! The people of Crookston need to influence the City not the other way around. We will have to come up with our own vision and include a strong “How to do it” section, in which major obstacles have been researched. Through people like you and others that are doing some serious critical thinking about downtown Crookston, we can move forward.

PlaceEconomics

PlaceEconomics This is the site to visit if you want to tear down old buildings. I invite your comments! Reduce, reuse, and recycle!

C-town it is!

Along with making Crookston the destination for thrift, consignment, antique, and collectible shopping, I must say that our town has been named already! “C-town.”

Benjamin W. Parkin (San Francisco, CA) wrote
at 12:14pm on November 22nd, 2008: Just to set the record straight..... The term "C-town" originated back in the late '90's, probably around 1998. Wes Colborn (class of '94) and I started using it when we were college roommates, as a result of listening to Sir Mix-a-Lot and his use of "Sea Town", for Seattle. It quickly caught on and has given everyone from the C something to identify with. Props to the younger generation for keepin' it rollin'. Peace. (from www.kroxam.com facebook group)

Tommy Helgeson has called Crookston, “C-Town,” for years. We don’t need a fancy marketing firm, to create a logo and image for our town, we’ve had one all along. We especially don’t need the same fancy marketing firm that came up with the confusing “Protecting the Legacy,” theme for the new 3-ring hockey arena. Just think what can be done with “C-Town:” Cool, Classic, Crookston. Be cool, shop C-town! The Big C. I’m sure you can do better than me and come up with many more! Oh, there’s one: Come Up to Crookston!

Another one I’ve always admired, remember the TV program, “Northern Exposure?” The name is great, the moose is great, and the radio announcer, WOW, if we could have a guy like that! In addition to our announcers of course. A dose of philosophy in our brand! A little Tao here, some arts, and some good old “We can do it” attitude. We do need a voting place and the www.ilovecrookston.com site has the contest running. Go Enter, have some fun! I’m entering C-Town in case Ben or Tommy doesn’t, and also “Northern Exposure.” Part III of my vision for Crookston next post, I promise.

It can be done.

The other day I sped down the center lane on Main Street by the Arby’s and noticed out of the corner of my eye, a pedestrian wanting to cross the street as I went by. Oops, not very “Minnesota Nice” of me at all. AND, the watch for peds signs were only just taken down. I must not have learned anything from those signs. Imagine if I was the walker. I’d be steamed if I was in a hurry or freezing cold.

You know it wouldn’t be so hard to do: Going back to diagonal parking and two way streets on Main and Broadway to slow down traffic and prevent accidents like Ramona Unke. Mike Kammikar from Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) tells me that it all starts with the City Council. So, of course, we will have to convince them it’s worth it. We, meaning the Crookston retailers and shoppers.

It could be similar to what Bemidji did. And their downtown is booming. Crookston will have to beef up the truck routes around town and probably build a new road to bypass the Crookston High School and new hockey arena. Then MnDot would designate the bypasses as Highway 2 and Main Street and Broadway will revert to the City’s control. Of course it all comes at a cost. I’m guessing it might take $1 million per mile of new road around the High School and another couple million to make the bypasses better able to handle the truck traffic. Far less money than the new 3 ring hockey arena, parking will be vastly improved downtown, traffic reduced, noise reduced for a more pleasant walking experience. Of course delivery trucks and semi’s will have to pass through downtown and there’s no law that says trucks have to take the Highway 2 bypasses, I just have to feel that with this change, trucks choosing their way based on GPS units will be routed around town. As well as trucks influenced by new signage saying " go this way to follow U.S. Highway 2."

Everyone take a Cruise!

Before I continue with Part Three of my vision for the future of Crookston, I must take a moment to tell you that my oldest daughter, Sara, got married to Grant Louiseau of Perham, Minnesota on the beach of the island of St. Thomas on January 6, 2009; and honeymooned on the cruise ship, Carnival Glory . I’m so happy for them and for Mom who enjoyed a real vacation in many years. I am so refreshed. Thank you Sara and Grant!