I spent part of my day today with an architect from one of the west coast metro areas. Our time spent together was quite eye opening as far as what a person from far away thinks of Mason City and the progress it’s making toward bettering itself.
There were several comments that he made that I will not forget. His first comment was, “It looks like this community could be slower paced and easy to live in.” And the other comment was, “I’m surprised that this community doesn’t take a more active step in preserving and restoring the districts that surround the historic downtown.”
Here we have someone who has worked with more cities in developing and bettering their communities telling me something that I have understood for many years. I hope that it will take a new voice to convince our city that this is the road to progress. If you think about it, if there is not the “hub” or center of a wheel, we cannot branch out from that hub. There should always be the core of commerce.
One more thing he mentioned, was that he was quite surprised by the diverse styles of architecture in the downtown. I did mention to him about the downtown façade project and that is moving forward. He was glad to hear about that.
Not to be proud and pompous, he praised the work I have done on the interior of my building. Ohhhhh…if he would have only seen it three years ago!
So, after today it has been reaffirmed. My on-going vision, is someone else’s new perspective.
