IRONWOOD, MI - Tuesday, July 29, 2008 - Yesterday this reporter accompanied Community Development Director Dan Peterson, DIDA Chairman George Goerig, and DIDA member Steve Frank on a "walking tour" of what I thought was supposed to be vacant buildings in the downtown. It was my understanding that the DIDA wanted to get a handle on how many buildings were vacant and what kind of condition they were in, so that a detailed plan could be established to begin to revitalize the downtown.

The tour began at the Ironwood Theatre and quickly proceeded westward down the main street. I met up with the gentlemen in front of Lahti's car lot on Aurora Street. What I witnessed reminds me of a couple of stories I originally told when I first established the old "About_Ironwood" site.

Please bear with me as I tell these stories once again. I believe they are applicable to the topic at hand, but I will be as brief as possible to get the message across.

The first story is about a lady that is obsessive about dirt. To make a long story short, she is taken through an art gallery. As she passes each painting she rubs her finger on the upper ledge of the frame checking to see if they were properly cleaned. As she passes each sculpture, she checks it for dust, dirt or other filth. When she exits the gallery, a reporter stops her and asks her what she thought of the gallery. "It was quite clean, I must say," said the lady, "but it wasn't quite up to my standard."

The reporter pointed out to her that the gallery was full of classic paintings and sculptures, many of which are believed to be the most breathtakingly beautiful works of art the world has ever known. "What did you think of the paintings?" the reporter asked.

"They weren't quite as clean as the sculptures!" she said, "Whoever dusts in the morning didn't get all of the paintings!"

The point of the story is that people too often get lost in small details. They miss the big picture looking for things that aren't all that important.

How does this story relate to the "walking tour" we took yesterday? After we walked half a block west on Aurora Street, George Goerig took the group down the alley behind Gene's Auto Glass, the old Rat's Nest, New Beginnings, the Pipe and Bike Shop, the old Rainbow Bar, Joe's Pasty Shop, Ben's Place, etc. Along the way George kept pointing out tall grass and weeds and Dan quickly made note of each and every "violation."

When we got to the old Rainbow Bar, Steve Frank noticed that the door was wide open. I accompanied him inside the building. Pictures of what we saw accompany this article. This abandoned building is in horrific shape. Open bottles of booze still line the shelves of the bar. The floor is covered in animal dung. There were several signs that the building was in dangerous condition, and that it was infiltrated with every kind of vermin imaginable. Steve pointed out to George and Dan that the building is an attractive nuisance to any adventurous kid that happens to pass by. Dan wrote up the "violation" George continued to lead the tour. Immediately, the next issue was tall grass and rank vegetation in the alleys.

Just like the woman in my story, George failed to see the real problem, instead opting to focus on a lesser issue. Please keep in mind here that I am expressing my opinion. I don't believe the DIDA should be focusing on minor blight issues such as tall grass in alleyways. The focus of the DIDA should be to bring new businesses to town and to make existing businesses more attractive. I don't know about anyone else, but whenever I've visited a new town, my destination has never been its alleys. Quite frankly, I focus on the stores and shops the district has to offer; the variety of goods they sell; customer service; and how well maintained the stores are from the street and inside. I doubt anyone is boycotting any Downtown Ironwood business because the grass in their back alley is a couple of inches too high.

That leads me to my second story. I will make it as brief as I can. A man is involved in a horrible accident. While out cutting trees, the chainsaw kicks up and cuts the man's right arm completely off. As soon as he realizes what he has done, he picks up his severed arm and manages to get a ride to the hospital. When he enters the hospital a nurse greets him in the emergency waiting room. "Oh my God!" she screams as the man stands there holding his severed right arm in his left hand. "What have you done?"

The man starts to explain what happened, "I was cutting a tree and the saw kicked back on me..."

"No, not that!" the nurse interrupts as she rushes to the nearest sink, rag in hand, "You're getting blood on our brand new carpet!"

The point here is that we need to start focusing on what is important. Nobody is staying away from Downtown Ironwood because of shrubbery and vegetation. They are staying away because there aren't the stores that make a thriving business district successful. The real problem is the ugly, dangerous, dilapidated, filth-infested abandoned buildings. You don't worry about re-carpeting your house when you have a gaping whole in the roof. A pretty coat of paint will not fix the collapsing foundation of a building. Harassing business owners with minor cosmetic problems when they are struggling to stay in business will more than likely force them out of business.

Just like the DIDA's central focus shouldn't be flower baskets and a pocket park, they need to start working together to develop long term changes that will make a significant difference to the entire business district. Small changes can be made with the DIDA's limited budget that will make a big difference. I originally proposed the wayfinder sign idea. I still believe it is a good one, but having only four signs scattered haphazardly about defeats the entire idea of the sign system. The signs are supposed to lead people into the downtown and direct them towards all the special things Ironwood has to offer. You shouldn't need to hunt for the signs because there are so few of them.

Benches would help the downtown tremendously. Foot traffic is extremely important to the success of a downtown. If you want to encourage people to walk the downtown, you need to provide them with periodic rest stops... places to sit... benches. And not just one or two on each end of town! Benches need to be on both sides of the street, and several benches need to be placed on each block. I shudder to imagine how the bench idea will be corrupted before it is implemented. Will we have only one or two benches? Will we have "bench" maps printed on the back of the "pee maps" and expect businesses to hand them out with pride?

Unless you're lost, have you ever inspected the back door to a Wal-Mart? To a mall? To a shopping center? Would you stop shopping there if you discovered they had tall grass growing in their back yard? How ridiculous.

On our trip yesterday, we encountered buildings that were falling down; burned out; rat infested; with gaping holes in the roof; with broken, dangerous display windows. We saw piles of debris; used lumber; boarded up windows; household trash; and every kind of filth imaginable. Do we really think that tall grass is the issue? If we do, we are in worse trouble than I thought.

Jim Albert