Wednesday, January 18, 2006
A Great Place to Live, Protect, & Promote
Happy New Year!
We just finished up the Holiday Season here in Clarissa, MN. The Politically Incorrect way to say the first sentence is that we just finished celebrating Christmas. I know it's controversial, but that is just another day of tough political decision-making that goes on here as A Small City Mayor.
It never ceases to amaze me at the comments people have when visiting an area such as Clarissa. Our Commercial Club in town puts on a Santa Days Event one evening just before Christmas. We do sleigh rides, drawings, with cookies and hot drinks to boot. The people mention that the event in and of itself is very nice for a small city. What gets the best reviews and the people returning year after year is the friendliness of the people in this area towards those who are complete strangers.
Comments more often than not compare our city to the old time television shows of "Leave it to Beaver". I always tell them that I wish I could differ with them, but they are exactly right.......IT IS!
Having moved from the Twin Cities it is still something we have really come to enjoy about Clarissa. Our first day in Clarissa, before anyone knew who we were, resulted in more "hot dishes" than we were capable of eating. We had previously lived in Isanti for three years, and still I couldn't tell you the names of our neighbors. Yet I'd be hard pressed not to be able to recognize or tell you the names of dozens of people I come across on a daily basis.
There are a lot of policies and politics in place today that threaten this way of life and force people by sheer economics to move towards the "Big Cities". Politicians need to understand that by strengthening the Small City's in areas such as Clarissa they are reducing the strains on the major metropolitan areas when it comes to affordable housing, congestion, and overall standard of living. I am convinced that many would leave the metropolitan areas if they only had an OPPORTUNITY, and with the tremendous advances in technology today the time to leverage these advances for Rural America is NOW.
Let's work toward building greater opportunities by leveraging and investing in technologies for Rural America and by holding our politicians accountable.
We just finished up the Holiday Season here in Clarissa, MN. The Politically Incorrect way to say the first sentence is that we just finished celebrating Christmas. I know it's controversial, but that is just another day of tough political decision-making that goes on here as A Small City Mayor.
It never ceases to amaze me at the comments people have when visiting an area such as Clarissa. Our Commercial Club in town puts on a Santa Days Event one evening just before Christmas. We do sleigh rides, drawings, with cookies and hot drinks to boot. The people mention that the event in and of itself is very nice for a small city. What gets the best reviews and the people returning year after year is the friendliness of the people in this area towards those who are complete strangers.
Comments more often than not compare our city to the old time television shows of "Leave it to Beaver". I always tell them that I wish I could differ with them, but they are exactly right.......IT IS!
Having moved from the Twin Cities it is still something we have really come to enjoy about Clarissa. Our first day in Clarissa, before anyone knew who we were, resulted in more "hot dishes" than we were capable of eating. We had previously lived in Isanti for three years, and still I couldn't tell you the names of our neighbors. Yet I'd be hard pressed not to be able to recognize or tell you the names of dozens of people I come across on a daily basis.
There are a lot of policies and politics in place today that threaten this way of life and force people by sheer economics to move towards the "Big Cities". Politicians need to understand that by strengthening the Small City's in areas such as Clarissa they are reducing the strains on the major metropolitan areas when it comes to affordable housing, congestion, and overall standard of living. I am convinced that many would leave the metropolitan areas if they only had an OPPORTUNITY, and with the tremendous advances in technology today the time to leverage these advances for Rural America is NOW.
Let's work toward building greater opportunities by leveraging and investing in technologies for Rural America and by holding our politicians accountable.
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