Improving the appeal of our community

A recent online article, titled “The Top Ten Affordable Small Towns Where You’d Actually Want to Live,” created by a national real estate company, known as Realtor.com, asserts that home buyers today are flocking to “distant small towns they once might have dismissed.” And that’s because the best of those places have “cheaper and more spacious real estate, picture-perfect town squares, walk-able downtowns, good jobs, easy access to outdoor activities, and even plenty of restaurants, bars, and entertainment options.”

And guess what? After “the Reator.com data team” investigated a host of communities, they selected Macomb as one of the top ten most appealing ones in America! They included our town for a variety of reasons: because it has “the most affordable median home price on our list,” and it is also “home to Spoon River College and Western Illinois University,” as well as “the Western Illinois Museum,” and it is characterized by “an historic downtown square, surrounded by shops and restaurants.”

Of course, their investigation reminds us that looking at Macomb from a distance may cause people to assume that we have more on-the-square restaurants and shops than we actually do, for example. But we should remember that those are an important feature, which makes Macomb attractive for visitors and satisfying for residents—so we need to do what we can to promote and patronize such businesses.

And the research team also failed to mention a host of other notable aspects of our town, such as our several buildings on the National Register of Historic Places (including our iconic courthouse), our monument-laden Chandler Park, our architect-designed Compton Park area, our lovely Oakwood Cemetery that’s designated as an Illinois historic site, our Macomb Arts Center, and our state-certified Archives and Special Collections unit at the WIU Library, which has huge collections of books, maps, photographs, and records from every county in western Illinois. (In more than one way, we are not just a county seat but a regional center.)

And we should also bear in mind something that does give our town distinction—and makes it an inviting place to live: commitment to meaningful community. As I have indicated many times in my writings, we have a strong tradition for that, which emerged in both the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We have got to retain that sense of commitment to meaningful community, so that everyone who discovers Macomb realizes that appreciation for local cultural tradition and extensive social interaction is central to this town.

Of course, our Heritage Days festival, which took place last weekend, is a reminder of that. It is not just a good time, to be experienced in our downtown area, but a chance to appreciate the nature of human experience in this corner of America. I like the variety of our festival activities but, also, the emphasis on meaningful traditions (Heritage Days themes) that have been central to our experience here for generations. And by the way, next year’s theme will be “Higher Education in Macomb,” which has been essential to our local culture since the 1830s. And it will provide us with a huge opportunity to celebrate something that does indeed make life meaningful for so many residents—as it also makes our town an appealing place for educational programs, arts activities, and sporting events.

Likewise, the recent unveiling of the beautiful mural depicting nature in the rural countryside, which is on the north wall of Gelsosomo’s Pizzeria, is also a great example of continuing contribution to our town’s appeal. Of course, it marks the 50th anniversary of the Macomb Beautiful organization, which has done so much to make our town appealing over the past half century.

Those recent mural projects should also remind us that many local-based volunteer organizations have made a positive impact on the nature of Macomb. Included among them are the Friends of Macomb Public Library, the Friends of Oakwood Cemetery, the LIFE Adult Education program, the Macomb Arts Center, the Macomb Community Foundation, the Macomb Municipal Band, the McDonough County Historical Society, the McDonough County Humane Society, the Western Illinois Museum, and the Macomb Woman’s Club—as well as many other civic, veteran, and volunteer organizations. Few small towns have so much cultural activism.

So, let’s make our tradition of activism, which benefits our community, something we all recognize and appreciate here in Macomb—as well as something we crow about in our publicity. There’s much more of significant appeal about Macomb than just low-priced real estate.

Writer and speaker John Hallwas is a columnist for the “McDonough County Voice.”

This article originally appeared on The McDonough County Voice: housing affordability and small-town living