Every place in the world can be interesting. You can find fun everywhere. You can find a thought-provoking idea in anything. Shake something hard enough and change will fall out, I promise.
Apparently, (according to heavy research on Wikipedia), Life magazine in 1949, described Rockford as “nearly typical of the U.S. as any city can be.” That in conjunction, with Rockford, Illinois’ firm status as Rust Belt city would make folks look elsewhere.
I live in Chicago. For a friendly Midwest city, most of my friends would turn their noses at Joliet, Springfield or Rockford. Chicago is the big city, America’s Second City, hub of the Midwest. Joliet provided me a great time at an amateur baseball game, Springfield delivered me an unbelievable sandwich-cum-casserole called a horsehoe, and Rockford has also now given me a fun time.
Fun can be found anywhere, easily. You just need to look. And in Rockford’s case, you don’t even need to look nor to shake that hard.
Rockford’s Past
Rockford’s first white settler was Germanicus Kent, an East Coast transplant, as an informational plaque on the riverside park neatly informs. Like many cities, it was started as a waypoint, halfway between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi, both of which in the 19th century were major highways to the world, the former to New York via the Erie Canal and the later to the New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. It was halfway between Iowa and Chicago and was duly connected with the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad.
At the proverbial crossroads, industry began to grow, with the obvious leverage to ship out to the world. It was established as an industrial base and continued for a 100+ years as Chrysler even entered the metro area in the 1960s. But as a sad tale that has plagued many a Rust Belt city, some of the industry left a shell behind. Ecological disaster (floods), social disorder (discrimination against minority students), economic panic (recessions and boom cycles ending), and transportation issues (ceasing of train service) lead to the change the swept the band of cities from New England to the western reaches of the Midwest.
Rust Belt Rebuilds
Detroit’s story and subsequent rebound has been an intriguing tale of how to rebuild a city after two-thirds of the population and much of the industry has left. Small mill and industrial cities in New England have managed to reimagine themselves in the last few years. Springfield, Mass (where I call) home has been trying to find a balance by rebuilding its main street with the “help” of MGM building a casino in the South End. Other places like Providence, RI; Hudson, NY; and Worcester, Mass have rebuilt in various ways.
A cliché was and is to appeal to millennials and younger folks to come back to the city – rebuild art centers and theaters; sprinkle in breweries and farm-to-tables; add bike lanes, remove highways, make main street walkable. Encourage businesses to reenter, focusing on service or the high-tech space helps. Albany and Rochester for instance have leveraged its colleges to bring tech as a main sector.
Sprucing up the downtown areas is huge. Making the city beautiful with clean streets and art and small things to do fills out a space, even if it physically occupies otherwise identical boundaries.
Rockford’s Street Art
Vibrant popping colors against a middle-aged city breathes life into the space.
Think of an old warehouse downtown, set against a parking lot, asphalt crumbling a bit, a few pot holes. A little alleyway, with the building on one side, and the lot next to it. Somewhat a waste of space, with 100% vacancy for parking spots. Weathered brick against the backdrop of an overcast sky, brisk autumn day. Not many folks walking around.
Now pop a bright mural that covers the entirety of that brick wall with birds flying. Across the street are three human-height towers of art. An arch way inviting you walk down main street is a block from a converted factory that still has a lovely façade next to an upscale coffeeshop, with 4-5 patrons doing work on this nice Sunday.
Yes, this also reeks somewhat gentrification, which has its own slew of problems. But the point remains that the art on both sides of the river downtown, the lovely park with paintings, the old bridges brightened with wall art, makes the city center a nice place to be.
A reminder of what was once a bridge is lively, a canvas for flowers. An otherwise drab overpass pops with personality. A park created by forgotten white industrialists reminds us “we belong here.”
It makes me feel like I do belong here. There’s things to do – a refurbished theater, bike lanes along the river, third places to do work, fun restaurants, parks to lay in the summer sun, minor league hockey. Things come and go. But the public art makes Rockford inviting, welcoming.
Rust Belt Rebuilt
Rust occurs as a reaction of water, iron and oxygen. It is irreversible. If left to it’s own devices, the chemical reaction will weather away the metal until it is nothing more. And we can watch this unbelievably slow process.
But generally we do something about it. Generally we do it with paint. I just watched the I-290 overpass I live next to in Chicago have all its I-beams repainted. We can scrape off the old rust, repaint the surface and start fresh. We can make the structure prettier than it had ever been.
Some of my favorite cities are part of the Rust Belt fabric. Things move, life changes. The development of this country has been toward the Sun Belt the last few decades. But at some point the Sun Belt will meet its match and change will occur – likely from water scarcity and energy deficiencies.
When we fix up the iron, we can paint over the flaky surface with something cheap. But we haven’t actually cleaned the surface and it’s a band-aid job. We haven’t really helped it become something new again.
Literally, Rockford is painting over this industrial pass so that unused railway crossings become public art and bridges inspire civic pride and main parks welcome us all in to rebuild home.
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