Nothing Unique Here…
Have you ever noticed that a typical teenager wants to be perceived as unique and authentic, while fitting in and finding comfort with a sense of belonging. Can both co-exist?
Across the country there is a migration of people back to the city centers. The popularity is resulting in a renaissance for small to mid-sized towns. With this new life, comes an opportunity for these towns to redesign and brand themselves. Typically you will find in these historic downtowns, an organic growth of local businesses and largely an absence of chains and franchises, yet we are finding that many of these independent establishments have a familiar look, regardless of the city. It was pointed out in a recent CityLab article, that city centers seem to be using the same recipe of hipster coffee shops, microbreweries, bike lanes, creative-class members, startups, intimations of a fashion scene, farm-to-table restaurants, new downtown streetcars, etc. And while these are good components they are at risk of loosing their unique character and identity in exchange for the popular trends that are luring people in.
Not much different than that teenager who wants to be a popular by conforming to current trends yet seeks to be a unique individual. As I have struggled to hold what are seemingly two opposing thoughts in my mind at the same time and wrestled with how to apply it to our Downtown, I recalled a previous experience that has brought some clarity to the situation.
For the past 15 years, every 3 years my sisters, mom and I take a girls trip to Italy. When we first started going, we would book our flight, and with a Rick Steves book in hand and a small roller bag we would set out and see where the trip would take us. It was completely counter to my personality of everything being planned. It served as an escape from “real life” where deadlines, appointment and commitments seem to rule the day.
The major draw back of this approach is falling into the tourist trap and missing out on an authentic experience. Hence the Rick Steves book. It is a truly ingenious concept beautifully executed. It gives you a rundown on several options for dining, lodging and sight seeing throughout the major cities, while telling you the pros and cons of each and most importantly introduces you to the owners that you will likely encounter, and gives you a sense of who they are and what they are like. Equipped with that information you can make an informed decision on where to go and what to do.
The first couple of trips, it worked beautifully. If one hotel was booked, we moved on to the next. We met and interacted with locals, ate great food and visited the areas of the city that we were most interested in based on Rick Steves’ recommendations.
It made us feel like we had an insider advantage that the average tourist didn’t have. It enabled us to move through the country while we discovered what we loved the most and to be flexible when things didn’t go according to plan. For example, the day we were supposed to go to the Vatican, the bus and taxi drivers were on strike. No problem, we hoped a train to a new town and circled back later. Had we been locked into a schedule or hotel reservation, this could have ruined our trip. Instead we embarked on a new adventure.
By our third trip we noticed that we ended up in hotels and restaurants surrounded by Americans who also read the Rick Steves book. We were no longer interacting with locals but rather other touring Americans. While better than blindly going and getting stuck in the tourist trap of expensive places with convenient but usually low quality food and experiences, it no longer felt authentic or like we were having a unique experience. We still liked the food and the owners but an important element was missing. The unique authentic experience. Fortunately we were able to adjust and recreate the experience. We replaced Rick Steves’ recommendations with recommendations by the locals we had met and become friends with as a result our regular and repetitive visits.
Now we were creating a truly authentic experience while developing a place of comfort and belonging. Rather than going to a cooking class booked in advance from America and full of other American tourists, our newly found Italian friends would put on a cooking class for us. They took us to the wineries were they bought their wine, the orchards where they got their olive oil, the farms where they bought their cheese, etc. At each of these places we received a warm introduction and a private tasting. It didn’t have all the frills and fireworks of a business that specialized in hosting tours targeting tourists, but it had an authenticity and realness that could not be easily replicated. We felt special and that made our experience and product purchases feel special.
The irony is that we do not seek to go and find a new experiences each time we return, but rather enjoy the sense of insider knowledge, belonging, and community created from going to the same places, buying beautiful hand painted tiles and ceramics from the same sweet family, bringing home olive oil from the vineyard of our favorite restaurant owner. We stay with our favorite host, who gave us a cooking lesson all those years ago after which we enjoyed our meal with her beautiful family, who loved Texas Culture and cowboys as much as we loved Italy.
Our experiences were deeper than simply checking the box of all the things one dreams of when visiting Italy. All of these things are important to experience, but what made us fall in love and return each time was the unique way in which we experienced them. Our ability to connect with the locals and each time we returned we would see the same owners, experience the same food, and shop at the same boutiques. We had sense of belonging.
Our trip was imperfectly, perfect. We were able to experience the things we loved the most and had a much higher tolerance for the imperfect parts. It is that sense of authenticity and originality that we want for downtown Bryan. While the Rick Steves experience served us well it was much like the vanilla experience of many of the rebounding cities. How do we dig deeper to create places and space that people want with components of popular trends like hipster coffee shops, microbreweries, bike lanes, creative-class members, startups, farm-to-table restaurants, etc. without loosing that authentic experience and our town’s identity?
I wish I could say, after pondering and researching for many hours, I have discovered the perfect recipe. While that is not the case, but what has come from my efforts is a personal understanding of what we are seeking and hopefully an ability to express it in a way that others can understand.
If you have made it to the end of this article, I would truly appreciate your thoughts on what makes our downtown the special place we know it is. How do we create an authentic experience downtown?
Written by Katie Neason
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Long term, downtown should be a benchmark for neighborhoods all round BCS. It wouldn’t be beneficial if it was the only walkable, contained, community in the area. New developments, like Century Square and Oakmont, are trying to mimic what is being created in downtown Bryan. The more the merrier.
To continue leading in that initiative, downtown could still use some changes. Every shop in the area should provide some incentive for every nearby resident to enter. Examples: Law Offices and Quick Loan shop needs to move. In the least, zoning that grandfathers in current shops would be helpful. Any shop that a community resident won’t enter at least once every 6 months (probably more often than that) shouldn’t be at ground level in the district. Even boutiques should have some sort of event, class, promotions, that causes it to add value to the local community, rather than just be a tourist shop of products that they can get at boutiques in other locations. Downtown Bryan has a mix of both kinds.
These are a few things downtown Bryan could draw people to visit and live in downtown Bryan.