Wednesday, 6/27

Because I have to go get ready for my big post-World Cup tour with the German group later today, I have to get to work early, which means I'm gonna take the lazy way out and leave you something from three years ago. But since I was looking three years into the future when I wrote it, we'll see just how good my psychic powers are.

(Spoiler alert—not perfect. But not too far off, either)

Back tomorrow with the story of how the tour goes!

(jim@wmqt.com)

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(as originally posted April 16^th, 2015)

I wonder what downtown Marquette will look like in three years.

Sunday when it was sunny and in the 70s Loraine and I were out doing what we do when a day is sunny and in the 70s. We were out walking. And part of our walk took us from Marquette's lake shore up the bike path that heads west from downtown, past 7^th Street and the old roundhouse property. That's when it hit me—because of those two locations, the lake shore and the round house property—downtown Marquette is gonna look quite different by this time in 2018.

Why? Well, those are the two points where some rather large buildings are being constructed. Right on the lake shore, right at the entrance to Founder's Landing, is where the new One Marquette Place project is being built, a 5-story commercial & residential complex sitting right on the shore of Lake Superior. And at the other end of downtown, on the old round house property, is where U.P. Health Systems is building the new hospital, which, according to which rumor you believe, will either be four, seven or 13 stories in height.

It won't matter if you're standing on the lake shore or driving in on the bypass...in a few years, downtown Marquette's gonna look a lot different.

Of course, those are only two of the big projects. There have been a other, smaller projects being tackled, the Delft among them, and then there are the projects that will spin off. I mean, once One Marquette Place and the hospital are open, that's gonna bring a LOT of people into downtown Marquette who normally aren't in downtown Marquette. And those people might need places to shop and to play and, perhaps, even to live. I mean, there is a quite a healthy selection of things to do here already, but is it enough to handle the coming crowds?

I'm kind of curious about that myself.

It's funny. If I remember correctly, thirty years ago downtown Marquette was dying. Most of the shops had moved west out to Marquette Township, and the downtown area was filled with empty storefronts and confusing one-way streets. But then something great happened. The people of Marquette discovered, slowly but surely, that their downtown really wasn't so bad after all. When you get rid of all the old industrial sites, clean up the lake front, make the whole area accessible to pedestrians and vehicles alike, and then realize the history that you have in things like sandstone buildings...

Well, all of a sudden downtown Marquette began a renaissance. A renaissance that should hit yet another peak in, oh, two or three years.

I think we're very lucky in what we have. We're lucky we have a downtown that's thriving. I also think that we're very lucky in that we have a community full of people who care about their downtown, who want to see it grown and thrive and still retain the charm of its past. That's why I'll be curious to see how things change over the next three years.

Because from one end of downtown Marquette to the other, you'll see the changes take place before your very eyes.