Letter to the Editor: "Keep the school in the Crater"

(Lyle Luzum of Decorah has submitted a Letter to the Editor in response to Paul Scott's comment Monday about "Leave the Crater"):

"In commenting about the school and Menard's locations you stated: "The day has already arrived when Decorah has begun to "Leave the Crater."  Decorah has become a popular community which is drawing more and more people to live here.  That means we should begin to think long-range about how our community can expand in a thoughtful, logical way.  But we can't do that so long as our minds are stuck in a crater!"

I agree expansion should be thoughtful and logical. And we have enough sprawl. But "stuck in a crater," while a clever line, is not quite what the school location question is about.

If you think people are attracted to Decorah because there is sprawl, a Walmart, and a (maybe) Menard's, think again. A great downtown is precious and fragile thing. It takes constant vigilance to keep it vibrant, especially these days with Amazon and friends convincing people that they should abandon local retailers for a few bucks of savings.

There are few things worse for a small town downtown than having a school leave. A school in easy walking distance from the center of town activity is vital. It brings life. There's traffic a couple times a day, true, but the existence of people (and traffic) in town is critical to vitality. Town living is about life of all ages living actively together. People go where other people go, especially if they can easily walk there -- something we want to encourage. (I know, this is an elementary school, but it's a slippery slope once an out of town campus gets started.)

Allowing that life and activity to leave does two things: it drains vitality from downtown and it encourages sprawl and fragmentation of the community.

From a school perspective, having centers a few miles apart is a significant logistical problem. Having served on a school board with split centers, I don't wish it on Decorah.

Decorah is not actually growing, as you know. It is, however, holding its own despite the shrinking birth rate by attracting people from around the country. This is something to feel fortunate about and to protect. New blood is critical to community energy and vitality. Ask our newer community members what attracted them. I'll bet one important thing is a vibrant downtown full of life of all ages.

We have enough local challenges dealing with the nation-wide move to online shopping. We are not stuck in a crater. That's just a variation of the old abandon-the-city, move-to-the-suburbs mentality that killed downtowns around the country. Keep life in the crater. Keep the school downtown. If expansion for $1 occurs at the expense of the downtown, that is a very high long-range cost."