When I moved to western Wisconsin in 1993, I thought that the cities of La Crosse, Wisconsin and Rochester, Minnesota were similar to each other. La Crosse had two universities (which Rochester did not have), and Rochester had the Mayo Clinic, but otherwise the two communities had a lot in common.
I would not make the same comparison today. Rochester has moved into the 21st Century, and La Crosse has not. In the past thirty years, Rochester has grown from 70,000 residents to over 120,000. La Crosse, over that same period of time, has had no reason to update the population numbers on its city limits signs.* La Crosse once ranked among the best small cities in America to live. Today it is listed as one of the most affordable. Affordability is another way of saying that property values have not changed much, which is another way of saying that La Crosse is stagnant.
Of course, growth and change for the sake of growth and change is not always for the best. If I was asked in which city I’d rather live, I’d take one look at my stretch of the Mississippi River only a mile from my house and choose La Crosse.
Just last month, a community-minded local resident bought and promised to maintain the character of La Crosse’s 158-year old mom and pop downtown hardware store. I am not someone who thinks that every old building and every old business deserves to be saved, but this was cause for celebration. I’ve always shopped at Kroner’s Hardware for nuts, bolts, and other small repair items, but when I learned that someone was making a commitment to keep this piece of La Crosse history open, I knew I had to increase my patronage.
I am comparing the two cities in this week’s blog because two Mondays ago I went to Rochester to shop. For several of my Asian American friends who live in La Crosse, a shopping trip to Rochester is a monthly event. Rochester has better Asian grocery stores than La Crosse. It has better Asian restaurants (although still not entirely authentic). It also has a Costco and a Trader Joe’s, two popular chainstores that have yet to make it to my city. I would rather stay home and drop hammers on my toes than drive for an hour to go shopping, but Manyu and I are still in a honeymoon phase after her four-month trip to Taiwan and Thailand. When she asked me to join her and two of our friends on a trip to Rochester, I agreed to go.
I have to admit that I like Trader Joe’s. I’ve been inside one only three times, but every time I’ve found the staff to be unusually friendly and cheerful. Manyu and our friend Shu each bought a big stack of Trader Joe’s canvas tote bags. Manyu is from Taiwan, Shu is from Mainland China, and Trader Joe’s bags are now a popular fashion accessory throughout Asia. The bags will make excellent gifts the next time either of them returns home to visit family. I didn’t buy any canvas bags, but I did get a bunch of bananas. When I went to pay for them, I was charged by the banana rather than by the pound. They sold for twenty-nine cents apiece, and I could not remember the last time I purchased anything that cost less than a dollar. It was probably the last time I bought a nut and a bolt at Kroner’s.
The highlight of our trip was a stop at a trendy shoe store. Even though the store carried the largest selection of Birkenstocks I’ve ever seen, I didn’t buy anything. I did, however, step onto a futuristic-looking computerized machine that analyzes feet. The machine did not tell me anything that I didn’t already know (size 8.5 US, size 42 European, width EE, healthy arches), but it confirmed that all of the shoes that I’ve worn for the past fifty years have been the right size.
- In fairness to La Crosse, the city is boxed in on three sides by the river, the bluffs, and the city of Onalaska, so it cannot expand in those directions, That, however, is almost irrelevant, as the demand for growth is minimal.
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