A few years ago I was looking at what the towns and cities near me were missing, and something big came to mind: no places to really hang out and enjoy each other’s company. My small town has one of those old-fashioned “main streets” with small storefronts and street parking in front, walkable distances all over. But the buildings are maybe only 1/3 occupied, and if there’s anything I hate, it’s waste.

People don’t want to use that retail space because it’s so old. But what it leads to most often is that awful sprawl of new steel buildings on concrete or featureless sad-beige bullshit. We just recently got Starbucks a year ago and it seems to be doing well, but it’s at a crazy busy intersection of two major highways on the outskirts, so foot or even bicycle traffic would be taking one’s own life into their hands.

It also doesn’t help that after the lockdowns in 2020, Starbucks has become a decidedly NOT friendly place to have a hangout. The lighting and seating doesn’t want you to stick around, and it’s bothersome.

What I would do if I couldn’t fail is take all that empty retail space in my small town’s “downtown” and renovate it. Not sterilize the damned spaces on the outside, but make sure everything’s up to code and if the business spaces are too small, then save the facades and entryways as they are and make 2 businesses where 3 once were, or maybe 4.

It’s easily an hour drive to a good bookstore that’s not just some cramped storage space with shelves and a cash register. What I’d want to do is a scaled down version of what Barnes & Noble has managed to do for years… and then some in my little “nothing’s ever happening” town. Those buildings I picked would become one major business, but keep their exterior doors the same to help traffic flow while inside, the 3 sections would be delineated by lockable sliding doors.

The first section would be my bookstore, with new AND used books (especially required readings for school districts & we could bulk order) & some small reading nooks tucked around. And since it’s next to the Café, folks could borrow from the used bookshelves and read while they eat, then buy them or put them back when done.

In my dream, the Café in the middle would have 2 different vibes. During the day: coffee, tea, salad, finger-sandwiches, hot comfort food like stew, homemade mac & cheese, chili & cornbread, lentil soup, etc. Stuff that’s familiar but comfortable and not sold everywhere else (fresh, too, and not too pricey… it’s a poor town). Also, we’d have paper & pencils/crayons for kids and if they wanted to give us the pics, we could hang them on our “Art Exhibit” wall next to the bookstore (slip them into sleeves on the wall and put a fake frame around it with a fake descriptive placard like you’d see in art museums), then give them back in a week or two to make room for new art.

As the evening comes, we’d change the lighting and get rid of the coffee to switch to wine & beer so folks could enjoy themselves & whatever is going on in the 3rd space at that time. The bookstore would also be closed by 8pm and the doors locked to signify that it’s time for the business to be kid-free (to me, kids should be showering and getting ready for bed by that time, anyway).

In the third section, it would be a multi-use space for classes or organizations early in the day. I’d seen some things like it before when I was on a walking trip around San Antonio (they had a café, too, with the best damned Reuben sandwich I’d ever had). Easy to clean floors and sound baffles on the walls to be easy to clean & curb the noise respectively. I could see summer art classes for kids, writing classes, simple cooking, other arts, etc. Those wanting to run the classes or organizers needing meeting space could rent all or part of the space for a couple of hours. Or maybe we’d have a list of activities, hire folks to run the classes for extra money, and just charge for supplies and the space. Sound baffles would be needed to curb kid noise, but also for evening events.

For the evenings, I could see more adult things like amateur stand-up comedy, karaoke, live music, wine or beer-tasting events, milestone parties, benefits or auctions, etc. Teens with IDs or Drivers’ Licenses could stick around and participate in most things, and yes, we’d be carding them like crazy. Heaven knows they need a place to hang out with friends that’s safe… especially if they can’t drive anywhere themselves yet (ugh).

Yeah, it’s complicated, but I always wondered what it would be like if we had anything like that around here. I don’t go to town much because it’s all the same chain fast-food restaurants, donut shops, vape shops, churches, insurance companies and gas stations. There’s really nothing that allows people to hang out that’s central and fun and doesn’t require driving 20-30 minutes for. Hell, other than the entertainment complexes in the city I work in (20 minutes away), there’s barely anything there, either!

I’d just love to create some place fun, communal, different, but can change with the vibes, too. But more than that, some place where you can park your car close by and still just walk around the stores, meet people, pick things up, all that good stuff. Those existing shops are mostly tiny insurance offices or small boutiques that I just have to wonder how the hell they stay in business (unless they do mostly online sales, anyway). I’d love to put a musical instrument shop in one of those other retail spaces, a bakery, a custom shirt shop, a Hallmark-like store with gifts, a “crafter’s mall” where home crafters could sell their goods in rented booth spaces (my dad and stepmom did that stuff about 30 years ago)… who knows?

If I knew I couldn’t fail and had the money, that’s what I would love to do. It would be hard, but fun as hell, and that makes all the difference to me. Those little few block small town centers are SO walkable, and it would be great to see it actually being used.