Citizen Wausau

“Ever feel like no one is listening?”

Yes, it happens all the time.

My understanding is that there are plans that will be shared within the next few weeks. I haven’t seen them, but I’m sure that there will be changes from the drawing that people are looking at now and I’m equally sure that there will be things that many people — including me — will want to change (beginning with the potential construction schedule.)

People can read some of what I’ve said for themselves (and please DO NOT read into this that I am suggesting we adopt a design similar to Portland’s, which I specifically do not):

http://tinyurl.com/ysna35

It’s important to understand that the “don’t change anything” position is one that allows for absolutely ZERO compromise. Whether the current ideas are altered, delayed or tossed out the window like everything else has been over the years since we cleared the block, adopting a position that insists on no compromise is not my idea of a thoughtful approach.

This is literally a debate on the public square and there’s nothing wrong with that. If nobody cared about what the public thought, then it would already have been done, wouldn’t it? We do care.

Concepts have been discussed and drawn, but nobody has pulled the trigger on implementation and I don’t really think that is imminent, either. The fountain — to the extent that there is one — has essentially been ruled out for placement near any stage. I don’t see it as frivolous. The pink noise of a water feature provides a respite from normal traffic, etc., while also creating a sense of privacy for conversations or reading, as well as ambiance. People naturally gravitate to water features and I’ve seen this in many venues, but perhaps the most illustrustrative was in the incredible bustle of Hong Kong. Fountains can be made flush to the ground and turned off so they’re not taking up space when it’s needed for something else.

I have my own feelings about permanent vs. a temporary stage. Right now, I tend to prefer the temporary stage because it’s not taking up space 100 percent of the time and because setting it up tells people “there’s something happening” — (remember the old westerns with the guy in the jail cell listening to the gallows being hammered together on the square?) On the other hand, I have seen people make use of carefully planned permanent stages for informal seating during times when nothing is happening. An example is Union Square in San Francisco.

“Walls” are not just walls. Done carefully, they provide informal seating, definition and a sense of place. (Pioneer Square in Portland does this well.) I’m not sure how I feel about them here yet, but I have seen them employed effectively and ineffectively in different venues. No blanket statement can be made about them without knowing more than I think we do.

Funding for concerts on the square was previously provided by room tax dollars. Last year, Marshfield Clinic stepped up to the plate and added two concerts to the schedule. This year, they sponsored the entire series. City Pages is the founder of the series, does the booking and provides substantial in-kind support. Wausau Area Events is a non-profit 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that works in concert with the Main Street Program. The staff support for staging and promotion of concerts on the square is no small thing.

I’m not going to get into a discussion of “essentials” vs. “improvements” because it’s a very subjective area. Bare bones is what we’ve got now and some might even argue that plenty of bones are missing.

In response, let me say that I’m happy to look at good ideas from any size city. At the same time, I have not been researching CITIES for this project, but looking at SQUARES. Our square has specific dimensions, so it’s not as if anyone would be trying to build the new Yankee Stadium or something like that.

If the question has to do with the resources that would be realistically be available or the potential crowds that could be drawn, then my response would be this: given the size of the space, we would have sufficient resources for whatever level of finish we would be likely to choose and we could expect to max out the capacity for certain types of events here no matter how we developed it (including no further development at all.)

So if somebody’s got a great example from a small city, I’m interested. If someone wants to show me another green space with a quaint, white gazebo in the middle, then I’m not.

People who become familiar with big cities quickly learn that they aren’t really large, monolithic entities. Rather, they are collections of villages or neighborhoods that are identifiable and often have names: Near North Side, Greenwich Village, 6th Arrondissement, Dinkytown, West Central, West End, 9th Ward, Russian Hill, Lakefront, South Side, French Quarter, etc. We have them here too, but smaller and less in total. I’ve occasionally heard people try to say that examples from much larger municipalities are not valid, but that is never something that I’ve accepted. Moreover, you’ll find dozens of significant public gathering places in large cities. We have several here.

As for celebrating our town, we already have a number of functions occurring on the block and so having the form follow the function should inherently reflect that. In addition, it should be at home in the environment where it already finds itself. The square can be seen as a blank canvas, but I could also argue that it is probably more properly viewed as a portion of largely blank canvas within a much larger work.

How’s that for some morning meandering? And remember: these are MY opinions and not necessarily a reflection of anyone else’s. I’m just having the discussion like everyone else here. :)