In a bad dream last week, I saw myself moving to some border community to find a job hauling buckets of mortar for the wall our presumptive president-elect wants to build. I’m not sure where the mortar bucket idea came from, but it seems to have been one of those cross-fertilization things.
On Jan. 7th The Fresno Bee carried an article announcing the estimated costs for the 2,000 mile fixture - $6.5 million PER MILE for a single-layer fence, with $4.2 million more for additional layers and roads, construction only, not including maintenance. Adding 6.5 with 4.2, then multiplying $10.7 million times 1,300 miles (2,000 minus 700 equals the length of border we do NOT already HAVE fencing) and having only slight trouble keeping track of my decimal points and zeroes, I was stunned. The thought that we’d spend that much on bricks and mortar (oops - steel-reinforced concrete) that has about 0.0015% chance of doing what it’s supposed to do was mindboggling. Mexican peasants, quoted in a Bee article earlier that week, say it won’t keep them away from a chance to work and help their families. A total waste of materials and money, if you ask me.
Then I remembered where I’d heard the word “mortar.” It was at the special meeting of the Lindsay City Council, which was convened to discuss their goals and objectives for the coming year.
The meeting was pleasant and productive, a chance for the new finance director and the newly-appointed councilmembers to come up to speed with the old ones. CM Bill Zigler conducted the meeting with his usual panache, and it was during a discussion about the goal of retaining a friendly, small-town atmosphere, particularly downtown, while growing in economic diversity and “rebranding” the city’s image that I heard the term “brick and mortar.”
I thought it was planning slang, but it’s actually a result of the e-world. According to Wikipedia, “brick and mortar” businesses are those with a physical presence: an address on a physical street, not the Web, where customers go to shop with their feet, not just let their fingers do the walking. “Brick and mortar” also distinguishes stable businesses from those that are transitory or mobile, such as taco trucks. The concerns of brick and mortar businesses, as distinct from the other two, are things such as foot traffic, storefront visibility and appealing interior design. I would add to that list “meeting the needs of community residents” as well as attracting tourists or visitors.
The Council discussed many potential improvements to the city, and I was encouraged by their creativity. But at the end of the meeting Mr. Zigler showed a brief slide show of downtown sidewalk vendors he observed on his recent trip to Portland, Oregon. He then showed a map of Lindsay, indicating places (all outside the downtown core) where such vendors could be encouraged to locate in our town. The trick, he noted, would be to promote these businesses without detracting from the brick and mortar folks.
The impact of the downtown Friday Night Market on brick and mortar businesses has not yet been evaluated, but it is finally clear, even to its most adamant proponents, that the effects have not been all that positive. The financial contribution of the Friday market to the City of Lindsay is also unclear, and the council members were right to be interested in learning more, hopefully before pursuing more transitory/mobile businesses to our sidewalks outside the downtown core.
But I would like to hear some thoughts (if not plans) for preserving the actual brick and mortar buildings of our downtown. They are the essence of our small-town atmosphere, emblems of our community’s tenure here over time, holding the fort on another form of human interaction than the electronic one. The image of the real quality of our town lives in those bricks and the mortar that, for the time being (but not forever,) holds them together, shaping environments that once sheltered viable businesses and community groups, and could do so once again.
There is a place where bricks and mortar make a difference, and that’s in the downtowns of our cities, big and small. Hand me my bucket, friends – we’ve got work to do.
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Trudy Wischemann is a carpenter’s daughter who
writes. You can send your downtown sidewalk
dreams to her c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA93247 or leave a comment below. Thanks to Dan and Zoe Delk for reconnecting
last week!
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