The Christmas rush hasn’t even subsided, let alone finished, and now there’s pressure for another momentous occasion: New Year’s. This New Year’s is special because it also marks the end of the decade. And while many of us are going about last-minute tasks for Christmas next week — there’s a lot of wrapping in my immediate future — we’re already thinking beyond that.
We’re more in need of planning a winter break trip. Spending less and saving more is about to become front and center, and dieting after eating throughout the holidays is a common New Year’s goal. In many ways, New Year’s is just plain weird.
It makes us think about time and that creates pressure. But with it being the end of the decade — an actual end of an era in many ways — socially we’re not just looking to the future and making plans, but we’re a bit more reflective and it seems like there’s a bit less pressure. There are currently many “best of the decade” lists, mostly geared toward national bestselling books, movies and musical acts.
I’m guilty of not being reflective often enough. Main Street’s “off season” has officially started and we’ve been busy thinking of ways to improve on this year’s events and determining what we’ll do next year, including the summer theme already.
It hasn’t officially arrived, but for Main Street, 2020 started in September. It’s hard to believe it, but 2020 will mark Main Street’s 15th anniversary as an organization and will be our 10th summer theme. Main Street has been working to ensure economic stability, promote tourism and maintain historic integrity. We’re celebrating what makes Monroe, Monroe.
This year alone we hosted two community forums for the city on restarting the Redevelopment Authority. Held in February, these two meetings were attended by nearly 150 people. Our two car shows brought nearly 650 classic cars downtown. We’ve celebrated new businesses in the historic district, including the Artful Gourmet, Handsome Devil, Bean Haus and our pop-up shop: 213 Mercantile, while last year’s pop up shop, Rock & Rust, signed a long term lease. We welcomed over 18,000 visitors for the outdoor farmers market and thousands more for our parades and concerts. We coordinated 18 local artists for this year’s theme: Musical Chairs on the Square, which brought even more people, brought Sounds of Camp Randall to Monroe in August, completed two projects with UW Madison’s UniverCity program, coordinated two downtown clean-up days with community partners, and for the third straight year we purchased new Christmas decorations. Our total investment in these decorations in these three years is just over $20,000.
And as Christmas reminds us to be generous in spirit, it’s so important to note that over 100 volunteers just this year have made all of this possible, as have grants from the Monroe Fund, Alliant Energy Foundation, funding from the City of Monroe, separate funding from downtown property owners, dozens of sponsors, individual donors and in-kind donations from within the downtown district and outside of it.
Perhaps our best goal, especially as we reach milestones, is to look forward and plan for the future, but not before being reflective on what has been done, what we’ve worked on and toward and why, and to celebrate those things, and use them as building blocks.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
— Jordan Nordby is the executive director for Main Street Monroe. He can be reached at MonroeMainStreet@tds.net.
