I'm writing this blog on the evening of January 23rd. Earlier today County Executive Jon Doemel announced that he and his wife will be closing the doors to ZaRonis on February 11th, concluding a nearly two decade run of owning a pizza restaurant in town (and everything else that has come of it, like Heroes of Oshkosh). This news was shared literally hundreds of times on Facebook within the first two hours. As I was sharing and leaving a comment of my own, I began waxing poetically in my mind on memories of other restaurants from days gone by. I couldn't help but make the comparison that many of us will remember ZaRonis fondly 25 years from now just like the myriad of us today remember Shakey's Restaurant from 25 years ago. Restaurants come and go. Businesses, people, triumphs and hardships all come and go. As they do that though they are either caught up in the march of progress or they help set the pace. Jon & Anne were pacesetters.
While ZaRonis wasn't a Main St. restaurant, this still got me thinking about downtown. For whatever reason I was remembering the look of the old Paper Tiger and the smell of Caramel Crisp before it moved to City Center. Just 15 years ago downtown Oshkosh looked and felt a lot different, didn't it? It was around this time that the Best Western and Convention Center were being resurrected, 100 N. Main apartments were fresh and new, The Grand was being saved (again) with major roof reconstruction, and oh yeah - Main St. itself got a complete facelift. Whether you love or hate the single-lane traffic of Main St. (I personally adore it), you can't argue that it's shaped the vibe of that part of town. This particular direction that the City took shaped many things that were to come. It paved the way for the transition of the farmers market from the City Hall parking lot / Church St. over to two blocks of Main St. It opened the proverbial doors for restaurants to literally open their doors to open air sidewalk seating. It made BID projects like the wine walk and DORA feasible. Etc.
I love our downtown and I want to see it continue to meet and exceed our needs for the future while being respectful of our past. Whether you're a Northsider or not, a downtown is the beating heart of every city. You must take care of your heart lest the rest of the body fall to ruin. I grew up on my mom's fond downtown stories from the 60s-80s, and my grandparent's stories of the 30s-50s. Now I'm an adult and I have my own lived memories from the 1990s-2020s plus these memories I've created in my mind about downtown from the 1850s-1920s thanks to all of the books I've read on local history. Our library, the Public Museum, the Historical Society, and the Landmarks Commission are truly treasure-troves for us all to learn from. Humor me now as I talk about future developments that I'd like to see happen to our downtown that echo the successful revitalization of other cities close to home that we can look to.
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PARKING
If we want more traffic downtown then we could benefit from better parking: specifically a ramp in the 400 or 500 block. We used to have a ramp across from The Grand, but it wasn't maintained, fell into disrepair, and was leveled before half of us were born. I'd love to see the congestion of Division, Main, and Jefferson Streets mitigated with a multi-level parking alternative. It would be ideal to see this expensive project of steel and concrete be offset ecologically with residential wind and solar power production installations on the top level, and EV charging spots throughout all levels of the ramp. I'd want new traffic study data to inform this project. If one magically appeared overnight, I imagine it would be full during the weekends (particularly spring, summer, & fall), but not so much during the week. I consider this project a measure to plan for the future: to build infrastructure that would support some of the following points...
BIG ANCHOR BUSINESS
The history of our downtown is one of a hub of commerce large and small. Between forty and sixty years ago the narrative changed, our city grew westward, and the very nature of commercial economics shifted. In short: so many reliable "mom & pop" small businesses couldn't complete with bigger stores that were coming to town. At the same time, corporations needed room to expand operations so they moved to new zones throughout the City or they left entirely. Heck, if the Stapel family hadn't bought up so many properties and kept the rent affordable for other small businesses during this era, half of the 400 block may have been leveled like so much else was in the 1970s.
We need big businesses to come back. Go for a drive through downtown Neenah. On either end of their Main St. / Wisconsin Ave are the Ascension clinic, Plexus (X2), Alta Resources, and Bergstrom corporate offices. This all happened within the last 15 years for the most part. WOW! These are anchor businesses. They bring high paying jobs downtown where workers can spend some disposable income on the restaurants and small businesses lining the street. Let me tell you - that took foresight, determination, and the will of community leaders to entice those businesses to locate downtown. Oshkosh needs to do the same now. There is so much untapped potential in the 100 and 200 blocks of Main St. We need a vision for this area from community leaders and a willingness to go out and court new big businesses to call our downtown home. And while we're at it, I'd really like to see a bank headquartered on Main St. again...does everything really have to be along or near a highway entrance/exit moving forward?
HOUSING
I am happy with the development set to begin in the 600 block next year. We need people living downtown as much as we need people working downtown. I'm pleased that there will be a daycare - we have a shortage of childcare facilities. I'm hopeful that a percentage of units might still be sub-market rate to provide more affordable housing options - see the housing crisis blog. I wish the architectural style blent in better with the rest of our downtown and would be something that could stand the test of time more likely than the current design seems to propose, but I understand that I can't win every battle.
The City can further promote downtown livability by being more excited to work with building owners and developers. A lot of our businesses have empty lofts in need of repair. We know that work needs to be done to update our code to be more inviting for developers to renovate these spaces. They do no good sitting there empty and in disrepair.
I had a dream earlier this week - quite honestly I dream about City development a lot. In my dream the Town Motel was razed and replaced with a 3-story structure. The bottom was an open world market of sorts featuring fresh food representing a vast array of ethnic diversity. If you've ever experienced anything like Midtown Global Market in Minneapolis, that's what this was. It became this celebrated melting pot centered around food and music. It was cool. It was relevant. And it was profitable! The market was a tourist attraction in its own right. Above the market was a second story of all modest affordable units that attracted a lot of young people and recent immigrants who owned shops or worked in the market. The third story were bigger market rate lofts and a balcony with a view of downtown. If you've made it this far into the blog, just pause, check out Midtown Global Market, and imagine what something like that would mean to Oshkosh. Sure it's just a wild idea today, but is something like this so farfetched?
Riverwalk & South Main
Our riverwalk is amazing and it gets better every year. Within the next three years the east-most part of it is going to see a lot more traffic with the Mill on Main and any developments over to Pioneer Island. I want this progress to continue! I see a riverwalk where bikers and pedestrians can safely cross under the Main St. and Jackson St. bridges. The'll be safer to cross over, too. The Jackson St. bridge reconstruction ought to be like the Wisconsin St. bridge with a wide and secure path for folks to ride from one side of the river to the other. South Main and its surrounding streets are changing, too. I want the same things for South Main as I do for North Main: big anchor businesses, housing, optimal parking, and attractions. Just imagine all that's going to happen from the river to the arena over the next 15 years. The Southside hasn't gotten as much attention as it deserves, and that ought to change.
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My goodness, all of that spurred on by my reminiscing about a pizza place. Boy, it sure was some good pizza. Go grab a slice before it's gone forever. Remember all of the progress we've made over the last 15 years, and dream of what we can do for the next 15 years. I'll still be here, and I hope you will be too.
Our cover photo today comes from this trifold that the City put together about 15 years ago. If you weren't around then, check it out! If you were around then though, what else do you remember about downtown around this time?
Thanks for reading!
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