The Changing Nature of Things

I’m old enough to have lived in this area for more than 30 years. Change has been happening throughout and sometimes you don’t realize how much until you think back to how things used to be. When I started work, the main road into the workplace was two lanes and the interchanges off the highway didn’t have lights so they needed police to direct traffic on and off the highway in the morning and at night.

The area surrounding the workplace was mostly empty land and the main shopping mecca was to the south so, for group lunches, there were a handful of places but all in the same direction. Today, there are multiple lanes and four lights to control traffic getting on and off the highway and the empty land is littered with strip malls and casual restaurants.

And the growth continued north (away from the city) as what used to be a small town gobbled up land and became a fairly large suburban town.

As this was going on, the area that used to be the mecca has been changing as well. Much of that is due to the general decline of malls and the loss of the old anchor stores. But we’ve also seen the closing of several chain restaurants (fast food and fast casual) on the main strip as they focused their attention on newer places to the north.

What’s moved in? Well the large international grocery store took over from a Target and now brings in a much different crowd. (We shop there all the time). The empty strip mall next to it has plans for a Korean and a Vietnamese restaurants and at least one other tenant catering to a more international audience.

There are many new little Mexican restaurants but also places serving food from Venezuela and Peru. Places that aren’t trying to be chic upscale eateries but just places that serve food that newer arrivals are familiar with. Which is why we heard nothing but Spanish in the Peruvian place. Also why we have several other smaller international grocery stores along with the big one that moved in.

Not that I’m complaining. As I said, we love the selection at the international grocery store and the new restaurants are better than the fast food ones that moved out. It is just interesting for me to take a step back and think about all that has changed in a relatively short period of time.