My hometown isn’t what it used to be.

Saturday, July 28, 2001

My hometown isn’t what it used to be.

After a drive through last weekend, I realized that I can no longer find my way around parts of the town where I did most of my growing up. Roads have been changed; businesses have moved; new development is springing up everywhere. And the main road through town is closed all summer as they widen it to four lanes.

In another year or two, I won’t even recognize the place.

The town is Chaska, a southwestern suburb of Minneapolis. Unlike many suburbs, Chaska actually has some history; it’s the seat of Carver County, and until just a few years ago, it was on the very fringe of the metro area. I remember their old slogan: &uot;Chaska – a quality small town.&uot;

The suburbanites, however, are marching outward along the freeways, throwing up more strip malls, building huge new schools and driving more hour-long commutes to their jobs in the city. At this rate, Faribault will be a suburb before long.

Chaska has made the transition. You can no longer find the &uot;quality small town&uot; underneath all the concrete, plastic and blacktop.

I remember going downtown as a youth, back when there was a movie theater on main street. It was an old, dank building. Rumor had it there were rats in the bathrooms. They would write which movies were playing on a hand-made card and hang it up outside.

I don’t know which building used to be the theater anymore. There’s a big insurance agency in that area now, and a dentists’ office, and a sleek new grill and bar.

On special occasions, our family used to head to J’s, a family-owned pizza place and restaurant right on a downtown corner.

Now that place is an Embers. Ugh.

It actually gets worse when you get out of downtown. Where there used to be a road leading down a hill to the supermarket, there are now rows of cookie-cutter townhomes overlooking the lake. Many times, I crossed a wooden footbridge that used to run along the road near there; now the bridge is gone. I think the walking path is gone altogether.

A set of baseball fields that was built only six or seven years ago has already been plowed under to make room for some other big, boxy building.

And here’s another surefire sign of development: New traffic lights everywhere. It takes a half an hour to get across town.

Commercial development is exploding. A Home Depot is planned in the near future. A Rainbow Foods popped up a couple years ago, forcing the locally owned grocery to reinvent itself. I heard there’s going to be a huge Target Greatland, too – apparently having Target stores 10 minutes away in Chanhassen and 15 minutes away in Eden Prairie isn’t enough.

There are new gas stations everywhere. There are new video stores, new liquor stores, restaurants and auto parts stores. I think it’s a suburban rule that you must have at least one SuperAmerica per square mile.

Worst of all for me, the town is really ugly right now. A huge stretch of road is torn up, with mounds of dirt and construction signs everywhere. Hillsides are bare dirt, stripped of grass while they wait for something else to be built. Areas that used to be relatively peaceful drives are now inundated with lighted signs and clutter.

Here in Albert Lea, as well as in just about every town, there are debates about development. We’re getting a Home Depot and maybe a Wal-Mart Supercenter. The developers and the businesses stand to gain, but do the rest of us? It’s a choice every community must make. Some cities resist development; Northfield fought a Target store for years, saying it would hurt their proud downtown area. Others, like Chaska, seem to welcome it.

Either choice has risks. You can resist development and wind up drying up. You can encourage it and wind up changing your identity to something you might not like.

Realistically, it’s probably best to find the middle path: Encouraging progress while protecting the past. It’s hard to pull off, but it’s something to strive for.

Dylan Belden is the Tribune’s managing editor. His column appears Sundays. E-mail him at dylan.belden@albertleatribune.com.