Benefits to living in a Beloit Historic District?

Farmer's Market - OldOnliner pic

This was perhaps the first question I’d asked when I joined the city Landmark’s Commission several months ago. I believe there are benefits and believe there could be more.

I’ll begin what I hope to be an open discussion on the advantages of living not only within one of Beloit’s historic districts but more broadly, living within the older neighborhoods near the center city. The first benefit that comes to mind is that they’re so close to so much that’s going on in the city that we don’t always have to drive to do anything. Is it too broad to say that it’s ‘Green‘?

While our family does not live in the College Park Historic District we do live in the surrounding older neighborhood which affords our family the opportunity to walk or ride our bikes places. Further, we regularly see our neighbors doing the same. My observation has been that older neighborhoods tend to be more pedestrian. You see people out and walking around all the time. I like the fact that there are so many things we can walk or ride our bikes to such as…

• Downtown (shopping & restaurants)
• Arts & Culture venues (live music, live theater, museums, Arts Incubator)
• Community events (farmer’s market, Riverfest, film festival, parades, fire works, street dances, mini grand prix racing etc)
• Beloit College public programs & events (arts, education, music, culture etc)
• Schools, churches, banks, city hall, post office, city parks – plural, including Riverside, Horrace White and more
• What have I missed?

I like that there’s so much so close to us that we can walk to it. It’s a big plus imo.

Your thoughts? Other benefits?

Thanks to OldOnliner for the pic above. As an aside, if you’ve not seen his photostream on Beloit you should check it out here.