Galvin crop

When I was a kid — 3,154 miles and light years away from Medford — the idea of “going downtown” took on the trappings of a mythic quest.

Who would we encounter? What new adventure would present itself? What treasures would we bring home?

We traveled in a pack, usually half a dozen strong, setting out from the dirt road our families lived on, through a field, across parking lots at the back of stores that faced Main Street, finally emerging to the sidewalks that would take us who knows where for a weekday afternoon or hours on the weekend.

The majestic Elizabeth Theatre offered Saturday afternoon matinees a short walk from the village green — which, in our town, was actually named the Village Green — where weekend events and multiple festivals were held.

We could round up enough kids to hold pickup ballgames on the elementary schoolyard, go bowling or, if we were feeling rebellious, take over the corner of JJ Newberry’s where treacherous pinball machines lie in wait to abscond with our dimes.

If it sounds utopian, well, maybe that’s because it was; or at least it seems that way in rose-colored memories, as long as we heeded the parental warnings to avoid the grounds of the public library where the ne’er-do-wells of the day — hippies — would gather to play acoustic guitars and perform who knows what other heinous acts.

It was, of course, a simpler time, a less-sophisticated age, one freed from the addictive demands of screens, keyboards and phones. A moment when, to hang out with those whose company they enjoyed, the young (or the not-so-young) would make plans to go to the one place they knew they’d find something to do.

Or, perhaps, that picture of such a downtown is a unicorn — easy to visualize but impossible to see. A blue-sky notion of a place where, if constructed, our community could be drawn back from the stress and separation of current circumstance.

This walk down memory lane was spurred by the recent back-and-forth between the Downtown Medford Association and the City Council over the continuing push to form an economic improvement district.

Such a move, which has proven unsuccessful in the past, would be dependent on the owners of 178 properties to back an annual assessment of 10 cents per square foot to fund the DMA’s ongoing efforts to make the area surrounding Main Street more of a draw to residents and visitors alike.

Some council members were reluctant to continue investing long-term in the project without seeing a solid action plan from the DMA. A recent survey found that more than 50% of affected property owners were open to the idea of the economic district.

Apartments are being built within walking distance to downtown. Hotel plans are underway, as well, for visitors. The Holly Theatre seems closer to taking its long-awaited bow as a showcase for entertainment, and the prospect of a convention center could encourage even more tourists — and their credit cards.

It all sure seems like there is movement in the right direction to enhance the enticement and supplement those restaurants and businesses already operating right under our noses.

Still …

We’re relative newcomers to Medford, having worked or lived here for just 25 years. From the moment we arrived, though, we heard the laments over “doing something about downtown,” of how the highway allowed would-be visitors to pass over the city on their way to Ashland and California, of how the Medford core had become a place where there really was a wrong side of the tracks.

There’s nothing to be lost in putting a little faith, and money, into good intentions, and nothing to be gained in kicking the can down the road for future generations to resolve.

But for all the promise of the hotels and the Holly, the carrot of a convention center and the unfulfilled utility of bike lanes along Main Street, perhaps what’s needed is a modern conception of what constitutes a “downtown.”

In a world where community-building seems a cyberspace phenomenon, it might be time to put down our rose-colored glasses and focus on what could be, instead of what was, to strengthen the core.

After all, there’s a reason unicorns and utopias remain out of view and out of reach.