Crestview is my hometown and I have always wanted to move back when my husband retires from the Navy.
Now that I have lived in places like Hawaii, Dallas, Jacksonville, even Pensacola and Cantonment, unless changes are made, we won't be retiring to Crestview.
There are so many people, it's worse now then when I was growing up.
There are not enough businesses to provide jobs for adults and teenagers, which means there are still only a limited amount of places to shop retail, grocery and restaurants.
There are even fewer entertainment options for family, teen or adult outings. There’s the bowling alley, the skating rink, the movies, Twin Hills Park and a few hole-in-the-wall bars.
Bringing in more businesses would provide jobs to parents and young adults trying to make a living without having to spend the extra money and time to travel out of town for work.
It gives teenagers the opportunity to have a job, which in turn teaches them responsibility and hopefully keeps them out of trouble.
With a larger selection of businesses, the community would be more inclined to spend their time and their money in their hometown.
So many people can't afford leaving Crestview to go shopping or for entertainment, so they are stuck with the limited options that Crestview has to offer.
Maybe having more jobs available would help to eliminate (the incidence) of people committing crimes just to get by.
I don't feel as if the larger businesses will hurt the locally owned businesses like some tend to think. In Jacksonville, sometimes I see the local businesses with more cars in the parking lot than the chain stores that they are nestled between.
I won’t lie: sometimes it takes over 30 minutes to go 7 miles down the road. But in that 7 miles, I have a large mall, at least six grocery stores, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Target, Wal-Mart, endless restaurants — chain and locally owned — along with numerous strip malls, several thrift stores and furniture stores, all of them with customers inside.
At least with all of this, I have options. If one place doesn't have what I am looking for, the next store down the road might. If I want seafood and I don't like one place, I have five more to try. Even though it's a big place, you still have neighborhoods that are quiet, peaceful and laid back.
Now matter how big a town gets, you always have options where you want to live.
I was raised going to church at Woodlawn Baptist. I have since visited that church and have seen how they have changed to keep the youth and young adults interested and active in church. I am sure other churches there have grown in the same manner.
If they can do it, why can't the city take notice and grow with the changing of time as well?
Just because the city grows doesn't mean you have to take the "small town" feel away from it.
Change doesn't have to divide the people of Crestview; hopefully it will bring everyone closer together!
—–
What's your view? Write a letter to the editor.
http://www.crestviewbulletin.com/opinion/send-a-letter
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: GUEST COLUMN: More businesses would solve numerous problems