Brookport, Illinois is my "hometown" I guess, as much as I have one. It's been my mailing address for about 30 years, although I don't live in town. But, because of the geography and the Ohio River, the Brookport rural mail routes are very large and not that many people. That's where I live. But I consider myself a Brookportian.

Brookport is directly across the river from Paducah, Kentucky, at the foot of the Brookport Bridge, an amazing structure carrying U.S. Highway 45 across the Ohio that opened in 1929. http://bridgehunter.com/il/massac/brookport/
I will say this. It's old, it's narrow, and it's long. But the view is stunning and I feel a lot safer on the Brookport bridge than I do on the nearby I-24 bridge.

Brookport is a town of about a thousand people. It isn't a very "quaint" town, or scenic, or with a nice square. The downtown isn't well defined. It's stretched along and a few blocks either side of Hwy 45 as it comes off the bridge. A lot of the historic buildings are gone, although some remain. The view of the river is blocked by the concrete flood wall. You just have to see it to know what I mean. Most people would consider it depressed and poor. But I know it as a town with many great people who care about their town and are trying to make it better. It's about as far away from power centers in Illinois as you can get, and really is more a part of Kentucky than Illinois. Because of these anomalies, Brookport as a unit has little political influence and has been left to itself to deal with its day to day problems.

A couple years ago, Brookport got some grant money to hold a series of town meetings to try and figure out what it could do to improve the town. I went to several of the meetings. It isn't easy, because the bank owns some key property which is a parking lot which is the heart of the town when people come off the bridge.

Old gas stations which have environmental issues and sit vacant and can't get rented also dot this stretch. It's difficult to figure out what to do. And, not much has come out of these series of meetings, although it was obvious that people did care.

But I think what the town should do is to start propogating the phlox that I showed in the previous photo entry. Every space where it is possible to plant something along the main downtown roads should be lined with these phlox. Actually, every road in town should be lined with these phlox. And there are probably other varieties of phlox with other colors and bloom timings that could add to this.

Then, when they are in full bloom, have a phlox festival. Encourage people to come to Brookport to view the phlox-lined streets. The city could sell phlox starts to raise money, and have some events, music and art, for example to go with the festival. I guarantee you that it would generate some money for the town.

I didn't advance that idea at those series of meetings because I hadn't thought of it. But I thought of it now, and while kind of a wild idea, is it really? It may be just the right idea. Obviously, these gorgeous phlox grow great in Brookport. As they say, "if you got it, flaunt it," and what could you flaunt that would be more beautiful?