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La Grande, OR
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La Grande Life is as 'Grande' as you make it
Growing up in a different small town and making the journey to La Grande for college (home of Eastern Oregon University), I found the migration to La Grande's community tough at first. This was mostly due to the lack of integration between the City of La Grande and Eastern Oregon University. EOU serves as a nearly full service community inside of itself and the student base has never really invested in the downtown and in turn the city has not invested in nurturing the student population to its downtown. This paradigm, however, is changing.
It has now been 12 year since I moved to La Grande and like most transplants I had bounced out of the Grande ronde valley to adventure in Portland, Seattle, and other places - but found myself drawn back to "The Valley of Peace." It was only after I had returned that I began to unlock the beauty, power, and possibility resonating in this valley.
Recent economic impacts (seen nationally) has indeed taken a tole on the local economy, jobs and jobs creations, available investment capital etc - but La Grande has taken on the challenge of shifting itself into a new a vibrant community. Packed full of creative residents and professional and with the additions of new youthful organizations, the relationships between EOU and the City are beginning to engage and interact. Live music, and the arts are making there self more public - reaching out - and in turn are helping to bring the community members and students to gathering points, events, festivals - and most importantly getting them to begin to engage as groups and clubs to aid in problem solving and new paradigm possibilities...people are starting to consciously dream more here - and that is exciting.
I see ourselves now (we with a family and now invested in the communities future) having great opportunities to wipe out a lot of belief, policies, regulations, perspectives, that no longer serve the community and replace them with new, energized ways of doing things as a community to enhance and improve the well-being of all those who choose to participate actively and creatively in the metamorphosis of a rural city in Eastern Oregon. The Rural Renaissance. Viva La Revolucion.