The Johnson House in Sandwich

The Johnson House in Sandwich To share and gather information about the history and restoration of one of the first houses built in Sandwich. If you have pics, please send them.

The house was built in 1850. There have been 3 additions to her.

08/31/2026

The problem isn’t that the “wrong” people are downtown. The problem is that everyone else isn’t there.

A healthy meadow contains weeds as well as flowers and no one thinks twice about the weeds. But when something is wrong with the soil, only weeds grow and we can spot that something is out of balance.

Downtown is where people should gravitate. The heart of the community. The question shouldn’t be how do we get certain people out of downtown, but why isn’t everyone convening there?

When everyone is enjoying the center of the community, those who might be struggling don’t stand out so much. They are just as much a part of the community as anyone else.

The real question is what happened to the healthy balance of people. And why aren’t we asking it.

08/27/2026

So much of what makes people appreciate their community is beauty.

We place a considerable amount of value on aesthetics. Humans have a greater sense of attachment to places that are pretty. We seek out charming environments and will pay more to visit them or live in them.

Yet most communities don't have a single organization advocating for good aesthetics. Not one person whose job it is to ask whether what gets built is actually worth caring about.

Which is why most towns never see anything attractive built.

Years ago I was involved with my local preservation organization. It was time to replace the old wooden sign in front of the organization's prized property. We ended up in a heated argument about whether to replace it with a plastic sign. Equal proponents on each side. It left me astonished. I had assumed that preservation minded people were also concerned with quality design.

Preservation matters. It is fundamental to the revitalization of any community. But we cannot overlook how much it matters that the built environment, whether ancient or brand new, is lovable and charming. People derive a sense of attachment from things they find attractive. And a building has a much better chance of growing old if it's pretty.

Whether new or old, beauty is timeless.

08/17/2026

Most American cities have been in decline for at least 40 years, some as long as 70. To think things will get fixed in the short run is some real magical thinking, but the key to remember is this, we don’t have to make everything right, we just have to make things better.

Improvement is about trajectories, it's about momentum. The results will come, don’t worry too much about them. Focus on the process. Do the work, be relentless, and the outcomes will take care of themselves.

Most of us understand that anything that promises a cure or improvement without effort is a scam and that the only way to address our problems or progress in our lives is to put in the work. Though somehow when it comes to our civic life, we completely abandoned this obvious truth. I know I have hammered this point home before, but like my own advice, I am just going to keep with it until it sticks.

The decline of a community cannot be turned around with one big project, no more so than people can lose weight by consuming a pill.

There are some hard truths we know about ourselves that we can apply to the places we live. And because these truths are applicable to us as individuals, they will always be true to the places we call home.

Nothing comes easy, there are no shortcuts. There is one and only way to get better, and it's by putting in the work. You can have the best plan in the world, the best coach, or the best trainer, but at the end of the day- if each individual isn’t willing to commit to a sustained effort, it's meaningless.

Let's look at some examples.

Lose weight - eat less, do more exercise.
Have more money - buy less, earn more.
Find more friends - look at screens less, engage in new activities.

It's a pretty simple formula when it comes to self-improvement. Stop doing the detrimental thing and start doing the thing that helps you get better. Crazy enough- this is also the secret to community revitalization.

Here’s a simple methodology I suggest for those wanting to improve their community. Start removing the things that are ugly and start replacing them with things that are attractive. Just as we are all a composite of all the decisions we make, our cities are a composite of all the physical features that make it up.

A town, village, hamlet, or city is just some buildings, benches, sidewalks and streets. Take away the physical items and you have a field or a parking lot. So the way to get better is to improve all of the elements that make up a place. As each piece improves, the place improves. There is simply no other way about it.

This is why trajectories matter. It doesn’t take all that much to change them. When conditions have been declining for so long, it's actually quite easy to turn a trajectory around. The act of doing nothing brings about decline and decline is depressing and fosters apathy. But improvement, oh boy! Everyone loves improvement, it’s exciting and gets everyone all fired up.

When a thing stops deteriorating and starts getting better, well we all feel a little spark and a little excitement. We all find ourselves caring a little more, maybe even feeling a bit of affection. It’s fun to see things improve. Cleaning the house feels good, but home improvements are the stuff of dreams! Staying in shape is excellent, but losing weight or building muscle? Hubba hubba!

We have to look around at our towns and be honest about what looks like crap. If decline is still occurring, your trajectory is headed in the wrong direction. Stop it. Halt it. Fix it. Look at all of the components that make up your place and start improving them. You can’t fix them all at once, but you can start fixing them one by one. And with each item improved, the sum total gets a little bit better…thus a trajectory shifted. A momentum born.

Look at all the pieces that make up your place and start improving them. Big or small, they all need attention, they all need shined up and cared for. Revitalization isn’t about silver bullets and big quick fixes. It’s about a thousand small projects. It’s about making one improvement today so that you create a little momentum, a little positivity, a little belief that tomorrow, it can be done again. Repeat this over and over again and you will find yourself living in an entirely different place than when you started. It only takes a bit of effort.

08/14/2026

We obsess over home improvement shows.

We love watching a place get transformed. Something deep inside finds it immensely satisfying to see things improve.

But all the whirlpool bath tubs, shiplap walls, and open concept kitchens don’t mean much in a rundown town.

We can’t lift up a community one kitchen renovation at a time.

Everything worth caring about in our towns was allowed to fall apart. Then it was replaced with vinyl and asphalt and steel and glass that nobody can love. No one is capable of feeling pride about a strip mall. It was designed without care, quality, or concern. It cannot produce the emotions that were absent when it was built.

We get out what we put in.

But here’s the lesson worth sitting with. What if we thought as much about our collective home as we do about our personal one? The home we share with the rest of our city. The one that shapes our kids’ futures. The one that determines whether anyone can retain or attract talent. The one that decides if the graduating class stays or leaves.

If we spent half the energy on the home we share outside our four walls that we spend on the movie room inside them, we could lift everybody up at once.

The rising tide lifts all boats. The kitchen renovation lifts only yours.

08/01/2026

Cities are obsessed with cost and forget to consider value.

An Audi still just moves people from one place to another. But people pay a premium for it. Whole Foods still just sells food. But people pay a premium to shop there. Why? Because of how it makes them feel.

Our city is no different. People will pay a premium to live somewhere that makes them feel good. They'll leave somewhere that doesn't. Most people aren't looking for the cheapest place to live. They're looking for the best place to live. Cost is just one factor in that decision and often not the most important one.

Yet somewhere along the way we gave an outsize voice to bankers and finance people while sidelining artists, creatives, and dreamers as being unserious. We got obsessed with the "serious" business of cost and cheapened our communities to the point that nobody wants to live in them. Some people choose them. A lot of people just get stuck in them.

People don't make decisions solely on cost. They don't always order the cheapest thing on the menu or buy the most affordable sweater. They make decisions with their hearts as much as their wallets. They choose things that make them feel something.

So maybe it's time to elevate some writers and painters and dreamers to our board. Let people who understand beauty and emotion and human connection have a seat at the table where decisions about our city get made.

We need to change our approach. Let’s focus on becoming a place that makes residents proud. A place they can show off to friends from out of town. Somewhere that makes them feel good just to walk the streets.

If all of this sounds too “touchy feely” to you, you might be getting the point.

07/30/2026

Every city obsesses about outsiders.

Tourists. New businesses. Outside investment. The next big employer. The national chain that will finally put them on the map.

Meanwhile the people who already live there, who already pay taxes, who already chose this place and are raising their kids here, get nothing.

It’s backwards.

Residents don’t need much. They want to be able to take a walk without being mowed down by a car. They want safe places for their kids to play. They want a friend on the block and a coffee shop worth lingering in. They want a downtown that makes them feel something when they walk through it.

They want to feel proud of where they live.

That pride isn’t a soft or secondary goal. It’s the foundation of everything else. Proud residents maintain their properties. They support local businesses. They show their town off to friends and family. They fight for their community when it matters. They stay.

And when people stay, when they’re genuinely connected to and proud of the place they call home, that is when the real investment happens. Not because someone chased it, but because they built something worth being part of.

Stop chasing outsiders.

Take care of the people already here and give them something to feel good about.

In the immortal words of Stephen Stills, “Love the one you’re with.”

07/28/2026

Too many of the organizations we need in our towns are operating under outdated mission statements, no longer reflective to what our communities need to thrive today.

Every company in the world knows that to make a sale, you have to appeal to emotion. You have to develop something people feel a connection to. Something that elevates them. Something that makes them feel better about themselves.

This lesson needs to be internalized by city hall, the chamber, the local DMO/CVB and economic development organization.

Nothing boosts a person's self-esteem like the place they call home. And nothing drives economic activity like a place people actually want to be in.

Aesthetics are the most direct route forward. Pretty matters. Function follows form. Humans gravitate toward beauty and do everything they can to surround themselves with it.

Those organizations that have already figured this out are outpacing other communities in nearly every metric. Want to be the greatest champion for small business? Create a public realm people can’t resist visiting.

The single simplest way to make our city desirable is to make it attractive.

07/17/2026

Someone in Texas once suggested that if the culture of her community changed, it would be possible to clean it up.

She had it backwards.

You clean up the town and the culture changes.

Run down buildings create run down people. This isn't opinion, it's documented fact. I did the research as you can do. Properties within 500 feet of a vacant building in Cleveland lost nearly 10% of their value. In Austin, blocks with unsecured vacant buildings had 3.2 times as many drug calls to police, 1.8 times as many theft calls, and twice the violent calls. In St. Louis, being within 450 feet of a vacant building increases your risk of being a homicide victim 4.6 times. Toledo spent $3.8 million in a single year on services related to vacant properties alone. Atlanta loses between $1 and $2.7 million annually in property tax revenue from vacant properties.

If you think there's no cost to letting buildings decline, you are either making excuses for your own neglected property or being willfully ignorant. Either way, your community shouldn't have to tolerate it.

People will argue that it's their right to do whatever they want with their property.

Nope.

We have long established rules around this for good reason. The same people dismissing property maintenance codes today would be demanding them the moment someone proposed a slaughterhouse next door. And I'd be willing to bet those same people are often the loudest voices demanding better law enforcement. You can't cherry pick which rules matter. That's not how a society works.

If someone can't afford to maintain their property, they aren't required to own it. That's not a cruel statement, that's just reality. Nobody is obligated to own property they can't maintain. Sell it. Find someone who can do something with it.

Think about it this way. If your neighbor's house was falling apart, you wouldn't just shrug. You might offer to help. You might try to connect them with resources. But ultimately you would want something done because you understand exactly how their neglect affects your property value, your neighborhood, your quality of life.

Downtown is no different. Except those declining buildings don't just affect everyone on the block. They affect everyone who calls that town home.

If you want to live in a community, that's the deal. Society has standards. That includes the condition of your home, your lawn, and your property. Those standards exist to protect everyone's investment, including yours.

I don't understand the desire to live in squalor or raise your children in such conditions, but if that's your preference, you should probably find a place out of town because it's not fair to subject everyone else to it.

I know what some people will say. The same people making the same arguments, cherry picking the facts they like. But this post isn't for them. This post is for the people who care about the health of their place. The people who want their kids to stay when they graduate and want to feel a sense of pride in the place they call home.

You don't have to sit idle. Meet with your city council. Speak up at public comment. Start a campaign. Do something. Nobody in your town likes the blighted buildings. You just need to bring them together. I have been doing it for years.

This is not something you have to tolerate. Communities across the country are tackling vacant and blighted property every single day. The legal authority exists. The tools exist.

Here are some to get you started:

- govpilot.com/blog/how-vacant-property-registration

- mayorscaucus.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/APPENDIX-1-Vacant-Building-Ordinances-FINAL.pdf

- greaterohio.org/blog/2018/9/17/the-truths-and-myths-about-vacant-property-registries

- dawgsinc.com/vacant-property-registration

07/16/2026

People will tell you nothing can be done about vacant property.

They’re wrong.

People will tell you it’s illegal to go after negligent property owners.

They’re misinformed and avoiding action. A thousand other towns have already done it legally.

People will tell you property rights protect the deadbeats.

They don’t. Every city and town is afforded by law the ability to dictate what gets built, how property is used, and how it is maintained. Property rights protect investors. Not the people destroying everyone else’s investment.

Stop accepting these excuses. Demand action. Be the squeaky wheel.

Our city deserves better than people who shrug and say nothing can be done.

07/15/2026

If you watched everyone drive 90 miles an hour past a police officer who smiled and waved, you’d get the message that speeding is fine.

This is exactly what cities are telling property owners when they don’t enforce maintenance codes.

Green light. Do whatever you want. Nobody cares.

And then everyone acts surprised when nobody invests.

Money doesn’t flow into cities where property owners have no obligation to maintain what they own. The risk is too great. Why would anyone invest next to someone who can let their building rot with zero consequences?

Enforce our codes. Send the right message.

Our city is worth investing in. Start acting like it.

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E 3rd Street
Sandwich, IL
60548

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