There's Something Missing Here

A Delawarean now for almost four months, I'm feeling a little low. There's something missing here. During a daydream a couple days ago, I think I figured out what has been bothering me about Wilmington, Delaware. It's a city entirely without character. It is a city in which to work on weekdays, and to absolutely abandon on weekends. There just isn't anything here to excite a person.

My wife went to Philadelphia today and was in seventh heaven. Why? There was a Cosi. That's it! No kidding, we are that deprived here in north Delaware. Lunch at Cosi is exotic.

Recently, ESPN stopped here on its 50-in-50 tour (50 states in 50 days). The premise is that an ESPN anchor broadcasts Sportscenter each night in a different state from some sporting event or sports-related event that says "this is [X] state." On Friday they broadcast their Delaware segment from a Wilmington Blue Rocks (Red Sox Single A baseball affiliate) game. On Monday my old neighborhood, Wrigleyville, served as the backdrop as the anchor set up shop across the street from the Wrigley Field marquee. The contrast in excitement and character couldn't have been more stark. Illinois (and in particular, Chicago) had Bartman, the Billy Goat Curse, the first-place White Sox, Ditka, the Fridge, and the '85 Bears, Jordan and six NBA titles, Bobby Hull and the Blackhawks, Illinois basketball (this year's NCAA runner-up), Abraham Lincoln, etc., etc. Delaware had a kid handing out bubble gum at Blue Rocks games, a blue moose and an overgrown piece of celery, the Monster Mile (NASCAR), and WR John Taylor of the late '80's/early '90's 49ers NFL championship teams.

Yep. Celery vs. MJ. That's what we're comparing.

Certainly, there is more to life than sports. Honestly. But you're not going to find it in Wilmington, Delaware. I realized a couple days ago that maybe this malaise I am feeling stems from the situation where, for the first time in six years, I don't live within walking distance or at the very worst, a cab ride, of a major sports franchise's stadium. If I wasn't a five minute walk from Camden Yards or Ravens Stadium in Baltimore, I was a 30 second walk from Wrigley Field. Now, just to add insult to injury, I am a 30 minute drive from nearest major sports franchise...which happens to be any one of the annoying Filthadelphia teams. All we have here are the Rocks. And I don't know anyone who gives a dang whether or not that team wins or loses. Nobody.

There is no vibe here. Ever go to New York, DC, Chicago, Las Vegas? Feel that something that made you think, yeah, I'm somewhere. You won't find it here. This is a city that sits on the banks of the Delaware river, but decided to put a couple of factories and a landfill on what could be prime riverfront real estate. And it just gets blander from there.

And get this: there is no Starbucks in Wilmington! I'm not a huge advocate of Starbucks, but it does act as an economic indicator. In Chicago, DC, NewYork, it seems there's a Starbucks on every corner. Most cities probably have a Starbucks-to-corner ration in the 1:1-1:2 range. And believe me, there are a lot of corners in Chicago. Wilmington, nada. No Starbucks. This country is as sick of the Starbucks plague as they are of McDonald's, WalMarts and Home Depots. Not here. We don't even have one. Perhaps most shocking...sit down for this one...there isn't even a McDonald's downtown. And yes, I proofread that sentence several times. No typos. No McDonald's. Seriously, how poor of a mayor do you have to be to not have a downtown McDonald's?

OK, enough ranting. Let me leave you with this. I live a ten minute walk from my place of employment. My office overlooks the main square in downtown Wilmington. From my back porch, I can look into the windows of several major office buildings and see the worker bees inside. And yet...as we grilled out on an absolutely amazing evening earlier tonight, I turned to my wife and said, "You know, even though we are downtown and have office buildings as a backdrop to our porch, don't you get the feeling we're living in the boring suburbs?"

She looked up for a second, and said, "You know, you're right. This is like the suburbs."

[Shudder...]