Yesterday … and Today “In River Park [in 1940] informal socializ- ing spilled out into the street and into places of commerce … The more gregarious or less busy citizen might take an hour to negotiate one block of Main Street, for there were always a good many people walking or lounging along it during daylight hours. … The old-timers liked nothing better than to talk with the more active people of the community and keep up on things. If one were to visit River Park today, one would see quite a different place from that which existed in 1940. … The people are large- ly gone from the street now, as are the physical amenities that earlier accommodated them. The architecture of Main Street has changed noticeably. The earlier storefronts fea- tured large windows and the majority of them had outdoor seating, in most cases integral to their architecture. Wide steps and Kasota stone slabs that flanked the entrances were heavily used by those who found them cool places to sit in the summer. … Large windows and the encouragement to lounge at the portals com- bined to unify indoors and out and to encour- age a ‘life on the street’ as well. That outdoor seating is all but gone now. The new store- fronts are tight against the street and their much smaller windows allow little seeing in or seeing out.” From: The Great Good Place, by Ray Oldenburg (Paragon House, 1989)