Op-Ed: Life in a Small Northern Town

September being US Constitution Observance month, I wanted no better way to smell, taste, hear, and feel the freedom and liberties our Constitution gives us than to be present before, during, and after the Downieville Improvement Group (DIG) sponsored beer festival. Downieville is a small dot on the road map as you travel Highway 49; only recently has a gas station become available for residents and travelers to fill up. I have been intrigued as to why this community, proud of its “E Clampus Vitus” history, kept drawing me back into its depths. Each visit, this place reveals something new to me. I decided to stay a weekend and talk with residents, visitors, and those who work the shops on Main Street. I asked them what Downieville meant to them. This is what they had to say.

Karen Galan, whose family has roots going back to the 1850s, spoke of the closeness of a community bond that has kept her in Downieville, lending her a support system with family health needs that can’t be found in many other places. James Berardi, born and raised in Downieville, traveled the world after graduating high school, joining the US Merchant Marines and becoming an underwater welder, saying, “I knew the value of the place and wanted to come back here, living in a small town. Everybody knows each other in the community. Downieville is the forefront of everything with grassroots [implanted] here.”

Chris Webster commented, “You know everybody here. If you’ve ever been here on the Fourth of July, it’s like going back in time with the whole community coming out. It is America back in the 1950s, with everyone cheering all with a tug-of-war versus the visitors. The parade makes a loop because the town is so small, and people are throwing candy. People here take care of each other.”

Michael Taylor, a DIG member originally from Concord, said, “[I love] the quality of life and small community…the beauty… the history. [It is about] being connected with others, having a better life than most can say about the more populous [cities]. It is about having real conversations, and although it may seem we may be invisible down below in the valley, we are [still] recognized and seen everyday [here]. All the attributes of living in a blue zone.”

Josh Donovan came to Downieville in 2016 from Antioch and soon after became a volunteer with the Downieville Fire Department. He said, “We all know [one another] in this community. We watch out for each other. I love this lifestyle. I’ll die here.” John Perez, 60, owner of JADAAs Kitchen, is originally from the Bay Area. His dream of being a restaurateur couldn’t have happened anywhere else except Downieville. He added, “[Downieville is a] Mayberry colony. [Being] from San Jose, people don’t talk to strangers, but here everybody is so nice. It is a simpler life with no city drama. I like it…it’s a good place to be living.”

Davin Bomar, 57, a Downieville school graduate, now retired US Army Sergeant Major of 25 years, comes back occasionally to visit from San Diego. As a kid, he was forced to move from the city to live in the mountains and hated Downieville. “As an adult, I get it now… the vibe and the river and those I grew up with in the town. We are living the city life, but being here, we can breathe. We visit lifelong friends. I love being here. I would move back here, yet still visit other areas of the state that are fairly close by. I feel like this is my home. [But] it is as though the nostalgia is going away, catering to tourism and no longer to the locals. [...] I hope this town has another boom taking the town back, developing it for the locals,” he said.

This small American town may seem Mayberry-perfect, but it faces certain obstacles, such as its limited economy surviving on tourism. California’s politics and regulations have changed the economic landscape, now infiltrated by short-term rental investors, adding to the cost-of-living increases. Plus, relying heavily on a seasonal economy challenges its business owners. However, Downieville residents partner together and lean on each other for support in maintaining and growing the economy with the help of tourism and DIG. Residents make strong grassroots connections compared to larger cities that struggle to cultivate the same associations found in a small-town American community. The residents successfully uphold constitutional values, unlike what we see with the torn fabric of American pride, influenced by the counterculture revolution of the 1960s, which is now corrupting larger populated areas. Today, we Americans are increasingly experiencing small pockets of constitutional resistance movements, many existing in large, populated cities, expressing anti-constitutional sentiment, highlighting neo-Marxist ideals coupled with extremist propaganda, and quite disconnected from mainstream American society, including the “Americanism” found in Downieville.

The special ingredient Downieville has at its center is banding people together in community organizations, such as DIG, forming partnerships with outsiders, and building upon and maintaining human connections. The residents have organized themselves as “grassroots gardeners” in raising, teaching, mentoring, and leading others by example of what it means to be a respectful American citizen, taking the opportunities afforded to them by our Constitution and making the most of them by giving back to others. Americans and big city leaders need not look far for how to grow a “blue zone” community; become E Pluribus Unum, “Out of Many, One,” just like Downieville. Small-Town America Downieville has the quintessential ingredients needed to bring the rest of America back from the “culture” that has dulled its patriotic senses, with more understanding, acceptance, tolerance, love, ‘time, patience, and perseverance.’