Wixom, is there an “Identity Crisis?”
What do we mean when we seek to define Wixom today? Wixom is economically and sociologically attached to Detroit; the shadows of a struggling-redefining Detroit fall on Wixom! Like Wixom, many Michigan communities have lost their major business and manufacturing operations. The Ford Plant once had two thousand or more employees daily entered and exited the facility and with every passing hour produced bright shining automobiles that consumer purchased in a demanding vibrant marketplace. Today the plant is a vague promise of opportunities to come.
How do we define Wixom today? Does it need to be defined at all? What does it mean to have your identity on the local and national level economically dismantled by having your identity attached to a manufacturing facility? Wixom had a status name branded and associated with the Lincoln: synonymous with the luxurious Lincoln brand. There are many well-known branded companies in Wixom, but few had the prestige of the Lincoln brand recognition.
Once we were a relatively unsettled area defined by county, identified by what we grew and what was done in those economic days of agriculture. It developed slowly into an agricultural community with the village attributes of the day: hardware store, barbershop, railroad station, granary, post office, and an economy that sprouted from the ground to the table: crops, cattle, milk, and followed by tool making, carpentry, bricklaying, and numerous trades that supported the economy of the times. On the backs of farm labor, an economy grew out of the ground. That economy and the railroad gave identity to Wixom: identified once by the slogan, “A Crossroads Community.”
How shall we define ourselves today? Another question might be asked, “Do we need a defining identity?”
The community celebrated Founder’s Day on May 17, 2010. What we are celebrating is the “founding” of Wixom: “the date was chosen because on May 17th, 1958 the first Mayor and Council election was held and on May 26th, 1958 when the first Council meeting was held.” This is an honorable activity to celebrate; we too know that we are a “Community with Character.” The distinction of celebrating the commencing of the City Of Wixom: the Incorporation of a community with the inception of the Ford Motor Company development is noteworthy.
The incorporation and founding of Wixom was the regeneration of the community that changed the landscape and gave a new identity to the region and geographically identified Wixom. Agricultural living gave way to inception of a manufacturing community.
With the economic now shifting from manufacturing to wind and solar energy use and manufacturing, what is our new identity?
The “Windy City” identity has been taken! Perhaps consideration might be Wixom: “Community with Windy Characters!”
Identity is important! So is character and integrity. A ‘community with character” must have attributes and an identity that demonstrates that those qualities are the genuine foundation upon which Wixom’s identity has to be determined.
Time and change will soon give an indication as to Wixom’s new identity of what it will become. For Wixom, change is its only true purpose: the winds that blow will be either favorable or unfavorable. There may be little meaningful influence to affect the outcome…unless those individuals with character and integrity lead the way.
Defining Wixom
A community that allows itself to be defined by any single entity cannot expect to find ongoing prosperity in thought, activity, or commerce. The very nature of a single, unique description of an area confines the potential for creativity, expansion, and economic growth.
Wixom historically has been a community that has looked out onto the horizon to recognize the shifting winds so that it could benefit on their arrival. Significant examples of recognition were demonstrated by early commercial development with the coming of the railroad and later incorporation of the village to City status to capture the tax revenues of the Ford plant being built on the outskirts of the community. This same vision can be seen in the development of the Village Center Area (VCA). Though commerce continues to suffer under the current economic stagnation, the VCA provides the structure that will be required to respond to the recovery that always follows such downturns in the economy.
So what is our identity? How do we define the character that leads to perception of Wixom? It is through out people, not our industry or location. Wixom has long been a community of optimistic, yet rational, dreamers. We enjoy a semi-rural community that allows individuality while recognizing commonality in lifestyles. Families are our backbone of consideration and purpose. We are a community because the notion serves us well, not because it is the only way to provide order.
It has been noted that Wixom has been known as a crossroads community, a community of character. Each of these descriptions still hold true.
We are currently at an economic crossroad. A reduction of commercial and industrial ventures within out borders is evident. New ventures are tentative in nature and few in number. Economic security is a common topic at the kitchen table.
But we are also a community of strong character that looks to the future, both immediate and long term, to recognize the opportunity our community has always provided, and will provide again.
Difficult times have been with us before. Wixom has always been unique in utilizing such times to prepare for the prosperity that follows. When good economic times have arrived, Wixom has been ready both structurally and emotionally to accept them. This is because we allow ourselves to dream of our future without limitation, plan for the potential that awaits, and act upon our sense of progress.
That is the identity of Wixom; a community that believes in change based lessons from the past, that does not allow itself to be defined by any one entity, that continues to dream for the future. As long as we continue to believe in our potential and dream of what our future can contain, Wixom will be defined not by the entities and attributes that surround it, but by the actions we take to realize our dreams.