Coeur d’Alene, the City by the Lake, is a beautiful town, but it seriously lacks culture. The parks are underutilized and the population lacks numbers in diversity when it comes to ethnicity. Is it just me, or does Coeur d’Alene need a cultural makeover?
Coeur d’Alene offers street fairs, farmers markets and several events like Art on the Green and the Kootenai County Fair and Rodeo, but more events need to be created. The music stage in Sherman Park downtown needs to be used more.
Local bands should be signing up and practically having to be placed on a waiting list to play the venues downtown because so many bands are lined up.
I know that North Idaho isn’t the most metropolitan of all places or the number one hot spot to hit up the dance scene at night, but the world is full of different cultures, and Coeur d’Alene needs to incorporate more culture into the year-round, everyday flow of the city. I know many local musicians and artists who would agree with me, so c’mon guys! Make something happen!
Let Coeur d’Alene experience a taste of various cultures. Let’s bring more art shows to the parks downtown. Let’s have photographers compete to take the best photos and put them on display. Let’s cook up some food like chili and have a cook off! Let’s have local bands plays their hearts out until the late hours of summer nights!
The Kootenai County Fair and Rodeo and Art on the Green only come around once a year. Why not create more events, especially summertime events? Winter events could also be created. After all, Coeur d’Alene is quite the tourist destination. Why not create an event so ecstatic that people from all over the world will want to come to Coeur d’Alene just to experience it?
I have lived in North Idaho my entire life and I’m pleased to have seen Coeur d’Alene grown as much as it has culturally throughout my lifetime. Since my birth in 1993, many Mexican and Asian restaurants have been established here. I personally hope that more culturally-inspired restaurants like French, African and European restaurants will be established in Coeur d’Alene in the near future.
Culture can be defined as the total range of activities and ideas of a group of people with shared traditions, which are transmitted and reinforced by members of the group. The 2010 recorded population of Idaho was 1, 567, 582. Kootenai County has the third largest population of all counties in the state of Idaho with 138, 494 residents, according to the United States Census Bureau. From 2000 to 2010 significant increases in population have occurred based on origin in Idaho.
The percentage of residents with Hispanic or Latino origin increased by 73 percent from 2000 to 2010, making residents with Hispanic or Latino origin account for 11.2 percent of the total population in Idaho according to the United States Census Bureau. This is the most significant increase for any origin besides white alone, which increased by 18.6 percent from 2000 to 2010, accounting for 89.1 percent of Idaho’s population according to the United States Census Bureau.
You can see by the statistics that Idaho is definitely not well-rounded when it comes to diversity. It’s rather sad that we don’t have a significantly diverse population, and that’s why culture in Coeur d’Alene needs a serious makeover, or rather, a serious culture shock. We hardly have any culture beside the usual events. We need to bring some zest to this city. Coeur d’Alene needs more music festivals, art festivals, ethnic influences and new experiences.
Opinions expressed in editorial and opinion articles are the views of individual NIC students. These views do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Sentinel, North Idaho College, or any other organizations or groups there-in. North Idaho College is not responsible for the accuracy of statements or opinions shared.
