Imagine a city. A “great” city.

Rows of buildings lining its streets, each one different, unique. Architecture marking different styles and times, showing its history. People on sidewalks, walking, sitting on benches and church stairs and at tables. Interspersed gardens, greenscape, and parks. Streets and sidewalks winding, each turn promising something new and exciting. Different neighborhoods and streets with their own feel and history and personality, yet all contributing to the whole — the city.

We can all envision great cities, great places — and most of us can pinpoint some of their qualities that make them special. From New York to Rome, from London to San Francisco, most of those places that we would describe as great have some qualities in common. Beautiful buildings, sense of history, and culture. Curated greenspace, charming streets, easy and safe to walk around. Plenty to see, to explore, to take in. Each has its own identity, vibe, and culture, yet all have some traits that are the same.

“We used to do this everywhere,” is the title of a recent article written by Daniel Herriges for the nonprofit Strong Towns after he got back from a trip to the French Quarter, New Orleans’ most historic and charming neighborhood, which he comments to most visitors “feels as impeccably master-designed and curated as Disneyland.”

He goes on to write: “When we vacation somewhere like the French Quarter, many of us slip into the false belief that a place like this — oriented to the pedestrian, with lavish attention to detail in public spaces and an overwhelming sense of place — is by necessity a tourist destination. It’s a novelty. You visit it, you love it, but who would ever try to replicate it in the places we go about our everyday lives?”

Walkable, wonderful, beautiful, unique. Why aren’t all of our places built like this? The way those old parts of cities were built — with detail, charm, and uniqueness, densely constructed so that you can walk everywhere, walk to pick up groceries, visit a neighbor, take your kids to school — used to be everywhere. Not just reserved for large cities like New York or Paris, but in thousands of small towns across the U.S. Qualities of great cities that used to be present in all of our cities, large and small, that many lost as highways cut across them, people moved away or to the suburbs, and small businesses closed their doors as big box stores came in.

Alpena had it, too, on a small scale, with its downtown and historic neighborhoods that surrounded them laid out like a small city. Grocery stores, churches, and schools all within walking distance. Neighborhoods with their own sense of identity and vibe. Our downtown stretching for blocks of historic buildings, filled with pharmacies, clothing stores, jewelers, music shops, theaters, bars, and industry. The place to be on a Friday night, the center of business for our community.

I often describe Alpena’s potential to grow as a small city. Not that it is comparable to a large city or could grow to be one, but that it could embody some of the qualities we look for in cities, adapted here on a smaller scale. That we can build some of the qualities we love in the places that we travel and vacation right here.

A densely built, walkable downtown filled with local businesses. Safe to walk around, easy to bike around. Historic buildings that show our history and changes our town has seen. Options of places to eat, drink, and shop that each have their own local, unique flair. City neighborhoods filled with residents that build our community’s culture with their own diversity and character. Parks, beaches, gardens interspersed with what humans have built.

And, of course, that sense of wonder that all great places have, that somehow it is more than just an accumulation of its parts, that around every corner is something new, unexpected, yet distinctly that place’s own.

Anne Gentry graduated from Brown University with a degree in comparative literature and has studied in Italy and South Australia. She is currently executive director of the Alpena Downtown Development Authority.