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James Theimer: Guest Speaker
Rethinking this whole
letter-to-Santa thing

What did you get for Christmas this year?

Remember when you were a kid and you ran over to your best friend’s house the day after Christmas just to ask that question? Of course, now that you are older and wise enough to understand the true meaning of Christmas, the answer to that question no longer holds such importance.

Christmas shouldn’t be about getting, we tell our children; it should be about giving. Except I’m a little upset with Santa this year, because I didn’t GET all my Christmas wishes. Unless I’m mistaken, despite the process of its removal being underway, the roof still sits atop the Downtown Redding Mall. I guess Santa just wasn’t listening. Again. I mean, I’ve been asking for this for 12 years, so maybe I’m going about this “Letter to Santa” thing the wrong way.

Oh, Santa was definitely there for me with the Cascade Theatre, so it’s not always disappointment for me during the holidays. I certainly have no complaints about the wonderful time spent with friends and family this time of the year. But years ago I decided that some of the gifts we all so desperately want for our community need some extra help in order for them to happen. Sometimes hard work by the community, city council votes and foundation grants are not enough to make good things happen – or bad things not happen. After all, let’s not forget about Knauf Fiberglass (I bet that’s one chimney Santa has no interest in dropping down).

The bottom line is that now more than ever we need Santa. I mean, anyone who can travel to all the homes in the world in one night clearly has some pretty good skills. Maybe Santa can make Park Marina become a beautiful place for the whole community to someday enjoy. Look what he did with the Sundial Bridge.

So why are some of my Christmas wishes going unanswered? Suddenly this year it occurred to me. Maybe I’m not getting my list to Santa soon enough. Who said you have to wait until the holiday season to send a letter to Santa? Isn’t the North Pole open all year long?

So, if you are at all frustrated by unfulfilled wishes for your community, maybe it would be a good idea to send that letter for 2008 in to Santa this week instead of waiting almost another year. I would imagine things up there are pretty quiet right now, so what better time to get your point across that this is really important? Besides, I would imagine that getting truly affordable housing takes a little lead time, even for Santa. It’s not like making a Barbie doll. These can be tough requests. Otherwise, why wouldn’t they already have been granted?

You know that Santa can be pretty influential; did you really think the Auto Mall going down to defeat earlier this year was just because of the Shasta County Board of Supervisors?

There must be at least one thing you really would like to see happen in 2008 to make our community a better place. If so, my advice to you is to write it down and get it to Santa now. Let it be known that this is really important to you, and you are going to keep writing until it gets done. And don’t worry if your wish is different than what others want. Anybody who could figure out who is naughty and who is nice with Churn Creek Bottom and the Auto Mall can certainly handle your wish.

Oh, one more thing – just in case – if you decide to write your letter now, maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea if you repeat it here. I’m sure Santa gets some of his best stuff from the Internet.

James Theimer is the principal architect and founder of the Redding based firm of Trilogy Architecture. Established in 1990, his seven-person firm has been involved in a broad range of projects in northern California, with no emphasis on any single building type.
Over the past decade, James has participated extensively in local community service projects, and is responsible for Fantasy Fountain in Enterprise Park, Carnegie Stage in Library Park, the Mayor’s Plaza Fountain at City Hall, and the restoration of the historic Cascade Theatre. In 1996, James became involved in the current downtown revitalization effort, and since then has completed numerous downtown projects including removal of the roof over the Downtown Mall.
Current projects include the Agree Park “affordable & green” prototype home for the Shasta Builders Exchange.

James Theimer

is the principal architect and founder of the Redding firm of Trilogy Architecture. Established in 1990, his firm has been involved in a broad range of projects in northern California. Over the past decade, he has participated extensively in local community service projects and is responsible for Fantasy Fountain in Enterprise Park, Carnegie Stage in Library Park, the Mayor's Plaza Fountain at City Hall, and the restoration of the historic Cascade Theatre.

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