The stories sometimes blur together but this year the ones that stand out have a common thread.
It seemed everything I wrote about this year, whether politics, elections, business or local government was all touched and colored by a disease caused by the new coronavirus.
What stands out is that it wasn’t all bad news.
In the face of a pandemic, new entrepreneurs found their opportunity to fill gaps where restaurants had closed. Stop N Go Pizza and Jamrock Cultural Restaurant — two Black-owned businesses — are getting their start where Sammy’s Pizza and Pak’s Green Corner once served the community.
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Then there was Judith Gregoire, who had placed her husband in a long-term care facility, Superior Rehabilitation, to keep him safe because of dementia. It was only after she’d driven her husband back to the facility from a local emergency room that she learned he’d tested positive for COVID-19.
He died within a week of the diagnosis. That story was not an easy one to write with lots of moving parts that weren't making sense. But the best news came after the story was published: Judith Gregoire’s test for COVID-19 came back negative.
RELATED: COVID-19 outbreak at Superior Rehabilitation claims 9 lives
RELATED: Jamrock Cultural Restaurant moves to Tower Avenue
RELATED: Take-out gets distinct flavor in Superior
Even before the pandemic began, the City Council changed the landscape for small businesses. While it’s fairly typical for large development projects to get subsidies to support their projects, the little guy was often overlooked until the city created the small business grant program.
The program has been wildly popular with many small businesses in town, so popular, in fact, officials had to replenish the fund once. It also gave the city a tool to respond to pandemic by creating a micro-grant program to help dozens of small businesses affected financially by the nearly two-month shutdown that started in March.
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RELATED: Superior commission weighs changes to small business grant program
In a year where being indoors in large groups was hazardous for your health, the city made a lot of improvements in outdoor recreational opportunities, from finishing an 18-hole disc golf course in the Superior Municipal Forest to making the connection from the Osaugie Trail near Bear Creek Park to Wisconsin Point Road.
RELATED: Disc golf course opens in Superior Municipal Forest
RELATED: Work begins to extend new Bear Creek Trail to Wisconsin Point
RELATED: Superior celebrates a dream come true
And work to complete Superior’s first all-inclusive park was finally done in time for summer play. I'm still impressed that it started with an 8-year-old child who didn’t think it was fair that her disabled friends couldn’t play like she could.
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And kudos to the city’s parks and recreation staff for their creativity to keep summer park programs, Bayside Sounds, and now even ice skating going during a pandemic that has changed how we live, work and play.
