In case you missed it, 180 Degrees is back …

September 29th, 2008 at 12:55pm Jennie Pollock

In case you missed it, the 180 Degrees: Solutions for a Better Rockford is back with another installment.

This Sunday in print, we focused on how culture has changed over the past three decades. An excerpt is below:

Sports and the arts — in fact Rockford attractions across the board — have grown steadily over the last three decades amid, or despite three economic downturns.

Consider: In 1980, the MetroCentre was under construction.

No Klehm Arboretum.

No water park.

No Sportscore One, much less Sportscore Two or Indoor Sports Center.

No Jane and Homer, our world-famous dinos. Burpee Museum of Natural History was mostly a collection of birds.

Heck, the Rockford Art Museum was still trying to establish a permanent home. And you could count the number of hotels off Interstate 90 on one hand. Now there are more than 20 in Rockford, Loves Park and South Beloit.

There are parts of this project especially created for the Web. Like our photo gallery of notable MetroCentre and Coronado acts.

We created a map to use any time we feature Winnebago County attractions (scroll to bottom of story).

And this video tour of major Rockford things to do: yes, dining is a part of that!

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