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Monday, April 21, 2008
Your turn: What does downtown need?
As you might have read in my Sunday article, the near future of downtown includes pubs, new eateries, condos, an art gallery and fancy offices.
Now I’d like to know what you readers think downtown needs.
What should its future identity be? A Central Business District with lots of gleaming skyscrapers and corporate headquarters? A leisure playground full of restaurants, nightspots and small shops? A tourist Mecca? Do we need a shopping mall? A sports stadium? A Wal-Mart? A giant hotel? Chain restaurants? Or something more small-scale and unique?
Of course, for the first century or so of Waco’s history, downtown was the center of everything. At the time of the Waco tornado 55 years ago, it was home of most of the movie theaters, department stores, office buildings, hotels, clubs and restaurants in Waco, and even a fair amount of heavy industry.
You can’t blame the tornado for the end of downtown’s primacy, but a lot of businesses took the opportunity to skedaddle to the suburbs. Land was cheap out there, the new shopping centers offered oceans of parking and the shiny new buildings seemed preferable to those dank old Victorian brick buildings around the Square.
Nowadays, in almost any American city, the idea of going downtown to buy a wheelbarrow, a watch or a washing machine seems quaint. The downtowns that have thrived are those that have created a new identity with specialty retail (Pike Place Market in Seattle, for example) interesting restaurants, museums, lots of welcoming public spaces and dense housing aimed at young professionals.
In short, it’s got to be a place people want to hang out. Examples: Austin, Texas; Asheville, N.C.; Portland, Ore.; Ithaca, NY; and bigger cities like Montreal, Chicago, New York and San Francisco.
As one who lives and works downtown, I find my wish list involves small things that add up to a nice quality of life:
- A pharmacy that offers general merchandise such as toilet paper, milk and extension cords.
- A mailing center with UPS/FedEx, combined with Kinko’s or the like.
- Small parks, plazas and courtyards
- A farmer’s market
- A local history museum
- Lots of varied music venues, offering live music every night.
- A row of small art galleries
- A small grocery with both staples and specialty items (like Trader Joe’s on the West Coast.)
- Ethnic restaurants, such as Indian and Mediterranean.
- A really good barbecue joint.
- Specialty retail such as bookstores, music stores, toy stores and bike shops.
I could go on, but it’s your turn. What do you want downtown?
