Welcome to the 120 women visiting and studying Waco this week as part of the 2010 class of Leadership Texas conference. Hopefully they’ll come away with a favorable impression of how we promote business, industry and downtown development.

It’s a tribute that Waco was selected as one of five cities the class will tour this year, along with Dallas, Laredo, Lubbock and Austin. During their four-day visit — which began Sunday — they plan to visit Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center, dine with Baylor President Ken Starr and tour the Gatesville women’s prison.

We hope they take the time to size up our burgeoning downtown development as well. Certainly, given the economic downtown that most cities our size have suffered, Waco seems to have fared better. This is in large part because of a $63 million city bond election approved in 2007 that allocated money for improving parks, libraries, the convention center and museums.

The money has been well spent improving some of our best assets and making them better, like Cameron Park. Since its renovation, the park has not only pleased locals but drawn national attention by hosting trail bike races and even the XTERRA triathlon.

In the past three years, we have had about half a billion dollars of work on bond-funded projects approved by the voters, including development of several school facilities. This shows the value our citizens place on improving our community, such as a $74 million bond for McLennan Community College that allowed the construction of several new LEED (environmentally-friendly) buildings to meet a boom in recent students.

We’ve had several road projects and renovation of the Washington Avenue Bridge. There’s been an emphasis to push urban living in the heart of downtown through the expansion of loft apartments. And Baylor University and a new research center, BRIC, will soon change the landscape of East Waco.

Some of these gains have been paid through private investment, but there has been much public opinion. Hundreds have lent input to Imagine Waco work sessions to add their suggestions for development.

A story in USA Today last week said Waco is embracing “new urbanism” growth. It added that our city is working hard to debunk being thought of “as Texas’ largest bathroom break” for interstate travellers.

We hope our visitors like what they see and can share insights to benefit us all.