Let's Look at What DIDN'T WORK

Maybe, instead of looking for easy ways to succeed with downtown revitalization, we should look at what hasn't worked.  Here's a short summary of what cities like Berkeley CA, St. Louis MO, Ocala FL, Sumpter SC, Des Plaines IL, Louisville KY and others have reported as unsuccessful.

*** Implementing change in "fits and starts" without an overall plan; generating policy that lacks purpose or is limited in scope, allowing public processes to deter private developers
*** Not involving citizen input, from overall plans to details such as adding tall skyscrapers to a mid-height city 
*** Failure to address stakeholder values, to muster stakeholder support 
*** Not planning for the right kind of downtown residences; attempting to segregate income levels, or simply plan only for upscale residents and customers 
*** Silver bullets: build very expensive large projects such as convention centers/ large upscale hotels, gallerias or downtown malls, huge museums, clear entire blocks to attract a developer



This list seems like a good map of land mines. The policy, and I would think, the vision,  has to be there first, and it has to be articulated somewhere: town halls, web sites, .pdf documents citizens can download and study.  If the city can't put the policy in place and get buy in, no amount of individual good intentions will get it where it needs to go.

Involving citizens is critical for a number of reasons: most importantly, it will help solidify where the downtown is going, "make it real." But also, citizens provide a number of insights that staff and contractors might miss. And without doubt,  they will give a preview of the problems or inconveniences that will need to be dealt with.

Stakeholders by definition make or break a project. If some stakeholders want to go in a different direction than the city or the consensus group, the re-education, negotiation or compromise should happen up front. When all are on board, the project will begin to build momentum.

Planning for residences is almost uniformly mentioned as important, and lack of planning for residences often is mentioned as a reason that a revitalization didn't "take." This is hard, as we discussed earlier, because the cost of housing often comes to more than downtown workers are willing or able to pay. But without the additional "regulars" downtown, shops, restaurants and safety are far less successful than with a full complement of residents.

It makes sense that soon after malls hit their stride, cities would try to provide that same environment downtown in a Galleria or indoor mall. Or that they would build a monument in the form of a museum or performing arts center that "would bring people in." Beautiful, glitzy, expensive, these projects never materialized  as great magnets. Fortunately, our economic times make this an unlikely problem in the immediate future.

So there are some of the things that have  tripped up cities, large and small, in their path to a new and better city. Lucky for us we have some history on these problems!