Last night I spent some time talking to Gerald Lopez's Art Appreciation class at Del Mar College. They brought up some interesting topics, several of which will come up eventually on this blog. An interesting conundrum emerged, though, in thinking about how the regions of town tend to compete with one another for resources: when asked where they would be most inclined to concentrate new or redevelopment resources, the students seemed to feel that the downtown area was the most in need of work and most valuable. Yet, when asked to put it down on paper, the South (the area from Everhart down to the Island) got the most votes.
It kind of got me thinking...well, what's so important about downtown, anyway? What does its present state say to you? What does its present state say to tourists? Why is it important to fix it at all when there are clearly already nicer areas just to the south?
We know that downtowns are not the business and housing hub they used to be, that's obvious. So why bother with them at all--if we do, are the reasons visual, emotional, historic, architectural, economic--what?
And which part of town do you think needs to get the resources first (and, are your reasons self-motivated or are you thinking about the whole of the community?)
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I really think that if we had a more vibrant, and attractive downtown area more tourists would be interested in it. Stores, restaurants, etc. things like that. Right now there are SOME things to do, but there's a giant opportunity to get more people into that area if we invested more money into renovating, and hopefully attracting more businesses to that area.
The city started Downtown. A social geographer will tell you that having the focal point of the city so un-centered as we have with downtown on the northern most extremity can cause connectivity problems. Fortunately all the roads including an inter-state converge downtown. The Broadway bluff walls in the old city. Like Quincy market, Fisherman’s wharf, the Riverwalk, Balboa Park, or any Old Town, our downtown connects to the city’s origins. It represents the heart of the city. Tired and old it has needed a heart transplant for some time. Unfortunately the heart got removed from the chest before finding a suitable donor. If you want to know who has kept downtown’s heart from thumping, gather the names of everyone that owns abandoned buildings downtown. They suffer no loss hording the rotting properties. Perhaps if penalized for squatting they would sell off their greedy holdings thus unshackling potential growth.
I think sometimes people don't realize that downtowns are the symbolic heart of a place, even if not the actual heart. L.A. can get away with having such a small and irrelevant downtown because it's not the coastline or the top of the hill, and the city is so geographically ruptured by mountains and sea that it has had to grow in a decentralized way. The location of Corpus' downtown may not be ideal for centralization, but that's true for every city with a geographic border--actually most prior to 1870 because of the need for water resources and transportation.
Chicago, New York, Boston, St. Louis, Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Miami all face that same water-border issue. And while no one really cares too much about the water in Washington, it's definitely the place to be in San Diego. And Corpus is probably closer to San Diego in spirit, if not any other way, than any of the rest.
People who come here, either temporarily or permanently, do so for the water. Since the downtown and waterfront are essentially synonymous, it does not convey a welcoming
/thriving/safe/well-maintained kind of message when it is left to deteriorate. People in the community feel the same about their own place--not just outsiders.
How have other communities dealt with this? Bond issues that finance big redevelopment projects. using the recently passed eminent domain laws enabling government to lay claim to property for redevelopment purposes. Tax incentives and/or grants for potential investors. But there ways.
Why do you think the City Gov. is so unwilling or unable to fix Downtown like it needs to be?
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