I’m not a lifetime resident of Salisbury. However, ever since moving here one issue always near the top of the city government’s list has been the revitalization of downtown. Whether discussing traffic patterns, funding Urban Salisbury, or subsidizing developers / investors, the city taxpayer has been ponying up year after year and seeing little for his or her hard earned dollar.
It’s 2011. Things seem to be getting worse downtown; not better. The number of retail businesses (versus office space) seems to have hit an all time low. Just last week SBYNews publisher Joe Albero ran a couple of posts portraying the downtown plaza as a 21st century ghost town.
What can we do?
First, a firm decision needs to be made. Do we turn downtown over to 100% office space, condos, and apartments? or …Do we we really believe that a thriving, vibrant downtown is in the city’s best interest? If the answer is that we genuinely want a vibrant and thriving downtown we need to decide what we are going to do to make it happen.
Well of course we want a thriving downtown! Right?
Not necessarily. I do, but I don’t pay Salisbury taxes. I’ve seen both decisions made. Some cities that have chosen to stand behind their downtown have succeed, others have failed. If you decide to abandon downtown to offices and living space then there is no chance of failure.
The city of Norfolk has seen its downtown and other areas of the city such as Ghent rise from the ashes. On the other side of Hampton Roads, the city of Newport News kept pouring money down a rat hole until it decided that enough was enough. Now, what loosely passes as a “downtown” has moved 12 miles northwest to the Oyster Point section of the city.
However, as I stated above, I want to see a thriving downtown. I also believe it can be done. It just takes a few things:
- The people who run the city need to grow a spine (this is not a swipe at Jim Ireton, but at the city government of the last decade).
- The downtown business owners, Urban Salisbury, AND the city need to take a long term approach to this problem. Downtown didn’t journey to hell overnight and it won’t return quickly either.
- The people who run the city need to be willing to say NO to the little clique that seems to dominate the discussion of downtown’s future. This especially applies to developers / investors who are holding vacant properties but not attempting to rehab them while waiting to reap a windfall IF the market turns.
IF the city and the few remaining downtown businesses really want to tackle this problem AND are willing to do the things mentioned above, what can be done that is either low cost or verifiably cost efficient?
Over the next several weeks, we’ll be discussing a list of proposals. None is a silver bullet. However, they are all low cost or cost efficient AND have proven to work elsewhere. These include:
- Who do you market Downtown Salisbury to? This is the closest thing to a Silver Bullet there is.
- How do you market Downtown?
- How do you bring people downtown?
- How do you attract, and keep, businesses to Downtown?
- What does Urban Salisbury (or a substitute organization) need to do?
- What does the city need to do?
Each Wednesday we’ll be discussing these ideas (until we’ve run out). Contrary to what you may believe, neither Albero nor I think we have all of the answers. We’re looking for your input as well.
G. A. Harrison is the Managing Editor of “Salisbury News”. Delmarva Dealings appears each Wednesday and Sunday at SbyNEWS.com.
9 comments:
The time for our Downtown has come and gone never to be revitalized again. Let a sleeping dog lie.
ever watch the movie "CARS" well, thats what happens when the only thing important is getting from point A to point B in a hurry. People use to complain about traffic and accidents, at least if the bypass was shut down, you have traffic and accidents....
I just drove through Snow Hill at 11:00 a.m. today. Shops are frequent, vacant stores are few, and people are shopping there. And guess what? They can park on the city streets for FREE, as there are no parking meters!!!!
If you don't have parking meters and permits, who pays to maintain the parking downtown?
All the taxpayers who don't get a thing out of downtown, that's who!
Thanks, but no thanks!
I have lived in Salisbury for 60 years. I can remember vividly what Downtown was like in the 50's and 60's: many shops of all sorts, swarms of people on Friday night, cars up and down Main Street, etc. The coming of the Salisbury Mall brought with it the demise of downtown; then the Centre virtually destroyed it.
There are immediate things that can be done. As 1:48 suggested, get rid of all paid parking. Maybe the revenues of the parking lot and garage and the meters are important to the city, but there is a psychological aversion that most of us have to feeding a meter. Maybe removing parking as a source of revenue would turn around downtown. Open up Main Street to two-way traffic. Back in the 60's, with the arrival of the Salisbury Mall, the "city fathers" thought that they could compete with the mall by closing down Main Street to traffic so that people could walk without fear of cars, just as in the mall. Obviously, that didn't work. Give some sort of financial incentive to businesses that set up Downtown. Bring back independent clothing stores like Ralph and Gaskill or Lee Johnson, Hess, the Fashion Shop, and Benjamin's.
Support the businesses that are downtown now, such as Kuhn's, which has lasted for many How about someone else taking over Escape Restaurant. (Too bad Georgia House didn't consider that). The City Center was a wonderful idea; how about some businesses coming back there and giving it another try.
We have to make Downtown as attractive as the Centre, and then maybe people will come. Revival can't happen overnight, but I think it could happen. I have seen other towns whose economy is vibrant, some despite the presence of a mall. It's just a shame that the biggest town on the Eastern Shore has to have a dead downtown.
ok.......the marina is the ticket. Make it and the adjacent neighborhood the attraction. Re-zone the properties on fitzwater street to light commercial. Give the property owners incentive to make storefronts there. Have a meeting with the property owners there and those who own property on the downtown plaza. Ask them to become members of a board with the sole purpose of integrating the marina and making changes to attract people. Let the property owners contribute to an association. Cut the property taxes in hlaf and require the other half to be association fees. Let the Association hire a person to initiate and coordinate events that integrate the downtown with the marina and the new shops that pop up on fitzwater street where the slum housing is currently located. Ask the universities to help with things like dinner theaters on the plaza and marketing. As the crowds increase implement an old style trolly that transports ppl back and forth from the marina to the down town plaza. Let someone offer boat rides and water taxi to market street inn. Market the area to yacht clubs and boating magazines....Look at what happens in chesapeake city every year. It can be done but perhaps the most important thing is to back the government out of the equation as much as possible and let the business owners and the residents take this bull by the horns.
Tear down the two stationary bridges that obstruct the navagable waterway leading up to Rt. 13 Bridge.
Then - dredge the waterway deeper all the way up to the Rt. 13 bridge.
Build a new harbor near the Rt. 13bridge.
Want to see the dead come back to life - this will do it.
Time, money and energy should be spent on things that you can actually have some progress on.
There is nothing that can be done with that situation. No matter what you put there, people will not go as long as there is a certain element nearby.
You can't even have a sucessful carnival there unless there is a strong police presence. What makes anyone think people will flock to whatever is there without a similar police presence?
Scratching your collective heads trying to dream up a miracle solution is quite simply a waste of time. Fantasy.
Make a real effort to reduce crime and make people feel they can travel safely about in the city and maybe you can get more traffic to support business' in that area.
Anything less is doomed to fail.
3:32,
You may be one of our downtown major developers and what you propose may be wonderful. However, unless there is some inkling of life to start the tax base, there is no money to spend on the development.
I can't do any business in downtown that takes more than 20 to 30 minutes without incurring a parking fine, as I see when I park that there is a bicycle officer watching me park and feed my meter. There are no 3 hour meters. only 20 - 30 minute ones. If my downtown experience extends beyond that, that "pit bull" is all over my car with a fine.
Wal Mart and the north stores are free, and I can shop as long as I like.
Which am I going to choose?
Snow Hill and Easton have both learned this lesson, and are enjoying hopping good rentals, and shopping traffic!
Get the "DUH" going, and free up the downtown area to be a friendly place to be, and just MAYBE people will come to third friday without the threat of a fine...
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