You Have the Downtown Your Elected Officials Are Committed To

You have the downtown that your elected officials are willing to put up with.

I intend that line to be provocative — to provoke introspection, not anger or indignation. And if you have a thriving downtown, congratulations! If you do not, here is something to consider. Don't take it as some kind of "truth," but as a lens through which to view your downtown and your efforts to revive it.

I borrowed and modified this line from a saying in the personal-development field: "You have the life you are willing to put up with." It is very similar to "If you ever wonder what you are committed to, look at what you already have." The view is that you may want a lot of things in your life, but you have what you are actually committed to. It doesn't look like it sometimes, because our commitments are often hidden. For example, I want to be lean, and I am not. I say that I am committed to being lean, and it just doesn't happen. I have discovered, for myself, that my commitment is actually to eat whatever I want! I have "eat whatever I want" in my life, not "being lean."

The hidden commitments usually have "should" in them

For your downtown, consider that there are hidden commitments running the show and giving you what you have. In my experience, these commitments, when spoken, usually have the word "should" in them.

I once worked in a community in which the downtown had a lot of trash on the ground. It had so much trash lying around that I proposed buying a "Green Machine" sweeper to vacuum it up regularly. Unfortunately, the view of the city was, "The merchants should clean that up!" Leadership felt the trash was out in front of the businesses, affected them directly, and was generated in part by their customers, so the business owners should pick it up. The view of the merchants was, "The city should clean that up!" The trash was accumulating in the right-of-way, and the city prohibited the merchants from using, placing, or doing anything in the right-of-way — so the city should clean it up. The result of both sides being "right" was that there was lots of trash lying around on the ground and blowing down the street. They both had what they were committed to: being right about who should pick up the trash.

The same pattern shows up in buildings

In a previous article, I talked about fixing up downtown buildings. It is not uncommon to see a downtown working very hard to revitalize, only to have several potentially beautiful old buildings in various stages of "demolition by neglect," dragging down its efforts. The owner "should" fix their building is usually what is behind that. Or, "We're not giving that guy any money! He should pay for that himself!" I have even heard, "No one ever gave me money for my business — why should we give them money for theirs?" That was from an elected official opposed to starting a façade-grant program. Everybody gets to be "right" about who should fix up the buildings, and who should and should not get assistance, and the result is that the buildings continue to decline and drag down the surrounding district.

And in special events

Special events are another area in which we "should" all over ourselves and don't see the impact. It is no secret that special events are an integral part of a successful downtown redevelopment and economic-development strategy. Small, local events can drive consumers into the district and right into the store to discover and experience what the district has to offer. Wine or dessert strolls and street parties are prime examples — they bring potential new patrons right in the door to meet the owners and discover what they have to offer. Street parties bring thousands of potential patrons to the front doors of downtown businesses without the businesses themselves having to lift a finger. They just need to be ready to take advantage and leverage the exposure. (Ironically, downtown merchants will often complain about events, saying their "regulars" can't get in with all those potential new "regulars" blocking the streets and sidewalks!)

Large, regional events bring new dollars into the community — sometimes hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars — and expose the downtown to a new, regional audience that may come back for future visits. The best scenario is when your community already has one or more of these large regional events, and you do not have to figure out how to get one started and who is going to commit the blood, sweat, and tears needed to pull it off year after year.

I worked in a community which, despite the best efforts of a lot of dedicated folks, could not get its events to grow in attendance — compounded by being located next to another community that had hundreds of thousands of folks attending nearly everything it did. I used to joke that they could hold the "Junk and Crap Festival" and three hundred thousand people would show up to spend their money!

If you were to sit around the table with community leaders and economic-development professionals and strategize about how to infuse the local economy with hundreds of thousands, if not a few million, dollars over a weekend, do you think they would be willing to spend $10,000 to $15,000? Perhaps. And yet, when a festival that has that kind of impact is occurring, local leaders resist sponsoring the event and tend to fuss over the costs — wanting to charge the event for new sod, trash cleanup, and repairs from the wear and tear. They view the events as a burden or intrusion rather than the economic "shot in the arm" the local economy needs, and has often grown to depend on, each year.

What actually changes a downtown

The town in which I most recently served had been experiencing a renaissance of sorts. About six or seven years earlier there was a change of leadership, and things started to get done. I submit to you that what also changed is that the elected officials were no longer willing to put up with the downtown they had. The City Manager was a "get-'er-done" kind of manager, but it was the elected officials who had to vote "yes" on all those initiatives. They had to let go of any notion that someone else "should" make the investments, and approve the city spending the time, money, and energy necessary to make change.

So take a look around your downtown. The work plan needed for downtown redevelopment is not a mystery. I believe any redevelopment professional could create a "to-do" list for your downtown relatively quickly. Then ask yourself why it is not happening. If the answer you come up with is "there is no money," then you are not looking deep enough. Look for where you are "shoulding" all over yourselves. Begin to see the hidden commitments. Then see if you can let them go.

Yes, that property owner "should" fix that building and "should" not have let it deteriorate — but the community has to deal with the results. Yes, business owners "should" want to maintain the landscaping in front of their business — but can you let that go and do something about the landscaping? Yes, business owners "should" do a better job of marketing themselves, "should" be open when working people can actually visit and shop, and "should" support downtown events and organizations. Can you let that go, deal with the reality of the situation, and get committed to the success of your downtown?

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This piece is part of a larger field guide on downtown redevelopment for Florida communities.