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 by
Martha Hall
March 2008
Recently, it was my privilege to attend a very informative
meeting featuring Andy Taft, Executive Director of Downtown
Fort Worth, Inc. as the guest speaker. He presented a video
and narrative titled “The 30 Year Overnight Success of Downtown
Forth Worth”. It was fascinating to see pictures of downtown
Fort Worth with boarded up windows and grass growing through
cracks in the sidewalks, versus what you see now! If you haven’t
been to downtown Fort Worth, it is certainly worth a visit
– Bass Hall, coffee at Barnes and Noble, shops and restaurants
all with police officers on horse back and bicycles. You can
walk out of a concert at 11:00 at night and be safe. Of course
you are in the company of thousands of people enjoying the
walk around Sundance Square!
This presentation made me think about downtown Wichita Falls.
I love downtown and it is easy for me to visualize what it
could be. It will never be what it was when I moved here in
1961 as THE city of Wichita Falls, but it could certainly
be a place you would come to and bring your family to eat
at neat restaurants, go to good theater and shop at niche
stores. In fact, what would it take? We are already farther
along in our development than Fort Worth was when it began.
We have a few restaurants, theaters and a few shops. Perhaps
the most important thing we already have are condominiums!
People live in downtown Wichita Falls and any future development
will use this to build upon as we look to the future.
Cynthia Laney is the Executive Director of Downtown
Wichita Falls Development, Inc. If you haven’t met her,
you should. Her enthusiasm for what she does is infectious.
She hasn't been in Wichita Falls a long time, but you sure
wouldn’t know it by talking with her. She came to Wichita
Falls from Seymour with a stop along the way in the City of
Pittsburgh, Texas. Her training includes the Main Street Management
Program with the Texas Historical Commision and is a graduate
of the Economic Development Institute. She and I sat down
at lunch last week to talk about her vision and what she wants
to do to make it happen.
The first question to her was “what is your vision for
downtown”? She quickly said “for people to realize the
opportunities and possibilities of downtown and to love it.
We have the bones and basic infrastructure now to build on,
and with a comprehensive plan it place, we can give the vision
validity”. She said she once saw a sign in a vacant building
somewhere that said “this building is not vacant, it is full
of opportunities”. When she said this, I mentally pictured
several buildings that not only hold opportunities, but memories.
Too often, people are quick to tear down the old and replace
with shiny, glittery new buildings that literally have no
substance.
Downtown is the heart of our city. So many have moved out
of the downtown area but Cynthia believes everything should
be centered where the energy is. To do this will take commitment
from citizens: those who take the risks to develop their passion
and those who will come. I love the line from the movie, Field
of Dreams, “build it and they will come”. Part of the vision
will be to help the community recognize downtown as the center
of this community. The closest some people have been to this
center are Holliday or Broad streets going to or from someplace.
Things will need to happen to bring people East of these
two streets and this beginning to happen. Festivals like City
Lights, St. Patrick’s Day festivities and other planned events
will bring families to celebrate, to eat and to shop. Wichita
Theater and Backdoor Theater are true diamonds in our midst.
Wichita Falls is full of talent and these two venues help
showcase it with musicals and dramas of all kinds.
With a wide variety of involvement from the City of Wichita
Falls, Wichita County, a consulting firm and many individuals
who have a dream, a future plan will be put into place. Hopefully,
it will be sooner rather than later. Once a definitive plan
is in place, then the financial incentives and structures
will come. A couple of years ago, I was listening to a radio
show that featured then Dallas mayor, Laura Miller. She made
the statement that downtown Dallas would look as good as Fort
Worth if only they had the Bass family! There is no doubt
this family has been incredible for Fort Worth’s revitalization,
but this family was not the only source available to help
Fort Worth become what it is today. We don’t have the Bass
family either, but there are other means out there, and we
will find them if we have the determination to follow through
with the plan once it is in place.
Downtown revitalization will help us all. It will
help in economic development by showing prospective industries
we care about our city and we will care about them if they
locate their business here. It will help local owners when
others join them in a common goal of working together by using
Tax Increment Funding (TIF) and even at some future time,
the development of Public Infrastructure Districts (PID) which
would have businesses join together financially to enhance
services within their district. One example might be to pay
someone to come in the middle of the night to pick up trash
and wash down the streets and sidewalks! Sound unbelievable?
It’s not, it is being done in other places right now!
There is no one who says this will be easy. Wichitans have
a problem selling this city to themselves, much less to anyone
else. There is so much going for us, we just need to stop
and realize it, pull up our sleeves and ask how we can help,
then get busy getting it done. It can start with Ohio, Indiana
and Scott streets and move outward to MPEC, Berend’s Landing
and even a muddy river that has a beautiful waterfalls that
might someday lead to something quite dramatic. Dreams don’t
cost anything, but dreams do lead to what can be accomplished
if you want something badly enough.
When Cynthia and I finished our talk together, she said,
“so many exciting things are happening, come see”! Think about
it.
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