|
Managing Editor Scott Wright has been with The Post
since 1998. He is How about a downtown do-over? By Scott Wright I got a phone call from a local official last week who wondered what I thought of an idea he'd been mulling over.“I'd like to see the city of Centre switch the downtown area to a two-lane street, now that we have most of the 18-wheelers using the Chesnut Bypass,” he told me. “I think losing two lanes would open up a lot of space for parking along Main Street and help generate business traffic that has been lost over the years.” The official told me his vision for a rejuvenated downtown area included an amphitheater at the old football field beside Centre Middle School. He said he thinks it would be a great idea if the city and the Board of Education could work out some sort of agreement, after the new middle school campus opens in 2009, to create a park area at the current site where people could come and enjoy gospel concerts, stage productions and other summertime outdoor events. I told him I thought he might be onto something. Intrigued at the idea of constructing a little sorely-needed character in our county seat -- sure, the new light poles are nice, but they're kind of hard to notice at 60 mph -- I decided to ask around and see what other people thought about the idea. I talked to Superintendent of Schools Brian Johnson and asked him what he thought of converting the football field into an amphitheater. He was warm to the notion, but said he and the members of the board have not formally discussed future plans for what to do with the middle school property after the new facility on Highway 411 opens next fall. “We all agree that we'd like to save the original rock structure which used to be the ticket office, which we figure dates from at least the 1920s and is really a piece of Cherokee County history,” Johnson said. “As far as the amphitheater goes it sounds like a good idea to me. But we have not discussed that at a board meeting and I would not want to speculate about what we might decide to do with the property until we've had a discussion where everyone on the board can voice an opinion.” I asked Cherokee County High School teacher Gary Davis, a member of the Theatre Centre group which stages several productions throughout the year, what he thought of the idea of building an amphitheater downtown. “There would have to be some construction, such as dressing rooms, a stage and probably some type of covering over the stage,” Davis said. “And the shows wouldn't be able to start until late in the evening in the summertime because of the heat and because of lighting issues with staging productions. Those are some of the drawbacks.” Still, Davis said he'd love to see the city and the Board of Education get together on a plan to use the football field in a way that would create a unique tourism tool for the city. “You could have gospel concerts, local bands could perform, and maybe we could even get the Etowah Youth Symphony,” he said. “I think it's a great idea.” City of Centre Councilwoman Rita Stubbs, who doesn't plan to run for reelection when her term expires later this year, said she likes the idea of narrowing the street through downtown to draw more people to the businesses there. “I've lived in Centre all my life and I think this town is beautiful, but I would love to see a more historical-type downtown area,” Stubbs said. “Along with all of the other improvements that have been made downtown, along with the progress that is being made right now, I think it would draw more people.” Stubbs said she thinks the recently refurbished Weiss Lake Realty office is an example of how the whole area could be enhanced if someone would jumpstart the effort. She also mentioned a construction project on the other end of Main Street, which will convert a 100-year old former furniture store into a suite of ground-floor offices with apartments on the second floor, as an example of the type of improvements that could benefit the downtown area. “People come here for the Fall Festival already but I think the event would be an even bigger draw if the downtown area had a more historical feel to it,” she added. Stubbs said any effort to convert Main Street to a two-lane thoroughfare would probably require approval from the Alabama Department of Transportation, since Hwy. 411 is a state road. “But now that the bypass has been altered to allow the big trucks that are just passing through to skip the downtown area altogether, I think it makes sense,” she said. “There shouldn't be any trucks in the downtown area except for delivery trucks.” In addition to the reduction of Highway 411 to two lanes through downtown, Centre Police Chief Val Courtney said he'd like to see some type of median with green grass and trees lining the middle of the road from the First Methodist Church to the First Baptist Church. Then, he suggested, the outer two lanes in either direction could be converted to angled parking that could go a long way towards ending the pain in the ass that is trying to do business in Centre. (For the record, Val didn't call parking in downtown Centre a pain in the ass. I did.) I asked Davis what he thought of the idea of more parking and fewer speeding 18-wheelers along Main Street. He told me he liked Val's idea, and reminded me that the idea has been bandied about before. “Back in the early- to mid-1980s, a group of downtown businesses got together and formed a Downtown Action Committee which represented the merchants and tried to push for some solution to the parking situation downtown,” he said. “As I remember it, that didn't get very far.” Davis said the group met with opposition from business owners on either end of Main Street, between the two ends of the bypass, who were afraid that narrowing the street would mean they'd have fewer people passing by their places of business. I told Davis that sounded like the dumbest, most unfounded fear I'd ever heard. “I agree,” he said. “But they were afraid that narrowing the street would divert more traffic that it would generate, which doesn't make sense. I am convinced the traffic situation in downtown Centre right now is a negative factor for anyone considering coming to the area to do business.” He's absolutely right. Parking in downtown Centre is ridiculous. But it doesn't have to be that way, if businesses (including this one) will get organized and convince the City Council to do something about it. We'll have to be careful, though. Any effort to change the status quo will surely run up against a few detractors. There are nut-job conspiracy theorists out there just waiting for an opportunity to pounce on anything that costs a dime. I wrote an editorial years ago bemoaning the multitude of 18-wheelers that barrel through town frightening pedestrians, blowing up little old ladies' skirts, and scattering chicken feathers like confetti. In response, all I got was one letter from some thick-skulled trucker who accused me of speaking out against free enterprise and the free-market economy. So, before you pick up your ink pen again, Snowman, let me make it clear: I love all the truckers out there and all the wonderful goods they transport. But here's what you need to know: The state of Alabama built a multi-million dollar, five-mile-long, four-lane bypass around downtown Centre over 20 years ago. After years of persuasion, the pea brains in Montgomery finally realized that they had, for the most part, poured several million dollars of the taxpayers' money down a well when they built a road that did not serve its intended purpose. As a result of that epiphany, in a millisecond of genius a couple years ago they returned to Centre with their graders and backhoes and asphalt-layer-downers and fixed the eastern end of the bypass so trucks could actually use the road to avoid a trip through downtown and the plastering of Grandma to the fender of her four-door sedan with the tornado-like shock wave their 60-mph big rigs generate as they pass by in a blur. Let's take advantage of the opportunity presented to us and create a downtown area that will afford more parking for patrons, more pride among the citizenry, and a little incentive for businesses to stay in a character-rich, historic downtown district instead of heading to the shopping centers and other outlying areas. Did I mention a two-lane downtown would be infinitely safer for drivers? Honestly, the decision to leave Regions Bank and head east shouldn't require a prayer and contemplation of the hereafter. If you think a revitalized, redesigned downtown area is a good idea, tell a city council member. Ask the mayoral candidates where they stand when the race for that office begins in a few weeks. Downtown Centre doesn't have to remain the way it is now just because “it has always been that way.” Is this idea feasible? Or even doable? I don't know. But it sure as hell can't hurt to try and find out, can it? The future of the place we love so much, where we work and live, can be whatever we want it to be. |