This next Wednesday morning at 8 a.m. our city’s director of community development, Art Rangel, is hosting a meeting in the council chambers to tell us what they have in mind for the downtown area: the new business opportunities, the planned parking capabilities and the general streetscape enhancement. It appears this all hinges on the Krikorian theater project moving forward to completion. Purportedly the new parking garage will not be started unless the movie theater is actually being built. So there are still some milestones to be met.
High on the city’s agenda is the appearance of the area. As the streetscape sets the vista for the pedestrian, the sidewalks will need to be 12 to 18 feet wide to accomodate the tree plantings. This is going to be hard to do when the existing sidewalks are mostly 6 feet, but the new movie theater and parking garage can have the necessary wide walkways. To attract walkers, benches along the way would seem appropriate, maybe even a fountain or two here and there for the thirsty on a hot summer day. Of course, dominating the scene will be the ever present parking garage to shelter your car in the shade while you trek in the sun. And there may be something that is not allowed in Downey now—outside tables on the sidewalk at little cafes along the way. Possibly we can get a bakery nearby so the fragrance of fresh baked croissants wafting through the promenade will add to the ambiance. Oh, to be a Frenchman in Downey!
But even France is having trouble keeping its downtowns intact. There too, the new shopping centers in the suburbs are stealing businesses from their main streets leaving empty stores behind. Merchandising is changing the world over and we have to change too.
There is a possibility that the old concept of lots of small businesses downtown will die. Even office buildings are starting to cluster where there is more land for parking. We will have to go back even earlier to when people lived downtown next door and even over stores to find the future. The real key that made the old towns work was that people lived there and businesses were there were to support the adjacent residents.
If the present marketing trends continue, the next century will see downtowns consisting of government buildings, performing arts theaters, libraries and community centers, parks and condominiums. Out-of-towners driving in for the evening, or even the day for that matter, don’t breathe life into a town.
In order to put heart and soul back into the central core of a town you have to have people living there—families, seniors, children—people there 24 hours a day. That brings life to a town.