I don’t use the term in my title to be condescending, but the young whippersnappers over at The Other Salisbury News have taken a break from bashing the Camden contingent on Salisbury City Council (not that they don’t deserve it from time to time) and decided to attempt to begin some constructive dialogue on the city’s future. By gosh, they would like to stay and make a go of it in this fair city of ours after they graduate from Salisbury University, and I commend that thought.
Dubbing their effort ‘Operation S.S.F.I.‘ the crew at TOSN are beginning a multiphase project of kicking around ideas for the city’s improvement. (Perhaps they should see about what would attract these young entrepreneurs to the city as their own project matures and grows.)
Step one is a discussion of downtown Salisbury, and while I don’t want to make this a particularly lengthy post (after all, they deserve the dialogue and the readership for bringing the idea to the fore) I think I should note that there’s already plans which have been made and discarded about renovating the area. After all, creating the pedestrian plaza was one remedy for a downtown which saw its fortunes decline after the Salisbury Mall opened in the late 1960s – just as happened in thousands of other downtowns, big and small. (In my hometown this happened about 10 years earlier, but it’s a bigger city.)
The success of ‘Third Friday’ has been mentioned in other venues, and many have wondered why that couldn’t be replicated on a more regular basis. But what is attractive about Third Friday is its uniqueness as a date – just because once a month works, that doesn’t necessarily mean you can do it every weekend or even twice a month. If you had it 52 times a year instead of 12, the concept would cease to work after perhaps a year or so.
The key is mixing uses and making downtown a place to live, work, and shop. Unfortunately, old buildings don’t lend themselves to becoming a Walmart and people desire that sort of convenience, so tradeoffs have to be made. We don’t have nearly the urban density to be an area where a car is unnecessary, but we could do a better job of creating residential space where cars can be placed out of sight, with access to parking off alleys. It’s not to say a convenience store couldn’t work, although the crime issue needs to be addressed as well.
It goes without saying there also needs to be a toolkit for job creation – not just downtown, but throughout the city. People who live downtown need a job, and if it happens to be downtown, great. (My newest advertiser just opened up a business there – hopefully it will create a job or two.) But it’s not necessary for downtown’s prosperity because there’s already plenty of jobs down there from 9 to 5. The harder part is livening the place up the other 16 hours a day.
Things which would tend to draw young, single people downtown as residents are affordable housing and a thriving after-hours entertainment district. Salisbury’s downtown already has elements of both, but not enough to be a critical mass. The trick is figuring out how to make it cool to live downtown and not risky (as in taking your life into your hands venturing home after a night at the club.)
Wow. I went over 500 words in placing my two cents into the kettle. While you’re free to comment here, perhaps the discussion should migrate to their site.
It’s pretty simple to make a place desirable for young people:
— low taxes (so things are cheap)
— less regulation (so the fun stuff ain’t illegal)
— decent policing (so you don’t get mugged all the time)
That will help businesses move into the area. These will lure people who aren’t on drugs or welfare, which will mean less crime per capita. And more and more people will want to live there.