After hearing mixed signals about downtown I deiced to walk around for a few hours today from 2:00 to 4:00 during that time I payed close attention to what was going on and how what is good and bad. I am going to use 3 categories office, retail and residential. Arch madness was in town so I may have not have a complete everyday fell of downtown.
1. Office You can tell there are not a lot office workers, but there are enough to notice them. Most off the workers were north of market and east of tucker, You can tell the start up scene is starting to gain stem. You can see the downtown workforce is getting younger and more tech oriented. Also the drain of workers from AT&T did hurt the retail in the buildings close to it. Downtown dose really needs about twice or three times as many jobs at it dose right now.
2 Retail. There is hope for retail but it still needs a larger population to gain stem. Right now there seems like there is currently enough people to support the coffee and sub shops, Culinaria was crowed on the inside like most other times so I do believe they are doing ok maybe even great. The Washington ave retail seen was kinda strange there were a lot of blank store fronts but the bars and restraints that are there were staring to draw good size crowd right when I was staring to go home. So I believe Wash Ave needs more development north and south of it to start to fill the empty store fronts. Retail districts need to set up on olive and Wash Ave so the retail can boast and grow off each other.
3 Residential. Wow I must say wow residential seems really strong right now. Most of the residents live west of tucker but I feel the effect does spread all over downtown. I saw lots of people walk there dogs and and just going on jogs. The private Residential parking lots were pretty full too. The most amazing thing I saw was when walk by when the new charter school it was letting out and saw a lot of kids walking downtown with there parents and just enjoying life. Also looks like families are even settling or staying put downtown. The neighborhood community does look vary strong and maybe a reason to live there too.
Over all I think downtown is in a somewhat painful transitional phase form a large old office economy to a tech and neighborhood based economy. The glass is half full but a lot of work needs to be done. I recommend new streetscapes start with Olive. Also install high speed fiber lines all over downtown to boast and lure tech jobs. The city needs to create a special task force to talk to major employers near and far to try to get more jobs downtown.
1. Office You can tell there are not a lot office workers, but there are enough to notice them. Most off the workers were north of market and east of tucker, You can tell the start up scene is starting to gain stem. You can see the downtown workforce is getting younger and more tech oriented. Also the drain of workers from AT&T did hurt the retail in the buildings close to it. Downtown dose really needs about twice or three times as many jobs at it dose right now.
2 Retail. There is hope for retail but it still needs a larger population to gain stem. Right now there seems like there is currently enough people to support the coffee and sub shops, Culinaria was crowed on the inside like most other times so I do believe they are doing ok maybe even great. The Washington ave retail seen was kinda strange there were a lot of blank store fronts but the bars and restraints that are there were staring to draw good size crowd right when I was staring to go home. So I believe Wash Ave needs more development north and south of it to start to fill the empty store fronts. Retail districts need to set up on olive and Wash Ave so the retail can boast and grow off each other.
3 Residential. Wow I must say wow residential seems really strong right now. Most of the residents live west of tucker but I feel the effect does spread all over downtown. I saw lots of people walk there dogs and and just going on jogs. The private Residential parking lots were pretty full too. The most amazing thing I saw was when walk by when the new charter school it was letting out and saw a lot of kids walking downtown with there parents and just enjoying life. Also looks like families are even settling or staying put downtown. The neighborhood community does look vary strong and maybe a reason to live there too.
Over all I think downtown is in a somewhat painful transitional phase form a large old office economy to a tech and neighborhood based economy. The glass is half full but a lot of work needs to be done. I recommend new streetscapes start with Olive. Also install high speed fiber lines all over downtown to boast and lure tech jobs. The city needs to create a special task force to talk to major employers near and far to try to get more jobs downtown.
