Day One is in the books for the charrette team visiting Columbus this week, and they”ve already got plenty to chew on.
The team of urban planners, architects, marketing analysts and other experts, both local and visiting, spent Tuesday afternoon and evening gathering opinions on what aspects and areas of Columbus need either development or promotion. The team hopes to turn those suggestions into palpable, realistically achievable goals by Thursday when they reveal their suggestions in a public meeting at the Trotter Convention Center at 6 p.m.
Beautifying gateways such as Highways 45 and 182, sidewalks and accessibility downtown, utilizing the Magnolia Bowl, promoting tourism, utilizing waterways and sportsplex location were among the issues raised.
After a tour of the city, the interactive portion of the charrette began Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. when the team met with the Columbus City Council, the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors and the Main Street Board to ask what Columbus needs and wants from the point of view of its leaders. They followed that with a similar public meeting at the Trotter which drew close to 100 citizens.
Charrette facilitator Randy Wilson, director of design services for the Mississippi Main Street Association, said getting as many opinions as possible is essential.
“The whole reason we”ve already gone through the assessment with stakeholders is to see if there are some common themes emerging as priorities. Those are the things we”re going to focus on and that will be the marching orders for our team,” said Wilson.
He noted it was unfortunate that, of the approximately 100 citizens in attendance at the public meeting, only 11 were black.
(According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 54.4 percent of the city”s population is black; 43.6 percent is white.)
“Any time we”re working in a community, you”d love to see the exact representation of the demographics,” said Wilson. “We will do our best to make sure all parts of the community are equally addressed.”
He said his team may reach out to the black communities today to ensure their voices are heard.
“We may want to talk to some of the faith-based communities. That”s a great way to get the word out. Our door is wide open. We”ll be camped out at the Main Street offices for the next two days. We welcome anybody who wants to give us input.”
Wilson assured community leaders and citizens the charrette team isn”t in the business of recommending unattainable goals. Any suggestion will be packaged with a proposed funding source and will identify who or what groups would be responsible for making it happen, he said.
However, he admits that any suggestions will be merely conceptual, given the small amount of time the charrette team will have to brainstorm. But he said the community is owed a quick response.
“In a traditional project, time is spread out over weeks and months. The reason we bring the entire team on site is to work with no interruptions for three days and be singularly focused on this project to pay the community the respect they deserve,” said Wilson. “In other words, if they sacrifice their time to come and talk to us, it behooves us to give them a very quick response so they can see the fruit of their effort.”
Visual aids
The response, he said, will come in the form of maps, diagrams, three-dimensional models, photo renderings and market analysis to be presented Thursday evening.
“It”s a matter of us poring through all the input we”ve seen tonight and the … congregate input of our entire team and just trying to wrestle among ourselves with matters of importance. It really mirrors what the city is doing,” said Wilson.
To glean those matters of importance, Wilson asked the 100 citizens in attendance a series of questions that amounted to a community-wide brainstorming session. Topics included: aspects of Columbus which are already attractive, methods of travel into and through Columbus, what the city needs and what makes Columbus unique.
Citizens were asked to give their responses aloud as a member of the charrette team wrote them down on large sheets of paper which were then taped to the wall. Wilson then asked everyone in attendance to “vote” on which aspects were most important by placing stickers, distributed as attendees entered the Trotter, beside their choices.
Naming priorities
Alex Nettles, an avid skateboarder, placed all four of his stickers next to a new skate park. He says a skate park previously built at Propst Park fell far short of local skaters” expectations.
Sally Evans, who works in the downtown area, voted for a more pedestrian-friendly downtown, saying more foot traffic would increase business.
Claude Simpson went a step further, voting for a pedestrian-only area in downtown.
Robert Woods, a former member of the San Francisco Planning Department, also lent his vote to developing downtown to promote business.
“There are more exciting things downtown than at Leigh Mall or Wal-Mart,” said Woods. “We should consider downtown a historic preservation area and make it all walking in the four central blocks.”
Woods, one of the few black citizens in attendance, also voted for public transportation and said if a busing system were already in place more black people may have attended the Charrette meeting.
Nancy Carpenter, a member of the Columbus Convention and Visitors Bureau, voted for underground utilities, a boutique hotel and better accommodations for pedestrian traffic downtown.
“We need to promote ourselves as a tourist town,” said Carpenter, noting those changes would enhance the area and attract more positive attention.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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