Taking a walk
Our intrepid band of surveyors launched today, and while allusions to Lewis & Clark would be inappropriate, the frigid temperatures lent an air of bicentennial authenticity.
Working as a team, we were able to piece together some of the raw data, architectural heritage, and unfiltered rumor about one segment of the downtown business district. We managed to do a fairly decent survey of the west bank of Pearl Street from Oak Street to Main Street.
Still, this is just a beginning. We still need volunteers to search the tax records and visit the various businesses during the working day.
Exploring afoot gives a much richer perspective on the uses and misuses of the space downtown. Of course, a sidewalk survey can be misleading since you can't explore the nooks and crannies and a Sunday is not the best time to find the street's businesses occupied (more's the pity).
As a newcomer, I found the survey raised more questions. For example: Is a private parking lot the highest and best use for the corner of Spring and Pearl, former site of the U.S. Post Office/Federal Building? Or is that public land being used for private parking? Elsewhere, it appeared that vast parking space was being reserved for some future influx of commercial tenants and clients. Could that be put to use in the meantime? We explored some of the parking space referred to on City Clerk Marcy Wisman's Web site - the space for which her office issues monthly permits.
Working as a group also enabled us to share our speculations about the future uses of prime downtown property and the missed opportunities that continue to plague the city in its recruitment of new entrepreneurs.
Join us next time, or offer your time to flesh out our research with time in the property office to determine who owns what. Working on a Sunday afternoon prevented us from soliciting help from many of the folks who make downtown their workday home, but a door-to-door canvass for ideas and intelligence would be a great help.
You'll also be interested to know we were able to talk with a few downtown merchants and residents who offered keen insights and visions for the future of downtown.
Which is the whole point. That's what we'll discuss just four short weeks from now at the Destinations Booksellers Public Affairs Symposium for Winter 2005. The topic is New Visions for Downtown New Albany. The panel and moderator have accepted our invitation and we are gathering ideas, comments, and studies for a wide-ranging discussion. We believe this will be an important event for the future of the city, so if you have a contribution to make to the symposium, speak up now. We'll have selected members of the audience make two-minute presentations of an idea or a question and the panel will address them in sequence.
This symposium is designed as a forum to discuss ideas to rescue downtown as a commercial, recreational, and residential haven. All residents and other interested parties are encouraged to participate, and we'll have the welcome mat out for our public officials, too. Stay tuned. We'll be sharing more with you in the coming days, including our essay contest for elementary and secondary school pupils.
Working as a team, we were able to piece together some of the raw data, architectural heritage, and unfiltered rumor about one segment of the downtown business district. We managed to do a fairly decent survey of the west bank of Pearl Street from Oak Street to Main Street.
Still, this is just a beginning. We still need volunteers to search the tax records and visit the various businesses during the working day.
Exploring afoot gives a much richer perspective on the uses and misuses of the space downtown. Of course, a sidewalk survey can be misleading since you can't explore the nooks and crannies and a Sunday is not the best time to find the street's businesses occupied (more's the pity).
As a newcomer, I found the survey raised more questions. For example: Is a private parking lot the highest and best use for the corner of Spring and Pearl, former site of the U.S. Post Office/Federal Building? Or is that public land being used for private parking? Elsewhere, it appeared that vast parking space was being reserved for some future influx of commercial tenants and clients. Could that be put to use in the meantime? We explored some of the parking space referred to on City Clerk Marcy Wisman's Web site - the space for which her office issues monthly permits.
Working as a group also enabled us to share our speculations about the future uses of prime downtown property and the missed opportunities that continue to plague the city in its recruitment of new entrepreneurs.
Join us next time, or offer your time to flesh out our research with time in the property office to determine who owns what. Working on a Sunday afternoon prevented us from soliciting help from many of the folks who make downtown their workday home, but a door-to-door canvass for ideas and intelligence would be a great help.
You'll also be interested to know we were able to talk with a few downtown merchants and residents who offered keen insights and visions for the future of downtown.
Which is the whole point. That's what we'll discuss just four short weeks from now at the Destinations Booksellers Public Affairs Symposium for Winter 2005. The topic is New Visions for Downtown New Albany. The panel and moderator have accepted our invitation and we are gathering ideas, comments, and studies for a wide-ranging discussion. We believe this will be an important event for the future of the city, so if you have a contribution to make to the symposium, speak up now. We'll have selected members of the audience make two-minute presentations of an idea or a question and the panel will address them in sequence.
This symposium is designed as a forum to discuss ideas to rescue downtown as a commercial, recreational, and residential haven. All residents and other interested parties are encouraged to participate, and we'll have the welcome mat out for our public officials, too. Stay tuned. We'll be sharing more with you in the coming days, including our essay contest for elementary and secondary school pupils.
posted by All4Word at 8:39 PM
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