Starkville served up a city-wide open invitation to participate in yet another community project. This one is to facilitate a vision for arguably our most downtrodden through street, Highway 182. The professional consultants said all that was required of the attendees would be time, creativity and interest.
There is some irony in that requirement because I would argue that the previous couple of generations’ lack of time, creativity and interest was what caused her demise. Places can have second, third and fourth lives. Maybe her second life is eminent.
Using some leftover funds from a brownfield study grant, the city commissioned a consulting group to help with the development plan for a rejuvenated future along the corridor. They held several meetings this week, part of the process intended to create a map for the 182 road to recovery; no pun intended.
Commissioner Tagert and MDOT took the first step toward making 182 a place where people might want to linger rather than simply pass through. Sidewalks have been added, and the endless stretch of concrete entrances to somewhat marginal places of business have been replaced with cleaner, refreshed streetscape bringing with it the hint of hope.
182 houses our only two club type evening entertainment areas, Dave’s Dark Horse Tavern and Rick’s. Both are popular members of the 182 small family of businesses. There are gas stations, both abandoned and operating, schools and churches and a tattoo parlor. There is multi-family and single-family and vacant property. There are a few restaurants of the non-chain variety and a public school along the way.
Pretty much anything you might need or want is or has been on 182 at one time or another. Currently it serves as a hodge-podge of uses, which is good. It is also a hodge-podge of forlorn and dilapidated buildings, which is not good.
Local attorneys have purchased property along the frontage closest to downtown. Two are old gas stations, and one attorney has invested in the facelift needed to make it a unique and funky office. The potential is there.
All it takes is money and the shared belief it can be something special again. Hopefully this charrette will provide the vision that produces further investment along this corridor.
Ideas expressed at the charrette: Get rid of the abandoned and dilapidated properties; put overhead utilities underground; add a grocery store to the area; create a passive park area and add cafe-type sidewalk restaurants.
Many of the opinions expressed on the first evening were wishful ones; others were more practical. All of them need substantial capital investment. Doubtless, the greatest expense would be for public type improvements such as the underground utilities and a public passive park. The remainder would be more of a public/private partnership variety such as a TIF or public improvement district.
These exercises don’t address how we got here, but hopefully they help us consider how we might avoid the cycle in other city venues. It should be a cautionary tale for all commercial AND residential property owners.
There are things we as a community can do that keep an entire area from becoming compromised. It is one thing to have a single building or property needing to be repurposed but to have to revitalize a whole stretch of road is an almost impossible venture.
After decades have passed and ownership has changed multiple times, we have a lot of finger-pointing about whose fault this is and how it happened. That refusal to be accountable increases the public involvement in what ought to be a private citizen’s responsibility of ownership.
Neglectful ownership doesn’t turn into a community-wide problem until those who are directly impacted by it do nothing as well. The domino effect is alive and well and eats up whole city blocks over the course of time.
That effect is what this charrette is designed to address.
The hindsight of 50 years creates a feeling of “woulda, coulda, shoulda” that “outta” make us take notice of what happens when you don’t get involved in your immediate surroundings or your community as a whole.
Lynn Spruill, a former commercial airline pilot, elected official and city administrator owns and manages Spruill Property Management in Starkville. Her email address is [email protected].
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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