There are a few bright spots in downtown Little Rock, but some drastic changes need to be made. Sure, there have been some improvements since the city hit bottom some 15-20 years ago, but unless we want to wait another 15 years or more for the positive steps to take hold and grow, several critical changes are needed.
Here's what it will take to see the capital city's downtown become a vibrant place to work and live.
• Get rid of all the one-way streets east of Broadway. Don't have a traffic design that caters to commuting workers, who are on the streets less than an hour a day. Remove the red lights and replace them with four-way stop signs. This will immediately make downtown more pedestrian-friendly and actually improve traffic flow.
• In the past the Main Street corridor was Little Rock's primary retail area, lined with large multi-floor department stores. The mega-department store concept is a thing of the past, and those empty giants in downtown Little Rock are dinosaurs. Until those relics are replaced with a 21st-century retail model, downtown can't be revitalized.
However, the idea of just anything occupying these large buildings is the wrong way to solve the problem. As an example, the first-floor occupancy by the Arkansas Department of Human Services in a large Main Street building is a glaring no-no. Only retail, food services, and consumer services should be on the first floors along Main Street. The Arkansas Department of Human Services doesn't fit any retail-mix equations. The ideal situation is to have multiple specialty stores with 25-foot store fronts, catering to a common customer.
• Historically, Main Street from Statehouse Convention Center south to I-630 was the heart of Little Rock's retail, entertainment, and food service area, and it can be again if the right steps are taken. Among them are converting parking lots and ground floors of parking garages into retail or restaurant space. This real estate is too valuable to be used for parking, and the lots and garages are a hindrance to a customer who wants to go shopping from store to store. Any new parking lots or garages should be well behind the core retail area of downtown. If you reduce the number of parking lots and build quality upstairs living space, Little Rock's commuting workers will start to take public transportation or move downtown.
• Having people live downtown gives downtown businesses a built-in customer base. I can see the beginning attempts to create downtown living spaces, but that start must be quadrupled and quadrupled again until every vacant upstairs building has been converted into residences. A number of years back, San Diego adopted a goal of having 50,000 new residents move to its downtown. It succeeded, and today San Diego has one of the best downtowns in the nation.
• Envision narrow two-way streets, wider sidewalks with in-sidewalk tree planting, multiple park benches, and flower beds on every block. Curb appeal draws people and adds value to any property.
• Of course, it's a chicken and egg proposition. You can't just create upstairs living space. People won't move into upstairs condos and apartments unless ground-level amenities are added. The solution is to add all the critical downtown features to one block, and then move to the next block. Don't try to handle the whole Main Street corridor as one overreaching project.
Some of these concepts will be harder than others to enact because this is Little Rock, not Burlington, Vt., or Davis, Calif. Arkansas is not setting the curve when it comes to beautiful, livable downtowns, and it may take our grandchildren to finish the job. But we need to get it started.
Richard Mason is a downtown developer from El Dorado. In 2009 downtown El Dorado was selected as one of the top Main Street downtowns in America. Email him at richard@gibraltarenergy.com.
Editorial on 04/03/2016