Comments on: Downtown news could lead to solutions, and a ballpark

By: Not sure well stay

Not sure well stay — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 03:56:43 +0000

There will be no real business here until the airport situation improves. And As of now, it’s probably too late. This is a military town which looks to be forced to become even more tied to uniformed guests here for a couple of years.

The town is going under from what I see. The murder rate this year in this small town has got to be on par with big mean metros.

By: Rick Wehner

Rick Wehner — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 23:02:54 +0000

Thirty years of low tax fiscal policy has left the region in disrepair, unattractive to major firms – and will soon begin to see population decline. Without bold, imaginative thinking, continued deterioration is not unrealistic.

The time is come to solve the stormwater problem – yet 4.5 billion in city and county infrastructure are unmet. Can bold vision solve both?

Is this time to take someone with the vision of Ms.Edmondson to put an outside team of experts together to bring all local conflicting parties together, with an-out-of-the area municipal bond expert to draft a regional plan to come up with one complete package to deal with major needs?

With a downtown stadium/convention center, a revised transit center, and use the Prospect area of the old Gazette for a nifty development for downtown housing aimed at the ‘young professional’ demographic? Bike trail into town. Include in the planning some sort of lite rail from the transit center to the Airport and Broadmoor? All tied in with sufficient funds to deal with stormwater?

I think it would be far easier to ‘sell’ this kind of a project with some glamor and features to boost the attractiveness of the region as a destination city and one employers might again look at? Take Schuck and Bach out of the loop and bring in innovative thinkers. Could work.

By: Eddie

Eddie — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 22:32:38 +0000

I am always astounded when the suggestion of a rather limited use facility such as a baseball stadium is bandied about as the panacea to our Downtown’s ills.

Instead I would tout a facility such as INFINITY PARK in Glendale as a much better engine of economic growth and urban re-invention
.
http://infinityparkatglendale.com/

It’s an event center, sports center, rugby , soccer , lacrosse field and concert venue, built and owned by the citizens of a forward thinking community.

A facility of this type was once touted by a former publisher of your paper. Bring him back, he can explain it much better than I ….