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Coming of Age

The City of West Sacramento is almost 21 -- having been incorporated in 1987. I learned about some of its growing pains, and how it's now coming of age as a dynamic, growing little brother to Sacramento on its east.

Stephen Patek, the City's Director of Public Works & Community Development went over some history. West Sacramento used to be called East Yolo. For years it was an industrial area, considered by many the "dumping grounds" of Yolo County.

[photos above left & below right of a new development, the Ironworks, going up in an industrial section called "the Triangle" -- also home to the new Raley Field ballpark -- more on these projects in a minute]

After incorporating, one of the new city's priorities was to get a second bridge connecting the primarily residential Southport area with the rest of the city (the connection is over a shipping channel).

Once that bridge was finally opened a few years ago, growth in Southport took off. West Sacramento's population, which grew slowly from 28,000 in 1980 to 32,000 in 2000, is now -- just seven years later -- around 45,000.

Two other recent projects gave West Sacramento a shot in the arm -- and started changing its image as a grimy, industrial district.

One is the Ziggurat Tower -- originally built in 2000 as headquarters of the Money Company, but now home to the state Department of General Services.

The other is Raley Field, the new 14,000 seat home of the triple-A baseball Sacramento River Cats. [I have more to say about Raley Field in a separate post].

Chris Ledesma, Chair of the West Sacramento Planning Commission told me that he worked in the Ziggurat Building and watched Raley Field going up. It made him finally realize that "West Sacramento is really going places." In fact, Chris enjoys seeing the city grow. "It's a fresh, vibrant place," he told me. But Chris added, "we can't get complacent ... as we grow, so should our expectation of quality in what gets built here."

[a view of the Tower Bridge and Sacramento from inside Raley Field]

One example can be seen in two neighboring retail big box stores. The city succeeded in attracting IKEA to build in West Sacramento. It was a plum to get, especially since California cities are highly dependent on sales tax revenues. But the design is a typical, flat, big box style.

However, the next big box project got closer design scrutiny. Interestingly, it was a Walmart. City planners did a great job in pushing Walmart into a more creative exterior design. As Chris noted, "I never thought I'd say I'd be proud of a Walmart."

Les Bowman, Manager of the city's Redevelopment Agency agreed with Chris' assessment. Les said that getting the first major projects -- the Ziggurat Tower, the IKEA -- to locate in West Sacramento was key to changing perceptions of the city. "As we've been successful, we've been able to raise the bar for development," Les added.

[from left to right: Stephen Patek; Les Bowman; Jim Bermudez (Associate Planner); Steve Rikala (City Planner); and Chris Ledesma]

Steve Rikala took us for a tour of parts of the city. Next on the agenda for West Sacramento is focusing more on the riverfront. As Les noted, "over the years the community had turned its back on the river." In part, this was because the system of flood protection levees put the river out of sight.

The city is working on an extension of a riverfront walk -- 3 1/2 miles will be built atop the levee. This will also link to the new headquarters of the California State Teachers Pension Fund (see photo on the left).

West Sacramento is also working with it's cross-river neighbor (that is, Sacramento) under the umbrella of a single riverfront master plan. The plan calls for a pedestrian bridge over the river, and a new vehicular bridge -- as there are currently only three crossings over the Sacramento River linking the two cities. The cities are also looking into the feasibility of a streetcar line that would span the river and connect downtown Sacramento with Raley Field.

West Sacramento is also trying to encourage higher density housing. The city's planners are confident that there's a demographic trend toward higher density, infill housing. One successful project that Steve Rikala showed us, Metro Place, has 54 new units. It's not far from the river -- and across the street from Sal's, a local Mexican restaurant with a one-of-a-kind interior (as you can see from the photos below) and great food.

One other project important to the city is redevelopment of a large industrialized area called "the Triangle" that also borders the Sacramento River. Raley Field is located here, but other development has been slow to follow (though you can see one housing project, Ironworks, under construction -- see photos at the start of this post). Two big obstacles are the railyard and the presence of a number of petroleum storage tanks.

While the city is working on relocation ideas, for the near future, new development in the Triangle will be stymied.

Quite a lot going on a city that's not yet 21 years old.

"They Like What We Have"

That's why so many visit Placerville's Main Street, Mayor Mark Acuna told me as we drove around the small California city on a hot Saturday afternoon. The Mayor explained that many Californians are surprised when they first stop in Placerville and see an alternative to the typical strip development and big box stores.

Placerville's located between the heavily populated Sacramento and San Francisco Bay areas to the west and the Lake Tahoe resort area to the east -- right along U.S. Highway 50.

With a population of 10,400, the city has so far managed to retain its small town character and historic Main Street district. Among other things, Main Street features the oldest continually operated hardware store west of the Mississippi River.

It's also the hometown of Thomas Kinkade, perhaps the most commercially successful artist in America, whose Kinkade gallery stores flourish nationwide.

Having visitors shop in Placerville is just fine with Mayor Acuna and with longtime Community Development Director Steve Calfee. Placerville, like other California communities, is heavily dependent on sales tax revenues to support its municipal budget, so commercial development is vital.

[photo of Steve Calfee (left) and Mayor Mark Acuna (right) in front of the location of the locally famous hangman's tree; Placerville used to be known as Hangtown -- and is still sometimes called that by locals]

Mayor Acuna, who earlier served for nine years on the Placerville Planning Commission, explained that Placerville needs to preserve what it has, while feeding off the economic reality of suburban development from western El Dorado County and the expanding Sacramento metro area.

"One of our biggest challenges is mixing in tourists, while keeping Placerville a working town," he noted. Another challenge is to provide moderate income housing. In Placerville, this means housing in the $400,000 to $450,000 price range.

Placerville has paid attention to the small details that make for a successful main street. As one example, Steve described a new Starbucks on Main Street. The original proposal for the vacant lot called for putting parking in front of the coffee house. The city's planners wanted the parking located in the back, with a patio in front.

To help make this work, the city waived its parking requirement for outdoor dining, reducing the required number of parking spaces. The result is that the Starbucks helps maintain the character of Main Street, instead of being inconsistent with it.

While Placerville planners are trying to encourage more evening activities downtown, Steve told me they want to avoid having a "punks and drunks downtown."

Route 50 itself is a mixed blessing for the city. The four lane highway (with additional turning lanes) bisects the city. On the plus side, Route 50 provides easy access for visitors traveling east-west -- and Main Street is only one block south of the highway.

On the other hand, the roadway is a barrier of sorts, with only a limited number of crossings linking the north and south sides of Placerville.

Planners might also find of interest the new Home Depot in a commercial district on the western side of Placerville (there's more to commercial development in the city than Main Street).

Steve believes it's the most costly Home Depot ever built in the U.S.

Walking around the store you can understand why. As Steve noted, "it's a very difficult site." Among other things, a major stream was relocated by the store (back to its original course, Steve added).

Also of note is a kind of tradition in Placerville. Most city councilors in recent history previously served as planning commissioners. Mayor Acuna counted four of the five current councilors as former planning commission members. That means the governing body is very familiar with planning goals and objectives, and knowledgeable about land development issues.

If you're a planning commissioner reading this post, with thoughts of "graduating" to your governing body, you might want to read an article Otis White wrote for us, Should You Run?

On Hold in Carson City

Carson City, Nevada, planners have great ideas for strengthening their downtown core. But their ability to implement their plans is largely on hold. The reason: the lengthy amount of time it's taking the Nevada Dept. of Transportation (N-DOT) to complete the long-planned bypass freeway.

Right now, Carson Street/Nevada 395 -- the main road through downtown -- is a virtually non-stop corridor for cars and trucks traveling north-south through the city.

But it's along Carson Street that the city is pinning its hopes for increasing pedestrian activity, promoting higher density housing & development, and creating more retail opportunities.

The Carson Street strategy appears to make sense. There are already a number of restaurants located on the main street -- though pedestrian safety railings border the roadway, protecting people walking along the fairly narrow sidewalks.

Also bordering Carson Street is the stately historic state capitol building; the more modern legislative chambers; the state museum; markers commemorating the site of the Pony Express stop; and some hotels and casinos.

[State Capitol below left; Pony Express site marker below right, next to restaurant. Both are on Carson Street.]

The area just west of Carson Street includes a large historic district, containing a mix of residences and offices (below left, the Orion Clemens house, where Mark Twain's brother lived; below right, the Bliss House bed & breakfast). Right now, however, there's relatively little retail in the downtown core.

 

Just east of Carson Street are many of the state agency offices. (Not surprisingly, government is by far and away the major employer in downtown Carson City -- 2004 employment data that city planner Lee Plemel showed me reported that 6,553 of the 9,593 downtown workers were government employees; the large majority of them work for the State). Photo shows one of the newer state office buildings, just a block east of Carson Street.

There seems to be a good base for developing an active pedestrian street, at least in terms of the number of people who work within just a block or two of Carson Street.

[The downtown map shown below indicates just how extensive the government section of downtown is; all the area in purple is in government use, mainly by the State of Nevada -- Carson Street runs north-south /top-to-bottom in this map between the dark red / commercial zones. The Carson Street narrowing will run from William Street, near the northern edge of the map, to 5th Street.]

Lee told me that the city has developed conceptual plans, and completed traffic studies, that support its idea of narrowing portions of Carson Street from four to two travel lanes. This will allow for on-street parking and landscaping that will allow for a more pedestrian oriented environment. With the freeway built, truck traffic will no longer rumble along the street.

So what's the hold up? I was told that completing the bypass freeway has been the city's number one priority for years. But only about one-third of the freeway has been completed, and that only occurred in January 2006.

[photo where the freeway now ends; view is looking south from U.S. 50]

You can now get on the freeway from U.S. 50 heading north towards Reno. But the more important section that will get through traffic out of downtown remains unbuilt. Current N-DOT plans offer a target date of about 2011-2012. But Lee and two Carson City planning commissioners I met over lunch (John Peery, who's the commission chairman, and Steve Reynolds) are concerned whether even that target will be met given the lengthy delays already encountered.

[photo, from left to right: Steve, John, and Lee]

While there's little current opposition to the freeway, the main hold up is money. There's a feeling that Las Vegas area roadway projects are given greater priority by the state, perhaps not surprising considering that the majority of the state's population (and political clout) is in that area.

Both Steve and John expressed some concerns about whether downtown -- even after the freeway is built -- will be able to attract pedestrians and higher density housing. As Steve succinctly put it, "people like to drive here." They also expressed uncertainty about whether mixed use developments would fly in Carson City. But participants in the city's master plan process (as well as planning commissioners and staff) supported the idea of stengthening downtown and getting more people to live, shop, and work there -- believing it important to the city's future.

But until the freeway is built, implementing the plan's goals remains largely on hold.

Coming Together. Coming Back.

Ely, Nevada, with a population of about 5,000, is located in east-central Nevada. It's a spectacular part of the country, with mountain ranges interspersed with ranching operations in broad valleys.

[photo: heading towards Ely from the east on U.S. 50]

Ely is not close to any other community -- the nearest other small town being Eureka, some 70 miles to the west on Highway 50. The major city that Ely most relates to is Las Vegas, some 240 miles to the south.

Ely has long been a mining hub. And copper has been the mineral. From its origins back in 1878, the health of the copper industry has governed life in the Ely area. As with many mining areas, this has meant a boom and bust cycle.

[photo of the huge Liberty copper mining pit, opened in 1911 and in operation until the 1980s. Mining operations take place in Ruth, Nevada, just four miles west of Ely. You can click on the photo for a larger size; notice the dust cloud rising in the far right of the image. An explosive charge had just gone off in an active mine nearby]

The latest "crisis," as Ely reisdent Virginia Terry put it, came in 1999 when BHP (Broken Hills Proprieties) announced the closure of its Ely area operation, laying off nearly 500 employees. BHP was by far the largest employer in the county.

Within a one year period, Ely's population plummeted by 1,000. According to Virginia, "the city could barely hold itself together to provide essential services." Then the major downtown store, a J.C. Penney's announced it was closing in 2002.

Virginia, a former Ely school superintendent and principal whose family owns several downtown businesses, got together with others in the community to see if they could find some way for the city to come back.

One of the problems they faced if Ely were to attract new businesses and residents was the unsightly, run down nature of many properties downtown.

An idea emerged (based in part on what had been done in Delta, Colorado) -- add some murals to blank walls in the 11 block downtown core.

Margaret Miller Bath (photo, below right), a pharmacist whose family had long owned Economy Drug & Old Fashioned Fountain in the heart of Ely, wrote out a check for $5,000 to jump start the effort -- and the birth of a new nonprofit, Ely Rennaissance. A dinner fundraiser added $6,000.

  And then Ely played its "ace in the hole" -- the loyalty and love of its former residents. An "all-class" reunion was held. That is, all graduates of White Pine County High School were invited back. The focus was on reviving downtown. The result: raising $80,000 in alumni donations for Ely Rennaissance.

The murals (and now sculptures as well) have played an important role in all this. They're more than just art -- though they're done by some of the world's top mural artists. They use as their theme Ely's history and, most especially, its ethnic diversity. There's a mural focusing on the areas Italian immigrants; another on its Basque heritage; one on its Greek workers; and so on.

By focusing on diversity & the city's origins, the murals have fostered pride.

[mural immediately above: Basque Tribute, by artists Don and Jared Gray, celebrates the role the Basques played as early herders in the area; above that, the Liberty Pit mural, by Wei Luan] 

As Margaret explained, "Ely Rennaissance has kept the community in the community, and given everyone something positive to focus on." In fact, some Ely alumni even started to come back to the town as a place to retire to.

Ely Rennaissance's work on the murals and the way that pulled people together led to one other surprising result. The return of a department store to downtown. But not a chain you've heard of. Ely tried without luck to attract another national to replace the J.C. Penney's.

When those efforts failed, Ely residents decided to take a gamble and emulate what had been done in Powell, Wyoming -- develop a community owned store. The result: Garnet Mercantile (photo above).

[photo below right: Ernie Flangas and Virginia Terry inside Garnet Mercantile]

Many of the store's 350 shareholders are residents of Ely; others are people who grew up in Ely, or folks from around Nevada who heard about what Ely was trying to do and wanted to help. Each share costs $500, and the maximum any one person can invest was set at $10,000.

Ernie Flangas, who serves on the White Pine County Regional Planning Commission, has also been active in these efforts. Ernie's family came to Ely from Greece back in 1906. His father worked for the railroad for a time (the railroad was important to mining activities). For Ernie, the key is "to put the nucleus of downtown back together." That, as he acknowledged, is a hard task. 

Ely also has some other things going for it. There's a small campus of Great Basin College. The tourist-oriented Nevada Steam Railroad is thriving. And copper is starting to rebound.

Despite the difficult years it has gone through, Ely residents have learned -- and benefited from -- an important lesson: by coming together, a community stands the best chance of coming back.

-------------------------------

Sept. 29, 2009 Update:

Received this update from Virginia Terry:  Economics of Ely: We have fared reasonable well during the recession, our mine (Quadra) employs about 500 workers and continues to ship ore out for refining, our maximun security prison has a hiring freeze but provides a sound basis for our economy.  The main effect of the recession is that the retail sales has been reduced which has affected the Mercantile some, but it is still open seven days a week.  The Ely Renaissance Society has been very active with keeping the traffic flowing in the downtown area with our Village (check out our website: elyrenaissance.com). We have had wonderful success with the Farmer's Market at the Village, the Kriskindlemarkt to begin the Christmas season, finishing the Greek Mural and our lastest function will be an Art/Wine Walk at the Village in celebration of our 10th year of community improvements! 

During the past 10 years our local fundraisers have garnered nearly $750,000 from local projects for the ERS.  We have been fortunate to not  be reliant on government grants for funding.

Farmers Markets

I was heading into Grand Junction, Colorado, to sit in on a meeting of the Mesa County Planning Commission. I thought I'd arrive early so I could get something to eat. As I was entering downtown, I could see that the streets up ahead were packed with people. So I found a parking spot, and waded into the crowd.

I had happened on the start of the weekly Thursday evening farmers market. Five blocks of downtown Grand Junction were lined with vendors, kids, seniors, buyers, sellers, teens, and people -- like me -- just enjoying the scene.

This was the third farmers market I had connected with during my trip -- though I also saw the location of other farmers markets on their off days (and the day I left Burlington to head down to Ocean City, Maryland, we had our own farmers market).

Farmers markets not only benefit local food growers, but they're great community events -- especially when held in downtowns or town centers. In fact, a few years ago, we published an article by Roberta Gratz about the benefits farmers markets can bring.

Here are a few photos I snapped while walking about the Grand Junction downtown farmers market.

Since I was pretty certain I'd be coming across some farmers markets during my travels, before I left Burlington, Vermont, I spoke with Richard McCarthy, President of the national Farmers Market Coalition about farmers markets and their role in communities. You can listen to the audio (approximately 15 minutes).

• to listen to the conversation [press blue arrow to play; click link to download]
• access this conversation on our podcast page

Delta Delights

I was driving from Montrose headed to Grand Junction, heading north on busy U.S. 50 / Main Street through the center of the small city of Delta, Colorado, when a mural on my left caught my eye. I pulled over and got out of my car to take a look.

Then a closer look.

Amazing. I turned the corner. And there was another mural.

Then another across the street.

And another, a tribute to the area's fruit growers.

Not to mention fascinating sculptures at intersections. Here's one.

After getting a chance to go online, I found out some information about the murals and sculptures I saw. You can go online and see some of the other works the grace Delta's building walls & streets.

Here's who did the works I've highlighted -- from top to bottom: the Opera House by Richard Doherty (on the spot where the Opera House Building originally stood); The Hardware Store, also by Richard Doherty (on the wall of Delta's hardware store); Homage to Delta's Diversity by Emanuel Martinez (depicting the history of the region's Hispanic community); Fruitgrowers Labels by Connie Williams; and Enchanted, a sculpture by Joyce Killebrew.

Downtown Pueblo ... plus

I met Jim Munch, Jerry Pacheco, and Tim Williams at the Wireworks coffee house to talk about downtown Pueblo. Note the words "coffee house."

I'm developing a hypothesis that the health and vibrancy of a downtown is directly related to the number of coffee houses per capita. Maybe I'm off base, but in places I've been traveling through -- that seems to be the case.

[from left to right; Jim, Tim, and Jerry]

Pueblo has several of its own home grown coffee houses.

But, as I was to learn, there's much more to downtown Pueblo than its coffee culture.

We started our downtown tour by walking the length of the Union Street Historic District. It has a great mix of historic structures.

Interestingly, as you head towards the Arkansas River the buildings change from Victorian-era to a 1920s era brick style -- because flooding of the River required rebuilding on several blocks.

Jerry Pacheco is the newly named planning director for Pueblo, replacing Jim Munch who recently retired as planning director after a long tenure with the city.

Jerry pointed to a corner building (below left), and described the difficulty the city has when buildings sit vacant. Jerry feels there's a market for the building -- and he pointed to another building right across the street being converted to residential housing (below right).

But there's little that can be done if the property owner wants to wait until the property's market value increases more (due to the continuing upswing in the downtown real estate market).

Continuing our walk, we crossed Union Street to the remarkable Union Depot. By coincidence, Jim Koncilja, one of the owners and redevelopers of the Depot, was just leaving the building. After being introduced, Jim told me that in the past the building had been threatened with demolition, and had also been a fire hazard.

What got him so intrerested in the Depot building? As Jim explained, his grandparents arrived in Pueblo through this depot, noting that in the late 19th century about half of Pueblo's newcomers came into town through this station.

He's preserved one of the signs indicating some of the discrimination immigrants faced; they had to stay in the baggage area when they first arrived in Pueblo.

The station -- "Pueblos' Union Depot," as Jim emphasized -- hosts receptions and other community events. Jerry interjected that his wedding reception was held in the Depot.

Right across the street is a classy looking brick building. Jim (who is an attorney) has his offices there, as does Colorado U.S. Sentor Ken Salazar. "It used to be a brothel," Jim observed, adding that "it's a part of our history, and nothing to be ashamed of." In fact, Jim has put together a small display in the Depot about this aspect of Pueblo's early history.

But as important as Union Street and the Depot is to downtown, at the heart of downtown's revival is the "Historic Arkansas River Promenade" -- HARP as everyone calls it.

Jim told me that HARP is based on San Antonio's riverwalk. "You might as well steal from the best" Jim noted.

Opened in 2000, after voters approved an initial $12 million bond in 1995, HARP winds through the heart of downtown. It's about a mile in length, and is just now starting to attract development onto its grounds.

The new headquarters of the Professional Bull Riders Association -- huge in the West -- is under construction within HARP. And just completed is a Cingular Call Center that will employ 540. The City has helped facilitate this kind of development, drawing on a 1/2 cent sales tax for economic development Pueblo voters authorized.

 

HARP is nicely landscaped, with attractive murals and other public art. One terminus of HARP is a natural area used by school groups and others.

 

An extension of HARP is under construction, designed to create a link to the Pueblo Convention Center (which is slated for expansion). Potential building sites still dot the riverway, but Jim is confident they'll steadily fill up.

Jim said his view of downtown development is, "let's pack the suitcase." When I asked what he meant, he replied that the key is to concentrate development in a limited area, instead of working on widely scattered sites. "This creates the synergy you need," he added.

Both Jim and Jerry believe there's a niche market for downtown housing -- and several residential developments are in the works. Also downtown: a new transit center, an ice arena, and the historic Old Pueblo site (right).

Of course, there's more to Pueblo than its downtown. I had the chance to drive through parts of Pueblo with Todd Ahlenius, the City's Senior Transportation Planner. We went by the steel fabrication mill. It used to be THE major component of Pueblo's economy, providing relatively high paying, secure jobs.

 

As recently as the early 1980s, the mills employed some 9,000 workers. While steel still plays an important role in Pueblo's economy, it is much scaled back, employing fewer than 1,000.

After viewing the steel mill, Todd took me through several residential neighborhoods.

What struck me was the mix of very different types and sized housing in close proximity.

Pueblo's housing prices are also very low for Colorado's Front Range -- one reason Pueblo planners expect that residential growth will increase.

------------------
I added a "Plus" to the title of this post because there was one other project we discussed. Right now it's still in the planning and discussion stage. It would be located on 24,000 acres of ranchland just north of Pueblo's city limits. Over a 20 to 30 year period it could add 70,000 households to the area. In other words, it has the potential to more than double Pueblo's current population of about 100,000.

One of the key issues will be annexation -- a discretionary act in Colorado. In many ways, the City is in the driver's seat, as it is very well situated in terms of water capacity.

Jerry indicated that the City has more than enough water rights to handle a development of even this magnitude. And annexation may well be a prerequisite to the development's feasibility, as it would guarantee the project access to city water. Tim Williams, the city's environmental planner, also pointed out some of the environmental and conservation issues that will likely come up.

Jerry noted that "Pueblo is in a unique position to absorb a large amount of growth" which, with good planning, can be integrated into the city. But he expects that the ranch project will involve intensive negotiations between the developer and the City. As he succinctly put it, "this is the mother of all real estate deals for Pueblo."

Dodge City Places Its Bet

According to some, the most important vote in the history of Dodge City will take place this Tuesday. It's on whether to authorize casino gambling.

To its backers, casino gambling would bring Dodge City full circle back to its early frontier years when gambling was part of what made Dodge City ... well, Dodge City. To casino opponents, gambling will bring in crime and lead to the break up of families.

On spending even a short time in Dodge (as locals call it), you immediately can see its split personality.

On the one hand, it's a working class city with enormous feed lots, two of the largest beef packing houses in the world, and other industries related to turning cattle into steak and hamburger.

There's no scarcity of churches -- in fact, on the edge of town several large, new churches line Ross Boulevard.

There's also a large Hispanic population (12,000 out of the County's 32,000 people), important not just to the work force, but to keeping downtown alive.

On the other hand, there's a tourist element seeking to capitalize on not just Dodge's Wild West heritage, but on how that heritage was for many years portrayed in movies and on TV.

[I'm adding a separate post about some of Dodge City's fasincating history]

As innkeeper Kurt Scadden, an ardent "Vote Yes" (for casino gambling) supporter, told me, he's had visitors from as far as Japan visit Dodge because they've loved Gunsmoke.

Unfortunately, this movie and television connection is starting to fade, as Gunsmoke is no longer in reruns.

I spent time touring Dodge with Bob Wetmore, President & CEO of the Dodge City Area Chamber of Commerce. Not surprisingly, Bob is a backer of the casino measure. As he told me, "a lot of retail businesses and franchises are waiting in the wings" for the casino and convention center.

The Chamber -- through its 10 year old "Why Not Dodge?" campaign -- has had its eyes on getting a "multi-purpose events" center for the city. It's succeeded with other major items on its agenda -- such as building a baseball/softball complex and opening a new racing facility (I just missed the World of Outlaws event). But Bob feels that the casino will bring in the visitors needed to make the events center a reality.

For Bob, the reintroduction of gambling makes sense both economically and historically. "If this used to be the end of the trail, why can't we be 'Old West, New Excitement,' " Bob told me. The casino would also pour revenue directly into both Dodge City and Ford County's coffers (the vote must pass countywide).

Another potential plus from a casino would be new life for downtown. Right now, there's not too much happening downtown -- with the exception of the nicely restored Union Pacific Railroad Depot, which houses a dinner theater & other local theater performances.

[Bob Wetmore, left, and Dennis Veatch next to the restored Depot building]

The "historic" Boot Hill complex is, to be honest, a bit tacky. Unfortunately for Dodge, the 1970s era urban renewal wiped out the historic structures. The substitute just does not match having the real thing.

Dennis Veatch, the City's Development Services Director, told me about the city's downtown rennovation plan. Because of lack of funds, progress on turning things around has been halting, with a few bright spots (the Depot I mentioned, and the new Arts Center in the old Carnegie Library).

The biggest boost according to Bob would be from the casino locating close to downtown. He showed me a large potential site. But casino developers might favor a more outlying location. Right now, though, Bob is focusing on the Tuesday vote. Then he'll turn to the location issues.

The only visible signs you see all around Dodge are pro-casino ("Vote Yes"). And Bob feels confident, since surveys show support in the 60 percent range.

[Innkeeper Kurt Scadden with a Vote Yes yard sign]

Pastor Greg Savage of the First Southern Baptist Church of Dodge City is deeply troubled by the prospect of a casino. When I met with him he spelled out his concerns. At the top of his list is the affect it will have on families. He said that from 1 to 3 percent of casino visitors are gambling addicts. While that might seem like a low percentage, "if it's your family that's in this category, it can be devastating."

Pastor Savage also told me that the state casino legislation requires that 2 percent of all revenues from gaming be set aside to provide for addiciton treatment. "This is clear evidence that the State recognizes that serious addiciton problems will result from gambling."

But even Pastor Savage seems resigned to the voters approving the casino. And he acknowledges that the casino will bring new jobs to Dodge. I asked him what he'll do if the vote passes. He told me he wouldn't fight it any further, but would immediately sign up for training in how to deal with families affected by having a member addicted to gambling.

[photo right of Pastor Greg Savage in front of his Dodge City home]

note: I'll update this post after Tuesday's vote. Also, the Kansas casino legislation has the state's Lottery Commission responsible for selecting the casino developer in each of the four counties where voters can choose to authorize gambling. There's a substantial state oversight role. For some background, see Governor Sebelius' press release on the gaming legislation and the full text of the Bill that passed & was signed into law (a pdf file).

UPDATE: The casino measure passed by a vote of 3209 to 1816, as reported in the Dodge City Globe.

Rebuilding Greensburg

Dave Yearout held the holy grail -- for planners at least. The only undamaged, extant copy of the Greensburg, Kansas, Comprehensive Plan. That's because Dave, a planning consultant with Baughman Company in Wichita, had worked on the Comp Plan several years back. He bundled it with him as he headed back to Greensburg shortly after the devastating May 4th twister that demolished most of the town.

Dave's new assignment: to work with the Greensburg Planning Commission and City Council to help get the town back on track, by coordinating a slew of planning and zoning issues facing the community as it starts to rebuild.

But before I continue with the post I do need to note that despite what I'd seen on the national news, actually being in Greensburg and seeing the devastation was a shock.

[you can click on the photos for a larger size view; you can also download and run a 360 degree panorama of a part of Main Street]

I was so distracted & disoriented that I couldn't keep Dave's directions to "City Hall" straight. I wandered through several of the score of trailers parked around the Court House (one of the few structures still standing) before I happened on the City Hall trailer.

On entering City Hall, your eyes are quickly drawn to the oversized aerial photos posted on the walls. Dave's also set up a digitized data base that can quickly pull up details on individual parcels -- even though the only evidence on the ground of many of them is the outline of the foundation or a number on the curb.

Within a couple of minutes of meeting Dave, Mayor John Janssen stopped by, as did Chuck Banks, who runs the Kansas office of the USDA Rural Development program. City Hall has become one of the operational hubs of the recovery effort.

One of the issues Dave touched on is the fact that many of the older residents of Greensburg were woefully underinsured. Few residents recognized the importance of insuring for replacement cost. State and federal officials are figuring out ways of providing grants and low-interest loans to deal with this.

[photo on left: Dave demonstrating digitized property records to Chuck Banks]

A challenging problem -- in fact, the focus of the City Council's afternoon meeting under a big tent in front of the Court House -- was whether to extend a moratorium on the issuance of building permits in the 16 block central section of Greensburg (an east-west corridor along U.S. Highway 56). With the town essentially wiped out, the City Council obtained a commitment from the Kansas Dept. of Transportation to cancel a bypass highway planned to run south of downtown, and instead do major arterial improvements through the center of town.

[photo of several members of the Greensburg City Council; Mayor Janssen is second from left]

But area property owners are chomping at the bit to start rebuilding -- or at least know how they'll be affected by K-DOT's revised plans.

K-DOT says it is moving at lightning speed on the revised routing -- compared to normal procedures -- but residents and some of the city councilors are pushing the agency to move even faster.

One thing that has helped, according to Dave, is the Governor's involvement -- through a full-time aide in Greensburg -- in resolving inter-agency disputes and keeping things moving. Governor Kathleen Sebelius also sponsored a major community-wide visioning process to be finished by the end of the month. This will provide valuable citizen input when work begins on a new comprehensive plan.

On the planning front, the Council made a quick ordinance change to reduce the planning commission's size to a more manageable number, five. Permit requests are starting to pick up, and the planning commission's first hearing on a rezoning will be this coming week. A number of building officials from other communities in Kansas (and beyond) are volunteering their time to help out.

To this point, most Greensburg residents have been living temporarily in nearby communities. But some 391 FEMA trailers should be available at one end of town within a few weeks. Plans are to have a temporary school house ready by the start of the school year in mid-August.

It was truly an amazing scene in Greensburg. Blocks of total devastation. But City Hall in action, and trailers full of support people from just about every agency. And thousands of volunteers, from high school students to surveyors to building officials have given their time to make sure Greensburg not only stays on the map* -- but re-emerges stronger than before.

But the City will be phasing out reliance on volunteers soon. It needs full-time staff; and will get federal and state assistance in funding this. Hopefully, there will be building code officials & planners willing to come out to rural Western Kansas for a year or more to take on this task.

*according to yesterday's online edition of The Pratt Tribune (a city near Greensburg), "6,739 registered volunteers have contributed 114,410 hours to date. Workers have hauled 293,380 cubic yards of debris requiring 31,454 truck loads. The debris removal process is approximately 83.8 percent complete."

p.s., thanks to attorney Dwight Merriam for putting me in touch with Dave Yearout.

Behind the Curtains

One thing that's struck me during this trip along Route 50 is that we hide our cities and towns behind unattractive curtains -- the assortment of commercial strips, factories, and hodge podge of uses that serve as the entry ways into our communities.

As with many places, that's the case in Emporia, Kansas.

But once you get behind the curtains, you'll find a thriving and attractive small city. Emporia's population is just 26,500 -- but it boasts:

-- a zoo (I'm told that Emporia's the smallest city in the U.S. with an accredited zoo);
-- delightful parks and ballfields;
-- a strong regional medical center;
-- a state college campus;
-- neighborhood housing for all income ranges; and
-- several well-designed industrial parks bringing in jobs and commerce.   

I'm setting out a few photos to give you a bit of a feel for Emporia -- I had to include a railroad shot since the BNSF main line is a constant presence in the city, running as many 90 trains a day through the center of town. My thanks to City Engineer Keith Beatty for taking the time to drive me up and down Emporia. As Keith put it, "Emporia's a very unique small city. Many people don't quite realize what they've got here."

Emporia also has a downtown main street that's more than holding its own. Commercial Street stretches 12 blocks through the heart of the city. It runs from the Emporia College campus on the north end (see photo above left) to past the BNSF railroad tracks on the south. While there are surely a number of buildings on Commercial Street that could use some work, and a few gaps in the streetscape, there are many more attractive buildings in active use.

I'm setting out part of a panoramic photo I took at the corner of Commercial Street & 8th Avenue -- click on this link to run the full 360 degree panorama. You'll see on the corners Pupusa Plus; a karate/dance/gymnastics studio; the First Presbyterian Church; and the historic Granada Theater.

I met with Vickie Hayes-Walworth, who served for the past five years as Executive Director of the Granada. The Granada first opened on October 3, 1929. A movie palace of the first order, it had seating for 1,400, and was one of three theaters in town.

Badly damaged in a 1952 fire, the theater reopened with minor repairs until closing down in 1982. This left a major gap on Commercial Street -- and for the community.

[photo of Vicki with Dr. Duane Henrikson who has helped lead the citizen-based effort to restore the Granada].

For the past ten years, the citizens of Emporia have been working to restore and reopen the theater.

Bones Ownbey, who has been on site surpervising the rehab work since last August, gave us a tour of the building. It's a remarkable place, requiring an enormous amount of work to restore it to its original condition. Much of the work comes from volunteers, including some who have put in countless hours recreating the plaster casts that adorned the theater niches & its proscenium.

As Bones recounted, "the decorative plaster really caught me, I've never seen anything ornate like this." And he should know, given the extensive experience he's had with all kinds of restoration projects.

Bones also pointed out the 500 seats he recently acquired for the balcony seating. He then told me that in the balcony in the old days, one section was for Mexicans only, another for blacks. He's promised a Hispanic couple from town who remember those times that they'll have front row seats on opening day for the new Granada.

The community has been generous in its financial support. A $2.8 million capital campaign was successful. No city money has been involved (though the city has helped by installing the main water line, and waiving the building permit fee).

As Vicki explained, however, no one expected the work to take as long as it has. But dealing with many voluntary, in-kind contributions -- such as for the plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning work -- has slowed the process. Yet those contributions have been essential given the costs that would otherwise be involved.

[photo: Bones Ownbey (right) and his crew]

When the theater reopens, it will provide a magnificent setting for a variety of community functions, from theater, to movies, to wedding receptions.

p.s. one other city-sponsored project that has helped downtown businesses is what Kevin Hanlin, the city's zoning adminstrator called an on-site code team. Basically, a team made up of the city engineer, a building codes supervisor, a representative from the fire department, and one volunteer local architect will meet -- on a voluntary basis -- with anyone thinking of opening a business. This has been quite helpful in identifying potential issues with the building before any investment is made. As Kevin explained, "people benefit from knowing what's going to be required up front."