Main ingredients for downtown revitalization

By: J. David Chapman/May 6, 2021

I had the pleasure of being a guest “expert” on a call-in radio show on Tulsa’s 102.3 KRMG called Senior Class. The show is hosted by my longtime friend Rusty McMurry. Rusty and I used to co-host a TV show called Expert Talk on Cox out of Tulsa. Rusty is chairman of the board of a company called Sunshine Care Partners.

Rusty asked me to talk about downtown revitalization efforts, specifically in American suburban cities. It didn’t take much arm-twisting because suburban downtown revitalization is my favorite subject and reuniting with Rusty was awesome.

There are two main ingredients to a successful suburban downtown. The first is amenities. Whether those amenities are employment, libraries, bookstores, bars, coffee shops, or grocery stores, there has to be a legitimate reason for people to be there. Secondly, there must be a successful residential component with ample diversity of single-family and multifamily housing.

So, what does it take to get people committed to visit or even live in a suburban downtown? First, if you have a train, you must silence the horn. My experience has shown me that no business or homeowner wants to compete with those horns all day and night.

Next, you must have a regularly occurring public event that showcases downtown merchants, music, art and food. Once you get people coming back downtown, you must slow down the traffic to create a safe, walkable environment. Most downtowns have become thoroughfares and not destinations, and as such have literally become raceways to get to the other side. We have to make these areas comfortable for pedestrians. Reducing the speed limits is a start. However, other strategies will be needed such as “no-turn-on-red” policies and adjusting the cadence of the stoplights so they are not all green at the same time through town. Many downtowns have four lanes and should be reduced to three, or even two, lanes to further discourage speeding.

Land tends to be scarce in downtowns, limiting the growth. Cities should consider making underutilized public land available for private development. Sometimes requests for proposals suggesting private-public partnerships will reveal very creative, productive ideas for these assets.

This list is just a beginning; there are hundreds of approaches to downtown revitalization. The point is to leverage current assets in the public realm to create a vital suburban downtown.

J. David Chapman is an associate professor of finance and real estate at the University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu).