I am “In the Mood” to say something good about downtown Amarillo’s progress toward a more modern, energetic future.
My wife and I just watched a grand musical production featuring the kind of big-band music that both of our fathers would have relished. It was called “In the Mood” and it featured a troupe of dancers, singers, a “big band” — imagine that — and some patriotic tributes to veterans and active-duty military personnel.
I won’t bore you with a critique of the show, as I am not an entertainment critic.
I do, though, want to extol yet again what I see is some serious progress in downtown’s extreme makeover.
It’s happening, man.
The musical took place at the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts, which is clearly the finest entertainment venue in Amarillo. The sound in the hall is pitch perfect. There ain’t a bad seat in the house.
The performing arts center, too, is just one element of the growing and changing face of downtown. That Embassy SuitesĀ is looking like an actual hotel; the parking garage next to it has risen out of the pavement and dirt. Many of the rest of us are awaiting construction of that ballpark, which I hope begins soon, although I am not yet holding my breath.
A friend of mine who also happens to work for the Convention and Visitors Council informed me a couple of weeks ago that the Embassy Suites is doing precisely what it is intended to do: lure convention business to Amarillo that the city had been missing because it lacked adequate convention lodging downtown. He said the city has booked conventions at the Civic Center through 2022.
I haven’t even mentioned — until this very moment — all the other construction that’s underway with new businesses sprouting up on abandoned blocks throughout the downtown area.
Business is brisk in our downtown district.
OK, so tonight’s gig at the Globe-News Center was just one event. We’ve had other one-night stands at that venue as well as at the Civic Center Auditorium and the Cal Farley Coliseum across the street.
We left the event tonight and then drove home believing that the city’s future seems a good bit brighter than it was just a little while ago.
It’s certainly shining like a blinding light compared to what we saw when we arrivedĀ on the High Plains more thanĀ 22 years ago.