Tooling east along Seventh Avenue around noon today — between Georgia and Adams streets — a blocks-long Amarillo eyesore caught my attention.

It was the sight of the sidewalks along both sides of the street. They are in terrible shape.

Few intersections had “curb cuts” designed for wheelchair access. Long stretches of sidewalk are uneven, broken up, weed-infested.

As I approached the downtown district en route to making a right turn on Taylor Street, I noticed that the sidewalks didn’t improve the closer I got to Adams. They looked as shabby at Adams as they did farther west.

What does all this mean? Only that the city’s downtown refurbishing plan needs some work on the outskirts, those areas one sees when approaching downtown.

Most of that refurbishing needs to get started. I’ll concede as well that many areas in the heart of the downtown district are looking a lot better now than they were when we arrived here in early 1995. The Potter County Courthouse Square is beautiful. Polk Street is looking more spruced up. It’s encouraging to see after-hours activity downtown, although some of it admittedly results in some bad behavior at times.

I’m wondering today, though, when the city “parents” are going to start paying attention to at least one significant street coming into the downtown district.

I’ll be waiting — and watching — for some activity.