Tag Archives: downtown Amarillo

local news

Downtown revival far from total

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I have made no secret of my enthusiastic support for the steps Amarillo has taken toward the revival of the city’s downtown business district.

It’s been dramatic and at some level actually breathtaking. The construction activity along Buchanan is a sight to behold. The Potter County Courthouse restoration is a thing of beauty. Polk Street looks healthier than it has in the past 20 years.

I am awaiting the groundbreaking of the downtown ballpark, which I hope occurs sometime this year — and that we’ll get some high-quality minor-league baseball in the shiny new venue.

Downtown’s revival, though, isn’t as comprehensive as perhaps it ought to be.

If you venture just a bit west along Sixth Avenue and north along Harrison, Tyler or Van Buren streets, you see signs of lingering urban blight.

Yes, we have that crappy-looking Barfield Building at the corner of Sixth and Polk. And the Herring Hotel building, which was supposed to have been sold to a deep-pocketed investor with big plans to bring it back to life? Well, that project has suffered another setback.

I am aware that the downtown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone has boundaries. The TIRZ area sets aside property value increases to develop downtown projects. A good bit of the area just outside those boundaries seems to cry out for attention.

Weeds are sprouting along sidewalks. Parcels of land have gone unattended.

It looks bad, boys and girls.

While I will continue to cheer on any and all efforts to revive downtown, which is essential to the city’s future growth — indeed, its very future — my hope is that attention can be focused on those areas just beyond the blocks that are getting all this tender loving care.

I will keep the faith that the city will spread its TLC to blocks in dire need of it.

business news, local news

City’s landscape taking on new look

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I attended a luncheon meeting today atop the Chase Tower in downtown Amarillo.

The office building looms 31 floors above the ground and from the top floor you can get a tremendous look across many miles of the sprawling Texas Panhandle landscape.

I chose to look down, though.

Peering east from the top of the tower I was struck once again by the vast change that’s occurring across the street from the Civic Center and City Hall.

The Embassy Suites hotel superstructure has been topped out next to the performing arts center. Next door is that parking garage that’s going to provide parking for several hundred vehicles along with some retail space on the ground floor.

My amazement continues to be at the sight of all that heavy construction downtown, the cranes towering over the sites.

We’ve lived here for more than two decades. During almost our entire time as residents of Amarillo, my wife and I have seen nothing approaching the level of activity that’s proceeding at this moment.

For too long the city appeared indifferent to the vitality and economic health of its central business district. Does that make as little sense to others as it does to me, that the city wouldn’t want to develop a clearly defined strategy to improve its downtown district?

Amarillo did that a few years ago when it ratified its Strategic Action Plan.

I am gratified to see the progress that is underway downtown.

I’ll reiterate that the progress looks pretty impressive when you can look at it from the top of downtown Amarillo’s tallest structure.

local news, political news

So long, Dr. Eades, and thank you for your service

eades

Brian Eades is about to call it a public service career in Amarillo.

I wish he wasn’t leaving, but a man’s got to do what’s best for himself and his family.

The best thing for the City Council member is to pull up stakes and replant them in western Colorado, where he’ll open a medical practice.

He served nine years on the City Council and was on the front row of some fascinating and invigorating debate. He served the community with great distinction.

Lisa Blake is going to take the seat that Eades will vacate and I hope — for the sake of the city — that she continues the level of service that Eades provided.

Eades represents — for lack of a better term — the “old guard” on the council. He managed to win re-election in May 2015 while two of his colleagues got booted out by challengers. It likely was a combination of the quality of the challenge he faced and the fact that voters weren’t as outwardly angry with him as they seemed to be with the incumbents who lost their re-election bids.

You can shout all you want about the level of anger that had been expressed at City Hall, but here are a few things to note.

I’ll start by noting that Eades helped make policy decisions affecting these elements.

— The city has continued its steady and robust population and business growth.

— Downtown redevelopment efforts take several key steps forward. It created an agency devoted exclusively to downtown redevelopment. It crafted a Strategic Action Plan to implement certain steps.

— The city has gone on a water-rights purchasing spree, buttressing its water reserves that now will last for the next century or two.

— Amarillo debated whether to enact indoor smoking bans. Two referendums failed narrowly, but the word has gone out to businesses: Don’t allow smoking in your establishments, as it is hazardous to people’s health.

— The city has deployed red-light cameras at intersections in an effort to deter lawbreakers from running through stop lights and posing hazards to other motorists and to pedestrians.

Eades had a hand in all of that.

I join others in wishing him well as he trudges off to rural western Colorado where, I presume, he’s going to deliver more babies into the world.

He served the city well.

Thank you, doc.

business news, local news

Downtown Amarillo opens another venture

Fresh Vegetables at market

Amarillo’s downtown district is undergoing significant change, perhaps even more dramatic change than we’ve witnessed at City Hall during the past year or so.

Amarillo Community Market opened today.

It brings together artisans and food producers to sell produce and assorted goods to customers who wander downtown to browse and buy. Check out the link right here:

http://mix941kmxj.com/the-amarillo-community-market-opens-on-july-9th/

Will this concept succeed? Will it flourish? Will it become part of downtown’s fabric?

No one knows.

However, it does remind me of the kinds of urban projects that have succeeded over many years. I like to use my hometown of Portland, Ore., as an example where a touch of innovation can take root and grow into something quite grand.

Portland’s Saturday Market began more than 40 years ago at the west end of one of the many bridges that span the Willamette River. It was little more than a small flea market — or a glorified yard sale.

Today? It’s huge, man. It has become part of Portland’s urban culture.

I’m not a futurist. I cannot predict what’ll happen in the next day, let alone in the next year, or next decade.

But the signs of change in Amarillo’s thinking about its downtown district give me hope that there might be a place for a Community Market to grow into something significant for the city.

Hey, come to think of it … aren’t we still planning to build that multipurpose event venue downtown?

Gosh, the MPEV well might serve as the perfect venue for this Community Market once it’s complete.

Don’t you think?

local news

AMM has gone MIA

AMM

The thought occurred to me a bit earlier today.

Do you remember the Amarillo Millennial Movement? It was formed sometime this past year to speak for those young Amarillo residents who sought to create a more livable environment and to promote downtown revival as a reason to retain younger residents.

It had a young, energetic spokeswoman whose energy earned her special recognition by the Amarillo Globe-News as a “Headliner” winner for the year. Her efforts on behalf of the multipurpose event venue planned for downtown and the success of the citywide referendum that decided the fate of the MPEV won her lots of pats on the back and high-fives.

Meghan Riddlespurger, though, has moved on. She’s now living in Fort Worth. I trust — and hope — she’s doing well in Cowtown.

But this “movement” …

What’s become of it?

I admit I don’t get out as much as I did back when I was working full-time for a living. My media job required me to keep ears and eyes open. Now that I’m transitioning — albeit quite slowly — into full-time retirement mode my ears and eyes aren’t as wide open as they used to be.

AMM was a great idea. Its young energizer spoke eloquently for those things in which she believed. Riddlespurger managed to anger some of her then-fellow Amarillo residents. However, most folks with a lot on their minds and who are unafraid to speak on behalf of their own ideas do tend to tick others off. So, I don’t hold that against the young woman.

I’m curious about the status of this so-called “movement” she founded.

Aren’t there others who can pick up the banner? If so, they’ve been verrrry, verrrry quiet.

I don’t believe the need to keep young Amarillo residents involved and engaged in the city’s future has lessened any over the past year.

Or has it?

https://highplainsblogger.com/2016/04/movement-founder-makes-her-exit/

 

local news

Time flies at Amarillo City Hall

city council

Where does the time go?

A year has passed since the Amarillo municipal election occurred that seated three new City Council members.

It’s worth noting this month as the first anniversary, given that the final new guy — Mark Nair — had to win his seat in a runoff that occurred more than a month after the initial balloting.

I’ve tried to give the city the benefit of the doubt as the new folks have settled in.

I am left, though, to give them a mixed rating — at best.

I’ll stipulate up front that I am acquainted with just two of the new councilmen — Elisha Demerson, who I have known from a distance for many years, and Nair, who I only met recently and with whom I had an informative and cordial conversation. I have not yet met Randy Burkett, although I’ve been quite aware of his presence on the council.

What continues to trouble me is the discord that seems to have infected the council. There once was a time when the council sang in nearly perfect harmony on the big issues.

Granted, it wasn’t always pitch-perfect. The late Jim Simms was known to be a contrarian on occasion, as was the late Dianne Bosch in the late 1990s. They would make their objections known and then would back whatever decision the majority of their colleagues made.

That doesn’t seem to be the case these days.

The new guys took office and immediately began damning the performance of then-City Manager Jarrett Atkinson. One of them called for the termination of the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation board. Then came a temporary truce.

The truce came undone when Atkinson resigned. The council brought in Terry Childers to serve as interim city manager.

AEDC executive director Buzz David quit, as did City Attorney Marcus Norris. Assistant City Manager Vicki Covey retired. Other senior staffers bailed.

The council seated new members on the Local Government Corporation. One of the founders of the LGC, Richard Brown, walked away, taking with him a trove of experience at business development and promotion.

The director of Downtown Amarillo Inc., Melissa Dailey, also walked away from a job that had produced some stunning progress in the evolution of the downtown district.

What’s left? Who’s running the show?

Terry Childers will be gone eventually. He might get to hire a new police chief to replace Robert Taylor, who is retiring in just a few days.

Meantime, the City Council must choose a new council member to replace Dr. Brian Eades, who’s leaving town to set up a medical practice in rural Colorado. That selection process has been something of a cluster hump, too, with the council deciding how to handle some pithy and crass social media posts delivered by one of the finalists for the council appointment; there appears to be disagreement among them over the significance of those comments and whether they should be considered as the council ponders this decision.

Yes, we’ve seen considerable progress in the city.

Construction is proceeding on the Embassy Suites Hotel and the parking garage. Xcel Energy’s new office complex is well underway. The council has instructed the LGC to negotiate a deal to lure a Class Double A baseball franchise to Amarillo, where it will play ball in the ballpark to be built across the street from City Hall.

The fate of the MPEV, though, might be in doubt if the council cannot learn to at leat pretend it is working together.

Not long ago, Mayor Paul Harpole stormed out of an executive session to protest what he said was a lack of “trust in the process” of selecting a new council member. Although I generally support the mayor on most policy matters, I am dismayed at the public pique he exhibited — and the message it might send beyond the city’s borders.

The three new council members vowed to bring “change” to City Hall. They brought it all right.

I won’t give up on them just yet.

However, my own patience is wearing a bit thin.

Let’s step it up, shall we?

business news, local news

Step by step, downtown moving ahead

I am likely to get the sequence slightly mixed up, but I’m trying to assemble the series of positive steps that have been taken in downtown Amarillo.

— The city commissions a study to assemble a Strategic Action Plan

— It conducts a series of public hearings.

— The City Council approves the plan and then approves creation of agencies dedicated to crafting a strategies to bring the district back to life.

— Debate ensues and it becomes quite, um, lively about the direction the city is taking.

— Three new council members join the governing body after a contentious municipal election campaign.

— The Local Government Corporation agrees to proceed with plans to build a multipurpose event venue, according to the wishes of voters who endorsed the concept in a citywide referendum.

— Construction begins on a convention hotel and a parking garage.

— Now comes the latest bit of good news, which was announced today at noon: plans for new restaurants that will go into the Woolworth Building on South Polk Street.

I’ve likely missed a few points along the way.

But I do sense continuing momentum in the effort to reshape, reconfigure, rehabilitate, revive and restore the city’s downtown business district.

Let’s face the blunt truth here. Downtown has been a moribund place for a good while. My own personal observation of the district, dating back to early 1995 when I first arrived in Amarillo, tells me that downtown is in far better shape than it was when my wife and I arrived here.

I get that there are many more hills to climb. The city must find a new council member to succeed Brian Eades, who’s planning to resign from the council this summer. That selection process has hit a few bumps along the way.

The city is negotiating with a baseball franchise to relocate its operation to Amarillo, where it will play ball at a planned baseball park to be built at the site of the now-vacant Coca-Cola distribution center.

But we’ve heard about convention business already being booked because of the convention hotel’s pending arrival on the scene. City and civic leaders have told us for years about all the convention business the city has lost because of a lack of appropriate nearby lodging for conventioneers.

Is all this activity connected? Is it related to the city’s efforts to resuscitate its downtown district?

It looks that way to me.

To be honest, I am puzzled by the chronic gripers who keep saying all this is somehow bad for Amarillo.

business news, local news

Downtown Amarillo is getting even more life

This news hit me hard — in a good way.

The old Woolworth Building in downtown Amarillo is now slated for a seriously cool revival.

It’s a historic structure at 626 South Polk Street. It’s going to be home to two new restaurants. One of them will occupy the entire second floor of the old structure.

http://www.panhandlepbs.org/blogs/biz-here/woolworth-downtown-to-get-2-restaurants/

Center City made the announcement at its weekly High Noon on the Square event on the lawn in front of the Potter County Courthouse.

This is good news on a couple of levels.

The first one is quite obvious, given that local investors are willing to put up the money to develop the building for two new businesses into the downtown district that’s already undergoing a major facelift just a few blocks from the Woolworth site.

The Embassy Suites hotel is rising above Buchanan Street across from the Civic Center. Xcel Energy’s building has been growing as well about a block south. Between those construction sites we’re going to witness the construction of a parking garage.

As near as I can tell — and from what I’ve heard who have lived in Amarillo a lot longer than I have — it’s been a very long time since we’ve seen this kind of heavy construction downtown.

Many of us, though, are holding out hope that the main event will commence with construction of the multipurpose event venue across the street from City Hall.

I happen to be one of those who remains cautiously optimistic that the MPEV/ballpark will join the city’s roster of new attractions.

Over at the Woolworth building, we’ll see a pizza joint on the first floor and a steak-and-seafood eatery on the second floor.

How can one look askance at increasing jobs and business activity downtown?

Now for the second element of this story.

It’s going to preserve a beautiful building. It opened as a dime store in 1947, becoming a place where residents would congregate downtown. It harkens back to a lively era in the city’s downtown district.

So, nearly 70 years later — and many years after the building came to life the first time — it’s getting new life.

And the city is taking another big step forward in its evolution.

local news

City Council schism widens again

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Amarillo City Council members cannot seem to get past the divisions with their ranks.

Three new guys got elected a year ago promising “change” in the way the city does business. They want more “transparency,” more “openness,” more “accountability.”

Good deal. We’re all for it.

The schism seem to narrow a bit when the council agreed unanimously on some steps to move the downtown revival strategy forward.

Then a vacancy developed at Place 2. Brian Eades wants to move to Colorado to set up a medical practice. He intends to resign his council seat effective later this summer.

Now comes yet another controversy to sweep in over the rest of the council.

One of the applicants for Eades’ seat, Sandra McCartt, has posted some rather blunt and unflattering commentary on Facebook.

The divide between the three new guys and the two “old-timers” has widened once again.

The three newbies — Randy Burkett, Elisha Demerson and Mark Nair — believe McCartt’s comments do not disqualify her. The other two, Eades and Mayor Paul Harpole, believe they do.

Harpole walked out of a closed council meeting Tuesday, saying he didn’t “trust the process.”

http://www.newschannel10.com/story/32170046/online-comments-from-amarillo-city-council-applicant-cause-tension

Suppose the council had instituted a vetting protocol that would have discovered these social media posts earlier in the process. Would they have been able to make a determination on the five finalists? Perhaps. Then again, they might have argued vehemently among themselves as they began culling the list of applicants from 14 to the five finalists.

It’s a new day at Amarillo City Hall, all right.

The “change” that city voters sought is looking once again to be something quite different from the “change” they got.

Pass the peanuts and the popcorn.

entertainment news, local news

MPEV uses cover a multitude of events

ballpark

Center City of Amarillo sent out an e-mail overnight reminding residents of what’s about to transpire downtown.

The first of a series of community events will commence around noon today at the Potter County Courthouse grounds. They call it High Noon on the Square.

I’ve been to a few of them over the years. They play music, serve catered lunches. It’s a good way to catch up with folks and enjoy the great out of doors.

Then it dawned on me — again! We’ve got this multipurpose event venue looming down the road. You’ve heard about it. It’s morphed into “the ballpark” that eventually — officials hope — will become the home field for an affiliated minor-league baseball team; the current favorite to take up residents in the ballpark is the San Antonio Missions, which will vacate the Alamo City eventually as the another team moves in.

The MPEV, though, isn’t to be considered the exclusive domain of the baseball team.

High Noon on the Square could occur there. Center City no doubt will consider changing the name of the noontime event, given that it wouldn’t take place on “the square” if it moves to the MPEV.

Indeed, by definition the “MPEV” should be home to, um, “multiple events,” correct?

Those who have backed the concept have listed a variety of such events for the MPEV: concerts, church events, car shows, flea markets … all manner of events.

I surely get that not everyone is on board. I’m expecting to get my share of retorts from cynics/skeptics who think the MPEV is a waste of time and money. That’s their view … not mine.

There appears to be some progress being made. The Local Government Corporation has been given its mandate to come up with design plans for the project; the LGC is negotiating with that baseball club to get an agreement to move here.

Much work lies ahead.

I am still committed to supporting the MPEV concept and the possibilities for the myriad activities that can occur there.

Let’s get busy.