April 28, 2005

EDITORIAL

Ideas to improve downtown

Downtown Yellow Springs is a vital community asset, and after the village’s educational institutions, the center of life here. It is where people go to be seen, eat dinner, buy their groceries and other sundry goods. It is where they catch up with old friends and meet new ones. It is also a significant center of business.

If Yellow Springs is to remain a vibrant village, then downtown must remain a vibrant area. A facelift is not required, but anyone who attended the “Smart Growth for a Small Town” weekend conference in early April surely picked up a few ideas about making a great downtown even greater.

Here are a few suggestions, some of which were discussed at or inspired by the Smart Growth Weekend:

• Beautify downtown: an easy way to do this is to bring in more greenery. Merchants could fill flower boxes outside their shops or take responsibility for planting flowers at the bases of the trees on Xenia Avenue. Downtown could also look better with more upkeep, including cleaning sidewalks of litter and debris more often.

• Coordinate store hours: the shops downtown are as varied as their hours of operation. This may be a tough goal to achieve, but retail shops, for instance, could coordinate their hours to make it easier for customers to do their shopping. Businesses should also consider staying open late one night a week — suggestion: Thursdays till 9 — to attract Yellow Springers downtown.

• More benches: add more benches to both Xenia Avenue and Dayton Street, while getting rid of those tired-looking wooden benches found around the Senior Center.

• Revive the pocket park idea: a few years ago, the Village considered creating a pocket park between The Emporium building and the Senior Center, but the project became less of a priority because of budget concerns. The Chamber of Commerce and individual merchants could take responsibility to ensure the project is funded and the small park is maintained. The park could include a seating area, bicycle parking and greenery while serving as a gathering place off the sidewalk.

• Awnings: more awnings on buildings would provide shade from the sun and shelter from the rain and snow — and encourage people to come downtown or stay downtown when it rains.

• Spruce up Beatty Hughes Park: embrace this small park between Corry Street and Kieth’s Alley as part of downtown. By adding a walking path, the park could serve as another gateway into downtown from the bikepath and the Shirley/Jones Gallery. The Village, with help from the Chamber and merchants, could erect a gazebo or bandstand, where musicians and artists could perform on weekend nights during the summer, install picnic tables and do a better job of maintaining the park.

• A gathering place: downtown does not seem to have an obvious spot to create a traditional town square. While an intriguing idea, banning traffic from Short Street to create a dedicated gathering spot would eliminate too many parking spaces. The outdoor area at 100 Corry Street could serve as a natural gathering place, with the addition of more seating and shade.

A renewed and reorganized Chamber of Commerce could serve as the catalyst for embracing and bringing to life many of the ideas suggested for downtown at the Smart Growth Weekend and the March 26 Community Forum.

Improving downtown improves the community by enhancing the business climate, creating jobs, bringing money into Yellow Springs and strengthening downtown as a focal point of community life.

—Robert Mihalek