Let's Go Downtown!

Author: Richard Bolhouse
Date: 06/22/2010

It was Petula Clark who once sang that people could forget all their troubles and forget all their cares by going downtown. The implication certainly is that downtown is an exciting, fun place to be, and certainly worth going to.
Twenty-five years ago, most downtowns were not exciting places to go. Urban sprawl and shopping malls had left many downtowns boarded up and deserted. Many experts believe that the demise of the downtown is related to the 1950s and 1960s when the car was king, roads were made larger and faster, and concerns for people and pedestrians went by the wayside.
Fortunately, many downtowns have made dramatic comebacks. This has been done by taking high speed, multi-lane roads out, returning downtowns to a pedestrian scale, and making downtowns walkable. Successful downtowns that have made this transition and are once again thriving have these attributes in common: reduced road size, return to on-street parking, pedestrian-friendly sidewalks, planting of trees, and other steps that have made the downtown physically and aesthetically pleasing. Most of us certainly can think of a revitalized downtown area where we now enjoy visiting, hopefully forgetting all our troubles and forgetting all our cares.
Our law offices are located at the primary intersection in downtown Grandville. Grandville has yet to embrace the planning, strategies and construction that have revitalized many downtowns throughout the country. Hopefully, that will be changing as the Grandville Downtown Development Authority and the Grandville City Council work toward making Grandville a place where its citizens will once again take pride in the downtown area and enjoy spending time there. I certainly hope that our clients and readers will support the downtown streetscape project and would encourage you to contact me at rickb@bolhouselaw.com if you have any questions concerning it.