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Texas cities seek ways to revitalize at Texas Downtown Association Conference

Posted at 6:58 PM, Nov 07, 2018
and last updated 2018-11-08 17:51:32-05

Many Downtown Business Association members say authenticity is key to revitalization, and when you find out what makes your city stand out, that is when you have the opportunity to attract more people from all over to come back.

Robert Smith, president of the Downtown Business Association in Garland, says downtown areas can sometimes be neglected.

“It’s easy to forget that the heartbeat of your community is your downtown,” Smith said.

When it comes to revitalizing and developing a downtown area, association members know just how difficult that task can be.

Board members with the Texas Downtown Business Association say different cities have different methods.

“When we go about revitalizing our neighborhood we really want to say, okay Houston is a very big city, but it’s also a very diverse city,” Houston Historic Third Ward Community Chaplain John Eigege said. “But it’s not enough for us to do revitalization in the same way every different neighborhood were we are doing revitalization in is going to need to have a different texture and flavor.”

For many years, Corpus Christi officials made efforts to revitalize its downtown area.

Some efforts have been more successful than others. But association members say they see great opportunity in downtown Corpus Christi.

These members say there are many challenges to revitalizing a downtown area such as getting property owners on board with their vision to stakeholder funding.

The key, they say, is to persist and believe in your vision.