Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009

A chance to remake downtown

Garner is in a position to develop in one of the most significant ways imaginable. The change cannot, and should not, happen quickly, but for now, there is one immediate and necessary step. We must buy into something we cannot see. We must dream.

Life here is good. We have so much to be proud of. Now town leaders and consultants are working out a plan that could provide Garner with just about the only thing it lacks - a center, a core for activity in the downtown. But that is only one purpose. The development can be seen as a process to restore downtown's rightful status as the heart and soul of Garner, a return to its true identity, which was obscured over time as a new highway, U.S. 70, split the town in the name of progress

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A hundred years ago, little Downtown Garner sprang up as the center of community life when cotton was king and the capital city was a wagon ride away. Garner was not a suburb; it was a place all its own, an important destination for rural folks doing business and home to the townspeople who built those businesses.

Garner's evolution is easy to observe on the ground. We have been glad for the growth in retail and other commercial sectors. Our forefathers hardly could have imagined it.

Less obvious, though, are the roots that connect many of us to our rural past, the memory in our fiber and sinew of a simpler time in a place where friends and neighbors met; or in our core, a yearning for at least part of what we hope to find in Garner, whatever is left of small-town values and traditions.

A thousand things have happened in the life of this little town to make this the right idea and the right time to follow through with downtown Garner development.

There are almost as many studies on the shelf as there are lampposts on Main Street. Now, though, we have so many examples all around us of how doable a town center is. Look at Clayton, Holly Springs and Fuquay-Varina, three neighbors who have succeeded in capturing a part of the past as they progress. It clearly can be done.

And now we have to dream, to envision what we could get back if we want it badly enough. The previous downtown plans weren't flawed so much as our own vision was, our inability to believe in something we couldn't see or to recognize what we needed to be a better town.

We will have to have faith in elected officials and the partnerships they form. To me, it takes good common sense to see why this latest plan should be pursued, but I realize others with common sense might take an opposite view.

I also think the recent school board election holds a valuable lesson for downtown advocates and for residents in general. In that race, fewer than 12 percent of eligible voters made a decision that could have a profound impact on the whole region. Now the possibility exists in Garner that naysayers could rally in much the same way against downtown. I'm not sure what their arguments would be. I think they would be in the minority, but that might not matter.

This time, the squeaky wheels need to be the dreamers, the ones with vision. Everybody who lives here has a stake in this issue. We should all stay informed, push toward a common vision and overcome obstacles as they arise.

Redesign of aging towns in suburban areas might be the purview of firms with interesting names and well educated, highly trained, experienced and successful men and women.

But nothing they do will matter if we cannot dream it and then follow through.