Print edition: 
An urban landscape with more of everything, starting with people. Places to live, work and gather alongside the great Arkansas River, as well as ways to access it. The gaps filled in with more bars, restaurants, stores, hotels and parks. Districts that are walkable but also linked by bus transit.
In short, a downtown worthy of the community’s time, attention, investment and pride.
Thanks to the unveiling last week of the draft downtown master plan by Boston-based consulting firm Goody Clancy, Wichita now has an idea of what might be found in a reimagined downtown.
As the finished plan takes shape between now and September, with the help of neighborhood community outreach meetings July 7-21, the downtown debate will span not only “what” but also “how” and “why.”
So how can Wichita transform its core?
With powerful civic leadership, starting at City Hall but, more crucially, extending to a unified, determined, engaged, invested business community. Business and industry leaders must view downtown redevelopment not as a nicety but as vital to their companies’ success and their community’s future, which it is.
Goody Clancy’s team has suggested strategies for creating unique downtown places, expanding transportation choice and enabling development. Among the important ideas:
—Set clear criteria for the use of public-private development incentives, and ensure that public dollars pay for items of public benefit.
—Designate a “go-to center” for aspiring development, with information on downtown market opportunities and available incentives.
—Invite development proposals on strategic sites.
—Recruit and cultivate pioneer tenants, prioritize target locations and types of retail, and map storefront space available.
—Reinforce downtown as a hub for arts, culture, sports and education.
—Make Douglas a “continuous promenade with interpretive signage/displays on Wichita.”
—Make walking safe, easy and enjoyable with more visible crosswalks, better signage and more public art.
We would add that, going forward, every development decision in the community should take into account whether it serves or undermines the downtown plan.
And why does Wichita need to transform its core?
First of all, because it can.
The Eagle’s June 6-9 series on four other cities’ revived downtowns demonstrated that. Wichita already is further along than it realizes, what with the new Intrust Bank Arena, Old Town, the Museums on the River, and the work toward updating Century II and building a new central library. It has lacked only a plan and the shared commitment and multiple partnerships necessary to realize that plan.
Secondly — and more important — a dead downtown is bad for business all over town, making it harder to attract companies and employees and to motivate the community’s most gifted young people to stay.
Boarded-up storefronts and deserted sidewalks do not say, “Welcome to a community that cares about its identity, quality of life and future.” They make people and businesses say, “Let’s get out of here.”
The downtown master plan can work. With the right leadership, it will work.
