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DEL.ICIO.USIs Duluth in danger of overbuilding?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Jais AAA Duluth,” one of the readers of my blog, recently asked a good topic question: Is Duluth still overdeveloping?
I would suggest that Duluth, specifically downtown, has never really established a good foundation on which to develop in the first place.
I was recently discussing this with some folks at a restaurant in downtown Norcross. We were remarking about how well the revitalization of Norcross had worked. Norcross has an old-timey feel. It is easy to park, stroll around the city, window shop, enjoy the parks and the local theater, and dine.
Duluth has tried to do the same thing. They have a nice green area/park; have residential and commercial interests, restaurants. They have most of the components requisite to establishing an old-timey feel.
Where Duluth differs from Norcross, in my opinion, is accessibility. The city of Norcross has traffic outlets on either side of the city through which traffic can pass without disrupting pedestrian flow.
Duluth is badly congested. The main traffic artery passes right through downtown. There is no way to bypass the pedestrian area. The traffic stops at Main Street/Hill Street/Lawrenceville Street?
Abysmal. Put a train into the mix, and rush-hour or lunch traffic, and you’ve got a situation that — well, it doesn’t invite people to want to see what the city has to offer. The Soda Shop and the Main Street Coffee Shop both closed. They were not getting enough business. Both were nice places, and provided good services and quality customer care. The problem was that no one went there.
In my opinion, it is not enough to have these nice places available to people. You must have a way to allow those people to get to them. Parking must be available and accessible, not hidden and restricted by traffic flow. I should not have to spend 20 minutes to drive the 3 miles from my house to downtown Duluth, because traffic is so difficult to navigate.
This is Gwinnett’s problem in general. It is not enough to say, “If you build it, they will come.” You also have to say, “Build a way to get there.” You can, as Wayne Hill once proclaimed, develop “until it’s full.” However, if a city restricts the flow of people to the vital organs of the city by prohibiting accessibility, new development will simply wither and die.
So, while the new City Hall is nice, it does not solve the problem. While the new administration complex is nice, it does not solve the problem. While the new police cars and enforcement devices are nice, they do not solve the problem. Duluth does not need to fight about Wal-Mart. It does not need to worry about new stores, new office space and new residential space.
Duluth city planners need to make it easier for people to access what the city has to offer. Until that is done, I think there will just be a bunch of expensive - but empty - buildings.
What do you think?
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