Dave's Blog

As Main Street Kent continues to work with downtown merchants and property owners to create a Main Street Renaissance, I happened upon a news article describing very similar work in downtown Columbia South Carolina. Admittedly the scale is different but the components that they're trying to use to renew their downtown, including a downtown presence for the University of South Carolina, arts, parking, unique shops, streetscaping and pedestrian connectivity all ring true to the Kent experience.

When it seems like all the news these days is bad news, I've decided to fight back by embracing my contrarian side. You say tomato I'll say tomoto. Despite the forecast for another 365 days of doom and gloom I'm sure that there's a sunny side of the street so I'm putting on my sun tan lotion and stepping out. I'm not trying to be a poly-anna but seriously what's the alternative here? We can run but we can't hide so I say we turn and fight. To heck with the economy. If it doesn't want to cooperate we don't need no stinking economy. From now on the economy can talk to the hand because the head ain't putting up with it anymore. One of the things I love about Kent is it's rebellious spirit and it seems to me we need that now more than ever. If the economy wants to push us around we're going to push it right back. Let's get ready to rumble.

There's no question that this less than stellar business cycle we're in has put a hurt on many parts of our economy but with the news media proclaiming nothing less than the economic version of the apocalpyse it's tough to get a handle on what is real and what is media induced hysteria. I am in no way trying to make light of some very serious troubles but if we're going to be part of the solution we've got to understand the problem clearly, and I'm having a hard time reading the tea leaves on this one. I've read that consumer confidence is down but consumer spending is up in some areas. Go figure. The Gap is hurting but Aeropastale is setting same store sales records. So is the whole economy sour or just some sectors and just some stores? This stuff matters because as the economy goes so goes the viability of our City government. Then throw in a community goal of revitalizing downtown Kent and the state of retail takes on an important local dimension.

I have a long list of things I don't like about snow but near the top is how it interrupted the City's leaf collection schedule this year. There are so many variables that go into staying on schedule for leaf collection that snow was the last thing we needed. So thanks to the early blanket of white stuff many leaf piles sat buried, frozen and abandoned over the last couple of weeks leaving homeowners to wonder if all their hard work to rake would ever be rewarded. Admittedly the original schedule is pretty much shot at this point but hopefully we're catching a break in the weather and I know the crews have been busy making runs through the neighborhoods to vacuum up what they can as fast as they can. So please be patient as help for those piles is on the way (assuming mother nature remains cooperative).

In any business being strategic is as much about choosing what not to do as it is choosing what to do. I find this especially true in local government where our mission tends to broader than a typical company. I often refer to our mission as a mile wide and an inch deep because we have such a wide range of public services. When I talk to my peers in the corporate sector I listen with envy as they talk about deciding to get out of this market or that production line because it wasn't profitable. Most of what we do isn't profitable but we can't choose what market to compete in or get out of. Instead we're asked to do the things that were not profitable in the first place but were too important to be left undone. Of course money still makes the City world go round and that means we have to keep focused, fight against mission creep, and make sure everything we do is aligned with the goals of the community.

Progess is sometimes measured in small steps and according to the latest update from Public Service Director Gene Roberts and his staff, it looks like we're about to take a baby step by opening the in-bound (or eastbound) lane of the Crain Avenue Bridge Friday evening. It's pretty hard to find much good to say about the train derailment, bridge closure and corresponding downtown traffic jam this past couple of weeks except that perhaps it did give us a evidence for the importance of the bridge to our City's transportation network and seeing the traffic problems that followed the bridge closure I can certainly understand why the citizens committee made a recommendation to build a new bridge next to the existing bridge in order to keep traffic flowing during the bridge construction process. Can you imagine 3 years of this kind of traffic congestion.

Back on November 10th I did a blog post about the negotiated gas prices that NOPEC announced for this winter. Since then, I've had a couple of follow up questions from residents that wanted to learn more about how to take advantage of the NOPEC rates. Here's the deal: Kent is a NOPEC community so everyone in Kent automatically gets these rates unless they specifically opt out or have opted out in the past. In other words, if you think you can get better rates than those negotiated by NOPEC you are free to decline NOPEC participation but the thing is if your gas rates start to rise and NOPEC becomes a cheaper option you can't re-up with NOPEC for 2 years without paying a penalty. NOPEC is sort of like a mutual fund, there may be times when you might be able to find cheaper retail gas rates but those retail rates jump around quite a bit and over time NOPEC seems to outperform the retail market.

Dan Smith may hold the title Economic Development Director for the City of Kent but all of us play one every day as we go about our lives making purchasing decisions about where to eat, where to get a hair cut and where to hire a plumber. In the old days before the advent of the internet we tended to stay closer to home to buy what we needed because we liked doing business with people we knew and had developed relationships with in our hometown. Did we pay a little more for something here and there because of it, maybe, but we didn't necessarily know better and frankly hometown convenience and service was worth something. With the explosion of the internet we can shop all over the world if we want to. And we don't limit what we buy to stores, we buy from people just like us on eBay. Lost in the mix has been that hometown touch but here's a local Kent entrepreneur who's looking to change that one shop at a time in Kent.

With the Crain Avenue Bridge repair work still underway the traffic on Main Street to head north on SR 43 has been very heavy. I've seen the traffic back up all the way to Taco Bell on East Main Street trying to cut through downtown. It's important to remember that Main Street to 43 is actually not the posted detour route but intuitively it feels like it should be shorter to cut through downtown rather than using SR 59 to northbound 43 so a lot of folks are ignoring the detour posting but they're paying a price in frustration as they hit the traffic backlog. In the meantime the SR 59 detour bypasses the downtown jam and I've found it to be free flowing, especially since there's no Crain Avenue bridge traffic to contend with. I offer this bit of friendly advice since according to an update from Gene Roberts, Public Service Director, the soonest the bridge will be re-opened is December 12th.

The Greater Kent Area Chamber of Commerce and its members are truly the unsung heroes in our economic development battles. Of all the cities that I've worked in the Kent Chamber is by far the smallest organization with the smallest budget but that doesn't stop the Kent Chamber staff and the membership from making a big impact up and down the front lines of our local economy. I rattle on a lot about Main Street, and I think they deserve every bit of it, but Main Street is just the new kid on the block; the Chamber has been the City's partner for decades and much of what we enjoy today can be traced back to the helping hand of the Kent Chamber. Sometimes we take those closest to us for granted and I wanted to make sure that the Kent Chamber was recognized for all it delivers to Kent businesses and the Kent community every day.

One of City Council's top priorities is preserving natural resources so it only makes sense that the City would take steps to make sure that our own house was in order. Over the last couple of years City Council adopted energy conservation guidelines and goals, and the staff has been working to achieve those goals. Because City Departments are housed in different buildings at different locations we've had a fairly decentralized management of City buildings so step one has been consolidating utility billing so we know what our baseline energy usage is. We've also taken some easy first steps by installing motion activited lights and automated thermostats, and these efforts, though small, do work as advertised. We're saving money. Right now we're interviewing firms for a citywide energy audit that we hope would allow us to develop our first energy conservation plan in early 2009. And last month Council adopted a Green Building Ordinance for City buildings.

In the current economic climate it's tough to make a case for anything fast and furious but I still think it's worth talking about both ends of the spectrum to understand their nuances. I'll admit that slow & steady and fast & furious are probably not found in the commercial real estate dictionary but I've taken the liberty of adapting them to talk about Kent redevelopment. Basically what we're talking about is incremental redevelopment (aka slow and steady) versus major block reconstruction (aka fast and furious). Folks like to argue the merits of one over the other around the water coolers but just like drivers and their cars, I think there's room for both and we've actually got proof of that in downtown Kent right now.

For the record, let me put any doubts to rest, the City did not ask the Portage County Engineer to close down the Middlebury Road bridge in December to keep more shoppers in Kent. While the idea may have some merit I can assure you that closing bridges is not part of the City's economic development strategy to get people to buy local. Now if that's an unintended consequence who are we to complain. But seriously there's a lot to keep you in downtown Kent through the holiday season so don't worry about going to the mall. I've gone ahead and listed the events that I know about.

I feel like with all the hard news lately of train derailments, budget woes, and energy prices the blog has been through a dry spell so when I saw a story about poems being stenciled into city sidewalks in St. Paul Minnesota I thought it was time for a change of pace. Sidewalk stanza's may not be your cup of tea, and as a former Public Works Director I'm not sure how I feel about it but you can't deny the ingenuity behind the idea and to me that's worth celebrating because it's that kind of original thinking that has made Kent the eclectic sort of city that we love to call home.

The weather outside may not be fit for man or beast but neither rain nor sleet or snow will stop the Kent's Farmer's Market. That's right, the Kent Farmer's Market is making a special after season appearance but don't look for them at their usual location, they've gone inside to stay warm. On December 6th and 13th the Haymaker Holiday Market (formerly known as the Kent Farmer's Market) will be at 11 South River Street featuring their usual outstanding local fare of food and live music entertainment. So if you're looking for a little taste of summer, the Haymaker Holiday Market is the place for you.

It may not be the greatest but here's the latest from Gene Roberts regarding the repairs and prospective reopening of the Crain Avenue bridge.

Don't get me wrong I like eating turkey as much as the next guy but if you're looking for more than just a day of gluttony on the couch, Kent's got a couple of options for you this Thanksgiving. I can't think of a better way of getting your day started in a thankful spirit than by participating in the 40th anniversary of the Brunch Bunch fundraiser at the American Legion Post in Kent. For 40 years the Brunch Bunch has raised funds to benefit local hot meals and food relief programs in our area, and given our tough economy the needs are greater than ever. Or if you're more of an active sort the Kent Parks and Recreation is sponsoring the annual Turkey Trot 5k race at Plum Creek Park. It's a way to celebrate your health and perhaps feel a little less guilt over the calories you're likely to consume later in the day. Either way you can't go wrong. Happy Thanksgiving.

With all the attention over the Crain Avenue bridge thanks to last week's CSX train derailment I've been getting a lot of questions about the status of the bridge replacement. The City and County are in the process of replacing the Crain Avenue bridge but trust me, hitting the bridge with a train was not part of the planned demolition process. You won't find train demo anywhere on our project Gantt charts. What you would find is completion of the preliminary engineering, wrapping up of the right of way acquistion phase and bids being prepared for advertisement this winter so that contractors can be

I was briefed this morning on the progress of the Crain Avenue Bridge repair following the train derailment on Friday of last week and as promised here's the latest update.

In the on again, off again saga of the Middlebury Road bridge over the Cuyahoga River, I've been advised by the County Engineer's Office that the contractor has now received all the necessary permits to fix the bridge so the bridge will officially be closed December 1, 2008. From that start date the contractor has 180 days to repair the bridge which would mean the bridge would be re-opened for traffic by Friday, May 29, 2009. So you'll want to avoid Middlebury Road for the next 6 months or so. It's inconvient but inconvenience beats bridge failure every time.