City is Not Winning

Every time I step into the Habalis office, I'm greeted with a cheerful "Good Morning!" from my boss, typically followed by some clever one-liner about the weather, Charlie Sheen, and/or fishing.  But lately, these witty one-liners have been replaced or followed by his frustrations with the City.  I, the intern, have yet to do any official business with the City of Fredericksburg--my frustrations mainly lie within the University and their tendency to want to tear everything down and build monstrosities that are going to have to be re-built in 5 years...but that's another blog soon to be written....  

We love our downtown area, but I would hardly give it any bragging rights.  The City seems to have taken much enjoyment in keeping this historic downtown from becoming a "thriving downtown business district," or perhaps they are just confused with the meaning.  For that, I lead them to this scholarly Wikipedia article.  From absurd regulations to untimely responses or just plain ignorance, the local bureaucracy makes it extremely difficult for any real preservation efforts to be made in keeping it a historic area, as well as any business to be conducted in order to contribute to, once again, a thriving downtown business district. 

The City needs to strongly consider becoming a full member with the (watch out, I'ma hit you with another link) Virginia Main Street program.  But other entities are also going to have to be a helping hand--not forgetting HFFI, the ARB, local businesses, non-profits, and volunteers.  Fredericksburg has to make downtown appealing so that people who have the money, the interest, the experience, and the smarts to run a profitable business will want to do so.  We have the potential, but something's missing--the City's interest to be an actual 'city.'  Heck, bring in more mixed-use!  More apartments *gasp*!  More eyes and feet and wallets to the local coffee shop and farmers market.  More kids to play in Hurkamp park, more pedestrian traffic.  What's so bad about that? Of course we could go on and on, but we here at Habalis are in the process of saving lives and feeding the homeless. 

Until next time...