[kornbread]

Actually, there have been several investments in downtown and some have not turned out well. Some have been public/private projects.

Remember the pink elephant? This was the west side shopping center on the site that is now UTSA downtown (the Radisson is all that is left). There was the major street repair (you know, all of the paving stones). There's the Central Library, the international center, the convention center expansion. Houston Street was mainly done by a developer from Maryland. The city did, however, limit the road to 2 lanes and widen the sidewalks.

But in retrospect, some of these were things the city had no business getting involved in (like the shopping center and the convention center hotel). A lot of what they do is short-sighted. The arena should have been downtown. I can't see how anyone can argue against that. I suppose we could start a hindsight thread, so I'll stop.

I worry about the rush to do away, or transform Hemisfair Park. There is no way that this is the key to downtown development. There are plenty of other lots available for development. Maybe the city can light a fire under downtown land owners who are letting their property rot by fining them for creating a public hazard. Giving them incentive to sell. I get the bad feeling that some sweetheart deal is the catalyst for doing something here.

"Mixed use development" is not a vision, it's business as usual. How vague can you be? I see "growth and prosperity"! My personal feeling is that Hemisfair can be incorporated into the convention center and that the lot where the old SAWS building was/is should used for a transportation hub (it's in between the major east/west downtown roads, close to all highways and near the tracks at Sunset Station).