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It's difficult to fully appreciate slow change.
In a country where one of the most popular TV shows follows a group of people who lose upwards of 100 pounds in a single season, it's safe to say we're used to getting everything quickly. So, when slow change occurs, we often need an outsider to point it out to us before we fully appreciate what we have.
I think that's the case with downtown Montgomery -- at least, it was for me.
Because I'm around in downtown pretty much every day, and because I've watched it transform slowly over the last 10 years, I never gave much thought to just how much it's changed. But a few weeks back, while out for dinner at one of the downtown restaurants, a friend who moved to the tri-county area a few years ago started asking about the downtown revitalization.
Somewhere in the middle of that conversation, it hit me just how much the place had changed.
When I first moved here nearly 10 years ago, downtown Montgomery was not a place to hang out after dark. The newspaper's offices were on Washington Street at the time, and I remember many drives through the city at night without seeing another soul.
Compare that to what what's happened over the past seven days.
In just the past week, thousands of people jammed into hotels and downtown restaurants as the city hosted the state high school baseball and softball tournaments and Jubilee CityFest. There was a wait at every downtown restaurant on most nights, and the bars were filled well into the night.
It's a startling contrast if you can recall the area just a few years ago.
And I'll be honest, it's a change I never thought would work.
I remember well when then-Mayor Bobby Bright began working toward bringing a minor league baseball team to Montgomery and pushed through plans to build Riverwalk Stadium. A lot of people hated the idea and thought it would never work. When the construction site for the stadium flooded after heavy rains and essentially became a large pond in the middle of downtown, the project became the butt of jokes. When the name of the team was announced, the project became an entire stand-up routine.
Now, though, that stadium and team are the engine driving a remarkable transformation.
Without that stadium and the people to fill it, there would be no hotels, no restaurants, no bars in the alley.
The fact that all of those establishments are there is also rather remarkable. Because a good number of those businesses came along after Bright left office and Todd Strange took over.
Strange and his staff picked up where Bright's folks left off, and then added to it.
They called their plan for downtown the "6-12-24" approach. Basically, the idea was to first attract businesses that would draw in people who were planning to spend six hours downtown -- restaurants, bars, sports facilities, etc.
Then, they went after the 12-hour folks by attracting several hotels to the area. And now, they're onto the final step: providing housing for the 24-hour residents.
A report released Thursday shows that that step shouldn't be a difficult one. A New Jersey firm's study found that interest is high in obtaining a downtown residence, such as a high-end apartment or luxury condo.
And according to deputy mayor Jeff Downes, options are on the way.
"You will see riverfront townhouses, multifamily developments, grocery stores and new amenities that support the 24-7 lifestyles," Downes said.
Downes also provided the figures for how the city got to this point, since it didn't occur by wishing really hard. The city put up millions of dollars to bring businesses in. In fact, over the last decade, more than $150 million in public funds has gone into downtown revitalization.
But that investment elicited more than $1 billion in private money.
Now, there's a thriving downtown that's adding thousands each month to the city's bottom line through taxes and employing dozens. It's one reason that Montgomery isn't facing the dire economic situations being faced in so many other communities.
That's pretty good government.
And it's something we should all appreciate a bit more.
Josh Moon's "Just Saying" appears each Sunday.
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Josh Moon: Changes make downtown Montgomery better
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