Lubbock Left

Let’s play “Good Idea, Bad Idea” with the Downtown Redevelopment Commission / EDAW tentative list of recommendations for downtown Lubbock:

(from today’s A-J article entitled “Downtown project slow but in works“)

• Creating two large parks - one near the arts district in proximity to the Memorial Civic Center and the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts and the other near the Depot Entertainment District - as well as several smaller pocket parks.

  Good Idea
  More greenspace is always good. There are enough empty lots downtown to make this a really easy one, anyway…

• Creating a corridor that will link the performing arts district with the Depot Entertainment District. Such a corridor could include sculptures or other elements that will define the area.

  Good Idea
  Another easy one. Once the Marsha Sharp freeway project is done, it will be important to have good access through downtown to 19th st. Let’s hope they make it very pedestrian-friendly as well.

• Renovations and/or expansion to the Memorial Civic Center.

  Good Idea
  Well, it’s a good idea as long as they don’t waste money doing it — there’s no need to demolish any existing part of the Civic Center. New paint, new carpet, maybe add on to the building.

• An office project geared toward attracting high-tech investment.

  Good Idea
  And I honestly don’t know why some enterprising developer hasn’t already done this project.

• A collegiate baseball hall of fame.

  Good Idea
  I guess. Makes more sense than a Visitors’ Center, anyway.

• Mix-use residential housing.

  Good Idea
  Would fit in nicely with more greenspace.

• A movie theater.

  Good Idea
  Someone finally listened to the people at the public comment meetings about downtown redevelopment. This was the one thing that everyone could agree on for downtown. What would be really cool is building an Alamo Drafthouse type of theater that served beer and good food. Something like that would fit in really well in the Depot District.

• A multi-purpose arena.

  Bad Idea
  It breaks my heart that the City of Lubbock already missed its chance to partner with Texas Tech to build a multipurpose arena. This is the kind of project that is probably too expensive for the City to do on its own. Maybe the City can partner with some other entity to build one 5-10 years from now.

Also:

He said the only idea pulled from the plan to date involved the construction of a baseball park.

Good Idea
The Baseball stadium was the least popular idea that I can recall from the public meetings.

Perhaps we will end up with a sensible list after all…