Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't it just a few months ago that there was some kind of matching funds the city would pay to business owners in the area to improve there buildings?

Up to $5000 a building if I remember right.

So What have they done?, Not much of anything.

Improve the sidewalks in front of the courthouses, didn't that happen a couple of years ago when the old courthouse renovation was complete?

All this money for "5 or 6 blocks" of sidewalks? (As stated in the article, 3 blocks of Main street, all the way around DeLeon Plaza?)

ThirdParty - that's actually common inside Houston. They have numerous "improvement districts", like the Galleria area, where the areas property owners pay an additional property tax and in return get all those fancy lights and landscaping.
I still think the city should at minimum replace the sidewalks, even if it is just plain concrete. My understanding is that is still going to cost $2mil or so.

There are many cities that when they initiate a "downtown revitalization project" add a new tax to the downtown merchants to help pay for the initial construction and the ongoing maintenance of "unique" sidewalk configurations. I have suggested this to three of the councilmen and have yet to hear it mentioned.

Probably because they don't own the sidewalk.

I am not speaking to how many people are employed downtown. I have heard the number as high as 2,000 but they are not all employed in the area these sidewalks would be constructed in. The point I am making is OTHER then the people that work downtown, very minimal numbers of vehicles travel down Main Stree (where the bulk of the proposed work would be constructed). The argument for spending these excessive sums is to stimulate economic development. What business's have committed to relocate downtown or open new locations? How much of the foot traffic in the downtown area actually generates revenue? If the goal is to stimulate economic development, lets invest this money in a place where business is actually transacted. Another point of contention I have is the total cost. The new fire station on Salem road was reported to have cost around $2MM to construct. We could add or replace two fire stations for what it is going to cost to replace sidewalks in a 5 or 6 block area. rukidding, which do you see as being more beneficial to the citizens of Victoria, sidewalks or fire stations (or street improvements, or transit system improvements, or etc., etc., etc.). We have limited funds to invest in capital improvements and sidewalks are not, or should not, be a high priority.

There are way more than 600 people employeed in downtown. There are 400 employees at First Victoria bank alone. Unlike Wal-mart, there is more than one road leading in and out of Downtown (Navarro, Moody, Main, Pt Lavaca Hwy) so it's traffic is dispersed as compared to Wal-mart. If the traffic count on Navarro is 30,000 I don't dispute that. But those 30,000 cars are not all going to Wal-mart and some portion of that traffic is also thru traffic to and from Halletsville and beyond.

Downtown as one of the biggest traffic draws behind Wal-Mart. This statement has no merit and the facts support that downtown has MINIMAL traffic if you consider the vehicle traffic on Main Street. Several years back I found statistics that showed the highest traffic count on any downtown street was Main Street with around 600 vehicles per day (2001 or 2001 data). Let's be optimistic and say in the last eight years this number has doubled to 1,200 vehicles per day. The same traffic count on Navarro was over 30,000 vehicles per day. Downtown as a "hot spot" for vehicle traffic or "shoppers" in general is not an accurate reflection of reality. Just earlier today the County commissioners put a $10MM building project on hold due to the economic situation. If the county is not ready to spend $5MM on a permenant structure (a building), why in the world is our city council ready to spend almost as much on sidewalks, lightpoles and traffic signal poles. This makes no sense from a spending perspective as many other projects are much more critical to our citizens and it makes no sense from an economic development perspective as I have not heard mention one business that has committed to move downtown if the sidewalks are replaced.

I rarely see many people walking along Navarro, sometimes a few to and from the transit stops. Most people walk inside their neighborhood. On the other hand, there are always people walking downtown. I would say that downtown is probably one of the city's biggest traffic generaters outside of say Wal-mart.