• Brandon Leonard •
• Originally published January 26, 2009 at 4:31 p.m., updated January 26, 2009 at 4:31 p.m.

When restaurant owner Maggie Kuykendall looks out the window of her downtown Taqueria Victoria, she can’t help but see the unattractive sidewalks.

“Our part of the sidewalk is really bad,” she said. “It’s time for improvement.”

The sidewalks along that portion of Main Street are cracked and uneven, making them a hazard, she said. Weeds are growing through the cracks. Replacing the sidewalks with something more attractive when the city replaces the utilities just makes sense to her.

“I think it would be a horrible mistake for them to decide to redo the sidewalks a couple years down the road after they finish all the streets,” Kuykendall said. “Then it’s going to hurt the businesses again.”

Realtor Louise Hull Patillo and husband Dennis Patillo live in and own commercial property downtown. She has no problem rattling off a list of reasons the city needs to improve the sidewalks.

“We are spending $40 million-plus on infrastructure that will be covered up with either patchwork cement or asphalt,” she said. “It would seem quite logical that we would do something that would be an economic benefit to the city.”

A million dollars is a lot of money to her, but the sidewalk project cost compared to the $40 million utility project isn’t that much, she said.

“I know there is controversy about this not being the time to spend money on any optional projects,” she said. “But because of the infrastructure work that’s being done, it is the most opportune time for us to beautify and improve our downtown.”

The city hasn’t decided how the project would be paid for, but Patillo said the downtown residential and commercial property owners pay taxes. She said she doesn’t see anything wrong with them getting a return on that investment.

“I think it’s inaccurately titled as the sidewalk project because it’s so much more than that,” Patillo said. “If individuals would take the time to see the PowerPoint presentation of the recommendations being made, I think they would see it is a reasonable solution.”

Mayor Will Armstrong said the more than 2,000 people who work downtown five days a week would benefit from the sidewalk improvements.

The sidewalks are already in poor condition and it will be necessary to cut and patch the sidewalks during the utility project, aggravating the situation.

“Even cutting and patching costs money,” Armstrong said. “It would be better to spend more money now and do it right.”

It’s also appropriate to invest in the downtown area because it produces some of the city’s highest property tax income per square foot, he said.

• Print
• •
• Share
  • Share this item

    Send this to a friend

    Share on FaceBook

  • Grab the link

    Copy and paste the link:

  • Blog about it

    Blog about this page.

  • Close
• •
• 8 Comments
• •
• Favorite
• •
• Report error
  • Thank you for your submission.
    Error report or correction

    Contact name (optional) Contact phone/e-mail (optional)  

    
  • Close
• •