And because the N&R is in the sad habit of making the embarrassing stuff disappear from the web, I stole it in its entirety:
"Editorial, May 14: The ‘peculiar place’
If High Point leaders who raised more than $400,000 in private funds to hire urban architect Andres Duany expected compliments, they might have been shocked at his opening presentation last Wednesday.
“This is not a charming little town, let’s face it,” he told a near-capacity audience at High Point University’s Hayworth Fine Arts Center.
They heard plenty more.
“This is one of the most peculiar places I’ve seen,” because of high spikes of downtown activity during April and October furniture markets and shutdowns in between. “This for me is a nightmare, an absolute nightmare.”
The city’s pedestrian environment is “incredibly bad. ... You can’t put together three blocks of first-rate experience.”
“You have a very high level of bureaucracy, exceedingly high.”
The Miami-based Duany added stern criticisms of street projects already under way and what he called outdated planning strategies to complete the bleak picture.
Yet, he also offered praise for a city that successfully hosts a huge furniture market and is home to a thriving university.
“The fact that you can feed and house and transport 80,000 people for a week means you should have been in charge of the D-Day invasion,” he said.
And: “We have this university that raises everyone’s spirits. People cling to this place with great hope.”
The City Project, a private booster group, called on Duany and associates — including Kennedy Smith, former director of the National Main Street Center and now a consultant who also spoke Wednesday — to provide some hope. He delivered, focusing on three areas that can be animated over the next 15 years.
While High Point’s challenges are unique, the City Project expresses the same desires as downtown boosters in Greensboro and other places. It wants to create exciting business, cultural and lifestyle opportunities in urban settings. It’s just that in High Point, Duany said, there’s a “contrast between civic aspiration and empty streets.”
Duany warned High Pointers against competing directly with neighbors Greensboro and Winston-Salem, whose downtowns he complimented. Find different ways to stand out. But move quickly and try to break free of government regulations that impede progress.
He pointed to three areas:
l The downtown furniture market district, where empty outdoor spaces should be used for bars, concerts, “guerrilla retail” and other short-term events that attract young people.
l A short stretch of North Main Street, where it’s possible to achieve a pedestrian-friendly urban experience.
l The university area, where a small “college town” can be created and an “innovation incubator” should be created in the HPU-owned Oak Hollow Mall.
Duany’s challenging presentation led to several days of small-group meetings, with a final report promised for Wednesday. High Point leaders should brace themselves.
But the process underscores an important conclusion: Urban centers matter. Even in peculiar High Point, between furniture markets. "
Why is it funny? Well besides the obvious jaw dropping opening lines, Andres Duany cautions High Point not to compete with Greensboro and Winston-Salem then goes on to recommend High Point convert "empty outdoor spaces should be used for bars, concerts, “guerrilla retail” and other short-term events that attract young people."
Already being done in Greensboro. I think they called it pop-up or something like that.
"The university area, where a small “college town” can be created and an “innovation incubator” should be created in the HPU-owned Oak Hollow Mall."
Greensboro IS a college town! And the incubator? Greensboro's already working on it, already investing in it. It's called the Downtown Campus. As a matter of fact: Greensboro already has the Nussbaulm Center, they just screwed up and put it in the wrong place-- twice!
But then the biggest joke of all, why would anyone hire an architect-- someone who draws pictures of imagined buildings-- to teach them about economic development? That is: unless of course your goal all along is simply to build more buildings at taxpayers' expense.
Are you beginning to see the picture? It looks as if High Point has their own version of Downtown Greensboro Inc, called The City Project. And while the N&R says it's a private booster group, their website is hosted by the City of High Point. I bet if you'll start digging you'll find a lot of the same names.
