Ozark Easy Living Community Guide 2003Revitalization efforts begin to pay off
Tangible results blend bygone days with the contemporary
By Donna OsbornSmall and large communities throughout the nation woke up one day to find their once-bustling downtowns a hollow shell of past prosperity. Consumer buying and living habits began to change shortly after W.W.II. A variety of factors played into those changes like affordable transportation, demographics in the workforce and a migration form the inner cities to the suburbs.
The concept of the one-stop shopping mall located on the edge of town or strategically placed between two smaller towns quickly responded to consumer habits. Then came milk, bread and beer packaged with petroleum on each road leaving town. Without realizing exactly what social price was being paid for the brevity of convenience, consumers let the heart of their cities ooze life day after day.
Katherine Dowdy, Ozark resident, anthropologist and community activist, studied the effects of these consumer trends.
"Through the '70s, in particular, downtowns experienced downtown flight," she said. "Building pedestrian malls made it only worse."
Dowdy said no one really understood the competition.
"They didn't understand what they were competing against-strip malls where you pull up in front and there are a lot of (new) stores together."
Dowdy continued to say that many didn't realize the impact of urban sprawl and decay.
"Worldwide people are dealing with urban sprawl," she said. "I'm afraid people believe that urban decay doesn't hurt anything. It's like letting a field go fallow. But that's not the case, we are all paying for it-the water and sewer and in the properly taxes the (counties and cities don't ) get."
Some places caught on sooner than later to revitalization efforts. Mike Greenberg writes about San Antonio's famous River Walk in "Urban Land."
"So successful is the River Walk that it has been widely studied and imitated as a model for urban redevelopment around the world," Greenberg writes.
In Ozark the seed of renewing downtown started to sprout more than a decade ago with the formation of the Ozark Community Development Authority. Bobby Wixson, owner of Hazel's Flowers on the Square was there as a founding member who helped design a progressive plan.
"The original plan for downtown revitalization was in four phases," she said. "The first step was taking care of the heart of the town. The second phase was developing and revitalizing the arteries. The third phase was connecting those outer areas with the downtown; a river walk and the (restoration of) Ozark Mill are phase four along with landscaped signage to bring people in from the major arteries into the city."
The notion caught on slowly and in the late '90's another organization with national ties, -Main Street, -formed in the city. Dowdy directed the program and worked with a board to get Ozark designated as a Missouri Main Street town. That designation would have brought the city resources from the state and national governments. An essential element, support in the form of a written commitment from the Ozark Board of Alderman, did not come in 2000. But that wouldn't stop the dream form happening.
New blood in city government and tenacity form those dedicated to the efforts won the community a $300,000 matching grant in 2003 that would bring tangible results.
"We've done all this preparation and getting this grant gives us the final push to get the ball rolling and not to stop until it is done." Dowdy said. "I see the buildings brought back to their original handsomeness- the way the architects intended them to look. That includes trees, flowers, brick sidewalks and people on the sidewalks all the time."
City administrator Collin Quigley believes the time has come for Ozark and its downtown.
"We are seeing a lot of new life on the Square," he said. "We haven't even started utilizing the $300,000. Main Street has been the leading organization that drives this initiative and now city council has caught the vision."
Renewed enthusiasm is contagious and the Ozark downtown square is getting the much awaited facelift with even more ambitious projects like the River Walk along the Finley waiting to happen.
"We can't let the heart of the city become defunct, because it is a reflection on us." Dowdy said. "This is the county seat. People come from all over and we want to show them we are proud of who we are. The downtown reflects on how much pride we have in ourselves and community."
Note: Robert Snook is the present director of the Ozark Main Street Program. He was unavailable for comment on this story.
Ozark Easy Living Community Guide 2003 pgs. 44-45
