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In June, I had the pleasure of joining more than 180 community leaders for the Commerce Lexington Leadership Visit to San Antonio, Texas. Through the years, the annual visit has generated many great ideas for Lexington and Central Kentucky. Previous trips to cities like Madison, Wis., Greenville, N.C., Ann Arbor, Mich., Austin, Texas, and Boulder, Colo., have brought us Thursday Night Live, the new Limestone Street corridor connecting UK and downtown, and recently the bike and pedestrian path through the Harrodsburg Road double crossover diamond interchange.
Although San Antonio is larger than Lexington, we can learn much from their success in urban development. You just cannot believe San Antonio’s River Walk, a long network of walkways along the San Antonio River that is lined with fountains, landscaping and enormous trees, where hosts of pedestrians visit shops, restaurants, bars and hotels. Once nothing more than a drainage ditch, public and private investment in San Antonio’s River Walk has created one of the largest tourist attractions in Texas.
In recent years, San Antonio has expanded its River Walk by opening a new section to the north in 2009, with another to the south to open in 2013, attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in private investment. The extended River Walk connects museums, tourist attractions like the Alamo, and successful infill and redevelopment projects like high quality hotels and restaurants. The northern expansion of the River Walk cost $72 million, but private investment since its opening has topped $250 million.
First conceived in the 1920s, San Antonio’s River Walk is a testament to the long-term thinking and cooperation between the public and private sectors in San Antonio. Lexington has often lacked this expansive vision, and many of our long-term community plans have been left on the shelf to collect dust.
Destination 2040 was one of Lexington’s more recent community visioning efforts. Begun in 2007, Destination 2040 sought input from over 3,000 individuals from a variety of interests, and the final plan was presented to the Urban County Council in January 2009. The council passed a resolution supporting the plan’s value statements, but declined to endorse the plan as a whole. In recent budgets the council has eliminated funding for Destination 2040 entirely.
Lexington’s community vision must last longer than the term of any mayor, councilmember, university president or business leader. Lexington needs a permanent community “board of directors,” similar to the Kentucky Economic Development Partnership Board, that exists outside of government but that is responsible for bringing together stakeholders to oversee Lexington’s long-term vision. The “Lexington Economic Development Partnership” must have the longevity to oversee the decades-long work that is required to realize our community’s hopes and dreams, such as Lexington’s new Distillery District and the development of an Arts & Arena District. Most importantly, the work of this new board must survive changes in individual mayors, councilmembers and administrations.
The San Antonio River Walk shows us how government and business can work together over generations to create community amenities that become key economic drivers for an entire region. Lexington needs to take Destination 2040 to the next level by adopting a five- or 10-year plan to implement these long-term goals, and by continuing to re-examine our priorities and aspirations to make Destination 2040 a living guide for the future. The formation of a new “Lexington Economic Development Partnership” made up of our most influential community leaders would give Lexington’s long-range vision the longevity and focus we need to become one of America’s truly great cities.