"Lifelong Central Kentuckian Harry Richart, a native of North Middletown in Bourbon County and graduate of Western Kentucky University, is area president of National City Bank and a staunch supporter of efforts to transform downtown Lexington into a vibrant city center. The complete interview with Richart can be heard online at www.bizlex.com. Here are excerpts from their conversation.
TM: in addition to your role with National City Bank, you have also stepped into the role of chairman of the Lexington Downtown Development Authority, and you find yourself in that role in an especially dynamic time in the life of our city. What is that like for you?
HR: Well, it's an exciting time, you're exactly right. I remember the days when I first began to notice things around the city. When urban renewal took effect in Lexington, it was in the late '60s/early '70s, when downtown was reformed, all the streets had gone from two-way to one-way so that there was a different feel, and of course it has maintained that through these many years. In keeping with that, though, everything that goes around, comes around. Prior to that, when I was a youngster, downtown Lexington was vibrant. It was two-way, people were walking the streets — it was just a lot of activity. There was no such thing as Fayette Mall. There were no such things as the suburbs, and now the interesting thing is, it's come back, or the opportunity for the downtown to become much more vibrant is back in front of us, and that's really exciting. There's been lots and lots of development, as you know, that has taken shape, and so for me to be in the role that I am is really neat. I'm excited to be part of it, and I like the feel of the momentum that's building.
TM: Capturing the advantage of that perspective, we have an uneasy little dance going on right now around the issue of whether to return to two-way streets. Thinking back to the time when the opposite occurred — when we went from two-way to one-way — was it very similar, in terms of the uncertainty of the outcome?
HR: I'm sure it was. I'm sure urban renewal was a thing that everyone had to get their arms around. Of course, the culture of this town has changed since then. There's much more influx of different kinds of folks. Lexington is just a different community than it used to be, which is interesting. I think there's a much more progressive and diversified kind of community here. At the same time, the community has a feel not to digress but to regress, to something that once was and worked very well. Change is a thing that's hard for all of us in certain doses, and so the way we do this, the way we take on this new challenge, the way we revert to things that we liked in the past, will be really important. The execution of all this is going to be really critical.
TM: Someone said that timing is everything. Why now? Do you have a perspective on that?
HR: Well, you know, we have made lots of visits to lots of communities with the chamber. That's one of my perspectives and one of the things that I've noticed is that communities that thrive have lots of balance both outside and inside, and if you don't have that good balance, then the community isn't all it can be. We all know that downtown Lexington is not all that it used to be or that it can be. The feeling I think now is, "If not now, whenever." If we want that balance to exist, the downtown Lexington sector has to be revitalized. In keeping with our sister communities and the economic growth, it comes from balanced communities. Now is the time. In fact, maybe Tom, I don't want to say we're too late, but we certainly don't want to wait any longer.
TM: Why should suburban residents and businesses be concerned about the revival of downtown Lexington?
HR: Well, I would like to think that wherever people live, they want to come and recreate and shop and be downtown, for whatever reason. And who knows? Perhaps they want to come and live downtown. You know, downtown Lexington is not just for "downtowners;" it belongs to all of us. I'm delighted that folks who live in that part of the world have an interest. We're going to need to bring more and more of those folks into the conversation.
TM: How do you envision the downtown Lexington of 2010?
HR: My frame of reference is molded mostly by the Downtown Master Plan as we have worked through it. That's my context. So much of it will depend on funding. So much of it will depend on execution of certain things. One thing that comes to my mind is Vine Street, redone — "The Vine." It's probably overly optimistic to believe that we can do that by 2010, but a major feature in downtown Lexington, it seems to me, needs to be a point. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe that's it. Maybe it's an amphitheater. But there needs to be some downtown feature that attracts us to the momentum and the strength of what downtown Lexington can be. I would like to know that "a feature" — whatever major feature it is — is on the drawing board; we know where the funding's coming from and we've started the planning to execute it.
I would also say that there are probably some parts of the Downtown Master Plan that are probably a little easier to execute. We probably need to do some of those as well because those are proof sources that say, "We can do this." And (as) we do them and we are successful at them, it makes us want to do more, bigger sorts of things.
TM: Is that taking a cue from (last year's Commerce Lexington Leadership Trip to) Oklahoma City?
HR: I think so. It's caught on. That community really believes it can do anything and has agreed to tax itself to pay for the things that mean the most, which is the downtown area and education. Many communities that we go to have gone through those kinds of growing pains. They haven't done it all right. They've made mistakes. But they've been bold and courageous and a little audacious in what they have done, and so I would hope that we would do the same thing. I don't mean be reckless, but I do mean be bold and audacious in some of these things that we want to do. Can we pull off the big ones? Well, I don't know. But I think we should try.
There are a lot of questions about Vine Street. A lot of people say, "Will it fit?" And my understanding is that it will, but it will require that some expensive things be done and some real changes (be made) in the way it looks. Even if we don't two-way it, Tom, we can at least build that boulevard and make that Vine Street corridor something altogether different from what it is. I do believe that it's going to take help from all corners, state, local and federal — and the private sector — to make those financial commitments.
TM: We've had an exciting couple of years, and we have more to come, don't we?
HR: We sure do.
TM: Harry Richart, thank you for spending time with us.
HR: It's been a pleasure. Thanks, Tom.
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