Front Street Design Session - Tonight

Just a quick note about the Front Street Streetscape Design public input session tonight and why its important to attend. This meeting is to get final input from the public regarding the look and feel of Front Street once the design is complete.

As some of you are aware, the City of Wilmington is replacing the 100 year old sewer and water lines along the intersection of Front and Market Streets, and the 0 & 100 blocks of North Front Street. This work is long overdue, but well planned. While under the street, the City of Wilmington, at the urging of Wilmington Downtown; decided that a coplete make-over of the streetscape is also necessary.

Several consultants (planning, retail, etc) have all said the same thing ... "You need to improve the appearence of your streets and sidewalks." This project is going to vastly improve our experience on Front Street ... as long as we work together on the design.

This project is going to be difficult. At an estimated 8 month project timeline, many businesses will not be able to survive. This is going to be very painful, and not fun. But the end product will improve the pedestrian and retail shopper expereince. The project was originally slated to begin in October, but I fought like crazy to push this past the Christmas shopping season. It took lots of arm twisting, but I finally got many retailers to agree, and eventually the city agreed too.

Several design elements that I am interested in seeing include, but are not limited to:
the design and type of brick pavers used,
are we going to have recycling bins on each block,
can we get one of those cool fire hydrants like the one at Halyburton Park that doubles as a dog watering station,
are we getting new trash cans (my big pet peave),
are we going to get water hook-ups so that merchants can hose down the sidewalks in front of the shops,
what type of lighting are getting, and
are we getting post banners and hanging baskets ... to name a few.

So be sure to come to City Hall tonight at 5:30, the design part should be fun, we know the project construction is going to be tough. Let's be sure we are happy with the design when it is complete.