A Plea for My Downtown

The Uphill Battles and Rewards of Saving Your Town 

This is what I want: A downtown with businesses, activity, and people.  Altoona in 1953.

On the evening of Wednesday 9, 2014 I attended a presentation by Fourth Economy Consulting at my local city council chambers in Altoona, PA.  This firm has had great success in revitalizing numerous downtowns that have fallen upon hard times--especially here in the former Rust Belt.  My city needs this.  I am not ashamed of this sad truth.  In fact, I embrace it.  That is the only manner in which the situation may improve.  With the growing dominance of higher education and the healthcare industry in my community, both Fourth Economy and I suspect there is vast potential to revitalize historical structures rather than tearing them down (which has been the unfortunate pattern in my city for decades).  I went to the meeting to proclaim my support for their initiative.  Below are my comments plus an accompanying article from our local Altoona Mirror on the issue.  I share this tale because I sense the story of my downtown may also be the story of your downtown.  Cities grow from within, not from outer sprawl.  There is still hope.  In the end, we must demand vision on the part of our local elected leaders--even visions involving expensive but needed investments.  In the meantime, a little bit of historical literacy and appreciation might be the antidote to a problem endemic in many of our towns.  Share the wealth.

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"On behalf of the Blair County Historical Society and myself, I would like to announce our enthusiastic support of the Housing Strategy & Downtown Investment Plan we heard this evening. From both commercial and historical preservation standpoints, this proposal is a remedy long overdue in resuscitating the sustainability of our once-vibrant downtown.

Those well-versed in the study of the past often comment about history that those who don’t recognize it are always bound to repeat it. Sadly enough, one only needs to look down 11th Avenue of our city to notice just how true that maxim is. We have seen the same tragic pattern repeated time and time again throughout the last forty years of Altoona’s history: Historical structures and other icons of local identity have been ravaged by the wrecking ball in the name of “progress.” Other properties have been purchased by regional investors but have been left to decay in the wake of neglect and ambivalence. In the interim, the heart and pride of our community has decayed with it, resulting in a rise in urban blight, unsightly sprawl, and an exodus of native young people from our city.

As a professional historian, I can appreciate the merits in revitalizing and repurposing historic structures for cultural purposes alone. However, I can also acknowledge that such preservation does not exist in a vacuum.  Economic and commercial advancements must coincide with this undertaking.  In this regard, adaptive reuse of our vintage buildings and districts is an ideal solution. Speaking with young professionals and students on a daily basis, I know they too have a strong desire to see a downtown renaissance. Student housing in the city is urgently needed to accommodate the influx of the growing campus. Where student housing goes, businesses will follow.  Therefore, efforts aimed at our downtown have great potential in our desires of broader community revitalization.

In making these momentous decisions, I ask you to recognize the patterns of our local history.  I beg you to observe the truth that demolition has not equated to growth or progress in our city.  New does not necessarily mean better.  With this thought in mind, I respectfully ask you to look to the city’s past to build its future. Help preserve our culture as well as our economic vitality. To ensure this, we as citizens require the vision, foresight, initiative, and leadership of individuals such as yourselves.  As you contemplate your options for the future, I hope you will consider your place in the future history books of Altoona.  What will your legacy be?  Thank you for your time and consideration on this matter."

This is what I do not want: Over fifty years later, my city is a shell of its former self.  I want my history to stay and be appreciated.  Only local citizens can make it happen by voicing their aspirations.  Photo by Scott Conarroe.

Consultants bet on full house
Group: 500 young professionals would pay up to $1K to live downtown
April 10, 2014
By William Kibler (bkibler@altoonamirror.com), The Altoona Mirror

After seven months studying the feasibility of reviving downtown through creation of market housing, mainly through rehabilitation of older buildings, a group of consultants from Pittsburgh presented their findings Wednesday to City Council.

"Awesome presentation," Councilman Eric Cagle said of the Act 47-funded study, who nevertheless wondered whether the 500 mostly young professionals the consultants predicted would pay up to about $1,000 per month to live downtown would find enough there to do for entertainment.  A similar plan worked in Pittsburgh, and the amenities followed -- after years of failure when the amenities came first, said Steve McKnight of Fourth Economy Consulting, one of the firms in the consultant team.

"All the elements are there," McKnight said, arguing that existing amenities, including one high-end restaurant, bus service and cultural facilities like the Railroaders Memorial Museum and the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, would suffice to start, he said. "The only thing missing is the housing component."

But there's a funding gap of a third or a half of the project costs that a combination of the city, other agencies, banks, and lawmakers will need to work together to fill, according to McKnight and the other consultants, who were from Pfaffman & Associates and Fourth River Development.  Ultimately, it will be up to property owners, the consultants said.

Fortunately, there are models for them, including Legacy Suites in Lakemont, which is successful, and the Artificial Limb and Appliance building and the Casanave building downtown, which are in development, the consultants said.  Based on surveys, the consultants predicted a market for 500 units a year and proposed projects that could develop 218 units in the easily foreseeable future.

Those include rehabilitations of Brett Central Court, the Penn Central building, the Vipond building, the Gables building and new construction projects with traditional style housing in the UPMC Altoona and Little Italy neighborhoods.  There was talk of the need for up to three new parking garages and of possible demand for a downtown hotel.

"We focused on the next generation," McKnight said.

Urban living appeals to many of them, he said.  "We're trying to jump start a market," McKnight said. "Then let the private sector take over."  Council needs to offer leadership and moral support, to lobby lawmakers for capital help, be willing to apply for grants and loans in support of projects and do what it can to provide infrastructure, according to Pfaffman and Miller.

Councilman Bruce Kelley wondered whether the low cost of mortgages in the area could be an obstacle to people paying the market rents.  The surveys identified a different group than those who would go for those inexpensive mortgages, McKnight said.

The owners who are willing to make the next move may do so after finding out how the ones doing it now made it work, said John Watson of Fourth River.  "Get a success story, document it and move on," Pfaffman said.

 

Jared Frederick of the Blair County Historical Society praised the city and the consultants for the report, which can reverse an unfortunate legacy, he said. "Demolition has not equated to growth," he told council.  "Look to the community's past to rebuild for the future," Frederick said. "Consider your place in the future history books of Altoona."

 

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.

Civil War: The Untold Story

The Overshadowed Conflict

A scene from Civil War: The Untold Story - Confederates retreat from the Battle of Jonesboro.

"The world seemed bursting into fragments. Cannon and musket, shell and bullet, lent their several intensities to the distracting uproar. . . . I likened the cannon, with their deep bass, to the roaring of a great heard of lions; the ripping, cracking musketry, to the incessant yapping of terriers; the windy whisk of shells, and zipping minie bullets, to the swoop of eagles, and the buzz of angry wasps."  So wrote twenty-one year-old Henry Stanley nearly a decade before he uttered the famous words, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"  A member of the 6th Arkansas, Stanley was a reluctant rebel yet witnessed immeasurable horror near the banks of Pittsburg Landing in April 1862.  Shiloh was the bloodiest battle in American History until that point.  The clash claimed one of the Confederacy's most trusted commanders and set his opponent on the long term path toward fame and the presidency.

At the same time, this is not the battle or region that is swept into our collective consciousness when we consider the American Civil War.  The distant battles of Henry Stanley and Ambrose Bierce are seemingly far removed from the popular memory of our defining moment as a nation.  Granted, two-thirds of their generation's conflict was waged in Virginia--the capital and "breadbasket" of the Confederacy.  However, the war was also lost and won at landmarks not as celebrated or visited as Gettysburg or Antietam.  The confrontations at Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, and Franklin have not been glorified in film or art.  Yet, as a whole, they carried as much weight as any fight waged by Robert E. Lee or George Meade.  A new public television documentary miniseries entitled Civil War: The Untold Story seeks to unravel the eclipsed series of events that defined a region and a nation.  (Watch some preview clips here.)

Federals hold during the Battle of Shiloh.

Producer/director Chris Wheeler was gracious enough to send me a preview copy of his forthcoming film debuting this week on various PBS stations throughout the country.  Being in closer proximity to well-known battlefields of the eastern theater, I was both eager and curious to see his interpretation of the 1860s.  I was not disappointed.  Focusing on the Civil War between the geographic scope of the Appalachians and the Mississippi River, Wheeler's vision of the conflict goes where few films have gone before.  Engagingly accurate in both its visuals and scripting, the documentary aptly utilizes authentically-clad reenactors (unlike the 2011 History Channel film Gettysburg).  Meanwhile, Downtown Abbey's Elizabeth McGovern helms the production's narration with gravitas and sincerity.

Beyond all the fine, aesthetic production values, the film's greatest merit is it's main theme: going beyond the traditional story of the war.  As Wheeler noted in an interview, "We want to tell the story that goes beyond military and civil war buffs.  It's been a generation since Ken Burns' Civil War. People need to hear this story again."  In this objective, too, the film succeeds.  Both realistic and brutal in its depictions of combat, the director's choreography equals most big budget Hollywood renditions.  Simultaneously, the documentary appropriately strikes an even balance between the military and social dimensions of the war in the west.  Less than three minutes into episode one, the implications of American slavery are brought to the forefront of the situation, revealing the "peculiar institutions" firm grip on American society.  This strain of narrative remains present throughout the entirety of the film, demonstrating the complexities of race and freedom within the context of the total war.  

Noted scholars such as Peter Carmichael, Eric Jacobson, and Steven Woodworth offer additional insight in conjunction with dramatic commentary and cinematography.  The combined affect offers a dynamic and relevant analysis that will surely keep your attention.  In what is the best series on the conflict since Civil War Combat, Civil War: The Untold Story serves as a solid platform for discussion and exploration of our crossroads moment.  Visit here to see when and where the documentary is playing in your area.  Enjoy!

Confederates dig in at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.