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March 11, 2010

What's Holding Boca Back?

Restaurants and shops across the country and the world have long relied on a staple of city life to draw attention from passersby: the sandwich sign, a sidewalk placard luring pedestrians with messages, often hand-written, about bagels and coffee, tasty dinner entrées and two-for-one trinkets. 

But in Boca Raton, until very recently, they were illegal. 

And changing that policy was no simple feat.

Sitting at the dais during a Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) meeting, the city council members looked to Leif Ah-nell—Boca’s city manager and, also, director of downtown redevelopment—for an update on the sign plan. Ahnell turned it over to his staff. They’d worked out details like size (4 feet high by 2 feet wide) and material (decorative metal) and quantity (one per business). But there were concerns. Will they blow away? (Doubtful, staffers said.) Should phone numbers be allowed on them? How about Web addresses? (That was a toughie.)

Then Mayor Susan Whelchel, a board member, chimed in. Had anyone bothered to talk to the business owners?

“No ma’am,” the staffer told her.

“I don’t own a restaurant or a retail store, but if I did own one in the downtown, I would have liked to at least had someone from my area involved in this,” Whelchel said in a drawl that was a mix of folksiness and frustration.

Well, they’d have to have that discussion, Whelchel said.

From there, the sandwich-sign issue had to go to the Community Appearance Board and the Downtown Advisory Board. Then, the CRA board members had to get that input. And then the plan was given the final go-ahead.

Downtown-goers are now able, legally, to learn about a burger-and-fries special from a sign on the sidewalk. But it wasn’t easy, or fast. But then, in downtown Boca Raton, nothing ever is.

The plan—then and now

On a recent Saturday night at Mizner Park, stylish women walked tiny dogs along Plaza Real North. Elegant white lights sparkled in palm trees up and down the boulevard. DJs blasted rock music from pubs. Valets jogged for cars. If you wanted a seat at a restaurant, you had to be prepared to wait.

But just one block south, nothing. Empty streets, vacant lots on Palmetto Park Road, the occasional bump-bump of tires over a shallow pothole. No crowds, no people, no activity—just the hum of air conditioning units, a series of weak street lights on East Boca Raton Road illuminating the moonscape that is downtown Boca these days. A switch had been flipped.

It’s an experience like Dorothy’s: Here, black and white. There, color.

Other downtowns, meanwhile, are blossoming. Delray’s Atlantic Avenue, West Palm Beach’s burgeoning waterfront redo, Lake Worth’s Lake Avenue, Hollywood’s Harrison Street.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. When Mizner Park opened, it seemed almost predestined that downtown Boca Raton would soar.
In fact, as early as June 1980, in a report entitled “Revitalization Program For Downtown Boca Raton” and later, in the master plan for the city, an idea was floated to turn the dead zone around East Boca Raton Road into a blissful walkway, lined with outdoor dining and tropical foliage. It’s been known for years as the “spine,” the backbone that would link Mizner Park with Royal Palm Place and hold all of downtown together.

That was more than two decades ago, and nothing has changed.

What happened?

Opinions abound throughout the community. The city has been mired in complacency. The leadership is weak. The private sector can’t get its act together. The city is the victim of circumstance. Or perhaps all of the above, depending on who’s doing the talking.

All sides say the waiting has gone on long enough. City leaders have, lately, been trying to make up for lost time. They’ve approved $3 million for a meandering path of new streetscaping and intersection improvements—known as the “Pedestrian Promenade”— that, presumably, would invite walkers to traverse the whole downtown, from Mizner Park to Royal Palm Place.

They’ve hired a marketing firm for positive messaging, they plan to start a downtown Web site, and they’re planning to turn two acres of Intracoastal property into shops and a restaurant. A consultant is analyzing the possibilities for making Federal Highway through the downtown a more pleasant place for walkers. A lengthy slate of events is planned, from parades to light shows to art shows.

They also promise to turn a new downtown master plan, crafted for $700,000 by renowned Pittsburgh planning firm Urban Design Associates (UDA), into a reality. It’s a guide for beautifying the streets; designing new buildings up to 14 stories high in spots; and making the downtown more walkable, including adjustments to Palmetto Park Road. So far, it has made for nice pictures, but little else.
All of this still leaves the central problem—the listless two-block area south of Mizner Park—unsolved. And it’s another starting line for a downtown where the gun went off two decades ago.

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