The Downtown Transformation

      The transformation of downtown Mount Vernon into an educational/cultural arts complex is probably one of the greatest things to happen to our City. Private entities have invested millions of dollars into three unused buildings to bring about this change. 

In order to capitalize on the benefits of this change and attract new commercial and retail development, the City needs to develop a comprehensive plan to deal with traffic and parking in the central business district. If elected Mayor, I would make this one of my primary objectives.                            
     The major problem with traffic flow is with northbound SR13 traffic crossing the viaduct,currently all vehicles exit onto S. Gay Street, this is where we need to start rerouting traffic.  The current administration wants to widen Sandusky Street and build a new bridge across the Kokosing River(a designated State scenic river). I personally think this would be a waste of taxpayer money. My proposal is to replace the viaduct with a new modern bridge and extending Phillips Drive west to Norton Street and rebuilding Norton Street between Phillips Drive and West Chestnut Street.
     Northbound local traffic would still exit onto Gay Street or continue north on Main Street, but northbound thru and truck traffic  would be routed west onto Phillips Drive and continue on to Sandusky Street(SR13N), Gambier Street(SR229E), High Street(SR3S;US36W;SR229W) and Chestnut Street(US36E). This proposed rerouting of the state highways would eliminate all truck traffic away from the downtown with the exception of Gambier Street (SR229). Just imagine, NO trucks on Gay Street, Mulberry Street, and most of all... The Public Square!                                                                        Parking in the downtown area has been a problem for years and will only worsen as students and patrons of the art galleries  and theatrical  venues start using these facilities.  We need to construct a multi-level parking structure in the central business district. The best location for this would be at the southwest corner of South Main Street and Ohio Avenue. My proposal for this structure  would include  storefronts along S.Main and W.Ohio.  By building a structure such as this, the City would be able to sell some of the smaller city owned parking lots for retail/ commercial development.                                                                                                                                               Keep in mind, this is just my vision of what WE can do to return  OUR downtown to the showplace it once was, a  gathering place for the entire community, a thriving central business district. ( A PROUD HERITAGE PLEDGED TO THE FUTURE)                                                                                                                            

A PROUD HERITAGE, PLEDGED TO THE FUTURE

  I remember when the City adopted this motto back in the mid 60'S. It instilled pride in the community and showed a commitment to keep our City a great ALL AMERICAN CITY and a good place to live and raise a family.

  Over the last three decades we've seen much of our heritage demolished in the name of progress and our future put on hold from time to time.

     Mount Vernon is at a crossroads. The downtown area  is being transformed into a combination educational complex and cultural arts center. Millions of dollars are being invested in this transformation and the City has yet to take any action to address the problems associated with this change, mainly traffic and parking. I will present my ideas on how to deal with these issues in future postings.