Downtown still has a ways to go

Last night the Urban Society and the A.I.A. hosted a mayoral forum at the Central Library. It was a great turnout. I was glad to see there's interest in our future leadership. I took the MAX. I usually do when I'm going downtown. While most people traveling the Main corridor at 5PM were battling other drivers, I barely bothered to look up from my paper. It was the trip home that really caught my attention. After the forum I wandered over to John's Top Deck to rehash what we'd just seen and watch KU lose at home to Oral Roberts University (Ouch!). When the game ended it was time to make my way back to a bus stop. The cold wind was blowing something wicked so I chose the 13th & Wyandotte stop because it afforded the best cover from the wind. I waited about 10 minutes. Thank goodness the bus was on time because it was cold! What I noticed during that wait was what a wasteland downtown still is. I saw no other person out on the sidewalks and barely a handful of cars passed during my wait. There is absolutely nothing going on downtown after 5PM. I found it ironic that I had just attended a forum where the candidates were asked about downtown development, pedestrian issues and street activity. One or two candidates even talked about reducing our dependency on cars. One said "We all need to get out of our cars and walk more." Another said we need to stop building so many parking garages. Then they all went right across the street to a publicly subsidized parking garage, got in their cars and drove home.