Residents, business owners and stakeholders gathered together for the second time at the Covey Center for the Arts on Saturday to build on the suggestions made for improving Provo's downtown business district.

The second of four public meetings to discuss the future of Provo's historic downtown area provided an opportunity for interested members of the public to sift through ideas mentioned at the previous meeting last month. Saturday's discussion yielded a more concise list of the positive and valuable qualities of Center Street and the weaknesses and threats of downtown.

The cultural development of downtown Provo was a main focus at Saturday's meeting. People made suggestions for who was responsible for improvements downtown, how to improve the area and offered comparisons to other successful city centers across the world.

"We're not trying to recreate the wheel here; we're just building upon what's already here," said Soren Simonson, a planning consultant from Cooper Roberts Simonsen Associates.

Some suggestions made, according to a list on provo.org, include more landscaping and nice places to walk like Portland, Ore., a transit system like Salt Lake City, an art house cinema like the Avalon Theatre in Grand Junction, Colo., and more pedestrian-friendly, interesting walkways like Chicago. Comparisons to various cities in California, Denmark and Canada were also made.

Exclusiveness in Provo was an area of concern. Residents voiced their opinion that the city needs to market more to the student population as well as the non-LDS members of the community.

According to numbers from the city records for 2007, university students make up approximately 45 percent of Provo's population. Also, according to the city's Web site, more than 20 different religious groups are present in Provo.

"Students offer a very unique population that can really be capitalized upon," Simonson said. "Students don't usually have a large discretionary income, but they're always looking for something to do."

Melanie McCoard, an active member of the community who ran for city council three times, said some recent decisions made by the city council have caused some students to think Provo is anti-student.

"Opening up the downtown to students could help dissolve that perception," McCoard said.

Another area of discussion was the empty storefronts along Center Street. Many at the meeting mentioned the dark, empty windows and rundown buildings are eyesores for the community.

Provo's Redevelopment Agency Director Paul Glauser said the city has been working on filling those empty storefronts in multiple ways.

"The Downtown business Alliance has had a program for the last three years where they've had discussions with the landlords to put art exhibits in the empty store windows." Glauser said.

Those art exhibits have popped up in several of the previously bleak storefronts.

Glauser also said the city should be more aggressive in drawing more restaurants and business to come downtown to fill those empty stores.

Comments about dark city streets and the lack of nightlife also made their way into the discussion. Provo's lack of nightlife has long been a disappointment to college students and residents.

"I know there's a couple of Latin dance places, but unless you like that then you're kind of out of luck," said Tod Robbins, a public history major at Utah Valley University. "We need more of an eat and lounge café where people could just go to hang out, eat and relax. There should be cool places where people can hang out at night besides their apartment."

While downtown Provo has specific Mexican and Chinese food markets, residents voiced the desire for more small, specialty grocers in the city. The need for street vendors and cafés was also expressed.

Environmental issues - specifically Provo's high air pollution levels - also made their way into the discussion. Some residents said the city needed to pursue greener transportation options to help deal with this issue.

According to the American Lung Association's State of the Air report for 2007, three of Utah's major metropolitan areas ranked among the top 25 most polluted by short term particle pollution, including Provo-Orem which came in 19th.

Other areas of concern included the city's lack of outdoor gathering spots and lack of landscaping and green space. Some said plants and trees could be used to cover up some of the empty patches in the downtown area.

Glauser said the responsibility of all the downtown improvements don't all fall on the shoulders of the city.

"The purpose of these meetings is to sift through all of the ideas," Glauser said. "We'll see which issues rise to the surface and see who has a strong interest in working on specific projects, then we'll set them up on a committee and see what the priorities are and what needs to be done."

The next two meetings are scheduled March 22 and April 12 from 8 a.m. to noon at the Covey Center for the Arts at 425 W. Center St.

At these meetings, participants will continue to work toward developing a strategic plan for the revitalization of the downtown area. They will continue to be free and open to the public.

Copyright Brigham Young University 10 Mar 2008