America Is In Deep Trouble If Fort Worth Is The Best Downtown In America

On the left you are looking at a screen cap from the website of an entity which calls itself Livability. The specific screen cap is from a livability.com webpage sharing with the world the Top 10 Best Downtowns 2014.

It really should not come as a shock to anyone that after Livability's extensive scientific investigation it was determined that Fort Worth, Texas has the Best Downtown in America.

Even though this news really should shock no one there seems to be sort of a collective huh? among those who have been to downtown Fort Worth.

And the downtowns of other American towns.

I first learned Fort Worth is America's Best Downtown when Elsie Hotpepper sent me a link to an article in Fort Worth Weekly titled Downtown Fort Worth Is America’s Best. Fort Worth Weekly took a sort of tongue and cheek approach to this surprising accolade, listing in order the other Top Ten Downtowns in America, as in #2 Providence, (Rhode Island), followed by Indianapolis, Provo, Alexandria, (Virginia), Frederick, (Maryland), Fort Lauderdale, Bellingham, (Washington), Eugene, (Oregon) and Birmingham, (Alabama).

Yeah, I know nothing of several of those towns, either. Except I was born in Eugene and lived several years in Bellingham, both, in my opinion, with much more lively downtowns than Fort Worth's.

Fort Worth Weekly opined that "This is like winning first place in an ugly baby contest." And advises, "So, eat our dust, Eugene, OR!"

I suspect whoever wrote that Eugene should eat Fort Worth's dust has never been to Eugene. Eugene has a downtown with these things called stores, very pedestrian friendly, with sidewalks lining streets all over town.

So, how does this Livability thing explain the inexplicable? I shall quote from their website...

But numbers alone can’t tell you what makes a downtown great. For that you need to see the skylines, hear the street sounds and talk to people who've been there. We took a look, talked with our well-traveled staff and made our picks.

It takes decades of careful planning, political alignments and dedication to create downtowns that attract new residents and visitors. We gave considerable weight to population growth and the ratio of residents to jobs in a downtown area because urban center experts suggest these are the most telling signs of how a downtown is doing.

"The way to have a really vibrant downtown is to have residents there who can support the businesses and provide that life on the street to make the area seem more lively and safer," says Sheila Grant, editor of Downtown Idea Exchange and Downtown Promotion Reporter. "We think they are the most vital part of the city. They give everyone in the outlying areas a sense of community and heritage."

Skylines? Fort Worth has a recognizable skyline? Livability talked with their well-traveled staff to make their picks? Their staff traveled to Fort Worth and still thought it to be the Best Downtown in America?

The ratio of residents to jobs in a downtown area?

Did no one on Livability's well traveled staff notice how few people populated the streets of downtown Fort Worth? Did they not notice there is not a single grocery store in downtown Fort Worth? Did they not notice there is not a single department store in downtown Fort Worth?

As recently as the day after Thanksgiving of 2013 I wandered the streets of downtown Fort Worth to document how lifeless it was on the busiest shopping day of the year. The best downtown in America is a ghost town on the busiest shopping day of the year?

And then there is this paragraph...

"The way to have a really vibrant downtown is to have residents there who can support the businesses and provide that life on the street to make the area seem more lively and safer," says Sheila Grant, editor of Downtown Idea Exchange and Downtown Promotion Reporter. "We think they are the most vital part of the city. They give everyone in the outlying areas a sense of community and heritage."

Oy vey. How does Ms. Grant explain how it is that if downtown Fort Worth has all these residents making the downtown lively and safe, why do all those downtown residents not have access to a downtown grocery store?

A sense of heritage? Oy vey, again. The Best Downtown in America has a boarded up eyesore on the north end of its downtown, called Heritage Park. Did those well traveled Livability staff people not notice this?

And then there is what the Livability article had to say, specifically, about the Best Downtown in America...

A collection of 13 parks provide residents, visitors and downtown workers with spots to soak in some sunshine, eat lunch and unwind. The city's 35-block entertainment and shopping district, Sundance Square, attracts millions of visitors and national attention for its innovative design.

Innovative design? What innovative design? Really, I'm not just being snarky here, I am totally baffled.

A collection of 13 parks in the downtown Fort Worth zone? Is Heritage Park counted among the 13?

Shopping district? If this is a shopping district why is it a ghost town on the day after Thanksgiving?

Attracts millions of visitors? Millions? This count must come from the same mysterious calculator which calculated that the Cabela's sporting goods store in North Fort Worth would draw millions of visitors making it the #1 tourist attraction in Texas.

I can not help but wonder, will Fort Worth be having a city wide celebration celebrating being the Best Downtown in America, such as what happened when a D.C. lobbying group put Fort Worth on some Top Ten Most Livable City list, a list more sophisticated towns, like Tacoma, knew was bogus, politely thanking the lobbying group, but having no city wide celebration.

This is all very perplexing....