Isle should foster preservation

GALVESTON - When Don Rypkema ponders how cities such as Galveston should cope with the notion of preserving history in the face of escalating development, a herd of cattle usually comes to mind. Rypkema, an internationally renowned economic development consultant and author based in Washington, D.C., visited the island city Thursday and Friday to speak at a statewide conference. While he was here, staff members of the Galveston Historical Foundation sought Rypkema's advice, now that the city is in the midst of an unprecedented building boom.

Rypkema specializes in helping communities experiencing downtown revitalization that want to maintain and reuse historic structures. To pull it off, Rypkema - who grew up on a South Dakota ranch - said Galveston politicians and business leaders need to realize that the quality of its entire mosaic of homes and commercial buildings is affected by every new structure erected."When you have a herd of cattle, and you add a new bull to it, if that animal is not the best you can find, the quality of the whole herd diminishes," said Rypkema. "In the fall, when you cull the herd, you don't get rid of your best animals, you get rid of the worst ones."

After driving around the island and walking around downtown, Rypkema said Galveston easily had the potential to be recognized as one of America's most livable cities. But to get there, he said, the city cannot just take a piecemeal approach: Political and business leaders have to step up and seize the opportunity. And a good place to start, he said, is to embrace the island's ethnic diversity. "To have a healthy city of any size, you look down at the neighborhood level, and unfortunately you know that America is a diverse country, but its neighborhoods are not," he said. "But historic neighborhoods with character like you have here, where you have a mansion next to a small cottage, you get that diversity."

Marsh Davis, executive director of the Galveston Historical Foundation, agreed with that assessment, but wondered if a related issue might hamper that mix. "Livability of neighborhoods is very much dependent on economic and racial diversity," said Davis. "My real concern in Galveston is the trend we are seeing (during the development boom) with absentee homeowners. I like to have neighbors living next to me."

Rypkema applauded Galveston's recent decision to allow for the creation of neighborhood conservation districts - which can regulate such things as architectural style, building height or demolition of existing structures - as long as they are managed consistently. Where he has seen historic neighborhoods run into trouble is through overzealous mismanagement sparked by misguided planning ordinances. "It's the enlightened planners that are undoing old ordinances to make way for mixed use. Let's put it this way: Imagine the coolest neighborhood you can think of on the island. If you couldn't build that exact neighborhood next week in another part of the city, then you have a problem."

Rypkema, who has been hired as a consultant by communities across the country and overseas, insists that there is no such thing as a silver bullet when it comes to economic development. Cities that rush to add a sports stadium or a major tourist attraction in the midst of downtown do not often realize the broad economic development payoff they envision. "These big-fix projects have an economic impact only within about three blocks," he said.

Most of all, according to Rypkema, the true test of whether a downtown is successful is whether the people living in that city enjoy gathering there.

He mentioned two cities with similar economic concerns as Galveston - Savannah, Ga., and Charleston, S.C. - as communities that have embraced that idea."

I'm certainly not against tourism, but there has to be a real sense of ownership by the people of the city. They have to think that this is 'my' downtown. There's one expression I've heard that seems to hold up - if you build it for the locals, the tourists will come anyway, but if you build it just for tourists, the locals won't come."