Residents offer ideas for downtown Macon

Given the chance to dream out loud, the few dozen residents who came Monday to the Cox Capitol Theatre had no problem sharing their vision for the redevelopment of downtown Macon: an entertainment district, more college students, more jobs, more greenspace, more retail shopping, more police and more housing opportunities.

The ideas couldn’t stop pouring out.

The city put together the forum in conjunction with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, which shepherds the Main Street program, an effort to spur development of downtown areas statewide. Officials hope the program can be a catalyst for growth in Macon as it has been in other cities.

Sherry Evans, the city’s point person for the Main Street program, said the city is about halfway through the two-year process to join the Main Street program. It is, she said, a way for the city to bring the community into the process of improving downtown and forging a single vision.

“The effort is to get feedback from the community,” she said. “It’s to ask, ‘What’s your vision for downtown Macon?’’’

Steve Schwartz, with Capitol City Bank, which recently erected a new building on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, said he was in Greenville, S.C., 15 years ago when its redevelopment gained steam. He’s hopeful the same thing will happen in Macon.

“I want to see more white-collar jobs who will spend money downtown,” Schwartz said, noting the same emphasis helped Greenville grow.

Kirsten West, who helped restore the Allman Brothers Big House Museum, said she hopes the city’s leaders will utilize Macon’s music history, but she said another big step would be to beautify downtown with more greenery. She said she saw Chicago do that when she lived there, and it made a big difference.

“If a city the size of Chicago can do it, I’m confident Macon can,” West said.

Evans said the benefit of gathering the community’s goals and discussing them helps generate volunteers to make those goals happen.