Downtown areas of Palestine, Texas

Who and Why

citycentre — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 17:57:39 +0000

Welcome! This is Timothy Triplett, and I started this Blog as a way of communicating between all the people actively engaged in promoting the downtown areas of Palestine, Texas.

Why City Center? Palestine is a special city, with an unusually large “downtown” area. In fact, there are three distinct areas (at least) that could be considered a part of the “downtown” area. They each have their own real name, but that is more of a history lesson. Right now we know them as Downtown, Old Town and the Court House square areas. They are all different areas, but with many common attributes and shared interests. The term City Center was chosen to refer to all these areas as a group. When the city applied for the Main Street program, a specific map was created to specify this in greater detail. That map provides a common definition for the official area to be known as City Center.

How did I wind up doing this? Well, as a Palestine native who grew up here, I remember the City Center areas well and would like to see them brought back to full life so everyone can enjoy them in the future. As a member of the Palestine Economic Development Corporation board, I was very supportive of a request from the downtown merchants for help promoting the downtown area. Since I was so interested, the PEDC board decided to make me the chairman of a PEDC committee to investigate what could best be done to build up the downtown areas. So, viola, here we are! There are a number of people also actively involved with this effort, some actively on the committee and others actively involved in other ways.

We were well underway towards some concrete steps when Palestine was chosen as a provisional Main Street city. Knowing that we would soon have a Main Stree director, and with Christmas and Thanksgiving quickly approaching we backed off until after the holidays. We now have a Main Street director – Neely Plumb – who will be a pivotal person for the City Center area renovation / development / promotion. You will likely be hearing more from Neely soon.

Again, thank you for your interest in the Palestine City Center and I look forward to hearing from you!

Timothy Triplett

Building Renovations

citycentre — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 18:00:15 +0000

Many of the buildings in the CityCenter areas are solid structurally. They just need some care and attention in order to be returned to productive use. What is done in several categories will influence building renovations, so I will put this “starting post” into some related categories as well – such as valuations / taxes, city codes and regulations, and one specific building which has its own category – the Link building. Starting from here, I am sure there are a number of opinions and comments that would be helpful to determine what we can all do together to see the CityCenter areas renewed and reinvigorated!

Present List of Promotional Ideas

citycentre — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 16:48:30 +0000

Here is the set of suggestions for City Centre promotion so far:

Items
1. Make all of downtown a free WiFi hot spot
2. Encourage absentee owners to fix up buildings
3. Give new businesses (especially restaurants) a break on building codes for first x years
4. Revise building codes for downtown area to only what is really "needed"
5. Promote downtown area via web
a. Downtown's own web site
b. Get downtown links & info on other sites
   1. City
   2. CoC
   3. PEDC
   4. Others??
6. Define the City Centre area(s)
a. Map the various area(s)
7. Restore Link Building
a. Consider pooling resources to purchase & restore
b. Consider attracting one person to purchase & restore
8. Tour similar cities for ideas
9. Allow / promote use of upstairs areas for lofts
10. Promote Texas Theatre (encourage development, more events, different types)

… and of course, this blog!

Welcome to Palestine City Center!

citycentre — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 16:47:32 +0000

Palestine is a beautiful city with a remarkable history. The central areas of the city (what I think of as the Downtown, Old Town and the Courthouse Square areas) have what my mother calls "good bones". In other words, the surface needs some care and attention but what is underneath is still good – and would be great with some renovation / rejuvenation.

I certainly remember some great times in the downtown areas of Palestine when I was growing up in the 50's and 60's, including going through Davenport's to get some candy before going out the back door to the Texas Theatre to watch a movie. (I ate so much candy corn one day (a whole quarter's worth) that I did not like candy corn for the next 30 years!)

The downtown area had a range of shops, jewelry stores, drug stores with soda fountains, etc. that made it a great place to go visit with friends and pick up whatever you needed that particular day.

A number of entities within the city are teaming up to encourage further renovation / rejuvenation – to build on the good start that has been made by some of the pioneers. The goal is to encourage the building-up of the Palestine City Centre area, and let it reach its full potential as an enjoyable, beneficial part of the community.

This blog has been created to let everyone who is interested enough to look it up(congratulations – you are one of those people!) know what is going on – AND HAVE SOME INPUT as to what happens next.

This is really a team effort – the City of Palestine, the PEDC as the development arm of the City, the Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Merchants Association, interested individuals, and … wow, I hope I did not miss anyone! If I did just let me know and I will update the list!

If you would like to be advised of upcoming meetings / events, please email me and I will add you to the notification email list.

Thank you again for your interest, and we all look forward to working together with you to build a better community!

Timothy