04-30-2007 Stop being trendy, author tells downtown advocates

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not normal for people to walk Do you see how powerful this is? ... People wouldn't be caught dead on a city bus,"he said. "What's normal is powerful and trendy is unusual. The people who are trendy are cheerleaders —live, work, play, shop downtown. Let's move downtown. 'Trendy people like us like that hustle and bustle. "We've got to get rid of trendy,"he said. "We can't build downtowns until all the trendy things, the unusual things, become normal. ... In the 1940s, some developer decided to change the culture and built Levittown. We still adhere to that 65 years later,but that doesn't have to be normal anymore.` Through his web site(www.geturban.com)three books—"Get Urban,""Retire Downtown,"and the forthcoming"Teaching Urban Values"—and his Columbus-based urban-planning and marketing firm. Ezell hopes to teach the urban lifestyle to millions of Americans. In small gatherings. One city at a time. "I'm going to teach people how to do this and show people how to live an urban lifestyle in places like South Bend, Indiana,"he said. "If you love your city, you've got to stop cheerleading and start teaching." Ezell's passion for downtowns began as a child in tiny Lawrenceburg, Tenn., south of Nashville, where he roamed the town square and came to love the courthouse in a town planned by Davy Crockett. Until at age 5 when his parents took him downtown to see a wrecking ball demolish it. "People were literally cheering. It was progress. ... I was devastated as a kid because my skyline was being torn down,"he said. "They tore down my Davy Crockett Courthouse, ... [and] they got what they wanted—plenty of parking and no traffic. Of course there's no business, no festivals, no events and there's very few stores left." To "stimulate a cultural shift in the city,"Ezell said downtown advocates need to change the landscape. "Landscape mirrors culture,"he said. Showing aerial maps he demonstrated that thriving urban places like New York's Times Square have highly concentrated developments, while stagnating cities have vast acres of blacktop parking lots. "More than 50 percent of downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana, is a parking lot,"he said, nothing that many cities, including South Bend, fared little better. Ezell advocated for walkable communities, parking for scooters and bicycles, and high-density construction. "Get urban,"he said. "Get yourself citified." For South Bend in particular,Ezell said residents must overcome a challenge. "You have a tremendous inferiority complex. You don't think you're as good as Indianapolis. Just down the road is Chicago,"he said. "Your city's reputation and the view of your city is a business. If nobody knows about the vitality of your city and the future of your city, you're losing business." Having recently visited Rockford, Ill., a city of similar population size to South Bend, Ezell said, "Rockford is nothing compared to South Bend. South Bend has so much more than Rockford currently does." But the bigger shift, Ezell said, remains over perceptions of cities and downtowns as a whole. "Cities are the souls of our communities,"he said. "We have to have a cultural shift in order for ... all downtowns across the country to survive—and not just as entertainrnent districts." - 30 -