Paducah, Kentucky
By Sherrie Voss Matthews
They never thought it would happen so quickly.
When Mark Barone and Thomas Barnett visited a nearby arts district to see if they could adapt the concept for the neglected Lower Town neighborhood in Paducah, Kentucky, they never dreamed that five years later they would run out of properties to sell in Lower Town, an area once so worn out that people considered it good only for rental income. >Link.
"Lower Town had a lot of things going for it. Nice housing stock. Close to downtown. It became a perfect place for our little planning project," says Barnett, planning director of Paducah, an Ohio River town of 26,300 people. "The last time it was in good shape was in World War II and the early '50s. There had been no new construction since then."
Lower Town now resounds with pounding hammers, the grinding of drills, the slap of paintbrushes. Artists from across the nation are rehabbing the houses into residential, work, and gallery spaces. "It's mind-blowing. In the height of recession, there's constant building," says Barone, a painter and printmaker.
The changes are a result of the City of Paducah Lower Town Neighborhood Plan and Artist Relocation Program, winner of the 2004 American Planning Association Outstanding Planning Award for a Special Community Initiative.
Neglect and potential
Barone and Barnett thought Lower Town had possibilities. It had good housing stock built in the Victorian, Italianate, Greek Revival, and Queen Anne styles. And although the 30-square-block area had been neglected for 50 years, it was booming with local history.
When Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant marched through Paducah during the Civil War, his troops leveled many of the 1850s houses. But Paducah's business barons later built mansions in this neighborhood adjacent to downtown. Lower Town was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
But for all its former glory, Lower Town was shabby. Many of the grand old houses had been divided into apartments; 70 percent were rental housing. The grandiose architecture didn't discourage drug dealing.
Mark Barone moved to Lower Town 15 years ago, bought a 3,000-square-foot Victorian, and began renovating. But when he saw drug sales in a house down the street, Barone says, he got angry. "When I got involved, the drugs had come in. Slumlords reigned down here," Barone says. "I was so sick of the junk."
Gayle Kaler, former president of the Lower Town Renaissance Association, watched the neighborhood's decline. She and her husband moved to Lower Town in the early 1990s. Two houses near the century-old Kaler house were centers of drug activity.
"I wouldn't say the neighborhood was unsafe," Kaler says. "I never felt that way. But there was a group of people that were just not desirable at all; they were keeping out people who would care. (Lower Town) was known as the place to buy investment property, not the place to buy a home."
What do we have?
In pursuit of viable neighborhoods, a goal set by the city commission, the planning department in 2001 set out to prepare a plan for Lower Town's rejuvenation. Planners began a detailed inventory of the neighborhood's structures and property. They looked at inspection records and plat books, and drove through the neighborhood, recording every bit of information — including land use, vacant or owner-occupied, architectural style, building age — for all 333 structures.
Then planners went door to door to invite residents to public meetings. They met in four brain-storming sessions with 75 to 150 residents each and members of the newly resurrected Lower Town Renaissance Association. "We felt that any plan that didn't involve the community at the outset wouldn't work," Barone says. "The community knew what it needed, they knew the weaknesses and the strengths." Residents ranked the positive and negative aspects of Lower Town and listed items that would make the neighborhood a better place.
The city also started strictly enforcing codes requiring property owners to maintain minimum standards, and imposing stiff fines on those who did not comply.
Synergy
But Barone felt that something more was needed or the slumlords and drug dealers would be back. He traveled to Rising Sun, Indiana (pop. 2,500), and found an idea he thought Paducah could replicate. Barone, Barnett, city manager Jim Zumwalt, and city commissioner Bud Smith took a field trip to Rising Sun to study its art district. Lower Town's mixed-use zoning and spacious old houses would be a perfect place for galleries and homes to co-exist.
"We had all the fixin's to do this, [Barone] came and told us about it, we went down to take a look," Barnett recalls. "We looked at it, realized we could steal that plan and make it work in Paducah — perhaps even better because we have more to work with."
Barone was asked if he would spearhead the program. But he was preparing for a show in Washington, D.C., and didn't feel he had the time. The artist relocation plan sat for nine months before Barnett went back to Barone and asked him to draw up a proposal.
Barone worked over a weekend to pull together a proposal for the city commission, which approved the idea. The commission gave Barone $40,000 for the program, including a part-time salary as coordinator and money for marketing.
Barone and Barnett looked for ways to attract artists. Paducah Bank offered 7.5 percent fixed long-term loans for up to 100 percent of a structure's value. The city then bought down a half-percentage point, reducing the cost for the buyer. An enterprise zone offered further financial incentives for artists. Frontier Communications, a local web design and communications firm, provided free websites.
Barone approached every art publication he could think of, pitching the story of a town that was offering real estate at rock-bottom prices, with loans artists could use to buy and create their own home, work, and gallery spaces.
Sweet success
The program has generated national interest. "We put funny ads in across the U.S. to get them thinking. They call us up — kinda laughing — and ask, 'What is this artists relocation program?'" Barnett says. Of the artists who visit Paducah, about 25 percent return and buy.
Bill Renzulli, the first to come, arrived in the fall of 2001. He and his wife bought a burned out two-and-a-half story Victorian mansion and hired local contractors to renovate it. Renzulli has opened his gallery, set up a studio, and made a home for the family and their nine whippets.
"We signed on, and within a year there were 20 artists. Now there are 36," says Renzulli, a retired physician from Maryland and president of the neighborhood association. By last December five artists had their studios up and running. Others were in temporary quarters until permanent spaces were ready.
Artists have moved from California, Delaware, Illinois, and other states, and brought nearly $6.5 million in private investment, Barone says. Most of the properties have been sold, and values are rising. Fifty artists visited Paducah last year; this year Barone expects 75 to 100. He's planning to begin marketing worldwide.
For more information: Thomas Barnett at tbarnett@ci.paducah.ky.us or 270-444-8690; www.lowertownarts.com; www.renzulli.com; www.parducaharts.com.
Sherrie Voss Matthews is a freelance writer and editor based in Springfield, Missouri.
Posted by Admin at April 5, 2004 02:45 PM