Walkable Communities takes final step

Florida expert closes two-day visit asking ML to find the courage to act

The final moment of the final day of the "Walkable Communities" series had a Hollywood ending.

Dan Burden, the urban planning expert from Florida who brought to Moses Lake his ideas for the city to become a healthier, more community-based place, said city leaders and citizens should mimic the film "The Wizard of Oz."

"The Scarecrow wanted a brain and the Tin Man wanted a heart," he said during his closing presentation at the Museum and Arts Center Thursday night. "In Moses Lake, you have both. The Lion wanted courage. You need the courage to go out there and build a great Moses Lake."

The second day of the series began with an overview of the downtown area followed by a walking tour of the central core.

During the tour, Burden said many planning teams in many cities had been thinking like Americans.

"Too much money, too much land and too little common sense," he said. "We have to start thinking differently."

Among his suggestions for a better downtown, he mentioned accent lighting, well-lit window displays and making a window-shopping walk at night a summer tradition.

"Make sure you keep an ice-cream parlor open late," he said.

The tour took Burden and a group of Moses Lake residents and city leaders into the less visible part of downtown, the back alleys of the stores.

"The bad news is," he said in an alley, "you failed the smell test, the cobweb test and the chipped paint test. The good news is, you have alleys."

On Stratford Road, near the water, he said that prime retail was "dying to be here.

"You always want the best things to face the water," he added.

At the end of the tour, he put special emphasis on the need to hire somebody to oversee the changes, an idea that was well received by the crowd.

"We need a professional to do all this," Sally Goodwin, executive director of the Moses Lake Business Association, said. "There is too much opportunity here, and we can't mess it up."

After afternoon meetings with the planning and development authorities of the city, Burden closed the series with a final presentation, where he called on everybody to get involved in building a walkable, community-oriented Moses Lake.

"It all begins with every citizen figuring out what they can do," he said.

He suggested tests for citizens to find out if their community is walkable. If they can buy a Popsicle and walk with it back home without it melting, "then, you are living in a good town," he said.

Resistance to change must be understood and addressed fairly, Burden said, pointing out the existence of what he called NIMBY-ism, the opposition to urban change known as 'Not In My Backyard."

Burden said motivating people with awards is a good thing, but it has to be made in such a way that people really want to receive the award, even if it is given out once a year.

Most of all, he encouraged people to go out and work together for the Moses Lake of tomorrow, letting bygones be bygones.

It does not matter, he said, whose great-uncle fought with the mayor 30 years ago.

"Without a vision there is no dream. Without a plan there is no hope, and without a team there is no achievement," he said.