NOTEBOOK: Some gems still need connecting

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Recently, the Business Record ran an article, “Connecting the Gems,” about many of the surprise projects that filled many gaps — and a vacant parking lot or two — in downtown Des Moines after the Great Recession.

Back in May 2008 when the recession officially began, most of the projects weren’t even a “twinkle in the eye,” Des Moines Economic Development Director Erin Olson-Douglas said.

Olson-Douglas was part of a group that put together a document in spring 2008 called “What’s Next Downtown.” Filling the gaps of development and improving movement around downtown were its focus. At the time, Olson-Douglas carried the title of urban planner. She had worked for the city for two years. As our story points out, Des Moines has been a big achiever over the last 10 years.

We also asked Olson-Douglas what gaps had not been filled between 2008 and 2018.

The city could use more infill development around the convention center, Principal Park and the Riverwalk, she said.

“Walnut Street [a focus of “What’s Next Downtown”] has come a long way in the last 10 years, but we still haven’t figured out how to come in and out of the skywalk system,” Olson-Douglas said.

There remains a need for downtown parks and open spaces, “those surrogate backyards,” she said.

Creation of downtown office parks is nonexistent. Medical office buildings could go up around the hospitals and Gray’s Landing, where office development has long been promised, Olson-Douglas said.

“There is a hybrid model that we don’t offer in the metro,” she said. “There are places for that to evolve.”

If one thing has been certain over the last decade, downtown housing has come a long way. Still, there is a need for housing at different price points with different amenities.

“There is still more evolution to happen along those lines,” Olson-Douglas said.

Landscape architect and urban planner Dennis Reynolds also was quoted in the Business Record article. As with Olson-Douglas, he was encouraged by the pace and form of development downtown, with one exception.

The transition of Ingersoll Avenue, which many people view as an extension of downtown, has taken great strides, with an “except for”: “Traffic speeds and volume remain high.”