Batavia's great, but it will take work to stop decline, make a better future, consultant says
Batavia is a fine small city, among the finest in America.
But to talk to many of the residents here, you wouldn't know it, according to Charles Buki, with czb LLC, a consulting firm hired by the city to help with strategic planning.
"There is a big gap between the high qualities of this community and how people view those qualities," Buki said. "The gap between the quality of the community and the sense of appreciation is the biggest we've seen in the more than 300 communities we've studied."
Closing that perception gap and improving the quality of life and financial outlook of the city are goals put forth in the final draft of the community improvement plan presented by Buki at city hall on Wednesday night.
Changing the environment and the culture will be hard work, Buki said, but without the effort, population declines will continue, the tax base will shrink, and areas of poverty and neglect will expand.
The turn around starts with the formation of an eight-member working group to study the plan written by the consultants. It has to decide what they got right, what they got wrong, which recommendations to follow, which to reject, and start the process of implementing necessary projects and programs.
The report addresses two key areas of concern -- neighborhood health and downtown viability.
For the neighborhoods, czb is recommending the formation of 22 block clubs over the next three years, and 36 over five years; more celebratory activities such as garden awards, a citywide picnic, events at Muckdogs games and a 10K run.
Buki said the city should look seriously at starting a program -- funded by grants if they can be found -- to buy up to 100 two-family dwelling on strategic streets (Jackson would be an example), convert them back to single-family residences and sell them at fair-market value.
The cost of such a program would be $5 million, but it would pull back good blocks from growing worse and help turn them toward becoming great blocks.
But it's a major effort, Buki said, and isn't something the city can tackle overnight.
For the downtown business district, the obvious white elephant is the mall, which Buki said is a clear failure as a retail space and sucks a lot of life out of downtown.
But the city shouldn't fixate on the mall right now and think it needs to be fixed before doing other things.
"Eventually the mall is going to have to be redeveloped, but we don’t want that to get in the way of everything else you need to do," Buki said.
There is $12.4 million in buying power among city residents that is currently being siphoned off by other communities. Batavia needs to develop a process to bring in new retail businesses and restaurants to help keep that money in Batavia.
Organizing an improvement effort and implementing it will likely cost about $92,000 a year, Buki said. His firm is recommending that the city pick up $50,000 of the tab and that local business owners be asked to contribute the other $42,000 annually.
Turning around Batavia is going to mean believing in the city's future, Buki said, but that kind of cultural change doesn't happen quickly.
"The amazing qualities of Batavia don't make it into the blogs and they don't make it into the paper and the lack of it is eroding the self-confidence of Batavia," Buki said.