A Drab Downtown's Comeback

Years of wishful talk and hopeful planning among city leaders are finally yielding physical change in this Broward County city.

1 minute read

February 2, 2005, 8:00 AM PST

By Abhijeet Chavan @http://twitter.com/legalaidtech

Public investment, new land-use regulations, and developers who see a neighborhood on the rise are fueling a comeback of Oakland Park's formerly dreary downtown district. Street improvements, utility upgrades, land acquisition, and redevelopment incentives in a nearly 150-acre area north of Oakland Park Boulevard along Dixie Highway are helping to replace industrial gloom with a thriving Main Street atmosphere: apartments above shops, tree-shaded sidewalks, outdoor seating, street-side bustle. The city's investment has been boosted by an $18.5 million loan from the Florida League of Cities. ''We have taken a city in a bad financial situation and turned it into one of the hot spots in Broward County right now,'' Mayor Layne Walls said.

Thanks to Silvia E. Vargas

FULL STORY: Dowdy downtown gets an extreme makeover

Monday, January 31, 2005 in The Miami Herald

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