Honors College students met with Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox and other city officials on Monday to propose five municipal planning programs concentrating on improving the functionality of the Strip.
PlanFirst is a class out of the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility centered on a city-student planning initiative. The course is designed to familiarize the students with general procedure and history of city planning. Students then formulate their own ideas for city improvement and work on projects that can be implemented by the city.
“The proposals that I have seen today are very impressive,” Maddox said. “They get down to both short term issues of Strip security and long-term issues concerning land use.”
The Façade Improvement Program focused on enhancing the overall appearance of the bars, restaurants and businesses along the Strip. The proposal suggested enclosing garbage and recycling containers, incorporating outdoor seating and landscaping on all corner lots and avoiding the use of blank walls would make the Strip much more attractive.
Krysten Harper, a senior majoring in political science, contributed to the Façade project and believes simple changes can produce huge differences.
“I’ve lived here four years and the Strip doesn’t look like a very welcoming environment,” Harper said. “Just removing the dark tint, steel bars and mirrors from the windows of businesses would greatly improve the atmosphere.”
The Urban Village Concept proposed changing the Strip to accommodate more pedestrians per square mile and increase the purchasing power of the area. This would require constructing more mixed-use buildings and reducing the number of vacant lots.
Liz Jasper, a junior majoring in management, headed up the Urban Village Concept proposal and said applying this concept to the Strip would create a number of benefits.
“Other than the obvious monetary incentives that an urban village would bring to the Strip, taking advantage of all of the dead zones and empty lots would help unify the UA campus and the Strip,” Jasper said.
Other proposals focused on making the area more pedestrian-friendly by increasing the safety of the streets and sidewalks, especially when Tuscaloosa experiences a large influx of people on gamedays.
To combat this, the proposal suggests making the Strip a pedestrian-only zone on Friday and Saturday nights from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. By not allowing cars to travel on a section of the Strip, businesses would have more room for outside seating and pedestrians wouldn’t have to worry about traffic.
It also calls for a section of the Strip from Frank Thomas Avenue to Gene Stallings Avenue to be rendered as a no-traffic zone. A retractable bollard system would be installed and redirect traffic to 8th Street and reverse the one-way streets of Red Drew Avenue and Gene Stallings to circumvent the area.
Emma Whitaker, a senior and one of three civil engineering majors who worked on the traffic proposal, said reserving that section of the Strip would be beneficial for both businesses and patrons.
“People would be less likely to drive to the Strip if this strategy was implemented,” Whitaker said. “Businesses would have more room to accommodate more people and residents and visitors wouldn’t have to worry about traffic.”
Maddox said all of these proposals will be taken into consideration by the city council.
“There’s no doubt that what’s been presented today will make its way forward to our joint task force with UA,” Maddox said. “This reinforces some of the same believes that we have and comes with a lot of credibility because these are the students who live at the University every single day.”
