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

Monday, January 31, 2005 in The Miami Herald

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