Do you remember the child’s game called “What’s wrong with this picture?” It was a challenge to pick out the girl with one sock, or the elephant sitting in a tree, a bike with no wheels. Well, Augusta has presented a similar challenge.

Let me create the picture. A downtown with fabulous architecture struggling to thrive, new businesses begging for all the attention they can get, a suffering economy, a tax base that is melting away and a theater getting a death-sentence reprieve with a historic designation. And then there is Water Street with one-way traffic to accommodate an easy-in and easy-out thoroughfare, no stopping, and southbound traffic rerouted to travel the backdoors, along the unkempt and unappealing rear facades.

What is wrong with that picture? It is fairly easy to see. The more important question is why hasn’t the city of Augusta done something about it.

Maybe there is a “bigger picture” or a state regulation that I don’t know about, but I think the city should change Water Street back to a two-way street as it was meant to be. Slowing the traffic and allowing a little rubber-necking could help bring back the attention that our downtown needs. Why is half the traffic funneled away from the store fronts?

The picture should be of a vibrant downtown with lots to see and do and with all the traffic driving down Water Street.

Ann Fulton

Augusta

Copy the Story Link