Celebrating a Successful Urban Center Revitalization

We lived in West Palm Beach when I was in high school. My father was the pastor of a church downtown, and on two different occasions, he walked out of his office to find a dead body in the road. It was a war zone, a scary place where bad things happened.

Today, West Palm Beach stands as a jewel on the landscape of cities. In my opinion, its downtown is the best in Florida and one of the best in the country. It offers world class culture, performing arts, entertainment, dining, and shopping. My daughter is a student at Palm Beach Atlantic University and lives in downtown West Palm Beach—and I think that’s great.

How did this amazing transformation happen? To find out, I invited Raphael Clemente, executive director of the West Palm Beach Downtown Development Authority , to be my guest on The Crossman Conversation .

“City leaders had a vision back in the early 90s about what our downtown could be,” Raphael said. “Thankfully, the private sector saw that vision with them and collaborated to make it what it is now.”

The process West Palm Beach went through is a model for any distressed urban center. In the early 1990s, the city’s government changed to one with a strong mayor and a mayor-council structure. Mayor Nancy M. Graham led the drafting of West Palm’s first downtown master plan in the mid-90s.

It wasn’t always the smooth sailing you might think by looking at the vibrant, charming city West Palm Beach is today. “There is great diversity here,” Raphael said. “There’s some pushing and shoving and very healthy, vigorous debate around what’s the right direction. But everybody comes to the table. One thing everybody agrees on is we want a quality place.”

Raphael shared some advice for people trying to achieve this type of revitalization in other cities. You need a bold vision that’s a community (not just government-led) effort. And be authentic. Focus on the true original character of your city, polish it up, and showcase it.

We also talked about the issue of the high rate of pedestrian deaths in Florida and discussed some of the causes and possible solutions. We even touched on the political hot potato question: Can roads be racist?

If you’re looking for your next getaway destination or want ideas for how to make your community better, you’ll want to hear my conversation with Raphael Clemente. Here’s the link:

https://www.theshepherdradio.com/podcasts/the-crossman-conversation/episode/s2e04-raphael-clemente-executive-director-of-the-wpb-downtown-development-authority-has-made-a-huge-impact/

To hear how a reluctant pastor transformed an Orlando neighborhood, listen to my conversation with Bishop Allen T. D. Wiggins here:

https://www.theshepherdradio.com/podcasts/the-crossman-conversation/episode/s1e38-john-talks-with-bishop-allen-wiggins-pastor-of-the-hope-church-in-orlando/

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John Crossman is the founder of Crossman Career Builders , the host of The Crossman Conversation , and the author of Career Killers Career Builders . Check out Crossman Career Builders on YouTube . Connect with John on LinkedIn , Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram .