But for a brief time while away at college, I have been a Dover resident. As a child, I held my Mother’s hand walking downtown. Shopping, eating, and seeing my family’s friends outside shops, the post office and bank, downtown was the center of the community, a bustling place, rain or shine, and even sometimes a place to get into a little mischief.

I now live, work, and own both a business and property in downtown. Physically it is still the center of the City. But over a good number of years, and like thousands of cities and towns across the country, the heart of the community declined as shops favored “the Route 13’s” and the malls, a domed city, so enticing with indoor skylights, trees and fields of parking. Some believe there’s just no strong future for Dover’s traditional business district.

Can we return to what I, and maybe you too, remembered as a child? I say resoundingly, “Yes! We can. And we must!”

Downtown Dover has the capacity to again be the vibrant hub of the community, for social gathering, recreation, shopping, and living. But it won’t happen if driven by market forces alone. Proactively developing an engaging, realistic, current master plan, with redevelopment opportunities worthy of new, even community-wide investment, will be the vehicle to transforming our business district – the Capital of Delaware – into becoming that relevant place again. And we are targeting 2030 for a majority of that transformation!

Yes, it will take time. But I intend to invest energy and resources now to make it happen. And I also plan to be right here to enjoy the fruit of our labors in eight years from now – the outcome being a bustling, live-in, diverse and relevant downtown Dover. And this is the legacy I want to leave to my children and to my community.