STEPHANIE SALTER: Ye shall know them by their lack of a work-in-progress sign

By Stephanie Salter
The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE January 29, 2008 11:00 pm

— So, we’re heading into a national recession and a new mayoral administration that may or may not continue some of the many projects launched by the previous mayor.
All the more reason for the “Downtown Work In Progress” signs in buildings along Wabash Avenue and its adjoining side streets.
In other words, this is no time to be confused about who is actively trying to revitalize our downtown Terre Haute neighborhood and who is sitting on his or her rock-bottom property tax assessment, content to watch the mold grow on interior ceilings and walls.
The work-in-progress signs are the result of something I deeply believe in when it comes to the betterment of a community:
Teamwork.
Several months ago, I complained in this space about the mixed signals our non-retail main drag sends to residents and visitors, alike. I imagined that I was an out-of-town guest booked into the Hilton Garden Inn-Terre Haute House who decided to go for a stroll before dinner.
Leaving a nice, new hotel, the guest sees a bewildering array of attractive, well-maintained businesses and dowdy, abandoned-looking storefronts. Next to a warmly lit, bustling shop or restaurant are dead zones, their windows covered with plywood, fading paper or dust.
What conclusions could a visitor draw about our town from such contradiction?
Wouldn’t it be a good idea, at least, to distinguish the active work sites from those waiting for Godot? Shouldn’t we reward merchants and other business owners who really are trying with a little recognition?
Instead of getting defensive, Andrew Conner, who heads Downtown Terre Haute Inc., enthusiastically jumped into gear. He enlisted the help of billboard giant Lamar Advertising to come up with a unique sign that would cut through the confusion. All Conner asked was that Downtown Terre Haute Inc.’s skyline logo be incorporated.
Lamar’s local market manager, Jane Mills, gladly turned over the assignment to the company’s design team in Baton Rouge, La.
“Some of these people [who contract with Lamar] have very preconceived concepts of what they want on a sign or business card,” said Mills. “When somebody says to me, ‘Be creative,’ as Andrew did … the designers just go for it.”
What Lamar produced (for a discounted, very community-friendly price) is beyond anything I’d envisioned. Its bright yellow-and-gray color scheme looks like nothing else along Wabash Avenue. Between the city skyline and simple silhouette drawings of work tools, the Downtown Work In Progress signs convey movement, construction, renovation and … a future.
Best of all, signs have removable numbers to identify each project that — soon — can be matched and researched on Conner’s group’s Web site, downtownterrehaute.org.
When all the signs and Web references are in place, people won’t have to wonder what the plywood above 622 Wabash Ave. means. They can check the Web site and learn that apartments are going in above Pawn It.
Likewise, they can look forward to the opening of the expanded Book Nation across the street at 675 Wabash and the sight of local art for sale around the corner in a gallery at numbers 7 and 11 S. Seventh St.
Even on frozen days when workers and earth-moving equipment are idled, passers-by will know from an official sign that an extended-stay hotel and Children’s Museum will be rising next to Old National Bank’s parking lot. And if an artist, craftsperson or small retailer is in the market for a studio shop, she or he can note the Downtown Work In Progress project number on the old TWI building at 120 S. Seventh St., and call to see if it’s affordable.
“Instead of relying on word of mouth about a project or what’s vacant, people can just look at the Web site,” Conner said.
City councilman and bookstore owner Todd Nation said he likes the signs for the same reasons I do, chief among them — they delineate.
“It’s great because it identifies the people who are actually doing something,” Nation said. “I used to look for building permits in windows. That was my gauge. I hope we get to the point that my gauge is one of these signs in the window.”
Me, too. Then, when we homies or our visitors wonder just what’s shaking in downtown Terre Haute — and who among us is still satisfied with watching the mold grow — all we have to do is look for a sign.

Stephanie Salter can be reached at (812) 231-4229 or stephanie.salter@tribstar.com.